His fingers rested gently on my palm. Without thinking, I turned my hand. Cage's thumb brushed gently over the scar. I wrapped my fingers around his hand. The body heat that my hand gave off was deeply magnified by his cold skin. Cage's hand fit to perfectly on my own, every crevice and indent matching somewhere with mine. Big to small, warm to cold, there was no denying that something, I don't know what but something...something always happened when Cage touched me. He pulled his hand away.

Cage watched me for a second, his face passive. He did that quite a lot, I noticed. Watching me as if I might break. I never knew what he thought when he saw me. I could never guess what kind of things went on behind those dark green eyes. Cage Vickers didn't wear his heart on his sleeve because he didn't have one.

His hands reached for my own again.

"Oh!" I gasped as a flash of pain went through my broken wrist, pulling them out of his grip. Cage had grabbed it none too gently. His eyes flashed dangerously and he grabbed me again, this time by the elbow.

"What happened?" He asked, staring at my bruised wrist.

I tried to pull myself away but his grip was too strong. Cuddling my wrist against my chest, I gave Cage an innocent look. "Nothing."

"Nothing?" He questioned darkly.

"Yes- ouch!" Cage pressed the tips of his fingers right over the part of my hand where the pain was greatest to prove his point. I winced and pulled myself away, and this time he let me.

"I asked you a question, November." Now that the formalities were out of the way, Cage was back to his cold, domineering ways.

I frowned at his tone. "I tried to slip my hand out of the handcuffs."

"They handcuffed you?"

"No Cage, they let me run around and play with their guns." I rolled my eyes and placed the phone back on its holder as Heath entered the room. He was free of any blood and was dressed in his usual sharp black suit. I noticed that Cage matched his outfit quite well. The Crows always dressed like they were going to a business meeting except they looked a bit more...dangerous and fitted.

Cage thankfully decided not to pursue my sarcastic tone. He looked up at Heath and then back to me. Heath didn't look at all surprised at Cage's sudden arrival. He walked over to where we stood and slipped a piece of paper into Cage's hand. It looked like a photograph of some sorts. Before I could get a better look, Cage glanced at it before folding it up and shoving it into one of his pockets.

"What happened?" Cage asked, his voice low even though we were the only three people in the lobby.

"Romeo happened." Heath said, looking back and forth between us. "The clowns back at the carnival. His men tracked us down, Romeo must have access to the GPS system on the chips because there was no way they could know we would be in Ivey. Unless Romeo has November's files, he couldn't have known that."

Heath stopped and looked at me. Alarmed, I straightened up. Should I add on to his story or something? Before I could start babbling, Cage beat me to it. "Heath, why didn't you kill them? And why was November dragged into this?"

"When I stepped outside-" I cut off whatever Heath was about to say. "-I was on the porch. Heath saw me there and we were talking until Rainbow Clown-"

"Who the fuck is Rainbow Clown?" Cage asked with disbelief.

"The clown with the rainbow hair." I said. "-Anyways, they interrupted us-"

"-They shot me with a fucking bear tranquilizer, man." Heath sighed.

"You went down before November did?" Cage turned to him, sounding a bit angry. "Why didn't you call for help? We were right inside the house!"

"They had Micheal." I defending myself hotly.

"What does that have to do with you not being able to shout? You shout every other time except for when it's necessary?" Cage growled.

"I don't shout!" I shouted, clearly shouting.

"You just did!" He shouted back.

"Why are you yelling at me? Boy, I don't know who you think you are-"

"I'm not yelling, November-"

"Stop yelling!" I shouted.

"Stop shouting!" Cage yelled.

"Shut the fuck up!" Heath snapped.

We both looked at him.

"You two are like a divorced couple fighting over the custody for a pet." Heath continued. "And before you kill me Cage, just know that it was Nick who came up with that analogy."

"Oh my God." Cage rubbed his eyes. "Forget it. November, I'm sorry I shouted. Let's get back to what happened. Heath, they took you down with a little dart? Damn, that's embarrassing."

"That's what I said!" I held my hand up for a high five and was met with a glare, so I just slapped his chest in replacement of his hand and moved back.

"I don't know what happened after that. You'll have to ask November." Heath said.

They both turned to look at me.

When two six feet tall hulking men who have a history of killing people turn all of their attention to you, it's a pretty scary situation. I smiled brightly to ease the tension and when that didn't work, I sighed and told my part. "I didn't call for help because one, I was too distracted by Micheal and two, there were at least three guns pointing at my head. So I hope you understand why I didn't bring this to your attention before they sedated me."

Cage's fists suddenly clenched. "Sedated you with what?"

"That injection thingy you gave me twice before-" I didn't get to finish my sentence. Cage reached out and dragged me to him. I noticed his hands were trembling as he gently pushed my head to the side. Before I could fight out of his grip, Cage yanked my shirt down to expose my neck and shoulder. He nearly ripped it in the process.

"Shit." He whispered in horror. Or at least I think it was horror. It might have been amusement. I don't know, I can't decipher any of his facial expressions.

Heath was staring at my neck with a similar look of regret. After a moment, he turned away and pulled a phone out of his pocket, talking softly on it as he wandered away. Meanwhile, Cage was about to lose it.

I didn't know what for until I caught my reflection on the shiny metal sculpture nearby.

Running up and down the course of my neck were blue veins. They went as far as my shoulder and up to my collarbone. The source of the veins seemed to have begun from the small needlepoint wound where Rainbow Clown had injected me with the sedative. The skin around the area was drained of blood and the blueness of the veins stuck out in contrast.

Horrified, I was too stunned to even speak. Raising my hand, I touched my neck. It felt rough and strange, almost numb in a way. I couldn't feel anything where the veins were, no matter how hard I pressed. The veins were one with my skin, tiny delicate blue markings that took up half my neck. It didn't hurt or burn as the appearance might have made me assume. I felt the same as I did before, except now with the addition of those little blue veins.

Cage came back. His fingers replaced my own and pushed my hair back, examining the skin carefully. He touched me as if it hurt. I could barely feel Cage's fingers on my neck, but that was probably because the skin had gotten so numb.

"I am so sorry." His eyes didn't suppress his emotions as they always did. They were open and clear, allowing me to see, for a brief moment, the torment that raged inside. "This is all my fault. I did this to you. I'm so sorry, November. I never meant- I'm-" He seemed to be struggling to find the words. "You're hurt and it's all my fault. I'm- I'm sorry. Oh God, I'm so fucking sorry. I don't deserve you. I want you so much, so badly, but I can't have you because things like this happen just to remind us of how incompatible we are. I'm- I am so sorry. I will find a way to fix this, I promise-"

"Already found one."

We turned to see Heath standing there, phone in hand. He handed it to Cage, who swiped through it briefly before cursing under his breath.

"I don't understand." I stepped back, putting some much needed distance between me and them. "I feel fine."

Cage stared at me. "Yes, November. You feel fine. But you're not. I've seen this happen. Those experiments began and ended the same way."

"So what does that mean?"

Heath was the one to answer. "It means that if we don't find the antidote in 72 hours, you are going to die."