For a moment, Alice thought Cain might not continue.

  After a few seconds, he whispered, “…horrifying. I almost couldn’t tell where one body stopped, and another began.”

  Alice frowned. “Why would the wolves kill humans? I thought they were team good guy.”

  His eyes shut briefly, and he ran a hand down his face. “They didn’t kill humans. They killed any person left alive that had been bitten.”

  “Those who would turn into a vampire,” she said softly.

  He nodded solemnly. “I found Alice behind her house as if she’d been trying to flee. She was lying still on the ground, and I noticed the blood around her lips, along with a bite mark on her neck. It was not a vampire that had killed her, though. There was a hole in her chest where her heart should have been.”

  Alice gasped, her hand flying to her mouth and tears filling her eyes. The sadness remained in Cain’s voice and in his gaze, clinging to him like cobwebs, even after all these years.

  “I didn’t know that in six days I would become the very creature that had brought death to Alice’s door. I might have followed the wolves, so they could have killed me, as well.” He shook his head. “Instead, I stayed in Alice’s village and buried her and her family. Then I burned the village to the ground. Afterward, I went back to my home, knowing there was no way my own family had survived. I buried them, too. The entire time, I was consumed by thoughts of hunting the wolves that had killed her. By the time I finished sending all those souls off to their rest, my transformation was complete, and my thoughts were of one thing: blood.” He stared deep into Alice’s eyes and leaned closer. “Only blood.”

  She swallowed and shifted in her seat. “Is that how it is for all newly turned vampires? Raging bloodlust like on the television shows?”

  “Surprisingly, no.” He leaned back in his chair. “Some can control it better. I think it might have something to do with the state of mind the person is in when they’re turned and the type of person they are.” He shrugged. “I was scared and livid. Over time, the bloodlust lessened, though I still craved it. My attention turned to other endeavors, one of which included making the wolves pay for what they did to Alice. Turns out when you’re mostly immortal, you have lots of time to plan revenge, but you also get sidetracked along the way.”

  Alice stared at the floor. Learning Cain’s backstory had softened her heart toward him, as his transformation had not been voluntary. However, he had chosen to continue living as a vampire, feasting on blood and transforming others against their will. Her hands clasped in her lap as she struggled with the new information, as well as her own conscience. What did it say about her that she even considered looking past his transgressions? And these transgressions weren’t small things like stealing a pack of gum or telling your best friend her butt looked great in a pair of jeans that actually made her ass look like the size of Texas and just as weirdly shaped. These were mega, serious sins that caused pain and suffering for hundreds of people, if not more.

  “Don’t look at me that way,” he said quietly. “I’m not trying to change your mind about me, Alice. This is who I am. But perhaps you understand now why I have become this way.”

  She pressed her lips together, and her gaze became more intense. “Do you wish you were different?”

  He chuckled, though it lacked any humor. “You mean, do I want to be better? Do I want to be a vampire that doesn’t bring destruction to people’s lives?”

  “Yes,” she challenged. “That’s exactly what I mean.”

  He pushed to his feet and looked down at her, his gaze penetrating. “I’ve never had a reason to want to change.” He turned from her and walked back toward the door. “But who knows? Perhaps, I do now.” His words were so soft that she almost didn’t believe she’d heard him correctly.

  Her mouth dropped open as she watched him walk out of the door and close it quietly behind him. The breath whooshed from her lungs. “Well, shit.” Alice pinched the bridge of her nose and tried to process what had just happened. “I can’t even,” she muttered and shook her head. She jumped when her cell phone vibrated in her pocket. She knew who it would be. Bile rose in her throat at the prospect of speaking to her father. But she had to answer it. He would just keep calling until she did.

  She pulled it out and pressed the screen. “Hello.” Alice tried to ensure her tone didn’t betray her emotions.

  “I haven’t heard from you,” her father snapped. “Why?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe I’ve been a little busy trying to deal with a damn vampire, Dad.” She practically spat out the last word. “You forgot to mention that I would be trying to figure out mixing DNA of said vampire with werewolves. Something I am obviously not trained to do because they don’t teach us vampire and werewolf physiology.”

  “You’re on a need-to-know basis, Alice. Now what have you learned?” He ignored her comment. “Has he made progress?”

  She didn’t know what she should tell him. After speaking with Cain, Alice couldn’t help but wonder if the man he once was could still be buried underneath the man he now was. Was there a chance that she could stop him from continuing with this plan?

  “Alice,” her dad barked.

  She pulled herself from her mind and launched into her professional tone. “He has attempted his first prototype of the hybrid, but we’re waiting to see how she responds. It will take a week until we see if it’s successful.”

  “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.”

  Anger rushed down the line, and suddenly her eyes snapped open. “Don’t talk about people inserting anything into you.”

  “Whoa.” Lizzy breathed as the light in the room blinded her. She blinked several times and turned her head from side to side to make sure she was alone. Then she pushed herself up into a sitting position. Lizzy lifted her hand and rubbed her head, trying to remember the last thing that happened before she blacked out.

  “Alice came to see you,” Finn offered. “She told you Cain wouldn’t allow us to see one another.”

  “Asswipe,” Lizzy muttered, then brushed the hair from her face. She licked her lips and then cringed. “I need to brush my teeth in the worst way. I mean, like, did they feed me roadkill while I was out of it? And holy crap, why did I fall asleep in my bra? Do you have any idea how uncomfortable that is? It leaves these indentions in my skin that itch and hurt at the same time.”

  “You know I can hear you, right?” Finn asked carefully.

  “As if I could forget that you’re always present in my head. I can feel you pushing energy into me like a freaking vitamin B drip straight into my veins.” She sighed and then lifted her hands above her head and stretched. Bones popped and cartilage groaned as she manipulated her body this way and that, trying to work out the tightness. Being asleep for two days will apparently make even a nineteen-year-old stiff. Her stomach growled. “And hungry,” she muttered. Her eyes landed on a tray bearing food, which sat on a small table by the door. Lizzy slid to the edge of the bed, stood up, then stumbled when her legs folded like a towel dropped on the bathroom floor. She reached out and grabbed the bed, barely keeping herself upright.

  “You’re as wobbly as a newborn cub.” Lizzy felt more of Finn’s energy flow into her.

  “Hmm,” she murmured. “Thank you. I really want to see if that food is edible, and I don’t think I can walk those ten steps without a little help from you, wolf.”

  “I’ve always got you.”

  Lizzy smiled and took a step. When she didn’t crumble, she took another and then another until she reached the table. She pressed her hand to the bread of the sandwich. It didn’t look moldy or feel hard, so perhaps it wasn’t two days old. The cheese on the sandwich was still cold. That was a good sign, right? Lizzy picked it up and crammed it into her mouth. She was thankful that Finn could not see her. Lizzy was sure she looked more like a famished wolf taking down a deer than a starving girl devouring a sandwich. But maybe that wouldn’t bother him. He was a wolf himself, after all.

  “It wouldn’t bother me one bit. You don’t need to be embarrassed to eat in front of me.” He was still listening in on her thoughts. “I’ll find you attractive no matter what.”

  “Phsst, like I’m worried about you finding me attractive. I’m just worried you’d try to take my food away.” She was totally lying. Ugh. Lizzy never thought she’d actually care if a guy found her attractive. But here she was, stuffing her face and worrying about whether he’d think it was disgusting or hot.

  Lizzy shook her head and set down the sandwich before picking up a bottle of water. She took a deep drink and felt the gritty taste in her mouth ease and the dryness in her throat quench. Without even realizing it, she downed the entire bottle. “Holy snap, that was good.”

  She took another bite of the sandwich, but then felt a little queasy. Not wanting to risk throwing up, Lizzy put the food down and headed toward the door that led to the bathroom. “You need to tune out now, bud,” she told Finn before imagining walls in her mind shutting him out. Lizzy took care of her bathroom needs and then washed her hands. She looked at herself in the mirror and noticed the pale pallor of her skin. She turned the water back on and flushed her face with the cool water. It felt good. After several more splashes, she dried off with the towel hanging on the rack and then headed back to the bed. Lizzy climbed into the bed and sighed. “Okay, I’m back.”

  “What the hell, Liz?” Finn snapped.

  “Bathroom privileges are a no-go, wolf.” Her voice was firm. “You can growl all you want. When I go into a bathroom, I will always boot your butt out.” She snickered when he grumbled like an unhappy child. “Talk to me.” She let out a deep breath. She felt as if she’d just run a marathon instead of simply walking about, eating a couple bites, and drinking a bottle of water. What the heck?

  “What do you want me to talk about?”

  “You.” Lizzy closed her eyes. “Tell me about Finn St. James.”

  “I’ve already told you how old I am and what I look like. What more is there?”

  Lizzy shook her head. “There’s a ton more. Where were you born?”

  “In a territory that you know as Montana.” Lizzy sensed hesitation. He didn’t like talking about his past. “It reminds you of our age difference, despite the fact that I only look like I’m in my mid-twenties.” He said, addressing her thoughts.

  “Okay, you’re going to have to get over that hang-up because I only gave you a hard time about it briefly,” she pointed out. “I get it. You were born a long time ago.”

  “In 1863,” he corrected.

  “Exactly, a butt-frick long time ago.”

  “Butt-frick?”

  “You won’t understand my dialogue because of your age. You’re going to have to learn to catch on quickly, or this isn’t going to work.”

  “You’re lucky you’re cute.” Finn’s rich voice caressed her mind.

  “You can’t sweet talk me. Tell me about yourself. Montana territory. A really long time ago. Got it. Continue.”

  He hesitated for a moment and then did as she asked. “Our pack was small. And like other packs, we stayed out of human affairs and avoided the states where the war was going on. We lived a quiet life.” Lizzy felt turmoil through their bond. There was something he was ashamed of.