“Yeah. Kendra got me on the next plane out.”
Jayson shook his head. “You’re insane. Why would you do something like this?”
“Because you’re the most important person in the world to me,” she said. “I couldn’t just wait around the DCO complex to see if you we’re going to make it back okay. I had to do something.”
She hadn’t meant it to come out so sharply, but Jayson only smiled and pulled her into his arms. Not that she minded being there again, but she couldn’t help being confused. A few days ago, he would have flipped out.
“You had to do something because you were worried about me and couldn’t stand the idea of waiting around, hoping for the best, huh? Feeling powerless to protect the person you care about?”
Layla wasn’t sure where he was going with this, but he was right. Powerless was exactly how she’d felt. “I know it probably doesn’t make a lot of sense to you, but I had to come after you, no matter how insane it might seem.”
Jayson pulled back a little and gently lifted her chin with his fingers. “Actually, it makes a lot of sense. I understand doing something totally insane—like taking an untested drug on the off chance it might heal your back. At least enough to get you back into the field again so you can be partners with the most important woman in your life.”
Everything stopped then—except for her heart. It started thumping harder and harder until she was sure even Jayson could hear it.
“Wait a minute,” she said. “Are you saying that you took the hybrid serum because Dick told you we could be partners?”
“If I proved myself in the field—yes.” He must have seen the dubious look on her face because he shook his head. “I’m not stupid, Layla. I know you think he’s manipulating me to get what he wants. Maybe he is. But that’s okay because I’m using him to get what I want, too. I want to be healthy enough to go out and watch your back in the field.”
She couldn’t believe they were talking about this so calmly. Jayson had taken a drug that could have killed him just so he could be her partner? That was beyond insane. “How do you even know Dick will keep his word?”
“I don’t, but I had to believe in something.” Jayson cupped her face. “You remember how you felt when you found out that I had gone out with Powell? Well, I’ve been having those same feelings every minute of the day since you first told me that you were going to start field training. I laid awake at night thinking of you getting teamed up with a jackass who wouldn’t even treat you like a human, much less a partner. That someone like Powell or Moore would shoot you in the back because the DCO has that stupid policy about not letting shifters get exposed.”
She swallowed hard. “I’m sorry. I never knew you were worried about who my partner would be. Why didn’t you ever talk to me about it?”
“What would we have talked about? You probably don’t get a lot of say in who your partner is, and I get none at all. And until Dick offered me the hybrid serum, the idea of me being your partner was ludicrous.”
Jayson slipped his hand into her hair and tilted her head back. In the dim light of the flashlight, she knew her irises were probably glowing green, but he didn’t look away. Her eyes had never made him nervous, no more than her fangs and claws ever did.
“When Dick offered me the serum, I knew I had to risk it,” he said. “For a chance to be strong enough to be your partner, to be at your side, to protect you and be with you—really be with you. That’s more than I ever dreamed possible.”
Layla cupped her scruffy jaw in her hand. “But you could have died, Jayson. When they initially gave you the serum or the first time your adrenaline started surging. That’s part of the reason I felt I had to get here as fast as I could. I need to get you back to Zarina before it’s too late.”
He rested his forehead against hers, his scent washing over her and pushing every other smell far into the background. For a moment, it seemed almost possible to forget where there were and what they doing. All she wanted to do was breathe him in and let the rest of the world worry about itself for a while.
“I know I scared you, Layla, and I’m sorry about that,” he whispered. “But I didn’t die. The serum worked. My back isn’t healed—not all the way—but the pain is bearable. I know I’ll never have claws and fangs or be able to throw people around like Clayne or Declan or Tanner can do. I won’t be able to jump off a three-story building or jump twenty feet, or sniff out a bad guy hidden in a closet, like you or Ivy, either. But I’m upright and mobile. I ran for a couple miles yesterday and leaped ten feet onto a small pipe, keeping my balance as I ran across it. Then I fell into the water from three stories up and swam for half a mile or more in a strong current. I could never have done any of those things before. The serum worked, at least well enough for me to be your partner and stand at your side.”
They were too close for her to hide her tears. Layla tried to blink them away, but more took their place. In her heart, she knew Jayson wasn’t simply talking about being her DCO partner or him physically standing at her side. He was saying he finally felt worthy of being with her. It made her furious knowing he’d thought that he wasn’t before, but then she remembered what Danica had said about him needing purpose, a reason to keep going through all the crap he had to live with.
Tears ran down Layla’s cheeks as she realized that Jayson had finally found his purpose—to be her partner and watch her back. Now she was the one who didn’t feel worthy. Jayson had been willing to die for a chance to have this with her. What had she ever done to deserve that kind of devotion? Jayson might not have said the words, and maybe he wouldn’t be able to for a long time to come, but he loved her. She knew it in her heart.
As amazing as the moment was, there was a little voice in the back of her mind urging her to tell Jayson about the antidote Zarina had given him. What if he went charging into a situation thinking his newfound hybrid abilities would save him? What if he found out that he was still an amazing former Special Forces soldier with a back that had been shredded by shrapnel? Didn’t she have an obligation to tell him the truth?
As she stood there in his arms, breathing in his scent, his lips only inches from hers, she knew she couldn’t do it. She could never destroy the slender poles of hope he’d used to prop up his life again.
In reality, she had no way of knowing if the serum helped. Even though she couldn’t smell even a tiny trace of shifter or hybrid scent on him, there could be something buried way down deep. What if it had healed his back or taken away a part of his pain? Heck, what if the only thing the serum had done was make him believe in himself? Did she have a right to take any of those things away from him? Did she even want to?
She couldn’t risk putting him into a tailspin, not when he’d just started to believe in himself. And not while they were all alone in the middle of a war-torn city with soldiers all around who would gladly kill them on sight if they caught them.
“We’ve both been running around worrying about the other person all along, risking our lives for each other,” he said softly, as if he were hesitant to speak for fear of ruining the mood, “when what we should have been doing is talking.”
Layla smiled through her tears. “If I’d known that all it would take to get us talking is a romantic getaway to a bombed-out part of Eastern Europe, I would have gotten Kendra to set it up a long time ago.”
“Romantic, huh?” He smiled. “I like romantic.”
Jayson bent his head and kissed her, his mouth moving over hers sweetly as his hands tightened in her hair. Layla moaned, her hand going to his belt. She was ready to strip off his clothes and make love to him right there in the middle of the devastated library when the sound of multiple feet coming their way caught her attention. Seconds later, footsteps descended the stairs. She and Jayson reluctantly pulled away from each other.
“So, when do you think you’ll be strong enough to walk out of here?” she asked Jayson as the three teens came into the basement.
