Cassian nods.
“Even with the blood. Look, this is how it works. An accident like that happens. Medics show up. No bodies, no victims, nothing to transport. Once they confirm there’s no immediate medical emergency, they hand it off to the police. But if there’s no registered owner on-site or any clear connection to a crime, it’s just logged as an abandoned vehicle.”
He gestures lightly toward the street, as if walking me through it. “The police run a basic check for liability: they look for stolen property, check the VIN to see if it’s reported stolen, and search for outstanding warrants connected to the vehicle. If the car’s clean, which ours was: no plates, nothing traceable, completely unregistered—they have no name to attach to it.”
I exhale slowly, trying to take it all in.
“After that,” he goes on, “the city calls a tow service. The car gets impounded or, if it’s badly damaged and unclaimed, processed for junk or auction depending on the backlog. That can take weeks, sometimes months, before anyone even opens it again. And unless there’s already an open investigation tied to that specific car, they won’t start forensic testing on abandoned vehicles. The blood? Sure, they’d log it as suspicious. But without DNA on file, no witnesses, and no missing persons report, it leads nowhere. They have to prioritize active cases.”
I look at him for a moment. It’s not the first time I’m struck by how much he knows about these kinds of processes. I suppose he should, being a literal criminalist. He knows exactly which laws he’s breaking. But still, it’s impressive.
And weirdly, it calms me down.
He might be a bad fucking man, but at least he’s a bad man who knows his shit.
It would just be nice, though, if he, and the others, used that knowledgebeforeeverything goes to hell, notafter.
“Sounds simpler than it should be, honestly,” I murmur.
Cassian allows himself a small, grim smile. “Yeah, well. There are gaps in the system. There’s no guarantee, but our best bet right now is to hope the police see it as just another hit-and-run or a stolen car dumped after a joyride. If so, they won’t connect it to us.”
I glance nervously back at the crime scene. “And if they don’t?”
“Well,” he says, steel entering his voice, “then we better be faster than them.”
I lean back in my seat, heart still pounding, and press my fingers to my temples. The scene outside isn’t calming down. It’s escalating. A second black SUV pulls up behind the first, and two more officers step out. One of them carries a box labeled EVIDENCE COLLECTION UNIT in bold letters.
“But how? We can’t exactly wait for them to pack up and leave.”
Cassian’s jaw tightens as he scans the block again, weighing our options. “We’ll have to improvise.”
I arch a brow. “Improvise?”
“Can you turn invisible?” he asks. “Blink inside the same way you blinked us into the ambulance?”
Oh, great. So this is where we’re going with this.
“What do you think?” I say, my voice dripping with sarcasm. “You really want to gamble on my unstable powers? Back then,I didn’t even have full control. I was overloaded, scared… my powers just reacted. It’s not like I can snap my fingers and disappear on command.”
Cassian’s gaze sharpens. The corner of his mouth lifts, but there’s no humor in it.
“Well,” he says, voice low, “aren’t you stronger now? After fucking Talon?”
The bluntness of it hits me like a slap. I shift in my seat, heat blooming in my chest. It's part embarrassment, part… something darker.
“Stronger, maybe,” I admit, forcing my voice steady. “But that doesn’t mean I can control it. If I mess up, I could blink myself straight into a wall. Or worse, half inside one.”
His eyes narrow. “You won’t.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do.” He lets go of the wheel without hesitation. His hand slides onto my thigh. The size of his palm engulfs my kneecap easily, his thumb grazing the inside of my leg. My breath catches. Everything inside me pulls tight, hyperaware of his touch, of his proximity, of the heat radiating off his body.
“Because I’m going to make you stronger,” he says, voice rougher now. “Stronger than he did.”
Um… what?
I blink at him, lips parting, heart hammering against my ribs. For a second, it feels like the world narrows to just this car, just him, just me.
