Total pages in book: 165
Estimated words: 159487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 797(@200wpm)___ 638(@250wpm)___ 532(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 159487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 797(@200wpm)___ 638(@250wpm)___ 532(@300wpm)
Sev was taken aback by her response—she was so cold, talking about her own possible death. But then he looked into her big brown eyes and understood that she wasn’t cool and calm and collected at all—not inside. She probably wanted to cry or rage against what had happened to her, but she felt she couldn’t because it would upset him.
He had seen this with human women living aboard the Mother Ship. Some were afraid to express their emotions because they thought it would make the male they were dealing with upset in some way.
It didn’t make sense to him until he found out more about the social structure between human men and women. Because human men didn’t consider their females to be their equals and often hurt or abused them—something a Kindred would never do—the women often feared their men and felt the need to placate them and keep them from getting angry.
“Don’t say that,” he said quietly. “Don’t speak of your own death so lightly.”
“Why? Because I’m a ‘Mature Elite?’ Whatever that means,” she scoffed.
“No—because you’re worthy of respect. So respect yourself—respect your life. Don’t throw it away,” Sev said, frowning.
She frowned in return.
“I just don’t want to be one of the mindless zombies. I’d rather be dead.” As she spoke, a single tear rolled down one flushed cheek. It made Sev’s heart ache to see it.
He had the sudden urge to touch her—to comfort her. She’d been thought a hell of a lot today. Before he could stop himself, he reached out and cupped her cheek in one hand. With his thumb, he brushed the tear away.
“I feel the same way,” he said simply. “But don’t give up too soon. Let me work with your blood and see if I can develop an anti-viral for you. After all, the last one I made for Ravik is working and Kindred and Humans aren’t so far apart biologically. It’s one reason we’re able to mate with you and call brides from your kind.”
A blush rose on her cheeks but at last, she nodded.
“All right. I’ll try to stay hopeful. But in the meantime, I’d like to keep busy by cooking supper.” She raised an eyebrow. “Unless you’ve already eaten?”
He dropped his hand, even though he didn’t want to stop touching her.
“No, I haven’t and neither has Ravik. He never eats anything outside the bunker to avoid further contamination—that was one order I was able to get through to him.”
“Good. That’s…good.” She was still blushing as she looked away. Her fingers crept to her cheek, where Sev had been touching her but he didn’t think she realized what she was doing.
“Well…have a look around and make supper if you want,” he said lamely. “I need to go to the lab and check a few things.”
“Thanks. I’ll do that,” she murmured. Then she turned away and opened a cupboard, pointedly ending their conversation.
Sev left the food prep area with a strange reluctance. What was it about the curvy little human? Why did she get under his skin? And what spell had she cast over Ravik?
He had no idea but as he walked down the corridor to the place where he kept his equipment, he couldn’t get her out of his mind.
11
CASSIE
I’m blushing—why am I blushing? Cassie asked herself as she stared, unseeing, at the contents of the cabinet. She didn’t know what to think anymore…which was becoming an alarmingly common theme in her life lately.
First she’d thought Severin was a cold, arrogant, needle-wielding asshole who was probably going to throw her right back out into the Dead Zone as soon as he finished poking and prodding her. Then he’d cupped her cheek so gently and brushed the tears away with his thumb, his pale blue eyes soft behind the lenses of his glasses, and something inside her had just…melted.
Which was ridiculous because she didn’t even like him.
Or at least, she had decided she didn’t like him. Decided it firmly, in fact, right around the time he’d ordered Ravik to strip her naked and then stared at her under those glaring overhead lights like she was some kind of weird science project. But then he’d looked at her like she was a person again—not a specimen or an off-worlder or a defective female who couldn’t lay eggs and certainly not a washed-up human woman whose hormones had gone haywire.
He’d seen her as a person with emotions who needed comfort…and somehow that was worse than when he was being a cold, calculating asshole.
Cassie knew what to do with coldness. She had plenty of experience with men who were selfish and dismissive and cruel in that smooth, casual way that made you feel like maybe you were the crazy one for objecting. Mitchell had been like that and Sskarth had turned out to be like that too, though in a much scalier and more alien way.