“Was he the one who hurt you...before?”

“One of them,” she said. “His name was Orin Doyle.”

Mathias would dig into that name the first chance he got. He only wished he had the opportunity to deliver some pain to the bastard personally before Ozzy stabbed him. “And the others in the morgue?”

Nova shook her head. “I didn’t know them at all. They were associates of Doyle’s, but he betrayed them. He executed them in cold blood down on a dock at the river. There were others with them. They were speaking Russian, I think, making some sort of deal with Doyle’s men. But it all seemed to go wrong. At least one of them was shot too, killed, but not by Doyle.”

Mathias scowled, skeptical. “How can you know all of this?”

“Because that’s what I saw when I touched the bodies. I saw the last few minutes of their lives. I saw how they died. I saw who did it.”

At first, he wasn’t sure what she was saying, then realization dawned. “Your Breedmate gift is a dark one. It can’t be easy for you, having that kind of ability.”

She shrugged, but her voice was quiet, haunted. “I don’t think about it. I don’t use it. Not unless I have to.”

He nodded, solemn with understanding. For all the times he cursed his own grim ability, it was nothing compared to what Nova must experience when she called upon hers. And yet she bore her burden--all of them--with stalwart courage. An extraordinary woman, in so many ways.

As for what she’d revealed just now, Mathias had suspected some kind of massacre, but the news of Russians being part of whatever went down was valuable intel the Order and JUSTIS didn’t have. Still, it only raised more questions.

“Do you know what brought Doyle and those other men to London? You said it seemed like some kind of deal was taking place,” he said, trying to put the pieces together. “Do you know what that deal was about? Do you know why the killings happened?”

“No. That’s not something I could detect with my gift.” She met his gaze solemnly. “I don’t know any of those answers, I swear to you.”

“And the scarab, Nova?”

“What about it?”

“What does the mark mean? There’s no gang known to law enforcement that uses that symbol, so who does it belong to?”

She shook her head mutely, pivoting from him to pace a few steps away. “It’s not a gang. It’s a family symbol. My family.”

He walked up behind her. Gently rested his palms on her shoulders. “Tell me their name, Nova.”

“Now, you ask too much,” she murmured. “I ran away from them a long time ago, for good reason. I won’t speak the name and let that evil touch me again.”

Mathias wanted to press the issue, persuade her to give up the rest of her secrets. But she was trembling under his light touch. The tough-talking, hard-looking woman was shaking like a fragile leaf.

He coaxed her around to face him. “It’s okay. We’ll figure it out.”

“I’d like to believe that,” she whispered. “But I just don’t see how.”

Mathias brushed his thumb over her lips, silencing her worries. For now, at least--for a moment--he didn’t want her to be afraid. She stared up into his eyes, and he knew there was nothing he wouldn’t do to keep this woman safe.

“We’ll figure it out,” he told her again, softer this time.

Then he bent his head down to hers and kissed her.

She didn’t resist him, didn’t push him away with defensive words or protesting hands. No, she wrapped her arms around him as he drew her deeper into his embrace. She kissed him back, with the same heat and need that was coursing through his own veins.

Mathias stroked his hand up the inked sleeve of her arm, then caught her nape in his palm while his tongue tested the giving seam of her lips. She parted for him, took him in on a quiet gasp.

He didn’t know how he’d managed to let the moment go from one of confrontation and mistrust to one of fierce, undeniable desire.

The comfort he’d meant to offer had incinerated, melted into something powerful. Something he wasn’t noble enough to resist.

He only knew that he wanted her.

And if he didn’t find the will to put the brakes on soon, there would be no turning back.

~ ~ ~

She wanted to push him away.

She wanted to tear her mouth from his, retreat to the other side of the room, out of his arms.

She wanted to scream, but it wasn’t terror or panic making her senses explode with the need to escape. It was desire.

Raw, hungry, impossible desire.

Something she had never known, had never expected to feel so powerfully. She could hardly contain it, the need Mathias’s kiss stirred inside her.

She could hardly breathe, hardly think straight, for the way it coiled around her, stripping away her defenses. Removing each carefully placed brick in the wall she’d built around herself ages ago.

If she let it fall, there would be no building those defensive walls again--not with him.

She would be at Mathias’s mercy, and he already knew too much.

He’d seen too much.

Nova moaned, forcing herself to break away from the pleasure of his kiss.

“Mathias, I don’t...I can’t,” she stammered, not even sure what she was trying to deny anymore. She only knew that if she let him continue touching her, kissing her, wanting her, she would be lost to him completely. “Don’t do this to me.”

“Don’t do what?” His deep voice was a growl against her cheek, then down along the side of her neck. “Don’t kiss you? Don’t want you? What shouldn’t I do, Nova?”

“Everything.” She drew back from him then, crossing her arms over herself when his body heat was gone and a chill settled into her bones. She put more distance between them, needing it in order to convince herself that she could do this--that she could push him away when it was the last thing she wanted in that moment. “I’m scared, Mathias.”

He took a step toward her. “Don’t be. Not of me.”

She bit her lip, trying to conjure the words she needed to save herself from giving in to him, from falling any further. But her heart wouldn’t cooperate with her head. Words lodged in her throat.

Then a knock on the door did the hard work for her. Eddie’s voice sounded on the other side. “Nova, you there? Let me in, will ya?”

God, she couldn’t let the kid see that she had someone in her apartment. Especially not a Breed male, whose glowing amber eyes and sharp white fangs were liable to send Eddie screaming back to Ozzy downstairs in the studio.

She’d begged off her shift tonight and cancelled all of her appointments, claiming she was sick. That lie would hurt even worse, if they knew she was up there thinking about getting naked with Mathias.

Which she wasn’t, she told herself. Not thinking about it, or doing it.

She closed her eyes, exhaling a heavy sigh. “Another time, Eddie, okay?”

“Oz sent me to check on you, make sure you’re not pukin’ your guts out or something.”

“I’m not,” she said, casting Mathias a pointed look. “I’ll be fine, I promise. I just need some time alone, that’s all. Tell Oz not to worry about me.”

“Sure, but you know he’s gonna worry ‘til he sees you for himself. He says you’ve never called in sick once, Nova.”

“I’ll come down later, promise.”

“All right, then,” he agreed after a moment. “I’ll let him know.”

When Eddie’s footsteps faded into silence, Nova released a pent-up breath. “I can’t do this. You should leave, Mathias.”

He moved in closer. “I don’t want to leave.”

“You heard Eddie. He and Oz are worried about me. They’re going to wonder what I’m doing up here.” She dropped her gaze to avoid Mathias’s smoldering eyes. “We need to stop this now. You need to leave, and I should go--”

“You don’t want to go.” He guided her face back to him, refusing to let her hide. His irises blazed bright with amber light, pupils so thin they were almost swallowed by the heat of his desire. The tips of his fangs gleamed behind the sensual line of his lip as he spoke. “You don’t want to stop what’s happening between us. You can’t deny it, Nova. No more than I can.”