Page 46 of High Noon

“The vamp told us that Enoch was sending an army,” Maru offered quietly. “He would have to make one strong enough to face the full force of Victor’s military – not that it wasn’t already dwindling. But Victor’s not known for playing fair. He plays dirty. And up until you left, he’d been winning, for the most part.”

Titus cursed. “Eve, that means… corralling the humans in the Haven would give Enoch the fresh sires he needs – sires who can fight in the sunlight in order to be a match for Victor’s army. That way, they wouldn’t have the same weaknesses the vamps we knew from our time had. You know how strong the direct sires are. Look at Abram.”

Abram. He said he was strong, but even as a vampire Asset, he still wasn’t strong enough to end one of the Nephilim. Nothing they sired would ever be.

I shook my head. “He wouldn’t hurt the humans in the Haven. Not after giving them his word to keep them safe.” He’d lost people he loved and protected twice. The Enoch I knew wouldn’t hurt an entire population of people, and he wouldn’t lie to them or lead them into a trap just to turn them into soldiers he could manipulate.

“How do you know?” Titus asked. “The guy’s obsessed with you. How do you know he wouldn’t turn every last one of them to make an army strong enough to free you?”

Maru’s teeth grinded together. “Yarrow is there. It’s full of children. Families.”

I stood up, indignant. “He wouldn’t hurt anyone, even for me.”

“I disagree,” Titus argued, standing to match my defiant pose, crossing his arms over his barrel chest. “I think he’d do that and a lot more if it meant he could have you.”

“I’m not a thing to be had, Titus,” I seethed.

“No, you aren’t,” he said emphatically, stabbing his finger back toward Falling Branch, “but does he know that? Because I’m not so sure he does.”

Maru placed himself between us, but Titus’s frustration poured out. “He’s crazy about you,” he whispered. “And I emphasize the word crazy. I just want you to think this through. He barely knows you, Eve, and you barely know him. Could Kael somehow be orchestrating this attraction?”

I’d wondered the same thing so many times I couldn’t count them. “How would that be possible?”

“Who knows?” Titus shouted, pulling at his hair. “Pheromones or something. Maybe he engineered you to be exactly what he wants for a reason, Eve.”

“I don’t know what to do,” I growled. “I can’t stop feeling the way I feel, and I can’t stop loving him.”

“Your love for him is going to get you killed,” Titus suggested, eyebrows raised. “Do you realize that? I can already see it happening, and no matter what I do, I can’t find any way to stop it or make you see reason.” He waved to Maru. “Don’t you see it?”

Maru swallowed. “I do.”

I threw my hands up. This is ridiculous!

“Eve, listen to me. Have I ever lied to you?” my trainer asked.

“No.”

“Have I ever put you in harm’s way?”

“No.”

Maru maintained eye contact, pouring his strength and concern into his gaze. “He’s intense in a way I don’t understand. I haven’t been here, or even around him in this time for very long, but I see a ferocity in him when it comes to you. In our time, it’s more pronounced. I’m not saying this to upset you or ask you to leave this time and Enoch behind right this second, but I want you to be aware of what others see. Sometimes the strong emotional feeling of love paints things in a warm, inviting shade for you, while others see only darkness.”

“What about Victor and Kael? What will they do when we land?”

Maru swallowed. “I don’t want to find out.”

Titus let out a curse.

Maru continued, “However, I do know Kael is responsible for almost every design of these missions, and Victor wasn’t aware of what Kael was orchestrating behind his back; though he’s aware now, and I’m sure he’s plotting a way to end Kael Frost.”

Titus whistled. “Didn’t think Kael had it in him.”

“I did.” The two men’s heads swiveled to me. “I remember telling him so one day after an upgrade. I told him that he didn’t know how much power he could have if he stopped following orders.”

“Very true,” Titus said.

“In theory, we have a few days, at most, left here,” Maru began. “We need to decide, as a team, what our next move is. Do we just sit tight and let Kael pull us back, or do we try to link again and let Yarrow extract us? Will she be able to do it, or will our jump just land us in the Compound’s yard like Eve’s clones?”

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