Page 374 of Hunters and Prey

No. There was no telling the others the truth. Not even Helgi. “I won’t tell anyone. But you need to promise me something.”

His eyes narrowed. “What do you want?”

“I want out of here. Not just me, but all of us Skins. If the resistance plan goes awry, then you need to get us out using your enchantment mojo.”

He studied me contemplatively, his handsome face etched in shadow. “The Skins in the lab are a lost cause.”

He was right, even though it made me sick to admit it. “Agreed. But the ones here in the cells aren’t. You take us with you.”

He turned away, hands on hips. “The resistance will come through.”

“But if they don’t.”

“I can’t promise you anything. I can only carry one other person with this enchantment, and I came here for my brother. If I can’t get to him, then I have a duty to my people to get out of here alive.” He turned back to me, his eyes glinting dully in the gloom. “If I can’t take my brother, I can take you with me instead.”

Me? He’d take me? My pulse lurched and then I smacked it down. “I’m not going anywhere without the others.” I lifted my chin. “We may be a fucked-up, mutated bunch, but we stick together.”

He shook his head. “No. You’re not like them, Anya. There’s something different about you. You resisted my magic, and your scales are ...”

“What about my scales?”

He opened and closed his mouth as if reconsidering his words and then said, “They’re beautiful.”

Beautiful. Another alien word, but damned if it didn’t hit me straight in the solar plexus. This Dreki had moves, but I’d been around long enough to learn how to dodge the pretty words. “What the heck has that got to do with anything?”

He lowered his lids, breaking eye contact. “It doesn’t matter. I have two more days and one more night before I have to leave. I should leave now, but if I do, then the Bloods will be alerted and it might mess up the resistance’s plan. Besides, I can’t help but hope that some opportunity will present itself, and the resistance will find a way to free my brother too. But once my time has elapsed, I will be leaving, and if I can’t take my brother then you should come with me.”

“What about your collar? What if the guards activate it to stop you?”

He fingered the smooth metal clasped around his throat. “It has no effect on me,” he said. “It was designed to subdue a Skin. I am no Skin.”

He could be free at any time, could walk out of this cell at any moment. The idea of getting out of the complex and back to Dad was too tempting. A soft snort drew my attention to Helgi. Even if I could bring myself to leave the others, there was no way I was leaving my best friend.

“I can’t.”

Dante leaned in. His breath was warm and fragrant on my face. “Do you think I want to leave my brother here to rot? I came all this way to find him and bring him home, but I must face reality. I must accept that sometimes we must lose a battle to win the war.”

Who was he trying to convince? Me or himself.

“There is more at stake than you could ever know, and you’ll be of no use trapped here. If you stay here, they’ll do to you what they’re doing to the other Skins in that lab. Is that what you want?”

Why was he so insistent I come with him? “Why do you care what happens to me?”

An indefinable emotion flitted across his face, but he recovered himself, his expression smoothing out into something neutral. “Because you’re a formidable fighter and your knowledge of technology could be just what the Dreki need to finally turn the tide in our favor. Plus, I’m intrigued. You resisted my magic.” His lips curved in a half smile, bringing some warmth back to his eyes. “That has never happened before.”

He looked decidedly rakish in that moment, and my heart fluttered in a decidedly feminine way. Urgh. “I’d be flattered if I wasn’t so adept at reading between the lines. You want to use me.”

He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, abandoning the whole charm tactic. “If you had the opportunity to save hundreds, maybe thousands of lives, wouldn’t you?”

I blinked at him. “That’s a dumb question.”

“But I’m asking it anyway. You heard the commander in the lab. They plan to turn humans into fighting machines for their misguided cause.”

“Is it misguided?”

He made a soft sound of exasperation. “The resistance believes so, and they are Bloods. If that doesn’t convince you, then I’m not sure what will.”

“How about the truth? Enlighten me. Why did the Dreki come to our world? Why did you try and enslave humanity?”

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