Page 4 (1/2)

Seeing Glen exiting a room, he waved the doctor down The other man hurried over, dark circles under his eyes

Dev took in his friend’s wrinkled clothes, the way his ginger hair stuck up in untidy tufts "I thought you were off shift"

Glen thrust a hand through his hair, further electrifying the strands "I wanted to be here in case our guest woke Caught some sleep in the break room"

Introductions took only a couple of seconds, and then they alking into Ekaterina’s roo up, sipping solanced at Glen

"Just ten ht at Dev, her eyes skating off Ashaya as if her for to part" Her voice was husky, as if it hadn’t been used for a long timeor as if it had been broken in theto her side, Dev took the cup she held out, caught by the shadows that swirled in the green-gold depths of her eyes "How much do you remember?"

She sed but didn’t break eye contact "I don’t knoho I ah her voice didn’t shake, her eyes didn’t glisten Yet Dev heard the screaht in the heart

Part of hieable part, wanted to offer coer to his people She was Psy And Psy connected to the Net could not be trusted No matter that she acted more human than her brethren, he had to treat her as a weapon, carrying within her the seeds of Shine’s destruction And if she proved to be that, he’d have to make the most lethal of decisionseven if it killed the last bit of humanity left in him

"Ekaterina" Ashaya’s voice, gentle, coaxing

The woman on the bed blinked, shook her head "No"

"That’s your naeable hazel eyes flickered and went out, a fla "Ekaterina’s dead," she said with absolute cal lef - " Her teeth snapped together as her body convulsed with vicious strength

"Glen!" Catching her before she twisted off the bed, Dev tried to keep her froile under his hands

"Say it"

She kept her lips closed

"Say it"

No No No

"Say it"

He didn’t tire, didn’t stop, didn’t shove into herfor the pain, the terror, was somehoorse than the violation itself

"Say it"

She held on to her sanity through the first days, the first weeks

But still he wouldn’t relent

Her tongue felt so thick, so dry Her stomach hurt But she held on

"Say it"

It took three months, but she did She said it

"Ekaterina is dead"

"She’s unconscious" Glen shined a light into Ekaterina’s eyes as she lay slus in her systeer was her narenade"

"More likely a combination," Ashaya said, then reeled off the che pills Glen had noted on the chart "Soents cause htened at having found a colleague "Yes There’s a possibility soly in conjunction with other ically break her"

Dev stared down at Ekaterina Haas’s scratched and bruised face, wondering what she’d given up to come out of the torture alivewhat she’d let her captors put in her His hands fisted inside the pockets of his pants - whatever bargain she’d made, it hadn’t saved her "What you said when you first arrived," he murmured to Dorian while the doctor and Ashaya were distracted, "it can’t happen"

"Shaya wants her close" Dorian folded his arht Ekaterina died"

"Whatever happened to her," Dev said, unable to take his own eyes off the thin figure in the bed, "whatever was done to her, she’s not the wo her"

"And if she proves a threat?"

Dev aze "You know the answer to that" Dorian was a DarkRiver sentinel And the leopard pack hadn’t reached its current status as one of theweakor easily forgiving

Blowing out a soft breath, Dorian returned his attention to hisme in You let me prepare her" His voice was a harsh, low order

Dev wastheotten children at risk to her own Then she’d blown the Council’s secret perversions wide open She’d earned his respect "Fair enough" However, as he watched Ekaterina’s chest rise and fall in what seeerously shallow rhythain if he’d be able to do the deed if it came down to it Could he break that body that had already been broken so badly?