Kiss Me Deadly

Chapter Twenty Seven

For the first time since arriving at the facility, I find myself on the other side of the interrogation table. My wrists are cuffed to the arms of the uncomfortably cold metal chair I sit in. My feet are bare and pale. My shoes had been taken from me when Dax had patted me down. He was gentle but thorough, not once looking at me. The shapeshifter seemed like he didn't know what to think of me yet, like he was waiting for me to prove myself one way or another. He'd left unsatisfied because I'd just sat in silence, staring blankly at the grey walls as the tears dried on my cheeks.

Still I sit, staring at the same cracked walls, waiting for someone to come in and tell me it was all a joke; waiting for Archer to walk in and tell me he still loves me. Could it have been only this morning that we'd finally kissed? It feels like a million years ago.

The tears have dried but the pain still remains. My heart is heavy, lethargic. It still beats, but it's almost unwilling to keep pumping blood through my veins.

I keep trying to feel anything other than this emptiness but I can't. Even anger fails me. I think of Ryder and what he's done and I want to be angry but I can't. It's like I keep clicking the lighter but it just won't ignite.

The sound of the door being unlocked has me looking up.

In step Dax and Archer. My heartbeat kicks up a notch. I try to meet his eyes, his name on my lips, but he's avoiding my gaze. I slump in my seat, hurt. Dax, on the other hand, stares at me with unabashed curiosity. Under those blue eyes, I want to scream. Frustration, apparently, has not evaded me.

Archer takes the seat opposite the table from me but Dax stands, taking on the role of bodyguard once again. The caution is unnecessary. I would never hurt either of them. Why can't they see that?

"Why did you come here?" Archer asks, avoiding saying my name like it's the plague. Still, he doesn't meet my eyes. Am I really that disgusting that he can't even look at me?

I sigh in frustration. "I already told you that. I came here to protect you. I overheard Octavian and my parents talking about how they wanted to use you as their weapon and I left right away." My voice drops to a whisper. "I know what it's like to be their weapon. I wouldn't wish it on anyone."

"How can I trust that what you're saying is true? If you really are the weapon of Fenrir and Katrina Steel, they would have taught you exactly how to deceive us and get under my skin. You've executed your whole plan perfectly. You faked innocent, misunderstood girl flawlessly, pretending to befriend Leilani and falling for me. There was just enough hesitance in the way you would pull away and say you couldn't kiss me so that I wouldn't be suspicious when you finally gave in." Archer pauses to shake his head, a bitter smile on his lips. "You did all of that just to gain my powers."

"No!" I protest, leaning forward in an attempt to see what's going on in those green eyes of his. Surely, he can't really be thinking these horrible things. He knows me better than that.

He accepted me after I killed those shapeshifters and when I attacked Alonna, why can't he do it now? Why does my name and my family change his opinion of me? Why is Viridian Steel so different from Viridian Greene?

I reach my hand out, imploring. "Why would I do any of those things?"

Finally, he looks at me, really looks at me, but not in the way I want him to. His green eyes are cold, hard. Though I search, I find no remnants of affection in his gaze. There is only anger and distrust.

"Because you're a monster."

He says the words softly, but there's no hiding the accusation behind them.

I sit back as if his words have shot me. My heart has been ripped open and it's bleeding, wounded by the one person I thought would never hurt me.

Tears mist my eyes and I wipe them away angrily. Tears aren't going to help me. Tears aren't going to bring Archer's love for me back.