Dead of Eve (41 page)

He felt right in my arms. “You guard my body. Even from myself.”

“Until the day I die.”

His words moved something inside me. I strengthened my hug around him and buried my smile in his chest. “Till you die?”

“Not a day sooner.”

My smile grew so big, it exploded across my face. My cheeks strained to hold it, hurting even, but I didn’t want to let it go.

The tightness of the robe was suffocating. So was the air of impatience wafting off the Drone as he circled me. In his daily visits, he hadn’t once mentioned Roark’s escape nor had he found Michio alone to confront him. “I want progress.”

“And you’ll have it,” Michio said with a bored tone.

“It’s been four days. My doubt in your success is surpassed only by my frustration with the two months you’ve wasted with her.”

Which meant it was April. Two years since the outbreak. Annie would’ve moved on from ribbons and dolls to earrings and boy bands. Aaron would’ve climbed the ranks in Karate, perhaps knotting a brown belt with a glowing smile dimpling his cheeks. My chest squeezed.

The Drone bent his head, his mouth a scant inch from mine. “Three more days,” he breathed in my face. He smiled and the flash a sizable white tooth stole the air from my lungs. Behind him, the muscles in Michio’s throat strained and his eyes smoldered.

All at once, the Drone’s face contorted, his hand pawing at the lid of his pill bottle. Then he blustered out in a rustle of papers, shocking my lungs back into action.

I rubbed my neck where his bite had healed. “I think he has fangs.”

Michio remained rooted beside my bed, his body taut. “We need to leave. Now.”

“I bet he wears that theatrical cape because he’s hiding wings.”

He didn’t move. His arms hung at his sides but his chin seemed to lower. His body grew stiffer.

“What’s wrong with you?”

He shook himself. “I used to be better at hiding it.” Two long strides and he towered over me, hand around my nape. “I have never wanted him near you. He’s getting too close. We need to leave.”

“We’re not ready.”

“Did you hear him? Three days.”

“I heard. Three days and it’s back to the dungeon.” I squared my shoulders. “Believe me. I know what the brothers have planned for me there.”

“The way Aiman pops his pills around you, I’m not so sure—”

“His pills? For his kidney?”

He stared at me for a beat that trickled into five. “There’s nothing wrong with his kidney. He’s feigning symptoms in attempt to draw his attention from the real problem.”

“His metamorphosis?”

“His repulsion of women. Of you.”

I burst into laughter, choking my words. “Why would he do that?”

“The lie is more comforting than the truth.”

“The truth that he’s a fucking psycho?” My laughter reached hysterics.

He talked over me. “We don’t know how far his repulsion will take him. We’re leaving now.”

I sobered. “We’re not ready.”

We’d practiced my communication with the aphids every day. As long as I kept physical contact with him and quashed my arousal, they followed my command. My communication even reached to the ground floor but I could only juggle three under my control at one time.

His grip on my neck tightened. “We are.”

“We’re not.” The Jabara brothers prayed five times a day. During their prayer time, Michio walked the quadrangle to draw out Jesse. “We agreed to give Jesse one more day to contact us.” Then we’d leave the fortress, with or without his help. If I could control every aphid we encountered, we’d escape under the Drone’s radar. But outside the fortress, we’d have to find Jesse and his boat.

My hand went to my forearm. “I don’t even have my weapons anymore.”

“You don’t need them.” At my glare, he grabbed my hand and led me to his laptop and scattered notebooks on the couch. “I want to show you something.”

He tapped the screen. “This is premature, until I can prove it…”

Always a disclaimer. “Spit it out.”

“It’s just…look at this.”

A 3-D image of DNA rotated in a kaleidoscope of colors.

“That mine?”

His head inclined. “Your make-up is dynamic. It resists everything I throw at it. According to my tests, your blood’s not only poisonous to the aphids but exponentially more potent.”

My pulse fired in my throat. “You said I was human.”

He scrubbed his hand through his hair. “You are. But as a human with these traits, you can likely withstand an aphid bite. And if that’s the case…Evie, you carry the cure.”

I stepped back. “The cure to reverse the aphid mutation?”

He stared at the screen. “No. That morphogenesis is final. But through our research in Iceland, we discovered in nymphs a genetic code that isn’t transformed when they evolve. It’s dormant. You might carry the key that can reactivate it.”

“So let’s test the poison theory. Call in an aphid. Inject it with my blood.”

“How would we keep Aiman from feeling its exploding heart?”

“Good point.” I narrowed my eyes. “You’ve been keeping this from me
.”

“I had to be sure.”

Of course, he did. I paced, pausing to gather the skirts of my gown in one hand.
“
Now what?”

The scuff of sandals sounded his approach and his hand caught my waist. Warm lips moved along my hairline, trailed down my cheek and hovered over mine. “You have become the path. Now you travel it.”

My hands crept up the carved brawn of his chest. “You may not want to follow then. I’m pretty sure it’s the path to hell.”

His fingers ambled around my back. “Can we leave now?”

I crushed my hips against his. “One more day. Find Jesse—”

A scratch screeched along the door. Then the banging began.

“Dammit.” I blew out a breath and skated away from him.

He stalked me in a graceful move of muscle. “We’ll give your savage one more day, but you should know I will not share you.”

My eyes widened, probably bugging out of my head. “I’m not yours to share—”

“You have a fierce exterior, but hidden beneath glows something precious. It offers promise to dreams this world hasn’t had in two years, dreams I haven’t had in a lifetime.”

My lungs filled and emptied as I lost my self-preservation in the burn of his gaze.

Hands at his sides, he stood before me, around me, consuming me. His voice was thick. “I love when you look at me like that. Even when you don’t speak, your stunning eyes hold nothing back. Your expressions are so heavy I can feel your emotions in the marrow of my bones.”

Aphid vibrations swarmed my gut, but my hand clutched my chest. “Michio.”

“I love that you were a mother and that you carry that experience with you always.”

His words landed a direct hit on my heart and my rib cage bucked under the impact. “Michio—”

“I love spending time with you.” He traced the stitches around my mouth. “I crave our talks, your baths, your tantrums, our fights—”

“Fight me now.”

His brows drew into a
V
.

To keep my pheromones directed at him only, I needed Yang to fuel the effort. Wrestling would put me right up against him. My hands found his chest. “If I get scratched, I’ll tell the savage to make your scalping quick.”

His pecs bounced under my curling fists, expression unreadable. “No holds barred?”

I shrugged.

He shifted his weight, pushed closer. “Tap out rules.
My
tap out rules.”

Sandalwood drifted from his thin shirt, beckoning me. My face dropped to his chest. “Hmm?”

“If you tap, you allow me to ease you.” The way he softened
ease
made me gulp. “I’ll start chaste. As the taps accumulate, so will the intensity.”

“Ease me how?”

“You know how,” he mouthed.

My nipples hardened. How far would it go? Kissing? Sex? “And when you tap?”

“
If
I tap, I’ll reveal a secret about my discipline.”

The bastard. I wanted answers regarding his fighting techniques. “What about the Drone?”

He nuzzled my neck. “Won’t be back till tomorrow.”

A swelter funneled between my thighs. I fought it. The buzzing beyond the door magnified.

I stepped back and stripped my oppressive garment. When only my chemise remained, I kicked at the skirt around my ankle. Then I ripped the material away to mid-thigh. It felt a little vulnerable without underwear, but I shook off the feeling and faced him.

He raised a brow.

“Really, Michio. It’s not like you haven’t seen it all already. Besides, how would I pummel your ass when I’m wrapped like a goddamn mummy?” I kicked away the shreds of clothes on the floor.

“You agree to the terms?”

I nodded and centered my stance.

You suppose you are the trouble

But you are the cure

You suppose that you are the lock on the door

But you are the key that opens it

It’s too bad that you want to be someone else

You don’t see your own face, your own beauty

Yet, no face is more beautiful than yours.

Rumi

Michio’s slouched posture seduced me into action. I aimed for his throat. My fist hit air.

From out of nowhere, his forearm crossed my neck and pitched me backwards. My eyes closed for the impact, but my downward motion ceased mid-fall.

I cracked an eye. Almond shaped ones stared back and my body hung in the cradle of his arms.

He leaned in, his breathtaking face filling my horizon, and kissed me with lips as strong as the rest of him. Just as quick, he set me on my feet.

I rose to my full height. “I didn’t even tap.”

He towered over me. “You would have. When you hit the floor.”

“If you were an aphid, I’d already have you squashed under my boot.”

“Your aphid speed only works against them.”

It wasn’t a question. He knew this. “I don’t need it.”

“Sure you don’t.”

My arms came up, spreading like a flower. I closed the flower with downward hands, knocking his out and away.

Past his guard, I struck with my elbow. Our arms smacked. His hand trapped mine. His other pulled down on my neck. Between his weight and his strength, he had me on the floor in a heartbeat, pushing an oomph past my lips.

Sweat dampened my skin. My fist hovered next to his groin, seized between his thighs. He squeezed my neck and applied pressure to the lock on my arm, coaxing my free hand to smack the tile.

The burn from the hyperextension dimmed in my arm when his mouth fell over mine. My lip caught between his teeth and he bit down. I held still, absorbing the pain, the taste, the feel of him, wanting more, and communicating it with my eyes.

He read me and angled his mouth, taking over. I gripped the hard ridges of his ass and held on.

My name escaped the corner of his lips and his tongue thrust harder. Buttons plinked the tile as his shirt ripped from our tangle of body heat, my palms skimming through a coat of perspiration.

Time passed without us. Eventually, I murmured into the kiss, “Feels like we’re keeping this contained.” The aphids were a silent presence in my head.

His eyes darted to the chamber door and he continued kissing through his response. “Uh huh.”

Wedged in the
V
of his squat, I swiped my swollen lips and narrowed my eyes. “Is defense all you got?”

Was that a smile? I couldn’t be sure because I was spinning and my back hit his chest. The inside of his elbow connected with my jugular, pinching it.

I pulled my feet beneath me and dug my chin under the lock. His arm tightened and cut off my airless grunt. My hands slipped over the velvet skin of his arm. The pressure in my head mushroomed and my vision dotted. My stroking fingers became an urgent tap.

His arm lock melted into a meandering hand and hovered over my breast. Powerful thighs locked me in place. Lips flitted to my nape. Each lick swept chills down my spine.

When he tweaked my nipple between two knuckles, I sucked in a breath and arched into his hand. My knees weakened under my half-crouch.

The room spun again and his mouth latched onto my breast. Hot puffs wet the fabric of my shredded chemise. The graze of his teeth channeled shivers bone-deep. My hands sailed through his thick cropped hair.

Then I was back on my feet, wobbling. His eyes flicked to the door and settled on my face, consuming me with their alluring depths.

He traced my jaw with a thumb. “I’ve trained with master fighters most of my life. Yet, here you are humbling me.”

My brows knitted together. “If you’re humbly kicking my ass, what’s that make me?”

“Fearless.” His palm cupped my nape. “You possess a passion, a beauty, unequaled.” Each word was heavy, carried with emotion.

“It’s called stubbornness. And you’re blind.”

He swayed closer. “You are diligent, the way of the wise. And my eyes don’t deceive me. Neither does my heart.”

The certainty in his tone flooded my chest and sent my thoughts hurdling into the future. Once I put a few thousand miles between myself and Malta, would I seek the Shard? Or prowl the planet slaying aphids? I didn’t dream of doing those things without Roark and Jesse at my side. As my fingers swept around Michio’s waist, I knew my future included him as well.