“Yes, she is.” He’d trained her wel , having seen the kernel of greatness in her from the very beginning. She was bright and thorough and fil ed with a restless energy that fooled many into thinking she was reckless. She never had been…until the Alpha came along.
Syre was watching that situation closely. He wouldn’t tolerate Vash’s upheaval for long. A day or two more, and if the lycan didn’t rectify what he was doing to her, Syre would kil him. It would be a waste of a prime hunter, but the Alpha was less valuable if he wasn’t firmly beneath Vashti’s thumb. There was also the possibility that now that the lycans were settled in the warehouse and most were already out in the field, they could turn to vampires for leadership and protection if they lost their Alpha. If not for Vashti’s turmoil, the death of Elijah Reynolds might be ideal… “The majority of the samples had no effect whatsoever,” Grace went on. “However, Subject E is another matter altogether. Whose idea was it to anonymize the samples? Vashti’s?”
“Of course.” He slid his iPhone over and tapped into the cloud, finding the document that linked donor with sample. But he knew who Subject E was before it was confirmed—the Alpha.
“Wel , Subject E is known as FUBAR around here. You want to knock out the wraith population for good, FUBAR’s your man. Or woman. His or her blood is like the Hiroshima bomb to wraiths. Boom, game over.”
“Why? How?”
Grace snorted out a laugh. “I’m good, but I’m not that good. I got these blood samples yesterday evening. I’ve had just a little over fourteen hours with them. I can give you a ‘what,’ but it’s going to take more time to work on the rest.”
“Vashti ran across a wraith with enough brain function to speak coherently. He appeared to be leading a group of other wraiths.”
“What?” Al levity left her face. “Every wraith I’ve seen has cotton for brains.”
“I need more than that, Grace.”
She scrubbed the back of her neck. “Perhaps the subject had only recently been infected, within a few hours maybe. Not enough time to fry the synapses. Or maybe he’d been infected long enough to kick-start his brain cel s again. I honestly don’t know. I haven’t run across anything like that here in the lab.”
“Too many questions, Grace.”
“And not enough answers. I know. I’m doing the best I can.”
“Keep me posted.”
“Absolutely. And if you can get me more of that blood, it would real y help. Total y the other end of the spectrum there. One annihilates; the other is a possible cure. Knowing you, you’l want both in your arsenal while dealing with this, and I’ve got a friend here I’d like to have back.”
Syre thought of his daughter-in-law. It was too late for Nikki, but hopeful y others could be saved. “I’l work on it.”
“And the virologist, please. I’ve got skil s, but this is real y outside my field of expertise.”
With a nod, he ended the cal and exhaled harshly.
“What do you know, Adrian?” he murmured softly to himself. “And what wil I have to do to get you to tel me about it?”
Vash raced through the trees, darting and weaving, her heart and limbs pumping strong and steady. Her body was a machine, built for her existence as an angel and sculpted by her life as a warrior. Although she heard the pounding lunges and heaving breaths of the lycan hot on her trail, she didn’t look back. There was no point. It would only slow her down, and knowing where he was or how close he might be wouldn’t make her run faster.
She’d never been outrun by a lycan. Never. She was too quick, too nimble.
But she knew Elijah was different. He’d proven that back on the highway, and even while she thought of that, he proved it again.
She leaped agilely over a fal en log, but he vaulted past her. His front paws dug into the earth and he pivoted, his tail end whipping around 180 degrees.
“Damn it,” she hissed.
Faced with a wild beast she didn’t have the heart to injure, she sprang and flipped over him. But the leaf-littered forest floor gave her no traction.
Her feet slipped out from under her. She hit the ground on her bel y and skidded forward, her fingers and toes scrambling for purchase.
He was on her in a heartbeat, straddling her and catching her by the shoulder with his teeth. His breath was hot and fast, a growl rumbling in his chest. When she tried to move, he shook her gently, his teeth dug in but not breaking the skin. He snarled a warning.
Vash melted into the ground, completely pliant. Her stomach quivered with something she began to suspect was delight. Perhaps triumph.
Certainly relief.
He’d chased her. Captured her.
Her heart rate kicked up, as did her breathing, reactions her exertions hadn’t been capable of eliciting. She lay prone beneath him, absorbing his warmth into her back, her fingers digging restlessly into the dirt.
It took several moments before Elijah released her. When he did, it was with another growled admonition to remain unmoving. He gave her a few moments to prove that she would do so without his interference; then he nuzzled her cheek with his wet nose.
The surprisingly tender gesture had her lifting her head to meet his gaze. “Elijah…”
His lip curled in a snarl. His eyes stil had that primal light burning inside them.
“Okay. Al right.” She exhaled and relaxed again, her mind trying to work out why she was submitting so meekly. She submitted to no one but Syre and only in certain respects. In many others, she was the dominant. Yes, because he al owed her to be, but stil …even Char had known to give her the lead.
She jolted a little when Elijah settled his weight careful y on her, his bel y curving into her spine. He didn’t give her the whole of it, which would have crushed her, but he gave her enough to pin her and make sure she didn’t forget he was there. As if that were possible.
Vash couldn’t say how long they lay like that—he atop her and quietly panting, gently sniffing her and nudging with his snout. She couldn’t say why it soothed the jagged edges of her mood, edges that had been ripping at her from the inside since he’d shown her the door the day before. She couldn’t say when she realized those edges had been tearing her up for years. She knew only that the equanimity she found in the forest with Elijah exposed an inner torment she hadn’t been aware she was carrying. Anger and hunger for revenge were her constant companions, but the pain had been buried beyond her awareness of it, an ache not noted until it was gone.
When he shifted forms, she felt the power of it, the ripple that displaced the very space around her. The softness and warmth of rough satin fur morphed into rock-hard muscle and scorching skin. He continued to rub his cheek against her. He continued to pant as if he were exerting himself to his limits.
Her palms grew damp when she felt the unmistakable length of his erection resting in the seam of her thighs. “Elijah…?”