“My father will be pissed if you kill me.” She was pretty sure Cain didn’t give a rat’s ass about General Brock’s opinion, nor did he have any fear of what the general might attempt to do.
His eyes darted to hers. “I’m hungry,” he said, his voice surprisingly soft. “And I find that your blood has drawn my attention. Not just to sate my thirst.” He looked back at her neck. “I apologize, but this is going to hurt.” Then, quick as a snake, he darted forward and sank his fangs into her flesh.
“Fuuu…” Alice started to groan, but her words were cut off when the pain intensified as he began to suck and pull the blood from her vein. Couldn’t he have made it feel good? Wasn’t that a thing? The freaking movies made it look like a vampire feeding from a human was the equivalent of the best sex in the history of sex. And sex had a long-ass history. But this wasnotthat. She pressed her hands to Cain’s chest and tried to push him away. She might as well have been trying to shove a statue. He continued to drain her, and Alice felt herself growing weak. Spots danced across her vision, and her heart stuttered in her chest. This was it. She was going to die in a lab without having done anything more in her life than study DNA. Her most successful finding would probably never be known by the scientific community. In fact, it would likely be actively covered up by the US government. “I don’t want to die,” she whispered.
As quickly as he’d bitten her, he pulled back and ran his tongue across her skin again, humming in the back of his throat. “You’re not going to die, lovely Alice,” Cain murmured. Then, to her utter shock, the vampire pressed a kiss to the bite mark. Without releasing her, Cain pulled Alice’s head back until he could look into her eyes. His other hand cupped her face, and he ran his thumb across her cheek. “You’ve just become the most important piece in this puzzle. I will protect you with my life.”
Minutes ago, he’d been threatening to kill her. Now he was vowing to keep her safe. “Are you bipolar?” She frowned, and her legs gave out beneath her, but Cain didn’t let her fall. He dropped his hand from her head and wrapped his arm around her waist to hold her up. “What are you talking about?Humansare the key. There’s a million of them. Just pick one. I’m not special.”
His lips turned up slightly. And not for the first time, Alice noticed how handsome he was, especially when he wasn’t displaying his fangs.
“That’s where you’re wrong. You are but one of eight that I am aware of in the entire world. TheCanis lupuswould revere you, holding you precious and irreplaceable.”
“Dude,” Willis muttered. “Are you talking about those chicks in the book? The—”
“Gypsy healers.” Cain finished for him. “Yes.” He looked at Alice in a way no man ever had. As if he adored her. When he looked at her, the ire that accompanied his gaze was gone. “The rarest of the rare of supernatural beings. The purest of pure.” He chuckled. “Of course it would be your blood that would join two species. I can’t believe I didn’t think of it before.”
Alice’s mind was spinning faster than a hamster wheel. What the hell was a gypsy healer? How was it possible that she was one? Was it actually true? Maybe Cain had lost his mind because he hadn’t been feeding. There was no doubt he was mentally unstable. She’d realized that after only a couple of days of being around him. There was no way she was this gypsy healer person that he claimed she was. She couldn’t be. Alice was a PhD, not a medical doctor.
He scooped her up in his arms and looked at Willis. “She needs rest and iron to help replace the blood I drank. I cannot give her mine.” Something like anger passed Cain’s face, but Alice was too weak to think about it. “And I won’t risk contaminating it with someone else’s.”
“I can get her an iron infusion.” Willis reverted to professional-scientist mode.
“Bring it to my quarters.”
“No,” she said as firmly as she could, though she felt as weak as a wilting flower. “I am not staying with you.”
“Wrong,” Cain replied. “You called me a leach the other day. Well, guess what. Now, I really will be attached to you like a leach.” He hadn’t found it amusing when she had made the remark, but Alice noted there was humor in his eyes now.
“You’re going to drink my blood?” She did not want to experiencethatpain again.
“Hmm.” He hummed and closed his eyes as if savoring the memory. “As much as that would please me, and”—he opened his eyes and looked directly into hers—“I could make the pleasure of my bite your drug, I cannot risk losing control and taking too much. You taste amazing.”
Her eyes popped fully open, and the remark seemed to renew her strength for a moment. “I’m not taking that as a compliment. And what the actual werewolf ass?” she snapped. “It hurt like hell, and you could have kept it from being painful?”
He shrugged and began walking. “I didn’t know what you were before I bit you. I thought you were just human. Why would I be sympathetic to a human?”
“Humans are your primary food source,” she pointed out. “Shouldn’t you actually, like, enjoy their company or something?”
“You eat cows. Does that mean you want to be their friend?”
“First, you’re comparing me to a cow? And second, yes, cows are freaking awesome. Everyone loves cows. Have you ever been into a kitchen in the south? Pictures of cows everywhere.”
Cain chuckled. “You are hardly a cow. You’re a glittering diamond among the rubble.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “That makes you want to be my friend?”
“Among other things,” he whispered, almost as if he didn’t really want her to hear it.
She shook her head. “Not if you were the last male on earth and I was a bitch in heat.”
He clucked his tongue at her. “Such vulgar language. In my day, a lady didn’t speak in such a manner. And by the time she was your age, any suitor would be acceptable because she needed one to take care of her, to make sure she didn’t end up a penniless, homeless spinster.”
He continued down the corridor, carrying her as if she weighed nothing at all. He was more relaxed than she’d ever seen him. “In case you didn’t notice, times have changed. I don’t need you, and I definitely don’t want you. And if I want to say shit, damn, bitch, bastard, or any other vulgar word, I will. And I will probably want to say those words when I’m speaking to you, or describing you, or addressing you. So you better get used to it.”
Cain smiled at her and leaned forward, pressing a kiss to her nose. “I’ve always been partial to taking strong females as lovers. This is going to be fun.”
She pulled her head back. “Dammit, quit kissing me.” She tried to lift her arm to wipe her face, but it fell limply to her side.
