Eternity Embraced Read Online Free PDF Page B

Kaden, but she clung to his hand desperately, even when he tried to extricate himself from her death grip.
    "I can't lose you," she said.  Pleaded, really.
    The resolve in his steel-cut eyes sliced through her like a razor blade.  "We can't be together."
    "I don't care what you are.  I'm tired of losing people I love.  I can't do it again."
    He laughed bitterly.  "Really, Andrea?  You don't care what I am?  How can you ever trust me?  How can you think I won't turn into a ravenous beast and kill you?"
    "Because you aren't Gabrielle."  The words made his head snap back as if she'd slapped him, but she pressed the advantage, going right for his jugular, because they didn't have time for a leisurely chat.  She had to get through to him now .  "Gabrielle became a creature that couldn't recognize the person she loved, and she couldn't control her nature.  But you can control yourself, Kaden.  You were starving in that cell, and you could have killed me.  You didn't.  If anything, you wanted me.  You've been turned, but you aren't evil.  I don't care what The Aegis says.  They aren't always right."
    Strain put lines at the corners of his made-to-please mouth.  "Even if what I've become isn't an issue for us, it'll be a damned big issue for The Aegis.  They aren't going to welcome me with open arms."
    "There has to be a way."
    Her mind worked furiously, searching the darkest, dustiest corners of her brain for anything useful. She could leave The Aegis, but that would be a last resort.  Hunting demons was the one thing she was good at, and after an entire life spent quitting jobs, clubs, and college, she didn't want to abandon this, either.  Maybe she could transfer again.  Someplace where having a vampire boyfriend wouldn't be a big deal.  She almost laughed at that, because...wait...she sucked in a harsh breath at her sudden idea.
    "I got it."  Andrea bounced on her toes, excited for the first time since all of this began.  "We can move to New York.  One of the cells there is rumored to have a half-demon Regent.  And remember how we heard that one of the Elders is married to a demon?"
    Surely one of the twelve supreme Aegis leaders wasn't involved with a demon in any way, but the story had spread like wildfire.
    "Those are just rumors."  Kaden's voice was tired, resigned.  Andrea's hope that they still had a shot at something began to wither.
    "I know, but--"
    "Even if those things are true, life in The Aegis can't be easy for them.  I won't subject you to that."
    "I can handle it."
    "I know you can," he rasped.  "But I can't.  I can't stand by and watch you be scorned."
    "Then what are our options?  Stay here and let yourself be killed?  I don't freaking think so."  She got right up in his face and poked him in the chest.  "I've given up on everything in my life at some point.  And I mean everything.  If I attempt something new and I suck at it, I won't do it again.  If I fail at something, I quit.  The Aegis and you are the only things I've ever stuck with, and I will not go back to being a quitter.  We will work this out."
    Kaden stepped back, and the hardest thing she'd ever done was give him that foot of space.  "And what am I supposed to do while you're out doing your job?  Sit home and watch soap operas?"
    He had a point.  Here she was thinking of her job, when he'd just lost his.  He'd just lost everything, actually.  "Okay...what if you could work for The Aegis?  I mean, your diet has changed, but you haven't."
    "Oh, I have," he growled, flashing fangs that made very clear just how much he'd changed.  Shaking his head, he looked up at the ceiling.  "There's no way they'll even let me live.  Unless..."
    Her breath hitched, just a tiny catch of hope re-awakening.  "Unless what?"
    One of the guys just outside the chamber whispered for them to hurry up, but Kaden ignored him and scrubbed one hand over his face.  "Remember how Tony brought up that radical idea once?  When he