“What the hell are you doing?” Liv called after me.
“Branding her!” I shouted.
A moment of silence followed as I reached the door, the quiet proof enough that I’d shocked Liv without having to see her.
“What the fuck, E?” she screamed shrilly. “Why?”
I was outside when I answered, making a sharp right that would lead me toward the complex with Liv racing after me.
“I want her,” I said simply, and grinned. A declaration like that coming from me was sure to send Liv into a tailspin.
Chapter Fourteen
Autumn
When I could no longer hear the screams of the pink-haired woman, promising the both of us a colorful assortment of all sorts of violence and pain, I finally opened my eyes. Through thick hanks of wet hair, I peeked up at Eagle, hating the feel of his hands on my bare skin, his body so close to mine.
My skin crawled at the feel of him, of his skin on mine. Warm. Alive. Unwanted. His contact was sending my nerves into overdrive. The feel of his skin on my skin—my bare skin—was too much.
The hot sun beat down on me, and a light breeze blew through my hair. Every strand was on fire, every nerve ending sparking wildly. Sensations I hadn’t felt in so long bombarded me from every direction, making it hard to think straight.
Did I trust him? The answer wasn’t simple. On one hand, I did. He’d saved me without explanation and hadn’t asked anything in return. On the other hand, maybe he would want something in return. Later. When I was fully healed, and clean again.
But trust was irrelevant right now. Right now I needed him. Right now all that mattered was that once again he was saving me from these people and the things they wanted from me ... and to do to me.
I could hear my father now, his deep voice hoarse with his impending death, making me promise to stay away from everyone, to never, ever trust a single soul, and to be especially careful around men.
Those had been some of his final words to me. Trust no one. And I hadn’t. For so long I had been alone, never daring to trust a single soul. Only now I didn’t have a choice; I was being forced to put my shaky trust in someone else time and time again, forced to trust a strange man, no less, and forced to trust my instincts instead of my long-dead fathers’s wisdom.
Eagle had said he would make sure no one could touch me, but he hadn’t elaborated on when or how or why. He’d been right, though, when he said he was all I had. So I hadn’t fought him when he’d dressed me, or picked me up, or carried me out of his home, headed to God only knew where.
Blinking through the brightness, my gaze found the side of his face, the hard angle of his jaw, and the long bristles that covered it. There was an awful power within this man, power and strength and a barely restrained violence just beneath his surface. He was a man to be feared, a man who did as he pleased, and a man who cared little for the well-being of others. So, why was he constantly helping me?
A shudder racked through my body, icy cold as it dragged sluggishly through my veins, and I could hear my father warning me away from this dangerous man. But my father didn’t understand. He wasn’t here; he hadn’t been here for a long time now. He hadn’t seen the things I had, hadn’t lived the life I’d had to live after his death. Right now I needed to trust that this man would make good on his word, and believe the childish notion that not everyone in this godforsaken world was either evil or dead, that there was still someone out there who meant good rather than harm. Someone who still cared.
A myriad of smells hit me, yanking me from my thoughts. Food, people, smoke, and biters. And then the sounds followed. Voices, lots of them, ranging from chatter to laughter and even shouting, and my heart hammered with fear.
They were all bad.
Even Eagle was bad. One look at him and I’d known this, but he had promised to help me. If he were all bad, he wouldn’t have made such a promise, would he? He wouldn’t have hidden me away, would he? He would have hurt me by now, surely he would have. He would have done more than simply stare at me when he’d seen me naked. He wouldn’t have looked away like he had. I had to believe it, had to keep telling myself he wasn’t going to hurt me.
But these other people ...
I continued to stare up at Eagle, never once taking my eyes off him, refusing to look anywhere else, at anyone else. It was too much, too soon, this place and all these people. Too much had happened and in such a short period of time. There was no time to adjust, to breathe, to do anything other than try to survive.
I only had him. Eagle was my tether. He and he alone was what kept me from losing it all over again. Because he was all I had.
So I stared hard, not blinking, not flinching even when the creak of a door would have startled me, even when the sound of unfamiliar voices was so close I knew if I reached out I could touch them.
“Get the fuck out,” Eagle barked, the rumble of his voice vibrating in his chest. There was a scurry of feet and a cacophony of muttering, and then Eagle set me down. My body tense and trembling, I continued to look only at him.
“What the fuck is that smell?” a male voice asked. Whoever the man was, he sounded confused, and far too close to me for comfort.
Eagle had moved away from me and was now standing in front of a small window, his muscled arms with the black skulls all over them folded across his chest. He glanced over his shoulder and his eyes met mine, seeming surprised to find me staring back at him. An odd expression tugged at his features for a mere moment before it was gone. Guilt, maybe?
Scratching aimlessly at the beard covering his chin, with his jaw locked, he was once again scowling at me, and I began to wonder if this was his only expression.
“Forget the smell,” Eagle said, his eyes leaving mine. “I need you to brand her.”
