Free Stained by Ella James Page A

sure she wanted to know what she'd find next.
They'd been idling at the helm of a wooded park for going on six minutes--Julia practicing her patience and Cayne staring out the passenger's side window. An old street lamp bathed his face in brown light, which somehow made him even more attractive than he normally was. Just when she was thinking up conversation starters, Cayne's jaw clenched, shifting the shadows on his face.
"Well?"
He sighed. "It's kind of a conditioned response."
"Conditioned."
"Trained."
Julia bit her lip. "I know what 'conditioned' means."
He rubbed tired-looking eyes, and she felt a quick twist of nerves. She could get all sweaty if she thought about the fight the wrong way, so she was trying not to think about it at all. Except the end. Where Cayne had almost killed an old person.
"I know what conditioned means," she said slowly. "I'm waiting for you to explain how that makes it okay."
Cayne's eyes found the windshield. She saw his lips quirk. He rubbed one hand over his face, wiping the expression away. "I never finished my story." He clarified: "Explanation."
"I'm listening."
He rubbed a hand back through his hair and glanced at her with a look she couldn't read. When he spoke, his voice sounded flat and out of tune. "I don't remember anything from before three years ago. I woke up in a logger's camp in Alberta. I knew my name, and I knew Samyaza's. I had this image of him sneering. And I knew that he'd taken my memories. But I don't know why.
"I learned fast back at the cabin that I wasn't 'normal.' A few seconds after opening my eyes, I drained half the life from one of my rescuers. I didn't mean to. It was instinct."
Cayne's mouth bunched, and he was quiet. Remembering. Or maybe trying to.
"Other things came back in little pieces. It didn't take me long to start directing people's wills. And my body... I left six days after they found me near dead. In six days I'd recovered from broken limbs and ribs, serious blood loss, and I re-grew half of my right hand." He laughed, dry and low. "I was pretty sure whatever I was, I wasn't human.
"It was easy to find other Nephilim. I could...sense them. Almost like a smell." He wrinkled his nose and shrugged. "From there, it was just relearning some of what I'd lost. I found I was a Hunter about a month after I left the camp. This appeared in the middle of a fight." His fingers spread, and his wicked-looking crimson dagger materialized in his hand. "It's my blood. All Hunters have one."
Julia gaped; the blade was much freakier up close. Almost a foot long, it seemed to pulse as Cayne twisted his wrist. She opened her Sight and saw it glowing silver. She was trying to decide whether or not to prod it when, like magic, the thing disappeared.
"I spent two years trying to relearn everything. Then I went after Samyaza."
As his story sunk in, Julia felt empathy. They were, in a sense, the same. Cut off from a part of their history. Not whole. "No one looked for you? Or came after you?"
"I stayed under the radar. Not that there's any reason to believe anyone would look for me. Hunters are loners."
His eyes found hers, and Julia couldn't break the gaze. This...confusion so colored who he was, that not knowing of it had hidden a part of him. Now she wanted to laugh, or maybe hug him. Instead, she said, "So why are the other Nephilim after you now?"
"Samyaza," Cayne muttered. "If they're telling the truth, Samyaza gave the order. Probably the same night I revealed myself to him. The night I dropped in on you."
Julia had a million questions, and this time she knew he didn't have answers. But there was still one thing to address. "About what you did to the old man."
"It wouldn't have happened normally."
Julia bit her tongue. It struck her that a large part of him was probably pristine, programmed, a bundle of uninformed instinct.
"I called it a conditioned behavior because it is. It's instinct. It helps me heal." As evidence, Cayne lifted his shirt. Where a jagged gash tore