“What changed?”
Alice frowned. “What do you mean?”
She heard his exasperated huff. “So far, he hasn’t been able to get the blood to mix. So what changed?”
Alice bit her bottom lip. Now she really didn’t know what to tell him. Her gut immediately screamed that she did not need to tell her father that she was what had been the catalyst for the success. She knew her father was ambitious. He would have no problem throwing her under the bus to get what he wanted. Her brain moved quickly as she considered what to say. “We figured out that blood type matters.” Thankfully her father was not a scientist or a medical professional. He wouldn’t know what to ask in order to make her expound on that information.
“Well, it’s a good thing I sent you. I knew you’d be able to figure it out.” To someone else, that might have sounded like a compliment. But he only saw her success as a reflection of himself. She was only special because he was her father. Gotta love having a narcissistic parent.
“Keep me updated.” He hung up without saying goodbye.
“Yep, I’m doing good, Dad. Thanks for asking.” She dropped the phone in her lap. Alice looked longingly at the bed. She was exhausted. But she needed to tell Lizzy that Cain wouldn’t allow her to see Finn. That was going to go over like a lead balloon. Alice breathed a long sigh before speaking to the empty room. “My life is freaking awesome.”
Cain hesitated in the corridor after shutting the door behind him. He glanced down at his hands and noticed they were shaking. He shoved them into his pockets. Telling Alice the story of his past had dredged up emotions that were better left buried. With an effort of will, he pushed them back into the battered box in his mind where they belonged. What in the hell had gotten into him? He’d told Alice something he’d not spoken about in centuries. Why? He’d said he wasn’t trying to make her see him in a different light, but was that true? He was attracted to her, but any male would be. She was a beautiful woman. But there was something more. She’s a healer. He leaned back against the wall. Maybe whatever magic that lived inside of her drew him to her. Or maybe it was just her. Did there have to be some supernatural reason he wanted her? “Curse it all,” he muttered and then tilted his head as he heard the vibration of a phone. He leaned closer to the door and heard Alice speak.
It was her father. Good old, Colonel Mark Douglas. He was a bastard. And Cain didn’t trust him. He listened and smiled when she gave him an attitude. Cain liked that about Alice Douglas. She was spunky and fiery. The Alice he’d lost so long ago had been docile and meek. Not that he found those qualities undesirable. But those qualities would’ve made her unsuitable for the world he lived in now. Cain listened to the rest of Alice’s conversation. He found it interesting that she didn’t tell her father the truth about how they’d discovered how to make a hybrid. Did that make her more loyal to Cain than her own father? “That’s not really a stretch,” he said to the empty hall, considering her dad would walk over anyone to get what he wanted, even his own daughter.
Colonel Douglas thinks he’s smarter than me. He thought I wouldn’t be able to find out Alice was his daughter when she was brought in as an expert to “assist” me. Humans always think too highly of their own intelligence. Except Alice. She actually is as intelligent as her diplomas claim her to be. Her work speaks for itself, as did her ability to figure out what I had been missing in my research.
After the phone call concluded, Cain moved away from the wall and began striding toward the lab. Willis would still be up, fueled by caffeine and energy drinks. While the human male might be more than a little annoying, his presence would help get Cain’s mind off of Alice Douglas. Despite his attraction to her, she was nothing more than a tool. But even as he thought this to himself, another voice whispered, “Liar.”
Chapter
Fifteen
“When I lived on the streets, I saw doped-out druggies all the time. They lived in their own minds, in a substance-induced alternate reality. They didn’t understand what was going on around them. Never did I think to myself ‘I wonder what that’s like.’ Unfortunately, now I know.” ~Lizzy
“Lizzy, wake up. Now.”
A deep voice filled Lizzy’s mind. Or at least, she thought it was in her mind. Lizzy tried to open her eyes, but they felt as if they’d been superglued shut. Her mouth felt like she’d swallowed fifty cotton balls after sucking on a sandpaper lollipop. Ugh. Why would they make sandpaper into a lollipop?
“There’s no such thing as a sandpaper lollipop, my Lizzy.” The baritone voice filled her mind again.
She fished around in her brain and came up with a name. “Finn.”
“Yes, bleed it all. I’ve been trying to get through to you for two days.”
“Two days?”
“Yes.” He growled.
“Don’t growl at me, dammit. I’m the one that’s lost two days of my freaking life.” Lizzy felt her eyes move around, but she still couldn’t get her lids to raise. “Why can’t I open my eyes?”
“I don’t know.” His voice sounded anxious and frustrated at the same time. “My wolf has even tried reaching to yours, but we couldn’t get through. It was like screaming through a wall of water, and you were on the other side.”
“I feel sluggish, like when you fall asleep after taking that nasty liquid, cold medicine that tastes like a child’s sugary drink that’s been left out in the sun for a week. My body feels heavy. Wait.” She paused and tried to move her limbs. Her arms wiggled a little before finally responding to her commands. She could tell she was lying on a soft surface. “I can move. So that’s something.”
“Do you feel okay?”
“What about sluggish or sugary drink left out in the sun didn’t you understand?” She felt anger ripple down through the bond, as well as energy. “Hey, I can feel that.”
“I’m not doing anything.”
She realized he meant he wasn’t using the bond to touch her in some way. “No, I mean I can feel your energy or something. I don’t really know how to explain it. But whatever is coming through the bond, it’s giving me strength, like I’m siphoning it or something.” Lizzy focused on Finn and their bond. She saw the cord that connected them. Suddenly, she gasped as a bolt of electricity hit her in the chest. “Dude, I’m not having a heart attack. You don’t have to go all chest paddles on me, but if you’re going to do that, then at least yell ‘clear’ so I’m ready for it.”
“Sorry,” he grumbled. “My wolf doesn’t like it when we can’t reach you.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t like the idea of being unconscious in this place, not knowing if anyone has come in here and inserted anything into me while I’ve been out of it. That’s like my worst nightmare from living on the street.”
