Cain pulled her close but didn’t take control. Instead, he let her set the pace. She sank into the kiss, chasing the exquisite sensation. Her hands slid up his chest, around his neck, tangling in his hair.
They parted just enough to share a breath. Cain’s eyes glowed, his restraint hanging by a thread. “We should stop before this goes too far.”
Suddenly, Alice gasped, one hand flying to her churning stomach. The pleasant warmth from moments before vanished, replaced by sudden, vicious nausea.
Cain sat up straighter, brow furrowing in concern. “Alice? What’s wrong?”
She shook her head, clamping her mouth shut as bile burned the back of her throat. The room tilted sickeningly. Lurching to her feet, Alice stumbled toward the bathroom. She only made it a few steps before her roiling stomach clenched. Doubling over, she retched helplessly onto the floor.
Cain was at her side in an instant, grasping her shoulders. “Talk to me. What hurts?”
Alice opened her mouth to respond, but could only gag as another wave of nausea hit. She wretched violently, bringing up only thin streams of bile.
Cain swore under his breath. Keeping a supportive arm around her, he guided Alice the rest of the way to the bathroom. Kneeling by the toilet, she continued to heave even after her stomach was empty.
Between bouts, Alice gasped, “Something’s … wrong. Inside me…” before dissolving into dry retches again.
Cain used a wet cloth and wiped her face gently when she finally slumped back. But the respite was short-lived. Only minutes later, Alice’s body went rigid. Her limbs jerked and thrashed outside her control. Cain’s shocked scream seemed to come from very far away.
Alice wanted to cry out, to make it all stop, but she was locked in her seizing body. Darkness encroached on her vision. Summoning the last of her strength, she reached for the healer bond that she’d seen when Sally had visited her.
“Sally,please.”
She pushed down the link before everything went black.
* * *
Cain ranthrough the corridors of the facility. He hated that he had to leave Alice, but he was terrified she was dying. Claude might have started it, but Cain had been the one to give her his blood—vampire blood. She was a damn gypsy healer, the purest of the pure. Why he thought her magic would accept his blood, he hadn’t a clue. He’d been desperate, just like he was at this very moment.
He reached the door to Finn and Lizzy’s room or cell—whatever the hell you wanted to call it, pulled out a key, and quickly unlocked it. He shoved the door open so hard that it hit the wall with a thud and bounced back toward him, but his arm was already up to keep it from closing.
“I think Alice is dying,” he said to a shocked-looking Lizzy and a frowning and growling Finn. “I don’t know what to do to help her.”
“Dying how?” Lizzy straightened from the defensive crouch she’d taken when the door had opened.
“Dying how?” Cain repeated. “What the hell kind of question is that? Dying as in going to be the opposite of alive.”
Lizzy rolled her eyes. “What are her symptoms, you ridiculous parasitic asshole?”
Cain didn’t have time to address the fact that perhaps she should watch how she talks to him. “She was fine one minute, and the next she grabbed her stomach and tried to run to the bathroom. She began vomiting and groaning, she started convulsing, and then she passed out.”
“Where is she now?” Lizzy asked as she started toward him.
“In my room. I laid her in the middle of the bed on her side.”
When Lizzy reached him, Finn was practically pressed against her back. “Are you just going to stand there, or are you going to take us to her?”
“What are you going to do?” Cain’s hands opened and closed restlessly.
“I have no damn clue,” Lizzy snapped. “But you came to tell us for a reason, right? Because three brains are better than one. I want to see my friend, and let’s all put our supernatural knowledge together and see if we can come up with some options for how to help her.”
Finn nodded as his glowing eyes bore into Cain.
Finally, not really knowing what else to do, Cain spun on his heel and motioned them to follow. He didn’t figure Lizzy and Finn would attempt to escape as long as Alice was in trouble. At the moment, he honestly didn’t care. He just wanted her to live. Shehadto live. He wasn’t sure he could go back to the empty existence he had known before she came into his life.
* * *
Sally satdown on the couch next to Jacque, with Jen on her other side. The office was nearly empty now that everyone had their orders. Kara took a seat on the coffee table in front of them. As one of the resident pregnant females, like Sally, she’d been relegated to remain in the sprite stronghold. Sally noticed that Nick walked backward to the office door, his eyes on Kara the entire time.
