“We hear you,” Alice said dryly. “We just don’t care about what you have to say. Your threats cannotforceus to figure this out any faster. We’re doing everything we can. If you’re going to kill us, get on with it already. At least then my damn head would stop hurting.”
He glared at her. “Using my blood made no difference in your test?”
Alice had suggested that perhaps in a brand-new vampire, the virus might be stronger than an older vampire and therefore able to fight back against the werewolf’s dominant strength. The hypothesis hadn’t panned out. So, then she’d done the opposite and tried the blood of an old vampire, namely the very pissed-off one in front of her, to see if the virus was actually stronger in an ancient vamp. Again, the werewolf blood had overpowered the virus.
“I have a theory.” Alice pinched the bridge of her nose and attempted to will away the migraine. “Blood needs a bonding agent to bind to iron. Maybe there needs to be a bonding agent for the virus and werewolf blood to join.”
Willis snapped and pointed at her. “You’re brilliant.”
“That’s why they pay me the big bucks,” she deadpanned.
Willis frowned. “You’re getting paid?”
“Yes, with things like crappy food, dorm-like living accommodations at a very pathetic college, and the joy of being around that.” She looked at the frowning vampire king. “But I’ve yet to see any monetary compensation.”
“You’ve obviously never worked for the government.” Willis gathered up blood samples from the centrifuge machine. They’d tried separating the red blood cells, platelets, and plasma all in an attempt to join the two races. So far, it had been one dead end after another.
She stood up and walked to the fridge to grab fresh samples, all the while wracking her brain for something they could use as a bonding agent. Alice was tired. Sleep had become something that only happened when she simply couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer and her head ended up resting on her arms at one of the lab tables. She hadn’t taken a shower in several days, and she was pretty sure she had a forest growing under her arms and on her legs. Super sexy. Not that she had any imminent prospects, considering she was living in a secret government facility surrounded by unconscious people and god-only-knows how many vampires. Oh, and also Willis, who was definitely not an option. Alice preferred her men to be fully grown and not just physically. Their emotions and maturity had to at least match her own. And she’d always been a pretty serious person, even as a child. It was becoming increasingly difficult to find a man who didn’t say, “That’s what she said” every other sentence. Seriously, once a month was enough for that particular joke.
Alice grabbed a tray of vampire and werewolf samples and carried them back to the lab table she’d commandeered. Willis had attempted to take up residence on one side of it, but she’d promptly nipped that in the bud. Alice did not like to share her space. She needed to focus, and the man’s presence in the room was bad enough—he was constantly humming, and she found the foible maddening. She certainly didn’t need him directly across the table, hopping around like a three-year-old that had just slammed back a handful of sugar straws.
Cain paced back and forth across the room, his usually neat hair disheveled from constantly running his hands through it. He seemed extremely agitated, at least more agitated than she’d seen thus far.
“Are you going to do that all night?” Alice pulled out more glass slides and prepared her work area.
He snapped his head around to glare at her and bared his fangs, hissing like a damn alley cat. Okay, maybe he was scarier than a cat. Even so, hissing? She was pretty sure he wouldn’t appreciate her snickering at him. So she bit the inside of her cheek. Obviously, her exhaustion was turning her into a five-year-old. All the maturity in which she usually prided herself was flying out the window.
“I am going to do this until you two so-called geniuses succeed at what you’ve been brought here to do.”
She shook her head. “Yeah, that’s not going to work for me.” Alice picked up the small suction bulb and stuck it down in the first tube of vampire blood, drawing up a minuscule amount. She then squeezed a small drop onto a slide. Then she got a new suction bulb and repeated the action with the werewolf blood. Alice picked up another glass slide to put on top of the sample, but it slipped and hit the table, shattering.
Out of instinct, she made to grab for the slide, but it was too late. Alice managed to catch a piece of the broken glass, and a sharp pain ran across the tip of her thumb. She dropped the broken glass and looked at the blood smearing her skin. Alice quickly grabbed a towel from the table and wrapped it tightly around her thumb. When she glanced down, she saw that the broken slide containing her blood had fallen, landing directly on the slide containing the blood of the two supernatural species. “Crap.” She realized the samples were contaminated. Before she could pick up the ruined slide, Willis snatched it up. “Hey,” she blurted out. But he was already putting it under the microscope.
He shrugged. “Sometimes accidents wind up being serendipitous solutions.” Willis leaned in and pressed his eye to the lens. His hand turned the knob as he adjusted the focus of the microscope. “We haven’t thought of introducing purely human blood. Maybe it’s the necessary bonding agent you brilliantly suggested.”
“We already know that vampire blood can bond with human blood,” she pointed out. “And from what Dracula here has said, werewolf blooddoesn’tbind to it. Why would it have any effect in joining of the two species?”
“Why does any of this crap work the way it does?” Willis studied the sample. She noticed his hand trembling as he turned the knob again. Then his shoulders tensed, and suddenly he jumped back from the table and threw a fist in the air. “YES! Yes, yes, yes, yes! You did it!” He leaped toward her with outstretched arms.
“If you touch me, I will cut you.”
Willis’s smile didn’t falter. He shrugged. “Okay, not a hugger. How about a high-five partner?”
“We’re not partners.” But she threw him a bone and high-fived him, anyway. Then she pushed him out of the way to look at the sample.
“I’ll be damned.” Alice breathed out. She watched the human blood draw the two other types into it until there was essentially only a homogenous mixture remaining on the slide.
She looked up at Cain to see his reaction. He’d stopped pacing and focused on her. The intensity in his gaze made her want to squirm, but Alice was not a squirmer. She hadn’t been as a child, and she sure as hell wasn’t as an adult. “What?”
He walked toward her, his steps measured and controlled. The agitation he’d exhibited moments ago was gone, replaced with what appeared to be curiosity. Suddenly, he stood a hair’s breadth away from her. She hadn’t even seen him move. First, he’d been moving slowly like a hunting cat, and then he was just here. She was tall at five foot eight, yet he had a few inches on her, and she disliked that she had to look up at him even the slightest bit. The vampire reached up and grabbed the back of her head, fisting her dark hair in his hand.
“What the hell are you doing?” She growled and tried to pull away, but she couldn’t move so much as a centimeter. His strength was unbelievable. He tilted her head to the side until her neck was exposed, and considering her hair was only chin length, he didn’t have to work around that as an obstacle.
“Don’t you dare bite me.” She spat out, narrowing her hazel eyes at the vampire king. When she looked into his eyes, she saw something dark and hungry, like a starved man seeing food for the first time in months.
“Cain,” Willis said, his voice shaky. “Don’t do this. I feel like I’m always having to remind you two to play nice.”
The vampire’s focus didn’t waiver, and he didn’t acknowledge Willis. Instead, he leaned down until his nose pressed to her flesh. He took a deep breath, and Alice felt his tongue run across the same spot. This wasnotgood.
