Angel/Hiss (Bayou Heat Box Set Book 7) Read Online Free PDF Page A

Caleb. We’re still searching for the older ones.”
    He took a step forward, fascinated by her obvious frustration. This was a female who not only cared about others, but took an active role as a protector.
    “Were you a brood mare?”
    “No.” She gave a sharp shake of her head, the silky ebony strands falling across her forehead. “I was a cavy.”
    A nasty sense of dread clenched his stomach. He was a doctor. He knew exactly what a ‘cavy’ meant.
    “A test subject,” he said in flat tones.
    She wrapped her arms around her slender waist, her cocky bravado missing as she visibly struggled with the demons from her past.
    “Exactly,” she rasped.
    Angel could sense the truth of her words. Her pain was too raw, too soul-deep to be faked. Not that he trusted her. There wasn’t a chance in hell he was letting down his guard until he had the female locked in his home in the Wildlands. But he was beginning to accept that she truly had been tortured by Locke.
    “What did they do to you?”
    “I’m not entirely sure.” She grimaced. “Layton was given blood transfusions with Pantera blood—”
    “Layton?” he sharply interrupted. The male had better hope he didn’t have a claim on this female.
    “One of the young men I rescued from the New York lab,” she explained, her tone one of an older sister instead of a lover. “Along with Nadia, who was given a bone marrow transplant.”
    Angel sucked in a harsh breath. “Christ.”
    She hunched a shoulder, her expression defensive as if uncomfortable at the thought he might feel sorry for her. Something dangerous tightened his chest. Not just his cat that was raging with the need to punish anyone stupid enough to hurt this female, but a strange sensation that was all human and all male.
    “I was always unconscious when they took me from my cage into the lab, but I suspect they somehow screwed with my DNA,” she admitted in harsh tones.
    Angel grimly leashed his perilously intense reaction to this female and instead forced himself to concentrate on her confession.
    “Why do you think they did something to your DNA?”
    She shivered, no doubt reacting to his barely contained fury.
    “I’m stronger than most women and faster. I can also see in the dark.”
    Angel narrowed his gaze. “And you can sense Pantera?” he pressed.
    “How did…” Her startled words broke off as she grimaced, realizing she’d given herself away. “Yes.”
    “What else?”
    “I can also sense cavies.”
    He frowned. If she could sense the lab rats then she had to have even more Pantera blood than he’d first suspected.
    Damn.
    “Any other gifts?”
    Her lips twisted with a bitterness she made no effort to hide. “Gifts? Is that a joke?” she snapped. “I’ve been cursed, Dr. Savary.”
    He stepped forward, halting just inches from the bars that were laced with malachite.
    “Angel,” he corrected with a soft growl.
    She frowned. “What?”
    “My name is Angel.”
    Her gaze swept over his face, a faint blush of arousal touching her cheeks even as she sent him a taunting smile.
    “Did you give yourself that nickname?” she demanded.
    “No.” He hid his amusement at her ridiculous attempt to pretend indifference. Who did she think she was fooling? The air sizzled between them. Heat. Desire. Hunger. She was being consumed by the merciless awareness that burned between them. “The day I was born my mother took one look at me and announced I was as beautiful as an Angel.”
    She wrinkled her nose. “Yeesh.”
    He shrugged. “You asked.”
    “I thought it was ridiculous my mother named me Tuesday because that’s the day she had me.”
    He stilled, suspicion making his hands clench. “I thought you said your name was Indy?”
    “My mother called me Tuesday. After she sold me, I was taken to the clinic and my captors called me Patient F.” She gave a defiant toss of her head, the courage it’d taken to survive her harsh life etched on her face. “When I finally