Chapter 11 #2
Before I could ask him, “What the fuck he was talking about” and while he was at it, “what the fuck sort of tests did Dr. Lyons need from him?” he captured my mouth in an intense kiss. I reflexively wrapped my arms around him, and something settled within me as I gave into the kiss.
He moved his hand from my waist to cup my jaw and separated just far enough to look me in the eye. “I love you, Joshua Hart. With everything I am. I will never leave you. Where you go, I go.” He held my gaze another moment, then brushed his lips over mine.
I eagerly accepted the invitation, wrapping myself tighter around him and deepening the kiss.
Need saturated my being as the heady scent of Elijah’s desire clouded my senses.
I’d already buried my fingers in his hair and was practically dry-humping him when I noticed Dr. Lyons standing in the open doorway.
I quickly removed my arms from around Elijah and would have backed up if he hadn’t already sandwiched me against the wall. “Baby, we have company,” I whispered so only he could hear. Rather than step away, he tightened his embrace and released a low growl that vibrated against my chest.
“Oh dear. It’s worse than I thought. Dr. Bennett, if you could please release Detective Hart so that we might relocate to my office.” I could feel Elijah’s reluctance as he untangled himself from around me and moved back, but not before he stole a sweet kiss.
We made an awkward train as we traversed the bland hallway.
By the time we reached Dr. Lyons’ office, my agitation was spiking, but at least my mood felt stable.
Probably had something to do with Elijah intertwining our fingers and refusing to let go of my hand.
Not that I was complaining. Mostly. Though it would be nice if someone would tell me what in the seven hells was going on.
“What’s this about, Dr Lyons?” I asked the moment everyone had taken a seat in the small sitting area adjacent to her desk.
She finished smoothing her blouse and darted a glance at Elijah before redirecting her focus to me. “I want to start by apologizing. I never should have left you alone in the exam room for so long, especially when I was concerned you might be in a fragile state.”
“What makes you so sure I was fragile? Because I didn’t take the sedative before coming?” I asked, doing everything I could to keep my tone even instead of accusatory.
“Yes… and no. While your current fragile state is exasperated by your condition, Mein Zeke is not the cause.”
When she didn’t immediately elaborate, I looked at Elijah and was shocked to find guilt pinching his features. “What is going on?”
He held up my hand, which he’d yet to relinquish, and kissed the back. “I’m so sorry, moonbeam.”
“Dr. Lyons, could you please explain to me what the hell is going on?” I demanded in a clipped tone.
“Yes, of course. When Elijah first told me you were unwell, I had my theories—”
“Really?” I snapped at Elijah, and he winced as if I’d struck him.
“Please let me finish,” Dr. Lyons implored.
“What happened earlier confirmed my theory and ties into what I’ve uncovered by comparing your most recent blood samples with those from your childhood.
Detective Hart—Josh—you’ve been suffering not only from an extreme case of Mein Zeke but also…
the side effects of a rejected mating bond. ”
Cold trickled through me. I’d been right this whole time.
“Josh, please. I am so, so sorry. If I could go back and change things, I’d do it in a heartbeat,” Elijah said, gripping my hand tightly while his eyes pleaded with me.
“You knew?” I couldn’t decide if I wanted to fly into a Mein Zeke-fueled rage or slip into a bottomless well of depression. One thing I wasn’t was surprised. Of course Elijah would change things if he could. He’d never said it outright before, but I’d always known.
“Before we get off track, there are things you need to understand. Yes, you are displaying classic signs of a rejected mate, but your symptoms are too advanced for it to have only begun since you completed the bond.”
I looked away from the supposed anguish crumpling Elijah’s beautiful face to address Dr. Lyons. “What do you mean?”
She wore a plaintive expression as she leaned forward. “Your symptoms don’t reflect a scant few weeks. They’re more in line with if you’d been experiencing rejection of the bond for months, almost six to be exact.”
“But… how? Humans can’t bond.”
“I am unbelievably sorry, Josh. I didn’t know. It was never my intention to hurt you,” Elijah said, his voice cracking.
I didn’t like that he was upset, but I also couldn’t bring myself to do anything about it.
“Except you did. You wanted to punish me. First for my job, and that I had the gall to be your mate. Then for being a Harker.” I looked away from him, unable to bear witnessing how much my words affected him. “What I still don’t understand is how.”
“That’s where your medical records come in. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how you could have possibly turned when you said it shouldn’t be possible. So I did some digging. Josh, have you ever been bitten by a lycanthrope?”
“Yes, when I was very young.”
She nodded as if the news didn’t surprise her.
“And yet, you didn’t turn. You somehow survived the interaction and continued to develop as a human.
That’s where all of us in the medical community got it wrong.
There are so few reported cases of immunity, we have next to no data on what that immunity looks like biologically.
Now, I do.” She pulled a slim data tab out of a folder on her lap I hadn’t noticed and passed it to me.
I stared blankly at pages filled with readouts, numbers, and graphs.
“You were never truly immune. I suspect no one is.”
“I’m not following,” Elijah said as he cautiously took the data pad from my numb fingers.
“You became a sort of carrier. The lycanthrope gene only partially attached to your DNA. Enough to subtly influence your development, but not enough to make you a lycan. It wasn’t the bite of the infected lycan that made you turn.
It was the genetically modified serum being injected almost directly into your heart interacting with the lycan gene that was already there.
It was enough to force the original gene to reattach itself fully to your DNA.
And it’s why your symptoms of a rejected bond are so pronounced.
When… when Elijah started the bond, so did you. ”
Elijah sucked in a ragged breath beside me. I glanced at him, but wasn’t sure what to make of the horror darkening his face. I slowly removed my hand from his suddenly slack grip. “No,” he whispered. “No, I can’t… I didn’t…” His voice caught, and he covered his mouth with his hand to stifle a sob.
“How do we fix it? Is there a way to… undo the bond?” I asked in a dead voice.
It was a question I should have asked months ago, but there was no hiding from it anymore.
Elijah needed to be free of me, and I needed to be free of him before it killed me, which in turn would kill him. I wouldn’t let that happen.
“Don’t you fucking dare,” Elijah growled, launching out of seat.
“There is no way to ‘undo the bond’,” he pointed an accusatory finger at Dr. Lyons, “and if you know of one—even a damn myth—you keep that shit to yourself.” Abruptly, he dragged me to my feet and held my face so I couldn’t look away from him.
“You listen to me, you obstinate, infuriating, beautiful fucking man. I love you. I have absolutely no desire to be unbonded to you. I didn’t then and I don’t now.
And whatever you need me to do—magic spell, shout from a rooftop, whatever it takes—to make you believe me, I’ll do it. ”
I searched his cognac gaze. “Why didn’t you want to have sex with me after my first run?”
Surprise brightened his features. “Because I was scared. What if something happened and I couldn’t bring you home? I was so caught up in my fears, I never… I never paused to think about what you might be feeling.”
“It’s about damn time,” Dr. Lyons announced dramatically.
Elijah and I turned to look at her, though it was a little difficult in my case, given that Elijah was still holding my face.
“Here’s what we’re going to do. You two are going to go home, work on your communication, and fuck your brains out—yes, that is an official prescription, and I expect you to take doctor’s orders seriously.
As for the sedatives. Detective Hart, I know it hasn’t been easy, but I need you to work on not relying on them.
While addiction is always a concern with powerful medications, I’m more concerned about their continued efficacy. You’re adapting to them.”
Well, that was terrible fucking news.