Page 75 of Consumed By Fire

“I want to finish saying my piece,” he insists, his golden eyes bright.

“I want nothing more than to hear your feelings for me. I would love it. I want to say a couple of things right back, believe you me, but I can’t. You can’t. We can’t!” I cup his face. “I wish it were different.”

“It’s stupid, Trinity.” His arms tighten around me. “We can’t be together because you have red markings, and I don’t have them. It’s so fucking stupid. Genetically, we’re the same. You need a safe place to have this baby. It isn’t here.”

“Draig is not that place either. I agree, it’s stupid, but it doesn’t change things. It doesn’t mean that years of hate will go away just because a Red and a Draiger met one day. The hate is there, the prejudice, too, and on both sides. If you stay, you will be put to death. If I am found on Draig, it will be me who dies. It will never end well for us. It is how it is.”

“I don’t want to leave without you,” Octane says in a soft voice.

I sigh. “It’s how it has to be.”

Octane looks at me for a long while before nodding. “I could get red markings. I could become a Red. I could stay.”

I shake my head. “You’re sweet, but I won’t let you do it. You are a proud Draiger. You shouldn’t have to hide that. I wouldn’t let you do it. Besides, it would mean staying on this island. You could never go home. I would never expect that of you. It would be wrong of me. You would never be able to see your family or your friends again. What about your brother, Jed?”

His eyes cloud. I know I’m right.

“You couldn’t ever be truly you, and that would be a shame,” I tell him.

His shoulders slump a little, and his eyes turn hazy. “You’re right. I wish I could think of a way where this would work.”

“Me, too.” I thread my fingers through his hair. It’s caked with fresh blood. His face is smeared with it. The shirt he is wearing is half-ripped and bloody, too. I smile.

“What?” He frowns.

“You’re covered in blood.”

“I can see you tried to wash, but you’re pretty covered, too.” He smiles, but it’s also sad.

“We need to get cleaned up. Then I’ll pack, and we’ll head for the tunnel. You need to leave as a matter of urgency. If anything happened to you…” My voice hitches, and my lip wobbles, so I chew down on it.

“Nothing will happen to me. I will be fine. What will you do? Where will you go? I don’t like leaving you, Trinity. Not like this.” He looks down at my belly for a moment.

I swallow, licking my lips. “I’ll be fine. I’ll move in with a girlfriend. I’ll be able to work for another month or two. I’ll make a plan. You don’t have to worry about me. I’m not your problem. Not anymore.” I shake my head. “I’m no longer your prisoner. You are not responsible for me. I’m an adult. I can take care of myself.” I’m shocked at how stern I sound. How confident when I’m anything but. It’s true, though. I mean it. I will get by. I always do.

“You’re strong and resourceful, but I do worry. I can’t help it,” he says in a soft voice, shrugging.

“I’ll be fine. Especially now that Igor and Titan are gone.”

Octane looks at the bed; his eyes narrow and his brow furrows. “Did he hurt you?” His voice is deep. “Did he—?” It’s turned into a low growl.

“No.” I shake my head. “I didn’t give him the chance.”

Octane goes to touch my mouth but stops just short because his hand is smeared with blood.

“I’m fine. This is nothing.” I brush my swollen lip. “He didn’t get to do anything to me. I’m fine.” My lip wobbles, and a tear runs down my cheek. I wipe it away, squaring my shoulders.

Octane pulls me into a hard hug. “Thank god! Let’s get showered and out of here before more of their friends arrive.”

“It’s quite possible,” I tell him. “There are twenty or thirty guys who come and go. They don’t all stay here, but this is where they meet.”

“Okay, then. Let’s move.”

Fifteen minutes later, I’m dressed in a pair of tights and a baggy shirt. I have a pair of sneakers on my feet. The tights are the only things that fit anymore in the pants department. I’m bigger than I was when I left a week ago.

I pack my meager belongings into a bag and am just zipping it closed when Octane calls me from the next room.

“You have to see this,” he adds.