Praetorian Rising, стр. 71

she had just dropped the towel to the floor. It took every fiber in his body not to turn around and ravage her, throw her on the bed and be damned with the two hours they had left within the compound. Through all their Praetorian duties, the restrictive laws, and the High King’s demands, they'd never made love. Praetorians had been given no say over their own bodies. Neither of them was pure, but, more than anything, he'd wanted to share that moment with her. He would die a happy and thoroughly satiated Praetorian if he could have her that close to him just one time. Maybe twice.

"Talk," she clipped, as he heard her pull up her pants and button them closed. He shook his head aggressively to keep the images running through his mind from taking over.

"I'm not sure where to start."

She moved again, slipping a shirt over her shoulders. Theo heard the rustle of fabric as it shifted over her hair and across her skin. Feeling a pang of ridiculous jealousy, he suddenly felt desperate to be that piece of linen. He wanted to touch her, to feel the heat of her skin beneath his hand.

"Tell me why I'm here for starters."

He snorted, "I don't have the answer to that. Vesyon picked you up from Sierra Village; I had nothing to do with it."

Footsteps moved across the worn wooden planks, a whisper of motion stopping just behind him. A gentle hand pressed against the middle of his back between the shoulder blades and he tensed, not wanting to reveal the tornado of emotion raging just beneath the surface of his skin. He felt warmth flood the soft tissues around his eyes as blood pumped thickly through the heat of his veins. Dear Ma'Nada, I will toss her on the bed and rip off all her damn clothes, he thought, gripping his good intentions with tight desperation and mentally shaking himself of the thought.

"I deserve to know what's going on," she said, her voice strong yet gentle as her hand slipped down his spine to rest on the lower curve of his back. Her touch was soft yet burned him to the core, sending his body into overdrive, and the emotion bubbled out of him in a fit of rage.

"It's not fair to push me like this, Cam! There are some things I just can't tell you!"

She did, of course, deserve to know. Theo wanted to tell her everything. Unfortunately, a web of lies surrounded her reasons for being at Romeo Village and Theo had no idea what he could say and what he shouldn't. Vesyon had warned him, she could break at any moment, just a single word could send her back into the manic craze of blood rage.

"You think it was fair to keep me in Sierra Village for a full year without knowing who I was? What I was? I was abandoned there after seven years of being a prisoner to the High King. Not just by Vesyon but also by you."

He whirled on her then, his frustration bursting past the limits of his restraints. The heat of black flooded his eyes and ran down the lengths of his cheeks. "I had no idea you were alive!"

She snorted in response, not acknowledging his Praetorian reaction. "I don't believe that for a second. Talk, or I walk out of here, and you can handle this traitor on your own."

Neeko hissed softly from the bed, his yellow gaze fixed on Camille's back. The sound caused both to jump, but not out of fear: it was as if Neeko were warning Theo to keep quiet. Theo didn't believe her, she wouldn't walk away from the compound and leave hundreds of Rogues and Asperians behind to suffer, nor would she allow Acher to run free of his traitorous actions. However, he wasn't so sure he knew her mindset now. It went without saying that she had surprised him with her efforts on more than one occasion.

Theo grasped the wayward hair fanning over his brow and yanked it out of his face with a bloodstained hand as he turned to face her, avoiding the cat's stare. "Obviously, you aren't the reason they're here," he responded.

"That's a start," she replied coolly, turning to pick up her discarded shoes from the corner of the room.

She glanced up at him as she righted her leather coat with a flattened expression he had never seen directed at him before. It was unnerving. She stared at him as though he weren't just a stranger, but a man who had betrayed her. It sent an unwelcome chill down his spine, pooling in the pit of his stomach like a bucket of ice.

Would Vesyon know if he told her everything he knew? Of course he would—Camille would be sure to make that fact known. Would he be able to live with himself if he kept the truth from her? That, he couldn't be confident of.

"Do you know what your amulet's for?" he finally blurted out as she was tightening the laces of her shoes. He became increasingly aware of the time they were wasting, his foot tapping out a cadence of impatience against the wood floor.

"What?" she said, standing to face him.

"Praetorians aren't natural, Cam. You understand that, right? We were created by LeMarc's physician."

She flinched at Theo's use of the High King's first name; he'd never said it so brazenly before in her presence. He silently wondered why it bothered her to hear it now.

"Praetorians are created with an injection of Ephidra Lily serum that's been bonded with the Praetorian virus. Ephidra Lily is a carrier of whatever it's been infused with—it contains the virus, and then deposits and controls it within our systems. Once we go through the change from Asperian to Praetorian, our bodies are transformed inside: we're stronger, faster, and able to withstand almost all destructive forces. We can run longer, see and hear on a level perhaps only dogs and cats can, and