~*~
Nine and a half minutes later, Danyael stepped out of his bedroom. Miriya, slouched against the opposite wall, looked up, studying him. Their eyes met across the breadth of the corridor. His shoulders slumped with exhaustion, but he seemed steady on his feet. His expression, however, was guarded, and his body language screamed, “Hands off.”
Fortunately, she was not easily deterred. She grinned at him. “You okay?”
“I’ll be all right.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Yeah, well, it’s good to know you’ll be all right some time in the indefinite future, but how about right now?”
The soft sound of his laughter caught her off guard. Compelling and infectious, it warmed her and drew a matching chuckle from her. The muddy swirl of stress and tension gnawing at her eased. Who knew that making an empath laugh could have such positive aftereffects?
“You sure you don’t need any help?” Miriya asked.
“I’m fine.”
“Have it your way.” Her gaze flicked to a closed bedroom door on the other side of the hallway. In spite of her best efforts, she twitched.
Danyael glanced at her and raised his eyebrows.
“Zara and Galahad,” she said.
“Ah.” Danyael nodded. He and Miriya walked down the corridor toward the curved staircase. “Good for them. They’re perfect for each other.”
Danyael’s emotions flickered. Despite her intimate psychic connection with him, Miriya could not put a name to that feeling—a startling burst of color and light that made her senses reel before fading into the depths of his flawless equilibrium. She paused for a moment before responding. “I can’t believe you managed to say that without irony or malice. Zara’s a man-eater—”
“She respects strength. She needs a partner who isn’t intimidated by who and what she is. Galahad’s the perfect human being—no one could be more suited to her.”
His voice was steady, his tone even, but the soft exhalation of his breath almost sounded like a sigh. Miriya stopped walking and tilted her head to look at Danyael. “You’re not intimidated by her either.”
“No, but she hates me.”
“You’re an alpha empath. You can change her feelings, can’t you?”
“Yes, but what’s the point? I can’t change the reasons her feelings exist. She’ll come to her senses once logic catches up with her emotions, and she’ll hate me again.”
“And you’re okay with that?”
Danyael shrugged. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Because it’s hard to live with hate.”
“She’s the one living with hate, not me.”
Miriya’s mouth dropped open. She had thought that she was well adjusted. Now she knew she had nothing on Danyael.
He continued walking as if he had not noticed her reaction. “Besides, to change her feelings, I’d have to absorb them.” He shook his head. “It’s too hard to distinguish between someone else’s hate and self-hatred once it’s in me. I spent years digging myself out of that pit; I’d rather not go back.”
“So you’re not—”
“Masochistic and suicidal? No, I’m not. I do what needs to be done, but as an empath—”
“There’s a real physical and emotional cost to what you do.”
Danyael nodded.
Miriya stared at him. He seemed relaxed, no trace of tension in his expression or his stance. His thoughts were equally at peace.
“So why did you try to save Carlos when you knew you had nothing left to give?” she asked.
He drew in a deep breath. “Because he meant something to Zara.”
His dark eyes gave nothing away, but his emotions flickered again—that same dazzling burst of light and color.
Miriya gaped at him. The explosion of a world coming to life in the dark void of space—was that what love looked like to an alpha empath?
Danyael could not possibly be falling in love with Zara, could he?
Miriya searched his mind, her psychic touch passing through his memories like the fleeting breath of butterfly wings.
His first encounter with Zara hours earlier had left him breathless, shaken. He had expected a muddy swirl of gray smeared across the morally questionable aura of an assassin. Instead, Zara’s emotions shimmered with the vivid color and brilliance of precious stones set against a background that blended darkness with light without conceding to shadows.
In his eyes, the eyes of an alpha empath, Zara wasn’t just beautiful. She was a masterpiece, and she dazzled him, compelled him.
Oh, damn. That relationship had disaster written all over it. She had to talk Danyael out of it, but if she broached the topic, he would realize that his deepest emotions were transparent to her, and she wasn’t ready for that confrontation. She had to bide her time. “So, what are we going to do about Galahad? Zara and Lucien don’t seem inclined to turn him in.”
“There’s nothing for him to go back to even if Pioneer Labs didn’t burn to the ground. Life as an experimental test subject isn’t worth living.”
“But do you really think there’s a place for him out here in the world?”
A muscle twitched in Danyael’s cheek. “Perfection is tied to purpose. What was he created to do?”
Lines furrowed Miriya’s brow. “You believe he’s dangerous.”
“We’re all dangerous. The only difference is that we’re known quantities. No one knows how dangerous Galahad has the potential to be. With his optimized genes and his miserable life experiences so far, he could just as easily save the world or crush it.”
“We’ll have to make sure it’s the former and not the latter. Do you have a plan?”
Danyael shook his head. “Not really. We’ll make it up as we go and trust that, together, we’ll be strong enough to deal with whatever comes our way.”
He paused at the top of the stairs, and so did Miriya. She looked down at the hand he extended to her, and then up at his face. His smile was faint, but the warmth in it matched his eyes. He had made the first move toward closing the distance between them. She grinned and met him halfway.
The casual clasping of hands sealed their friendship and her fate.
~*~
Across town, in the comfort of her Georgetown penthouse, Erin Bryne’s eyes flashed open. A smile inched across her face. Her vision of the much-anticipated battle edged from a guarantee of defeat to a promise of victory. “Not for a few years yet, Miriya,” she murmured. “You have time yet to enjoy Danyael’s friendship. Be kind to him and win his trust. He will need you before the end.”
CONTINUE YOUR ADVENTURE IN THE WORLD OF THE DOUBLE HELIX WITH A FREE COPY OF PERFECTION UNLEASHED
https://www.doublehelixbooks.com