“And you.” The words were venom.
“With anyone who completes you.”
“Nox does that.”
“I wish that were true.” Isaiah did. He wished Luca could love Nash without the consequence of death.
“More than a dozen betas were with my brother, and none of them harmed him.”
“Your brother was already dead. There was no life for the Anubis to take. Injecting him with the ichor and separating it from itself among multiple corpses made it weaker. Sending those men out in the field to kill people was enough to feed it.”
“My brother wouldn’t have sent Nox to me if he was a threat. He gave Nox the ichor. He killed all those betas who loved him, and he—” Luca’s voice cracked, and tears rolled down his cheeks. “He sacrificed himself because—” A sob broke from Luca’s chest.
Isaiah went to him, stopping a foot away. Close enough to cup Luca’s face, far enough to keep from trapping him despite the urge to cradle him in his arms and let his tears soak his chest. To hold, comfort, and protect him. “Your brother didn’t send Nash. The ichor did. It left your brother because it was fading. It needed a source of life that was endless enough to keep it here until it could find another. That’s what it will do. No matter how much you love Nash or he loves you, it will destroy you. Then it will find another Cana, and another, and another.”
Luca shook his head. “No.”
“It will. And with every dead Cana, it will get stronger. It will build its army of Sarvari, and we won’t be able to stop it because we don’t have our wolves.” Isaiah made Luca look at him. “Please, come back with me. We can protect you until you bring back our wolves, then we can end this while the Anubis is weak enough to be destroyed.”
Luca’s expression crumbled, and Isaiah was sure he’d convinced Luca until the burning rage spiraled from him with enough power to twist Isaiah’s insides and crush the air from his lungs.
Luca jerked away. “Get out.”
“Luca…”
He went to the table and shoveled the containers of food Isaiah had brought back into the bag. “Get out.” When he finished, he threw the bag into Isaiah’s chest.
He grabbed it to keep it from falling. “I’m not here to—”
“I said get the fuck out, now.”
Isaiah inched toward the door.
Luca pushed him faster.
“Can I at least give you my cell phone number so you can call me if you need anything, anything at all? Anything you want, Luca, and I will give it to you.”
“The only thing I want from you is to get out and never come back.”
Glass and stone condensed in Isaiah’s stomach. A warning not to do as Luca said. Because if he did, Luca would die.
But just like before, when Jia told Isaiah to say nothing about the Black Wolf, he was powerless to disobey.
“As you wish, Cana.” Isaiah opened the door and left.
* * *
“Dr. Dante, my name is Dr. Adaline Stacy.” She was tall, dark-skinned, with the most beautiful eyes Reese had ever seen.
He scrambled off the cot he’d sat on for the last five hours, huddled under the quilt, trying to get some sleep.
Dr. Stacy held out her hand.
Reese took it. “I think this is unnecessary.”
She set her bag on the table next to him. “Rolling your car isn’t exactly a scraped knee.”
“Rolling my—” What the hell had Harrington told this woman?