Page 49 of Beyond Reason

It didn’t matter, because this wasn’t the right one. This wasn’t Xavier, and I—

His body jerked again, and I recognized the second his heartbeat accelerated. I knew the sound, but I was almost too afraid to raise my head, too afraid to look.

“Hey, Sunshine? You’re getting me all wet.” He sounded groggy and half out of it, but the name made my grip on him tighten, made the soft sob that I’d been trying to keep under control nearly choke me. I forced myself to raise up and look at him, and the expression on his face nearly made me break again.

He looked exhausted, pale… but he looked like himself.

“Are you okay?”

“No,” he answered without hesitation. “My head is fucking killing me. What happened?”

Some part of me wanted to lie—I didn’t know how he’d take the knowledge that the person whose body he’d taken had come back to the forefront.

“You passed out.”

“I…” Xavier frowned. “I was dreaming, but it wasn’t me. Marshall took the flash drive because of that kid from the files. Seth.” He wrinkled his nose. “He felt bad for him, and he wanted to make things right.”

A dream.

Had it just been a dream? Sleep talking? It would make sense that he would be able to access locked away memories while he was unconscious. He’d never talked in his sleep before, but he’d also never been in a body that didn’t belong to him.

It was a better thought than worrying about Marshall coming back.

Maybe he wasn’t sure if he wanted to, but I was more determined than ever to find the company that was hunting him down and take them apart, even if it was only to make sure that I found a way to keep him here, to keep him safe.

To keep him… him.

“Let’s get home, alright? You look like you need to rest.”

It spoke volumes when he simply nodded and let me pull him to his feet without argument.

Chapter 15

Xavier

I’d thought passing out and dreaming about Marshall was shitty. Waking up to a tall, slender woman pressing her filthy red mouth to Axel’s was its own kind of personal Hell. I went through an entire spectrum of emotions.

Rage—it wasn’t hot, though. It was a shard of ice that struck somewhere in the center of my chest and threatened to freeze me from the inside out. It was so vicious and sudden that it stole my breath away and nearly made me collapse back against the bed where I was lying.

Chasing behind that was something ugly, something darker. It was the feeling that made it easy for me to kill, the violence that spoke to the exact reason I’d enjoyed my job so much when I’d been alive before.

And maybe I hadn’t been in a situation where that particular memory had come to the surface, but seeing the way her arms shot up and her nails tangled into his hair when he tried to push her away, I was feeling it now.

It was a good thing I was an equal opportunist killer, because I had no qualms getting up and grabbing the knife Axel kept stashed in his bedside stand from its hiding place.

It was even easier for me because I recognized her.

She was older, obviously, and her hair was a shade faker than the color I remembered. But it was still long waves of chestnut brown.

Alieen.

Fucking Alieen, who wasn’t even half as good a killer as I was. She only knew Axel because he had to clean her scenes so frequently. She was a sloppy fucking mess. And… she was kissing him like she had every right in the world to his lips.

She was kissing him like she’d done it before, like she’d done it recently.

Oh, fuck that.

I didn’t think twice before putting the knife against her throat. My lips pressed to her ear, but my eyes were focused on Axel’s face. His expression was an odd mixture of frustration and relief, and I glared at him over her shoulder.

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