Blood Deep (Blackthorn Book 4) (30 page)

‘The only way to stop something being impossible is to do it.’

She exhaled tersely. ‘Because it’s not as though I haven’t already tried. It’s not as though I haven’t considered getting someone to take it from him.’ She sat on the bed. She slipped one of her socks over her foot, sliding it up to mid-thigh.

‘How long have you been here?’

‘In this place?’ She glanced across her shoulder as he moved over to sit beside her. ‘More than eighty years. In this area? I don’t know, but long before it was ever called Blackthorn.’

She slipped the other sock over her other foot, sliding that one up too, glancing across to see Eden’s gaze had fallen to the exposed few inches of thigh above it. She felt an instant flutter in her stomach and, when he finally met her gaze, it was a flutter that intensified like a hundred tiny pulse rates.

‘You were here before the regulations?’ he asked.

‘When they started the door-to-door searches, I hid like many others did. And I was able to keep hiding.’

‘How did you meet Pummel?’

‘As soon as the overspill from the penitentiary began, as soon as cons started being dumped this end of Blackthorn, they began taking over the houses. The authorities thought they were all cleared, obviously, but some residents defied authority and stayed. They didn’t survive long. This house used to belong to the family who ran the shop just across the alley. It went to their son when they passed away.’ She hesitated for a moment. ‘Their son whom I used to live with. Pummel and his gang broke in one night. Not the gang he has now – a different one back then. The one who…’ she hesitated again ‘…who protected me back then, knew the only way to save my life was to let Pummel know I had certain abilities.’

‘Like healing.’

She nodded. ‘And he told him the only way it could be retained was if I remained untouched.’

‘A foolproof plan if Pummel didn’t want to risk you losing it.’ He frowned. ‘Your protector was quick-thinking.’

‘He was my friend,’ she declared, batting back the tears again.

‘But it was a lie.’

She met his gaze again. ‘Which is why what happened between us was the worst mistake I’ve made. If Pummel ever found out, if he had even an inkling… I was stupid coming to you like that. I wasn’t thinking straight. I want to pretend it never happened.’

‘Just as you want to pretend you can keep going like this.’

‘I’m alive, aren’t I? I have what I need here. As good as what I’d get anywhere else in this forsaken situation your kind have created.’

‘As a prisoner.’

‘Everywhere’s a prison now unless you’re human. Unless you’re one of the privileged few. You know that as well as I do.’

Because there was nowhere for her to go, for either of them to go. Even if she could get away, Lowtown was now no different to Blackthorn. She’d never get through the blood tests at the far border to get any further than that – blood tests that would have her stepping from one prison into another. Only in that one, she’d end up as a lab rat, where her secret would no doubt be discovered. And she was
not
giving the humans who created this entire situation that kind of power. If she did, it was over for the third species – even more than it felt to be already.

‘But if I
could
get my hands on whatever this is,’ he said. ‘I
can
get you out of here, right?’

And she could get the lycan children out. She could get them across to the other side of Blackthorn safely. She could talk to Jask – something only she would be able to explain. She could prevent a retaliation. If anyone could get that necklace it would be Eden. But if it went wrong, if he failed… or if he kept the necklace for himself…

She clenched her hands beneath her thighs. It would mean finally bestowing her trust on him. It would mean trusting him to not only get the necklace, but give it back to her too.

‘And would you give me my freedom, Eden? Would you let me go? Would you let what could make you as powerful as Pummel, if not more powerful, slip through your fingers? Or would I just be jumping from one prison guard to another?’

She searched his eyes in the few moments she waited for his answer, aching with the disappointment his pensive hesitancy created. She saved him the bother of the inevitable.

‘Even if I considered this, even if you could get me out,’ she said, ‘there would be nowhere to go. How far are you going to run, trapped here in Blackthorn’s boundaries? He’ll track you down and kill you. Or are you going to kill him? Kill all his followers too? There are only so many places you can hide in the south, Eden. There’s only so many places
I
can hide. One way or another, I’m trapped, Eden. That’s why
this
can’t happen. That’s why you
have
to leave.’

‘I’m not going until I get what I came here for.’

‘Not now you have every means to get it,’ she said, her tone laced with accusation.

He frowned. ‘You think I’m here to threaten you? You think I’d threaten you with that?’

‘I know nothing about you, Eden. I know nothing beyond those numbers on your arm that tell me that yes, you have every capability of threatening me with that if I don’t give you what you want.’

‘And what do my eyes tell you? What does our time in bed together tell you?’

‘It tells me you’re in deeper than you can even imagine. He’ll be watching you, Eden. He will watch every move you make from here on – every way you look at me. All you’ve done by agreeing to this is given him front-row seats.’

‘And given us a chance to talk – to spend time together without the threat of being caught.’

She had to ask him. She needed to ask him to his face and watch for every reaction.

‘Tell me,’ she said. ‘Look me in the eye and tell me this woman is the
only
reason you’re here.’

He looked to the floor, lingered for a few moments there. His fingers dug into his inner thighs again in a way that made her want to reach out and catch his hand, to squeeze and reassure him like he had attempted to with her.

‘Her name’s Honey,’ he said. ‘She’s beautiful. Smart too. She’s got long blonde hair and beautiful big brown eyes, just like her grandmother’s were. She’s kind, she’s funny and she has an optimism that will break your heart despite her living in pain every single day.’ He lifted his palm so it was about three foot off the ground as he looked back across at her. ‘She’s about this tall. Six years old. And she sure as hell doesn’t deserve what she’s going through.’

Her heart skipped a beat, not least at the rarely seen sadness in his eyes – yet not over a woman, as she had automatically assumed, but a little girl. ‘Your daughter?’

‘As good as.’ He unravelled his leather wristband to show her the tattoo. ‘My niece. My only niece. We don’t know how long she’s got, only that the system won’t give her any more treatment.’

She knew as well as everyone else that it wasn’t just the third species who were victims to the system. Many humans had become victims too as an inevitable part of the cascade of a perfect structure that was rancid beneath the surface. Humans who were victims of circumstance, of their upbringing, of their basic DNA as much as the third species were.

Amongst those were children – their lives mapped out for them, over for them in some cases, before they had even begun. Those except for the elite – and they would be born with an ignorance that would only feed the system further, maybe not even aware of their own prejudices behind their veil of civility.

She knew what it was like for the ones who got sick. She’d heard enough cons talk about it. What she could do was not enough to save them all though. In the interim, if the authorities got their hands on her, if the cover was blown on what she was, the potential of her species, they’d all be in an even worse situation than they were now.

That’s what Eden wouldn’t see.

His eyes almost melted her though, as if he’d incited some kind of betrayal just by talking about it, by opening up. Eden was trusting her with something that mattered deeply to him.

Eden was asking for her help.

But the only cure she could safely offer would be temporary and, if he didn’t find the necklace, that meant he would be back for more. He would
keep
coming back for more. Whatever assurances he gave her, humans did desperate things in desperate times – she saw it every day. He would be no different. Or, if he did get the necklace, the temporary nature of her healing would give him even more reason to hold on to her, using her again and again like Pummel did.

‘You have no concept of how big an ask this is,’ she said. ‘It’s not worth the risk. I told you before – it’s only temporary.’

‘It’ll do for me.’

‘Until you want more. And then where does that leave me? Are you going to keep working for Pummel so you can stay close to me?’

‘I told you – I’m getting you out of here.’

‘So you can own me instead?’

‘She needs you, Jessie. You help her, and I will be indebted to you. Don’t underestimate me. And don’t let decades of being here break you. Don’t let it cloud your judgement enough to stop you fighting. Work with me and we’ll both get what we want. You’re not on your own anymore, Jess. You need to start getting used to that.’

The look in his eyes was as compelling as the prospect, the prospect of a life away from there. Maybe even with Eden.

That wasn’t what he’d been promising though. He’d been promising only to help her escape to a life elsewhere in Blackthorn or Lowtown, where she’d be alone again. Where she’d have to mix with humans by day, unable to mix with other third species at night for fear of the consequences. Because if it was exposed what she was, they would kill her. They would have no option.

‘Why?’ she asked. ‘Why are you so intent on helping me in all this?’

His gaze lingered on hers for a moment. ‘She sees me as her hero, Jessie – her uncle who can do anything. What would she think of me if I failed with her only hope? Let alone if I failed to save Rapunzel in her tower? I know what I’d think of myself. I know you don’t want a hero, but I need to be one.’ His frown deepened, reminding her of the intensity behind his brown eyes. ‘It’s the only thing that makes me feel worthy to look in that little girl’s eyes.’

It wasn’t just the words that were compelling. It was as if in those few moments he had made himself vulnerable, giving her a glimpse of his soul, what was truly contained beneath those numbers.

She looked down at his forearm. Back into his eyes. Before she made her decision, she knew she had to ask him directly. ‘Are those numbers real?’

His eyes flared slightly. The momentary pause was excruciating. ‘What answer are you looking for, Jessie? That yes, they’re real – that I’m capable of all those things? Or no, they’re not real – and I’ve lied to you since the moment I got into this place?’

‘I want the truth.’

‘I gave you the truth in my room. I gave you the truth just now. I know how much I’m asking of you, but I
will
find whatever it is. Give me a chance,’ he said. ‘I might be the only chance you’ve got.’

And potentially the only chance the lycan young had too if she was to get them out in time. Time was something, now more than ever, that she couldn’t afford to waste. She
could
trust him. She
would
trust him. Without any other option, she had to take the risk. She had to at least try.

‘If you let me down…’ she warned.

‘I won’t.’

She bit into her bottom lip before exhaling in terse resolve. ‘It’s a necklace. A silver necklace.’

His frown deepened pensively.

‘It has a glass vial on it,’ she added. ‘I can’t remove it from my guardian, but another can, and the ownership transfers to them.
Or
that guardian can choose to relinquish their power and give it back to me – my freedom with it. If you succeed, if you find it and
if
you hand it over to me, I’ll help Honey. And once I’ve done it, we’re finished. If you come looking for me, I
will
kill you.’

He stared deep into her eyes. ‘No deal.’

Her stomach flipped, her certainty that he would accept suddenly feeling painfully naïve. ‘What?’

‘I find the necklace, you heal her,
then
I’ll free you. That’s the deal I’m offering.’

‘Where you hold all the cards and I have nothing?’

‘You can survive without me. That little girl doesn’t survive without you. It’s the only deal I’m offering.’

‘I’ll agree
if
you give me your word that should you fail to find it, you’ll leave this place. That you’ll leave me alone.’

‘I can’t agree to that.’

The hairs on her arms prickled. ‘
That’s
the deal.’

He fastened the band back around his wrist. ‘The deal is I’m going nowhere without you.’ He looked across at her, his forearms resting on his spread thighs.

And he meant it.

‘Give me a week,’ he said.

‘I’ll give you forty-eight hours.’

Forty-eight hours if those young were to escape in plenty of time for the new moon.

‘I need longer,’ he said.

‘It’s all I’m offering.’

It’s all she could offer.

His eyes lingered on hers, the rain pattering against the thin pane.

Then he nodded.

A rush of relief bordering on elation swept over her. If anyone could do this, it was surely him.

She glanced at his lips, back into his eyes. She wondered what he’d do if she leaned forward, if she took the lead. If his reaction would be like it was when she’d kissed him tenderly on the neck. Or if sex was one thing, kissing entirely another. If she’d be overstepping the mark somehow – revealing more of her, and of him, than she should.

For that moment though, she didn’t care. She was on the edge of taking her lips to his, when he moved.

He stood. He held out his hand for her to shake in a manner that was uncomfortably businesslike.

So she could remain at eye level, she stood too. She locked her hand into his. His shake was firm, warm, controlled, both their gazes lingering a moment longer than necessary before he pulled away and crossed the room to the door.

She glanced around her room, the isolation, the coldness of his pending absence closing in. ‘I’m coming with you.’