More Than Life (Arcane Crossbreeds) Read Online Free Page B

important about her that the person she trusted most would casually hand her off? The answers had become the singular focus of her existence.
    Every element of her life had been traded away. Her freedom. Her trust. Her potential as a damn human being. Everything . And she wanted to know why. It was a churning, simmering drive.
    Then she wanted to burn this place down.
    The grind of metal against metal pierced the silence. Katya knew that sound. Immediately her body tensed, and she rolled to her side, curling down away from the coming light. She clenched her eyes shut as it speared into the room. It was almost as heavy as the blackness. After days of darkness, the light had texture, weight.
    The dull thud of footsteps echoed in the room as they advanced. Two sets. They sounded loud after the complete silence she’d endured for so long. Whoever they were paused next to her cot. The air in the room shifted with their movements, raising the fine hairs on her skin as it wafted over her. She tested it, drew it in, looking for any information she could use. Her mind jerked back, faltered. Her body clenched in a violent response to that scent.
    A full array of emotions punched into her with the force of a physical blow as her mind caught up with her body’s innate recognition. Deep inside, a shadow shifted, uncloaking a place in her mind she’d kept apart from her. Pain. Betrayal. Hatred. Desire.
    Raife.
    With a cry of fury, she came to her feet and shot across the room, her back slamming into the gleaming silver wall. The light stabbed into her eyes in agony, making them water, but she forced herself to focus on the two men who stood in the middle of the room.
    Neither of them was Raife.
    Calm down. Don’t give them a reason to restrain you.
    “Take it easy, Ms. Schaffer.”
    Ms. Schaffer? They’d never used her name before. She’d never seen them before either. Suspicion unfurled in her chest. Were they new? They wore the standard black BDUs, but they felt different from the others. Easing her senses open, she attempted a deeper study. She didn’t sense any psychic reciprocation or evidence that they noticed her telepathic probe at all, but their minds were closed to her. That meant they weren’t human.
    “We need you to come with us.”
    She studied them, having become adept at reading people, instinctively determining their level of threat like the trapped animal she’d become. These men didn’t claim they weren’t going to hurt her, and that lack of reassurance resonated between them. One of the men’s lips thinned. The other’s jaw tightened. She could feel they wanted to offer her some reassurance but didn’t believe it. She didn’t need access to their minds to know they found the situation distasteful. It radiated from them, yet she sensed their determination.
    One of the men advanced a step, and a draft of air curled around her bare legs. She turned her head to the side and drew it deeply into her lungs.
    That familiar spicy musk rolled over her tongue. It made her body heat and her blood run cold. It both repelled and attracted her at the same time. Darkness roiled up from her belly, threatening the edges of her vision, and her hands started to shake. He was here? There had been no sign of Raife in all the time she’d been here; her last contact with him was that night in his apartment. So many times she’d gone over those last hours with him, those last months. He’d seemed colder, distant, as though he was slowly removing himself from her life. She didn’t want to believe he was responsible for her being here, but she didn’t know what else to believe. The last thing she remembered was those amber eyes glowing down at her as he rendered her unconscious. Then she woke up strapped to a cold metal table.
    Now he was back. Had he returned to try to control her? To get her to cooperate? She’d once thought the sun rose and set on his approval, but that girl no longer existed. She had been innocent and