Layla puffed out her cheeks. “Sam, I have a craving for more of your blood.”
I jerked my head at her. “Explain.” No way was she morphing into a vampire, though I couldn’t help but remember when Jo had craved blood as a human. At first, I’d thought my sister was nuts. We didn’t know it at the time, but that had been a sign she’d carried the vampire gene.
Layla’s blue eyes met mine. “I want more blood. Yours. I don’t know why.” She sucked in air. “This is insane. Crazy. Fucked up. I’m losing my mind.”
I felt her face. “Do you have a fever?” I remember Jo telling me she had a high fever during the change. Then again, Layla couldn’t become a vampire even if she did carry the vampire gene. The process to turn involved her drinking her father’s blood, and that couldn’t happen for two reasons. One, he was dead, and two, if he were alive, he had to be a vampire. She was warm to the touch, but not feverish. “Do your gums hurt?”
“No. I can’t explain it except that it’s like your blood is a drug or something.”
“Not surprised. That’s one reason people like Roman run blood cartels. They sell blood like mine.”
“But you and your family are one of a kind when it comes to your abilities and power. Are there other vampires that fit the bill like you?”
“Every vampire on the SEAL team has potent blood—not as strong as mine, but strong just the same. That’s one of the reasons the Council of Elders recruited them into the military.”
I turned down a dark road as the Hummer’s headlights lit the way. “Are you sure you don’t have vampire DNA in you?”
“Absolutely not. My parents would’ve told me.” She sounded horrified.
“Maybe your parents didn’t want to tell you.”
Her luscious lips parted. “They wouldn’t lie about that. We hunt vampires.”
A mile down the winding road, the dense trees that created a tunnel gave way to open ground with three homes on the right that had several acres of land in between them.
She pointed to the middle house. “Rianne is here.”
I wheeled into the gravel driveway as snow crunched beneath the tires. I threw the Hummer in park behind the Nissan and scanned the eerily quiet area as far as I could in between the snowfall.
“Which house is Gerald’s?”
She flicked her thumb to her right. “That one.”
I glanced at the other house on the left. “Who lives there?”
“An elderly couple. They’re at their vacation home in Florida.” She winced.
“What is it?”
“My head is hurting all of a sudden.”
I felt her face once again. “You’re sweating like a pig.”Fuck.
She whipped out her dagger with her family’s crest on it from the sheath on her leg. “Blood, Sam.”
I could feel my forehead creasing. I would swear she was turning into a vampire. “You realize too much of my blood might harm you.”
She ignored me, pushed up the sleeve on my jacket, and slit my wrist open. Within a nanosecond, she was sucking away like a baby on a bottle.
I pressed on my earpiece. “Kraft, come in.” Tripp had said he and Olivia were scouring the woods.
“Go,” Kraft’s voice said in my ear.
“I’m at Layla’s house. Where are you?”
“Olivia and I are deep into the forest but heading your way.” Then he clicked off.
I scanned the area as well as I could with Layla suckling on me. We had two hours left before our official four-hour deadline. Between Layla suiting up and listening to Webb outline the plan to combat Roman in the event he showed up on base, we’d lost more time than I had wanted.
