CHAPTER 44 - Sylas
The engine died, the flashlight hit the crate, and the last remaining calculation in my head dissolved into the dark.
I didn't ask for permission. I didn't measure the distance or consider the vulnerabilities of our position.
The moment she answered me, her voice a low, trembling current in the absolute quiet of the limehouse vault, the restraint I had forced into my frame over the last six days shattered entirely.
I lunged forward, closing the final inch between us, my arms locking around her waist to lift her completely clear of the damp stone floor.
When my mouth slammed into hers, it wasn't the desperate panic of the river launch or the careful hesitation of the Wapping substation.
It was a fierce, unchecked release of everything I had choked back while watching her bleed.
She let out a sharp, ragged gasp against my lips, her right hand instantly clawing into my wet hair to drag me down, her uninjured arm wrapping around my neck with a strength that matched my own violence.
I backed her up until her shoulders hit the raw brick wall, pressing the entire weight of my body against hers to drive the freezing river chill straight out of her skin.
She tasted of winter rain, salt, and a wild, lethal adrenaline that completely overrode my focus.
My hands traveled up the heavy, soaked wool of her sweater, my fingers tangling deep into the damp curls at the nape of her neck, tilting her head back to alter the angle and press deeper into the kiss.
Every instinct that had spent years navigating the sterile, predictable corridors of Olympus Tower had flatlined.
I didn't care that Vance's tactical units were actively sweeping the banks above us.
I didn't care that the master solid-state drives were burning holes in my pocket, or that the empire we had torn apart was actively bleeding into the London grid.
The only reality that carried any weight was the frantic, shifting heat of her mouth beneath mine, the desperate grip of her fingers on my neck, and the total, un-networked certainty that I was never letting her go.