Chapter 12 #3
Thane gave his brother a strange look but didn’t comment.
“I spent my whole adult life purposefully distancing myself from them.
I only ever cared about Ren and Sean. But now it's like I'm being dragged back in, and there's no way out.” I let out a hollow laugh.
“I should have known better than to think the world would forget us after my uncle kicked the bucket.”
War's hand came up to cup my face, his thumb rubbing soothing circles along my cheekbone. I could feel Gareth and Thane watching us carefully.
“I think it’s Serenity she wants most. After the facilities were raided, the labs were destroyed. If she plans on rebuilding, she’ll need strong hybrid blood," Gareth mused.
I blinked at him, processing. “Holy shit, you’re right...”
I hadn’t even considered that. Now that Estelle was free, what was stopping her from starting from scratch?
“But what’s her goal anyway? To make hybrids? How does that benefit her?”
Thane laughed humorlessly, smoke puffing from his lips. “I’ve known Estelle for centuries, and she’s never had much love for humans. If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say she was planning to eliminate them altogether.”
”What, with a hybrid army or something?”
He shrugged. “Perhaps. Or maybe she plans on mass releasing the drug, giving humans the opportunity to become Darklings themselves.”
I shook my head. “That doesn’t make any sense. If a human wanted to become a Darkling, couldn’t they just ask a vampire to change them?”
“It doesn’t work like that,” War said. “We’re talking on a global scale. If Estelle really wants to eliminate humans from the gene pool, then whatever she does will be on a massive scale, and it’ll be involuntary.”
“And vampires would run out of food supply,” said Gareth.
We all looked at him, realization dawning with horror.
“Fuck,” I said, running a hand down my face.
“And hybrids can survive off of vampire blood. Serenity told me she doesn’t even technically need human blood anymore.
” The realization of exactly what Estelle had planned nauseated me to my core.
“I have a feeling my uncle had no idea what he was getting himself into. He hated Darklings. There’s no way he would have agreed to help a witch turn everyone into hybrids. ”
”She probably lied to him,” Thane suggested. “He wanted to eliminate Darklings, so she glamoured herself and pretended she could turn us all human, when in reality she was harvesting DNA for her serums.”
My head was spinning. It was all too much. I didn’t know shit about science or biology, but I did know that if you had enough wealth and power, you could do a whole lot of damage and convince a whole lot of people to do your dirty work.
If we didn’t find Estelle and eliminate her, there was a very real chance that the kidnappings would start up again and we’d be back to square one. Estelle framing me for murder was just the first step to getting us out of her way.
“We’ll be right there with you,” said War, his dark eyes boring into mine. “Nobody will hurt you again, I promise.”
A low growl rumbled from Gareth, and as I peered over at him, his eyes were bright, reflecting the moon. “They won’t touch you.”
Warmth spread through me despite the chill in the night air as snow began to trickle down.
“So...mates,” Thane said after a moment, his bright eyes flickering between Gareth and me. He wore a cheeky grin that had me rolling my eyes.
Gareth inched closer to me posesively, and I placed a hand on his arm. His skin was hot to the touch. “I’m still trying to process it myself.” I laughed. “I hope… I hope it’s not weird.” I was getting awkward.
”As long as I can still do this,” Thane said as he bent toward me, kissing me deeply before pulling away with a glimmer of playfulness in his eyes.
I glanced at Gareth, who just shook his head with a perpetual scowl on his face. “If you're trying to piss me off, it won’t work,” my mate said. “My mate gets what my mate wants.”
Thane raised a surprised brow. “Is that right? And what does your beautiful, lovely, perfect mate want?” His eyes dipped over my body, and I realized belatedly that I wasn’t really dressed for the winter in my shorts and oversized nightshirt.
I looked around at the three of them, who watched me with hungry eyes. My skin felt hot, and my belly filled with butterflies.
“God damnit, guys!” Serenity shouted as she stepped outside. I jumped out of my skin, hand on my chest, as my heart shot up into my throat. “Why are we all congregating here instead of inside where it’s warm?”
Thane blew smoke toward the sky above before putting out his cigarette on one of War’s empty flower pots. “We were enjoying an intensely romantic moment.”
My cousin snorted, wiggling her eyebrows at me as a flush crept to my cheeks. “Alright then, carry on,” she said cheekily before slipping back inside. She paused before the door clicked shut and added, “Don’t forget to use protection!”
I bent down and scooped up a handful of powdery snow and threw it at her. She yelped and slammed the door shut while the guys chuckled.