“Who were you going to use the Eye on?” His demand was driving, relentless. “Your ex-lover? Were you going to try and kill him again?”
“No! It wasn’t like that! I’m not the one who tried—oh, dammit, I was just fighting to survive that day! He told me that if I walked away, if I left him, it would be like cutting his heart out.” She shook her head. Her breath was ragged. “You don’t know what he did to me. What Garrick and his agency made me do…”
“The FBI? I thought they were the human version of good guys.”
Mina blinked at him. “Garrick isn’t with the FBI. If he told you that, he’s lying.”
“Or you are.”
She slammed the handcuffs against the bars. “He’s coming! We don’t have time for this. Garrick could be bringing his chopper over us at any moment.”
“Then tell me who you want to use the Eye on. Convince me that I should trust you, and not the FBI agent.”
“He’s not an FBI Agent!” How many times did she have to say that? “Garrick works for a different group in the government—a group that captures paranormals. That uses them—that uses us.” Because she’d been used. “They want to fight wars with the best weapons out there, and those weapons are the paranormals.”
His expression hadn’t altered. He didn’t believe her.
And was it her imagination? Or could she hear the whir of helicopter blades?
“Time’s running out,” Luke said. “Tell me the truth or I’ll give you to him.”
She blinked away tears.
“Not the tears.” Luke’s voice held distinct bite. “I don’t like them from you.”
“I don’t like them either!” Mina yelled back. “I don’t like being with you! I don’t like being in a cage! I don’t like being used as a weapon! I don’t like anything that has happened to me. This isn’t what I wanted!” And it was as if a dam had burst inside of her. She couldn’t hold the words back any longer. “I didn’t want to track you down. Every story I’d heard about you terrified me. And at first, I thought you were just a myth. A story that people tell in the dark. Then I found out you were the dark. I found out about the Eye and what it could do and I knew I had to have it.”
“Because you wanted to punish the ones who’d used you…”
“Because I want to use it on myself!” The words blasted from her. Then they hung in the air, stark and terrible and she couldn’t take them back. “I wanted to use it on myself,” she said, her voice softer. “The Eye of Hell is supposed to take away the powers of the dark paranormals. I wanted it to take away my power.”
“Stealing power is just one of its perks,” he said, his eyes never leaving hers. “It can steal life, too.”
She sucked in a sharp breath. “I have lived with this curse since my thirteenth birthday. I don’t want this. I have to turn it off…that’s all I want. To just stop it. If I don’t have my power any longer, then Garrick and his team can’t use me. I can’t hurt anyone.”
“How noble.”
She banged her cuffed hands against the bars. “It’s true! I’m telling you the truth.” And she definitely heard the whir, whir, whir of a helicopter. “He’s here.” Fear knifed into her insides. “Please, help me. Don’t let him take me away.”
His hand shoved into his pocket. He pulled out a key. A moment later, she heard the snick of the lock as it opened.
Her eyes squeezed shut. “Thank you.” She was so damn grateful that the guy had been carrying a backup key.
“Don’t thank me yet.” His hands had curled around her wrists. His fingers smoothed over her skin. “The cuffs bruised you.”
Her eyes opened. She looked down and saw the dark circle of skin beneath the handcuffs.
“I thought I was very explicit when I talked to Julian. You weren’t to get so much as a bruise.”
“I—”
He grabbed the cuffs. Shattered them with his touch. They fell to the stone beneath their feet.
Oh, he is definitely strong.
But then Luke lifted her wrists. First he brought her right wrist to his mouth and he pressed a soft, tender kiss there, just above her pulse point. “I’m sorry.”
He’d just apologized? The Lord of the Dark?
“I will take more care with you.”
He brought her left wrist to his mouth. Kissed the dark skin.
Her heart slammed into her chest. This time, that mad racing wasn’t from fear or anger. It was from lust. Because when his mouth pressed to her skin, when his dark head bent and she saw his lips feather over her…
Arousal sparked in her blood. It was wrong. She was in his cell. Garrick was hunting her. “How are you doing this to me?” Her voice was husky, confused. “How can you make me want you like this?”
His lashes—dark and thick—lifted. His stare held hers. “We’re only getting started.” The words were a promise.
“Luke—”