AFTER CALLING OUT to her, the door opened just a crack. I stepped forward against it, half expecting it to be flung aside and for Evie to be back in my arms. Instead, I had to force myself and the bags that I carried through the small gap. Once I was in the room, my gaze searched for the sight I’d been desperate to see for hours—or, if I was completely truthful with myself, years. She was across the room, farther away than made sense considering she’d left the door open for me, but the vision was exactly the one I’d longed for.

In the privacy of the room, she had no need for a hoodie, so the girl with the lilac irises who was watching me cautiously from a few feet away was the one I remembered. The one from my dreams where I’d spent so few precious hours with her. She wore a torn blouse that once might have been a royal-blue color and a pair of faded denim jeans. Her hair was pulled back from her face, but I could still see the bright array colors that adorned her scalp.

Less than a second passed, but I was able to drink in her every delicious detail in that time. What I saw left me longing to know more, to ask about everything that had happened to her since the moment I’d left her, but because I didn’t want to have to supply the same information, I let the questions die on my lips.

I dropped everything in my arms and rushed toward her, intent on picking her up and never, ever letting her go again. The closer I got though, the clearer the damage I’d wrought on her by leaving became. She’d lost weight since I saw her last. She’d gone from slender to impossibly thin, and I couldn’t help but feel responsible for her gaunt appearance. She flinched as I closed in on her, but I couldn’t tell what she was thinking. I stopped completely when I saw the fear and doubt that echoed in her eyes.

Am I right? Is this a trap?

I frowned.

Did she find me just to tell me she hates me?

My thoughts brought back memories of the way I’d walked out on her when she’d needed me the most. Even though I still thought it was the best decision I could have made under the circumstances—I hadn’t exactly been in any position to provide support for her while keeping us both safe—I also understood that it was a massive dick move. She should hate me. I shouldn’t have been there wanting to move on with her when I’d hurt her so badly. Had she found me just to destroy me the way I’d hurt her?

Just when I was about to take a step backward, to give her more space in case she grew angry, she sighed. The small sound carried my name with it, and it was like heaven to my ears.

She reached one hand forward and splayed her fingers over my heart. My body reacted instantly to her touch, the control she had over me just as potent as ever. The piece of my brain that had succumbed to the retraining I’d endured warned that her hold was too strong—supernaturally so—but I refused to listen to it and ruin our perfect reunion.

Instead, I reached out to touch her cheek; the feeling of sweeping my hand across the warm silk of her skin was enough to send my heart racing faster than ever.

“I thought I’d never see you again,” she said as her eyelids fluttered closed, and she shifted her head to brush the corner of her lips over my fingertips.

The small movement was enough to send all of the blood rushing out of my heart on a course straight into another vital organ. I suppressed the groan that wanted to escape me with how exquisite that tiny touch had been.

“I wasn’t sure that you’d want to see me.” She opened her eyes again and everything I felt was echoed in their depths.

Too soon, she looked away, and I was lost again. My palm brushed across her jaw and my fingers pressed against her secured hair, longing to be able to pull it loose from its binds and run my hands through it.

“Did you actually think that I’d forgotten about what I said to you?” I asked.

A tiny smirk crossed her lips, and I longed to know why. “I missed you,” she said. “Is that crazy?”

I waited for her to look at me before I answered; I needed her to see the unwavering truth in my eyes. “Not at all. I’ve been going crazy since I left you in Charlotte. I thought about you so much, hoping that you were safe and staying out of trouble.”

She flinched and turned away. She was so timid and almost broken compared to the girl I remembered from our time together. Yet, against all the odds, she’d tracked me down. She’d found me in Salem. It was almost impossible.

“How on Earth did you know I’d be here? I desperately wanted to check up on you, but they were watching my actions so closely. I couldn’t risk it.” I couldn’t stop the words that blurted out. “But you’re here now. I still can’t believe it. You’re even more beautiful than I remember. Did you know I’d be here?”

“I hoped you would be.” She shrugged. She seemed so broken, so disheartened, and I wanted to build her back up again. “What happened after you left?”

“Eth was certain you’d drowned in the river, but they did their best to make sure you were an official suspect in the fire at your house just in case. I told them that you never came home.” I held her fragile face between my palms. She was so much smaller than I’d remembered her, or I was bigger now. Maybe it was a little of both. “I didn’t want them to know where I’d left you or that we’d seen each other again. I’d rather they continue thinking you’d drowned. Even after . . .” I stopped myself before I said “after I left you” and reminded her of all the reasons she should hate me. “Even when they thought I was on their side again, I never told them the truth. I couldn’t betray you, Evie, even when I tried to live their way.”

“What do you mean?”

I sighed. I knew I wasn’t explaining it right, but I couldn’t think what to tell her that wouldn’t terrify her and send her running from me and the danger I brought to her life. “After I went back to Dad, he forced me to undergo retraining with the Rain.”

Flashes of that time, now all muddled and confused by time and repression rose in my mind. Werewolves and victims. Blood—so much of it that it seemed to rain down from the ceiling. And finally, acceptance—peace.

Almost.

“For a time, it almost worked,” I admitted.

Longing to clear the visions from my head, I moved closer to her. I reminded myself that what I’d endured then had kept her safe, and it had brought us here—even if I didn’t understand how.

For Evie, I would face it all again.

“What did they do to you?”

I couldn’t let her see the demons that danced in my mind at her question. “Nothing that hasn’t been done before, or wouldn’t happen again if I go against the code.”

“They didn’t hurt you did they?” she asked. It sounded like she really cared what the answer might be.

My heart shattered at the pain that came with the knowledge that finally—finally—someone cared whether or not I’d suffered during that time. That I could have had someone who’d given a shit about me for the last two years if only I hadn’t walked away from her.

Yet, despite the fact that she cared, I wanted to shelter her from the agony and uncertainty I’d endured during retraining. “No, not physically. They just . . . tried to make me enthusiastic about the cause again. Reminding me of all the reasons we do this, that sort of thing. I made sure it looked like I was, and then for a while I started to believe in it again. I trained harder than I ever had, and I took every mission I was offered. But inside, it just felt different. I can’t see the objective as being so black and white any longer. I can’t stop myself from wondering if some of the other things we’d killed were just like you. As sweet, and loving, and caring as you.”

She offered me the sweetest smile in response, so damn perfect that it almost broke my heart.

“And that maybe . . . well, that they didn’t deserve to die.”

She pressed her forehead against my chest, and I naturally reached down to kiss the top of her head. I was worried that I was scaring her away—making her think that everything I did was wrong. I knew that it wasn’t. I’d saved lives as a result of my hunting.

Even being forced to kill the vamp in the treatment rooms at Hell had saved lives. I might not have agreed with everything they did, but the Rain were genuinely trying to make the world a better place. I had to make Evie understand that my family wasn’t bad, just slightly misguided.

“Don’t get me wrong, I still believe in the things I’ve had to do—there are some things out there that are pure evil. I just wonder whether the Rain has some stuff wrong too. You opened up my eyes, Evie,” I said. “And I won’t allow them to be closed again.”

She looked up at me with hope and bravery in her gaze, and I wanted nothing more than to wipe away the last dredges of pain and heartache that lingered there.

I knew only one way.

With my heart in my throat, I closed the final, tiny distance between us and claimed the prize I’d been denied for years by pressing my lips against hers. She responded instantly, parting her lips and allowing her tongue to slide forward. Unable to resist the siren call any longer, I gave in to everything, releasing the emotions I’d kept hidden for over two years in that perfect kiss.

Her hands traced my body in ways they never had before, exploring each of the muscles over my back and shoulders, and setting off a thousand tiny perfect tremors through my nerves. She was warm, hotter than any of the girls I’d tried to replace her with, but in a way that didn’t bite my skin and burn the way that fire did.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, in the world could ever compare to her touch.

I grabbed for her ass, pulling her closer to me and relishing the way she still fit perfectly against me. Her hands grabbed and groped, desperate for purchase as passion raced through us both. The spark I’d lit with the softest kiss raged into a blazing inferno.

Despite the intervening years and the unresolved issues between us, I was desperate for her. My cock rubbed almost painfully against the zipper of my jeans in its haste to escape. With the knowledge we’d have to move soon, I tried to slow down.

When pulled away, her hands fisted into my hair, and she yanked me back to her. I needed to taste every part of her again, and I trailed my mouth and my tongue along her slender neck and down toward the V-shaped opening on her shirt.

I needed to stop, but the sounds she was making were driving me crazy.

Fuck it! I reached for her thigh and forced her leg around my waist before moving us forward together until she was pinned against the hotel wall.

Her fingers twined into my hair and she pulled my lips from her skin, only to begin a blissful assault over my chin and jaw with her mouth. I cursed the amount of clothing between us as my mind provided crystal clear images of what it would be like to take her then and there against that wall.

She ran her arms around my neck and over my shoulders before pushing the leather jacket I was wearing off of my shoulders. That movement forced me to stop. Shedding that one item of clothing would lead to me ravishing her all night long, and I couldn’t do that yet. Not with the danger of my family lurking downstairs.

I closed my eyes and reminded myself of the promise of paradise waiting at the other side of the danger—the room at the Sheraton where we would be safe for a night, where we wouldn’t have to rush. Where we could make it special.

With a great deal of resistance and willpower, I drew away from her and showed her the items I’d bought to assist our escape. I couldn’t tell her exactly how much danger she was in; I couldn’t risk having the peaceful smile that graced her lips leave again so soon.

After convincing her to go get dressed, I quickly changed my jacket and then paced the room as I waited for her to return. If the dress didn’t fit, we’d be screwed. I didn’t have time to go out and get another one and with the type of attire the covens were apparently wearing, we’d stand out like sore thumbs trying to get through the crowd with her street wear.

I began to plan other routes, including assessing whether we’d be able to leap from the window. I smiled in awe when I saw Evie had almost the perfect room for a speedy escape, positioned over a second lower roof that overlooked a park. Unfortunately, that escape route was being monitored from the park across the road because of the events happening later that night.

When the door handle on the bathroom jangled to signal Evie’s return, I spun on the spot, anxious to see whether my plan was screwed before it had even begun.

What I saw was enough to leave me completely breathless.

The color of the dress, which had appeared almost the same shade as a ruby on the shelf in the store, had somehow morphed on her body to appear darker at the bottom, rising to an almost orange at the top where it met her hair. Maybe it was the material, but it seemed far more likely that it was her.

With her hair loose and flowing around her face, and the small smile on her lips, she looked powerful—unbeatable. It was as though she was flame embodied, glowing with light from the fire inside.

Briefly, I even wondered if her kind were worshipped in times long ago. I decided that if they weren’t, they should have been. I wanted to throw myself down on my knees in front of her and worship her all night long.

Instead, I settled for the best words I could find. “Wow, Evie, you look . . .”

She wrapped her arms around herself, and I realized my blatant gawping was making her uncomfortable. That tiny vulnerability was enough to break the hold she had over me, and I remembered all the reasons we needed to be moving.

I passed her the accessories the assistant at the store had insisted on and took the clothes she had been wearing from her before packing them into her bag along with my leather jacket.

A moment later, I took the escape route she’d undoubtedly planned, out the window and across to a little loading bay, and dropped her bag behind a bin. I took a second to glance into the park and then signaled to the scouts hiding in plain sight, indicating to them that I was starting the perimeter check. Technically it signaled the start of the mission, but that just meant the countdown was on to get Evie out.

When I came back in, Evie looked a little confused about my actions, and when I explained them, I saw the fire I’d been expecting from the first moment I saw her near the museum.

“I do know what I’m doing,” she snapped at me.

I moved to touch her again, resting my hand against her arm. “I know you do. I also know it’s harder for two people to pass through unseen. We need to blend, at least until we get the hell out of Dodge.”

“What do you mean?”

I sighed because there wasn’t going to be a way to avoid telling her the truth if I wanted her to trust me. “I didn’t want to scare you, but it’s extremely dangerous here at the moment. There are some wicked things going down. The convention is actually a rare meeting of three covens of witches. My father and some other members of the Rain are in town, amped up and ready to kill anyone appearing to be with them. That’s why I was at the museum—research.”

A visible shudder ran through her body, and I could see how terrified she was. I imagined again her race away from Eth and hated my brother for making her endure that fear.

I wrapped my body around hers, holding her back securely against my chest, and pressed my lips against the curve of her shoulder until her breathing returned to normal—or at least until it hitched in a way that had nothing to do with panic. “I won’t let anybody hurt you, Evie. And I’m not going anywhere without you. I walked away from you once. I don’t have the strength to do it again.”

She rested her head back against my shoulder, and I didn’t want to ever move. Except we had to.

“All right, what’s the plan?” she asked.

“The crowds are already starting to come in, that’ll give us some coverage. We’ll skirt through the lobby, around the edges of the party and slip out the front door. Then we’ll grab your bag and get out of here.”

“Wait,” she said, pulling out of my hold and leaving me feeling bereft and chilled. “The party is here? At this hotel?”

I thought I’d made it obvious, but maybe she hadn’t wanted to see it. “Why do you think I want to get you the hell away from this place?”

The change in her was instant, from fiery warrior to timid mouse. “Wouldn’t it be easier for us both to sneak out that window?”

Not wanting to sugarcoat it and let her do anything risky, I told her about the scouts keeping an eye on the hotel. She really had picked the worst place to hide out, but it was central and easily identifiable, so I could understand her choice.

“There’s no other way out of here, is there?”

I closed my eyes and frowned, wishing there was. “I can’t see one that won’t flag us as being out of place. We have to risk the lobby.”

Her body quaked in my hold and I wanted more than ever to have an easy out. Once more, I realized that everything about my life brought danger to hers.

“I’m sorry, Evie,” I murmured.

Her gaze lifted straight to mine, confusion swum in the depths of her eyes. “For what?”

“For being me. If I wasn’t who I am, we could have probably strolled out of here without earning a second glance. Even now, there are people downstairs who are probably wondering where I am. I won’t have too much longer before my absence will draw attention. And yet despite all of that, there’s no way I can let you walk out of here alone. What if someone realizes the truth and I’m not there to stop them? I can’t lose you again, not if there’s anything I can do to keep you safe.”

She tugged at her hair, pulling it away from her face and seemingly trying to hide it. I wanted to help her, so I showed her the wig I’d bought. She quickly pulled her hair back into a ponytail and pulled the wig on. I moved around her to make sure it was sitting properly and that her ponytail didn’t cause any obvious bulges. Then I stepped back and surveyed the results. After the vision I’d had earlier, I had to admit I was almost disappointed with the way she looked and admitted as much to her.

It would work though. If I could keep her away from close proximity to my family, it would keep her alive. And that was all that mattered.