Chapter 33
CASSIE
Cassie tried desperately to ignore the need that was growing inside her.
All day long she ignored it. She ignored it while she was cooking and cleaning and eating with the guys.
She ignored it when she took a second shower and then a third, in an attempt to cool down and ease the heat that was growing inside her.
She even ignored the looks that Severin and Ravik—who seemed to be more and more himself—exchanged and the way they sniffed the air when she got near either of them.
They can tell, whispered the traitorous little voice in her head. They know what you’re feeling…what you need. They can smell it on you—the heat…the desire.
Well even if that was true, she wasn’t about to tell on herself and admit what she was so desperately craving. She wasn’t going to go through another humiliating experience like she had earlier today when she’d been impaled on Ravik’s cock and hadn’t been able to stop herself from grinding on him.
Maybe if I ignore it, it’ll just go away, she told herself desperately.
But she wondered if maybe the others who had been bitten or scratched by an Infected had been telling themselves the same thing.
Because it was the Hunger Virus doing this to her—making her feel so needy.
Only instead of living flesh, she craved male contact and male seed.
Which seemed like an absolutely ridiculous situation to find herself in, but her whole life had been turned upside down recently, so she supposed she shouldn’t be surprised that the virus that was turning everyone else into zombies was turning her into a nymphomaniac instead.
She ignored her body as long as she could but it all came to a head that evening. It was right after a supper of thigian stew and both males here helping her clean up because, despite their size and strength, Kindred were much more domestic and helpful with chores than human men.
Cassie was standing between them washing dishes when Severin reached around her to take the bowls from the narrow table and Ravik stepped close behind her to help stack the cups.
It should have been nothing—just two males helping clean up after supper. Two very large, very muscular Kindred males who both smelled entirely too good and who had apparently decided that domestic chores were a group activity.
Ravik was behind her, his massive body radiating heat like a furnace, and Severin was at her side, cool and elegant and controlled as he reached past her to collect the dishes she was trying very hard not to drop.
But when their scents mingled around her—Ravik’s dark leather-and-smoke spice and Severin’s clean, sharp ocean-wind scent—Cassie’s body reacted like someone had lit a match inside her.
Heat bloomed low in her belly, sudden and fierce.
Her nipples tightened so sharply that she had to bite back a gasp, and the ache between her thighs turned from annoying to almost painful in the space of a single breath.
She gripped the edge of the sink, her knuckles going white, and tried to pretend she had simply lost her balance.
Of course, neither of them was fooled.
“Cassandra?” Severin said at once, his blue eyes worried behind his glasses.
At the same time, Ravik leaned closer from behind her and inhaled deeply.
“Cassie needs,” he rumbled.
Cassie closed her eyes.
Just great. Wonderful. Fantastic. Apparently she couldn’t even have a private horny zombie crisis without both Kindred males detecting it like bloodhounds.
“Cassie does not need anything,” she said tightly. “I’m fine—I just slipped, that’s all.”
Ravik made a low, disbelieving sound.
“Cassie smells like need,” he rumbled. “Smells like she did when she was riding my cock.”
“That’s enough, Ravik,” she snapped, opening her eyes again. “We’re not talking about that—okay?”
Severin set the bowls down slowly.
“Cassandra, are you in pain?” he asked.
She lifted her chin.
“No.”
“Are you dizzy?”
“Not a bit.”
“Is your body temperature rising?”
“Probably, but that’s nothing new.” She tried to let go of the sink and discovered that her knees felt alarmingly unreliable. So she kept holding on. “Hot flashes are kind of my thing lately, in case you forgot.”
“This does not smell like a hot flash,” Ravik said.
Cassie looked over her shoulder at him.
“And you are not helping.”
The big Beast Kindred immediately looked contrite, which would have been sweet if she hadn’t been about two seconds away from either screaming or climbing him like a tree. God, she felt like she was going crazy inside!
But she couldn’t show it.
“Sorry,” the big Beast Kindred said, his broad shoulders slumping.
Cassie immediately felt bad—she hated hurting his feelings. He sounded so earnest and so careful and so much more like himself than he had earlier. His golden eyes were mostly clear now, though she could still see a faint haze at the edges.
Ravik was fighting his way back, piece by piece, and somehow that made her want him even more. Not just because he was huge and warm and protective— though he definitely was all those things—but because he was trying so hard to connect with her.
And because her body apparently wanted to reward him for that in a very sexual way. Her mind began to fill with fantasies and she immediately pushed them away.
No, nope—not going there. Don’t even think about it.
But she couldn’t help remembering the feeling of being impaled on his giant cock and the way he’d teased her clit until she came for him…or the night before when Severin had been sucking her nipples while Ravik fingered her…Or—
No, there she went again. She had to stop this, damn it! What was wrong with her?
The two Kindred were watching silently as she struggled with herself and Severin’s gaze had sharpened in that way she was beginning to recognize—that was his scientist look.
The one that made her feel like he was reading every heart beat, every flushed inch of skin, and every embarrassing reaction she was trying and failing to hide.
“Cassandra, are you aroused?” he asked quietly.
Cassie glared at him.
“That is not a polite question,” she snapped.
“No,” he admitted. “But it may be a medically necessary one.”
“Oh, of course it is.” She gave a short, breathless laugh that didn’t sound much like laughter at all. “Of course my level of horniness is now medically relevant. Because why wouldn’t it be?”
Severin didn’t smile—not even that little half-smile he did sometimes when one corner of his mouth twitched up. That worried her.
Instead, he stepped closer—not touching her, but near enough that his scent washed over her again—clean and cold and sharp.
Cassie’s thighs pressed together involuntarily and her breath caught in her throat. Oh God, he smelled so good! They both did. She felt like a starving woman being offered a tasty dish, but she knew if she took even a tiny nibble, she wouldn’t be able to stop.
His eyes flicked downward but not to her breasts this time—to her arm, where she’d been bitten by the Infected.
Cassie followed his gaze and froze.
The bite wound was glowing.
Not brightly—not like some kind of neon sign flashing infected woman here, thank God.
But there was a definite shimmer under the skin around the puncture marks—a faint reddish-gold pulse that seemed to beat in time with her heart.
The tissue around it was flushed—not an angry-red like an ordinary infection, but hot and luminous—as though something beneath her skin was waking up.
“Oh my God,” she whispered. “What the hell is wrong with my freaking arm?”
Ravik growled low in his throat, his golden eyes narrowed with worry—clearly he was perceiving the glowing as a threat.
“Let me get a better look.”
Severin caught her wrist—not hard, but firmly enough to turn her arm toward the light. His fingers were warm and careful, but the moment he touched her, the glow brightened.
Cassie gasped as a jolt of heat shot from the bite wound straight through her body, down into her breasts and lower belly and the aching place between her legs. Her nipples went tight enough to hurt and her pussy clenched helplessly around emptiness.
She yanked her arm back and stared at the Blood Kindred.
“What the hell was that?” she demanded.
Severin looked shaken.
“I don’t know. I haven’t read about anything like this in any of the literature.”
That was possibly the worst thing he could have said.
“What do you mean, you don’t know?” Cassie demanded. “You’re the scientist! You’re supposed to know! You’re supposed to find out what’s wrong with me and fix it!”
“I’m trying to.” His voice was calm, but his eyes were anything but. “May I see it again?”
“No.”
She immediately regretted the sharpness in her voice and forced herself to breathe. He really was just trying to help and it wasn’t his fault her body had decided it wanted to do something nobody had ever heard of before.
“I mean…yes. Fine. Just don’t touch it yet,” she said.
Severin nodded at once.
“Of course.”
Cassie held out her arm reluctantly. The bite wound continued to pulse faintly, the glow waxing and fading beneath her skin. It was beautiful in a horrible way, she thought. Beautiful and terrifying and completely wrong.
“Cassie is frightened,” Ravik rumbled.
He stepped closer behind her, his heat wrapping around her back and as he put a hand on her shoulder, the glow brightened again.
Cassie’s whole body clenched, helpless with desire. If she could have, she would have taken them both on at once—right there at the sink. Her whole body felt flushed with need and between her legs she was aching with emptiness.
“Stop it!” she gasped. “Both of you stop touching me!”
Both males went instantly still.
Ravik took a step back and Severin lifted both hands, palms out, though his gaze remained fixed on her arm.
“Did we hurt you, sweetheart?” he asked softly.
“No.” Her voice sounded shaky. “No, it’s not pain. It’s…it’s like…” She stopped, mortified.
“Like what?” Severin asked softly.
Cassie shot him a glare.