Primal Heat 05 - Darkness Reborn

small moan. He instinctively reached for her, but she tried to scoot away from him.
    "I'm here to help you." Refusing to allow her to reject his aid, he gently grasped her shoulders. What was she seeing when she looked at him? He was a damned hero to most people. The only ones who looked at him in terror, like this woman was doing, were the rogue Calydons when they realized Kane was going to cut them down. But he wasn't going to hurt her. There was simply no chance, no matter who she was. The urge to keep her safe was more powerful than anything he'd ever felt. It reverberated all the way to his soul, his need to protect her. She was safe with him, and he knew it, but she was still looking at him as if he were there for the sole purpose of killing her. "Why are you fighting me?"
    She closed her eyes, and he felt the pulse in her energy as she fought for her life. "Because you'll have to kill me if you stay."
    "Fuck that. I don't kill women." But the moment he said that, he knew it was a lie. He'd killed women before. Not many. Not with pleasure. But because the mission that drove him was bigger than the life of a single innocent, and as an Order member, he'd made an oath to protect humanity at any cost. But he wouldn't hurt her. Never her. Never this woman in his arms, whose blue eyes looked at him as if she saw to the very depths of who he was, in a way that no one else ever had.
    "I'm different. You won't be able to stop yourself." Then another tremor shook her, and she gritted her teeth against the pain.
    "Son of a bitch." Fuck her resistance to him. There was no way he could leave her like this. He could help her. He knew he could. He felt it in the very fiber of his being. He had a connection to her, one that went past his scars to the part of him that held his secrets. Something in the depths of his soul recognized her, but he didn't know what or why or how. All he knew was that he would lay down his damned life to protect her. The need to keep her safe was beyond anything he'd ever felt in his life.
    Carefully, so gently, trying not to scare her, trying to make her understand he was there to help, he lifted her onto his lap, supporting her against his chest. "Tell me what to do," he demanded. "Tell me how to help you."
    She shook her head, her eyes beginning to glaze. Desperation filled him, a sense of gaping loss consuming him. He was losing her. He knew he was. Because she wouldn't trust him to help her. "I'm not a damned murderer," he said. "Tell me what to do!" He couldn't keep the fierceness out of his voice, couldn't suppress his frustration with his inability to help her.
    She closed her eyes, and said nothing. She was shutting him out. Seriously? She was going to risk death instead of accepting his help? What the hell? "What's your name?" he said urgently, trying to connect with her, to get her to trust him in time.
    Sarah Burns.
    Her voice was the faintest whisper in his mind, and rightness filled him at the intimacy of it. He leapt on the chance to connect with her, wrapping his spirit around hers and trying to warm her coldness. My name is Kane Santiago. I won't hurt you. I swear it. He took her hand and set it on his chest. Can't you feel it?
    Her fingers curled into his chest, and electricity shot through him. He sucked in his breath, shocked by the intensity of her touch, by the current rippling through him. His entire being leapt in response, and the dark void trying to consume him roared in rebellion as his spirit turned toward Sarah, as if she were a great light that could hold off the darkness.
    He knew in that moment that he needed her, on levels he couldn't even comprehend. She was his salvation, his hope, his only chance to defeat the monster trying to chase him. "Sarah!" He hugged her more tightly against him, demanding her response. "Tell me how to save you!"
    I need your faith.
    My faith? What the hell was that all about? How was that going to save her? Where are your people? Do you have a healer I can take you to? He didn't bother to ask about a regular doctor. He'd sensed that she wasn't completely human. The richness of her spirit was too intense, too compelling. The air was lush and rich around her, as if she filled the atmosphere with life. As if she filled him with life.
    Her voice grew fainter in his mind. Tell me something worth living for, Kane. Make me feel it.
    Something worth living for? Son of a bitch. That was the one thing he had no answers for. He knew only death. He