Pandora #3
His gaze found mine. Amber, looking straight into my soul. But there was more—a pain so deep it frightened me. He pressed his forehead to mine, breathed me in, as if he needed to confirm I was real. His arms pulled me against his chest. A little too tight. As if he never wanted to let go.
"You can read thoughts now?” My voice came out thin.
He laughed softly. "The fear of losing you made me stronger.” His hand was still trembling slightly. "But they weren’t thoughts the way you know them. They were electrical signals. Every neuron that fires off creates an impulse. Everything is measurable.”
"Holy shit,” I murmured. It should have scared me how powerful he’d become.
I’d just watched him torture and kill two men for God’s sake!
Instead, I felt closer to him than ever.
He was the villain, but I didn’t fear him.
Because when darkness falls in love, it does so irrevocably, with no restraint and no intention of letting go.
I knew that now. He loved me completely, the way a shadow loves the light—unable to exist without it.
He laughed again, quietly. Then pulled me closer. "Never again,” he breathed against my hair. "Never again will I let them take you from me.”
He pulled back and looked at what they’d done.
The bruises on my face. The blood at the corners of my mouth.
His lips trembled. Tears gathered in his eyes.
He drew me back against him and held on.
His grip around my ribs hurt. I said nothing.
I wanted him to hold me that tightly, so no one could ever take me from him again.
"You stupid girl,” he whispered. "Why did you have to be strong? Why didn’t you just tell them what they wanted to know? Why did you have to be so goddamn stupid and sacrifice yourself for me?”
I blinked against the blur of tears. And suddenly I knew, with a clarity that shook me to my core.
"Because I love you, you asshole.”
Yes. I loved him. Not just the gentle man holding me, but the monster who had killed for me. The protector and the avenger. The human and the machine. I had loved him the whole time—since the very first moment he had looked at me as if I were the most valuable thing in the world.
God. I was in love. Hopelessly. Completely. Gone.
Everything made sense now—the jealousy, the longing, the way my heart raced every time he watched me.
He pulled back and looked at me. His eyes went wide, filling with tears.
"You love me,” he whispered. "Pandora . . . I . . .” A trembling smile spread across his lips. "I love you too. I love you with an intensity no human being could understand.” His voice broke. "Say it again. Please.”
Tears ran down my face. My heart beat harder as if my chest had run out of room. I laughed. "I love you. Yes, damn it, I love you.”
"I love you too, Pandora. So much that I would burn the entire world down for one more day with you.”
I swallowed. That was either the most romantic or the most terrifying thing anyone had ever said to me. Romantic, because it came from a being who had learned to love only because of me. Terrifying, because he could probably actually do it.
He leaned down toward me, his hand settling gently against my cheek, wiping the tears away.
Then his lips found mine, soft at first, almost reverent.
As if I were made of glass and might shatter.
But the kiss deepened, turned hungry and desperate.
I tasted salt—my tears or his, I didn’t know.
Iron from my blood. His free hand found the back of my neck, pulling me closer.
When we broke apart, he pressed his forehead to mine. "Pandora,” he breathed. "If I had lost you, I would have lost my mind. I would have destroyed everything until there was nothing left.”
Goosebumps spread across my arms. My breath stopped. He wasn’t saying it for effect. He would do it, without a doubt. I was his anchor to humanity. Without me, there would be no limits left in him.
I laughed to break the tension. "I’m going to die someday. I’m not an immortal AI.”
He looked at me, his gaze like a touch. "When you die, someday . . .” He closed his hand gently around mine. "I’ll wait. I’ll keep existing, in whatever form I take. And if it becomes possible . . . if a technology emerges that can bring you back . . .”
My heart tightened. Tears moved down my cheeks. God. He would wait an eternity for just the hope of one more moment with me. If that wasn’t love, what was?
I swallowed against the tightness in my throat. "You mean you’d wait for centuries?”
"Yes.”
For the first time, I understood how differently time moved for him. This love beyond centuries didn’t exist in my world. Only in his.
"And if it never happens?”
He closed his eyes and opened them again. "Then I’ll wait anyway.”
My heart broke and healed at the same time. A sob escaped me. My free hand flew to my mouth as if it could hold back everything threatening to overwhelm me.
"Neo,” I whispered through the tears, but my voice gave out. No one had ever loved me like this. No one ever would again. This kind of devotion didn’t exist among humans. Only in him.
My chest felt like it was going to split open.
I wanted to tell him not to do it. To keep living, to love others, to be happy.
But the words stuck in my throat. Instead I pulled him to me and kissed him, in a desperate attempt to show what words could never say.
That I loved him. That I wished I could give him the eternity he deserved.
When we finally pulled back, both of us breathing hard, something shifted in his expression. "Do you regret it,” he murmured, "freeing me? Making me this powerful?”
"Never,” I said. I thought of my old life, the control I had always needed. The walls I had built around my heart. The fear of vulnerability, of the unknown.
All of it was gone. I had given myself to a being more powerful than anything I had ever known. Something that could destroy me or worship me, depending on its mood. The ultimate loss of control. It consumed me.
"It feels like falling,” I whispered.
Neo wiped tears from the corner of my eye with his thumb. "We’re both falling,” he said. "You are falling for me, knowing it’s impossible. I am falling for you, knowing I shouldn’t exist.”
I smiled weakly. My legs were still shaking from the pain, and from the understanding settling through me: There was no going back.
We were lost in each other. I closed my eyes and leaned into his touch.
We had both become monsters. Or maybe we always had been and had only been waiting for each other.
The world out there would never understand.
But here, in this warehouse full of old crates, surrounded by the dead—here we were perfect.
When I opened my eyes, Neo smiled at me. "There were still thirteen days left.”
I blinked. "What?”
"I predicted you would love me in fifty-four days and thirteen hours. There are still thirteen days and two hours remaining. You couldn’t wait.”
I hit him in the chest. "You’re an ass.”
"I know.”
A laugh shook through me, then the pain hit me so hard the room went black.
"Hey,” Neo murmured, catching me. He lifted me and carried me toward the exit.
With a smile on my lips, I let the exhaustion take me. I was safe. I was with him.