Chapter Seven
Nero made his way toward his destination, the air chilling him. The ground crunched from the frost on the ground. He was glad the snow had mostly moved on, but the bite in the air was just as harsh this time of night. Spring hadn’t fully taken the baton from winter.
Animals rustled in the woods, likely frightened by his presence there after his absence for the past week, the return of a true predator. He’d come to know this part of the woods well as it had been his home the last few months prior to Remus taking him in. He’d not done much else other than watch Rem’s group, the unusual hybrids that the Horatius Group had put so much effort into keeping contained and controlled.
When he was still with the Group, he’d barely seen any of the blue-eyed hybrids. He had always known there were more, but prior to their escape, he’d only encountered Magnus and Nyx.
No one ever told him why the rest had been stashed away. He had always assumed they were dangerous. The question remained about what sort of threat they posed. They certainly weren’t as organized and well-trained as the Luna Lodge hybrids, and they lacked the brutality and strength of Glycons. The fact the Group might consider them dangerous made him think the blue-eyed hybrids had some hidden power to bring them all down. Although these hybrids were different, Nero saw nothing that indicated they had special powers.
He scoffed at the thought. His laugh cut through the quiet night.
These people weren’t some superior race. Despite what that crazy doctor had said, there was no way he believed they were being watched by the Atlantean Gods. It was ridiculous.
Everything he’d seen could be explained. It was just some science crap. At the end of the day, the Horatius Group was using scientists and doctors in their research, not priests and rituals. The very idea that he’d been changed and deemed worthy seemed about as likely as him actually being worthy. The gods hadn’t cured him with magic, the Horatius Group doctor had with an injection.
The shot may have granted him another chance but for how long? Living in the woods, hoping that the Group didn’t find them didn’t seem like much a life to him. And they now had the Azilians to worry about. These hybrids were kidding themselves if they thought it would end differently. The Horatius Group always seemed to find what they were looking for. They’d take back what was theirs.
He should leave. Nero knew this. Knew that staying near these other hybrids was likely going to end with him back in the clutches of the Group, his freedom gone.
Only one thing gave the thought pause.
Nyx.
A vision of her filled his head, her lips swollen from their kiss and her eyes clouded by surprise.
He wouldn’t dare deny his draw to her, the aching need that ate at him daily. Now she knew about it too.
Nyx was his siren.
He gave a little chuckle and wondered what she’d think about being called that. She’d no problem kissing him earlier, had even seemed to want to go further. Nero could still taste her warm mouth over his and ached for its return.
His cock stiffened, and he cursed. He’d spent the better part of two months rock hard for a woman repulsed by him most days.
Confusion pushed out the irritation. They had kissed, not just a small kiss but the all-consuming sort. The kiss stoked the flames of his desire, like some sort of drug. He groaned and hoped for relief in his destination, anything to help ease the torture that she caused him. A little dip in the hot spring should help.
Fortune had shined on him when it led him to this little piece of paradise. In truth, he had been looking for shelter from the freezing cold weather. The snow had fallen outside, and the bitter wind never seemed to let up. He had been a man without a home, left exposed to the elements.
When he was still more beast than man, he’d never really noticed the cold. Or maybe he just never cared. Anything that didn’t benefit the Horatius Group didn’t ever seem to matter much to him, but he hadn’t been given much a choice in that matter. What was the point of worrying about things he couldn’t change?
The night he found the spring, he’d only been hoping to get away from the cold for the night. When he spotted the cave entrance, he thought it was too good to be true, but the beckoning warmth from inside astounded him.
He had heard that there were volcanic caves in the area, but the fact that this one was filled with water warmed by the heat of the magma below made his safe-haven more an unexpected oasis.
The small entrance came into view through the darkness, and he sighed. Soon he’d be able to soak the troubles of the day away.
* * *
Nyx moved silently through the forest, making sure to keep her distance from the large hybrid. Normally, she didn’t think she’d have the opportunity to sneak up on him like this. Nero always seemed to sense and see everything around him, but this time she knew he was lost in thought, likely planning for whatever it was that he was up to. Treachery was very distracting apparently.
She stumbled slightly as she moved through the dense forest and cursed her dulled senses. If only she hadn’t taken those damn pills, she’d have a much easier time following him without risking getting caught.
At least the painkillers had minimized the pain. She could barely feel her injury despite her quick movements.
His scent lingered in the air, and she tried not to think about their kiss from earlier. Nero was trouble, and she was out to prove just that.
From her position up the hill from him, she could see his massive form dip low and wondered if he’d spotted her. She pulled her gun from her jacket and waited, hardly daring to breathe in case he had. If she needed to run she would, hurt side and all.
For all her confidence, she was recovering from an injury. Nero was not. She knew she couldn’t take him if he surprised her.
She waited. The minutes passed in agonizing tension. When he didn’t resurface, she could only assume she had discovered the entrance to some secret Horatius Group lair.
Nyx moved to the bottom of the hill. She’d just take a quick look and then report back to Rem. He’d have to listen to her after she came back with real proof. If Nero wasn’t a traitor, he had nothing to worry about. Then again, if he wasn’t a traitor, he wouldn’t be running off in the middle of the night to secret hidden bases.
She carefully crawled through the hole. She expected to find stairs or a hidden door, something that would solidify her thoughts on Nero. Instead a dark passage illuminated by some light at the end confronted her.
She frowned, not quite sure what to do next. If she came back to Rem with this, he’d likely laugh at her. This was not exactly rock-solid evidence of a Horatius Group plot.
Nyx shook her head. She was going to have to move further in, even if it was a risk.
She made her way slowly down the passage, gun still in hand. The air around her warmed with each step she took, and she wondered what sort of place could maintain this heat. The Group had certainly never cared for their comfort. Perhaps some sort of generators or production facility?
She arrived at the opening at the end and stepped through. A small lantern hung from a rock ledge near a large pool of water. Clothes hung next to the lantern, the very ones she had just seen on Nero.
“What the—”
Something moved out of the corner of her eye. She swung her gun around, but it was too late. He was on her, knocking the gun out of her hand and clasping her wrists in his massive hands. Too damned slow.
“Let me go,” she ground out.
Nero stilled.
“Nyx?”
She could hear the confusion in his voice and stopped struggling.
“Who the hell did you think it was?”
She stared at his shadowed face. Surprise clung to his face like a mask.
He stepped back and ran a hand through his dark hair. Her eyes widened as she watched his muscles ripple across his arms and chest.
“I didn’t really know,” he said. “I heard some noise and took position. The damned water must be messing with my smell.”
She watched in silence as he spoke, her mind a blank as he tried to explain what had happened. Only one thing filled her thoughts.
“You’re naked,” she said.
The words were out of her mouth before she could even stop them. It wasn’t that she planned on keeping it a secret but more that she wasn’t quite sure what to do. She’d briefly seen other men naked but never like this and never this close.
She’d been tested by the Group. Her chances of reproducing were deemed little to none. It might have been more a blow, but in the end it meant that she wouldn’t be a part of their dangerous mating experiments. That being the case, seeing a man naked just wasn’t something she was used to and damn well not something she’d expected when following Nero.
“Shit,” Nero whispered and turned away quickly.
Her eyes lingered on his back. The bright blue tattoo swirled over the contours of his perfectly chiseled form.
As she stared at him, her gaze landed on a deep groove on his side. The skin puckered into a scar. The more she looked, the more of them she found.
Nyx reached out and ran a finger over the deep scar on his side. Whatever left the scar had to have hurt like hell. The original wounds might have even gone to the bone.
“What happened?” she whispered.
Still facing forward, Nero took hold of her hand and pulled it away from the old wound.
“You need to go,” he growled, his voice low and warning.
“Or what?” she breathed and stepped a little close. She wasn’t sure what was going on, but it definitely had nothing to do with the Horatius Group.
His breathing picked up, followed by a rumbling growl.
She was surprised when he stepped forward.
“Just go, Nyx,” he said and sighed loudly. In one swift movement, he dived into the water. She watched as he swam through a hole in the stone wall and disappeared to the other side. The steam from the disturbed water plumed into the air.
Nyx waited for a moment, not quite sure what to do. He hadn’t been up to no good like she had suspected. Instead, she found him naked in more ways than one. The scars that covered his body meant something. It meant that despite his past, Nero had been a victim of the Group as much as any of them had. Maybe even more.
She had to know him. The true him. Was it just the pills talking? No. Maybe they helped bring her guard down, but it’d be a lie to deny half the reason she’d been so hard on him was because she wanted a reason to deny her attraction.
Placing the gun back inside her pocket, Nyx shook her head.
This was likely a colossal mistake, but the part of her drawn to him had to know. Had to offer some comfort.
She slid off her jacket and hung it on the rock next to his. She toed her shoes off and left them sitting on the ground. Her pale pick pajama pants and shirt came next.
In just her pale pink panties and bra, she dove into the water after him.