His skin broke out into a cold sweat, and he inhaled deeply, trying to calm the frazzled nerves that hummed along his entire body.
“Why are you doing this to yourself?”
Jaxon hissed from between his teeth as he opened his eyes to gaze into ones as conflicted as his. Concern and irritation were evident in Ana’s delicate features. She looked tired, which was strange, since she was a vampire, but then again, the whole situation was fucked.
It must be damn hard for her to stand by and not take out the woman who’d signed Diego’s death warrant, he thought. It should have been hard for him too, but it wasn’t.
“She’s showering. I told her you would perform a routine examination.”
Ana studied him, her eyes narrowed to half slits, and Jaxon felt his emotions continue to swirl into a large ball of mixed soup.
He looked away from her, resenting the fact that she knew him so well. Knew how hard all of this was.
He was a Castille, for Christ sakes. He wasn’t supposed to have any weaknesses. And he hadn’t, until a slip of blond ass walked into his life over five years ago. Nothing had ever been the same since.
“Well, I’m here now,” Ana said. “You don’t need to guard her door. I think it’s safe to say Declan has no designs on your woman.”
Jaxon sprang forward and the vampire stepped back quickly. “Watch where you tread, Ana.” Something in his eyes became feral and his voice was low as he continued, “I need to run. I’ll be in the jungle room if you want me.”
He moved away from her, heading down the hall, his heart beating a staccato rhythm that was painfully loud.
“Do not harm her, or you’ll have me to deal with.”
Ana watched him leave and tried to push away the sadness that pressed into her. Jaxon Castille had always been a bad ass, a man apart from the rest of them. He had never needed anybody in his life, only the companionship of the people in his unit.
She shook her head in agitation. That had all changed the day Libby Jamieson was transferred to their unit at PATU.
The moment she’d first laid eyes on Libby, Ana knew she would be trouble.
It was in the way she walked. In the way her long blond hair hung down her back, just so. It was in the way Jaxon immediately focused on her with an intensity that signaled the beginning of the end for the both of them. She had known nothing but heartache could come from their joining.
Jaxon wasn’t ready to take a mate, and considering the shitty relationship his parents had endured, she wasn’t sure he would ever be willing to give it all up for one woman. And if he did, there was no way he’d let Libby live the life that she thrived on. The danger alone would have been enough to put a serious dent in their relationship.
When a jaguar mated, it was for life, and even though Jaxon would have liked to believe he could escape that genetic trait, it seemed that Libby was the one female who posed a serious threat to his singular status.
Ana sighed. Too bad he hadn’t listened to her and had Libby transferred immediately from their unit. It wasn’t like she’d ever truly belonged. She was a fucking human, for Christ sakes!
Her eyes darkened and her hands clenched into small tight balls. Libby Jamieson was the human solely responsible for the death of her lover. Memories of Diego washed through her, and she felt her body soften as the weight of them cracked her heart.
Ana pushed herself forward angrily.
Enough with the memories.
She yanked the door open, smiling at the shriek that flew from deep inside the steamy room. She wouldn’t harm Libby, but no one said she couldn’t have a little fun with the bitch.
“Time for your physical.”
Ana grabbed a large towel and stepped closer to the shower, her eyes smiling in malicious enjoyment as she yanked the curtain back.
The smile soon fell from her face as the towel slipped from her suddenly weak fingers. Her mind was having a hard time comprehending what she saw.
Libby had turned toward the wall in an attempt to hide, but in the process had exposed the flesh that covered her back, buttocks, and legs. She was painfully thin, compared to the healthy workout nut she’d been back in the day.
But it wasn’t her thinness that was so shocking.
Her back was full of scars that started just below her shoulders and raised ridges that ran down along her rib cage. Deep grooves had been carved into her flesh, and some were burns. Angry red marks that shouted torture and abuse. Ana walked into the shower without thinking; her fingers, reaching forward on their own, gently touched the marred flesh.
Libby was trembling uncontrollably, and she flinched as contact was made.