Chapter 51
CASSIE
“They want us to what?” Cassie demanded, after Severin finished explaining.
Ravik was there too, not looking at his best friend—or maybe it would be better to call them ex-best friends now, she thought unhappily—but listening just the same.
“You heard me, but I assume you want me to repeat myself because you feel shocked,” the Blood Kindred said.
“In order to re-enter the general population of the Mother Ship, everyone on board must first be vaccinated against the Hunger Virus. And the only way to make a general-use vaccine that will work on everyone is for it to be incubated in a living host. The same way I incubated the cure inside myself,” he added.
“And…I’m supposed to be the host?” Cassie asked. She was still uncomfortable with the idea. “Are they going to let it grow inside me and then take gallons of my blood to make the vaccine?” she asked fearfully.
She wanted everyone to be safe from the deadly Hunger Virus, but she didn’t exactly like the idea of being the sacrificial lamb to make that happen.
“Not your blood,” Severin said quickly. “The vaccine will be made in your mammary glands.”
“What, so they’ll have to…have to milk me?” Cassie could hardly believe it. She’d read a few of those fringe romance books about “hucows” where human women were put into a constant state of lactation, but she’d never pictured herself in such a situation.
“It won’t be milk your breasts are producing—more like a kind of nectar,” Severin told her.
Cassie threw up her hands.
“Oh, well then, that just makes everything so much better, doesn’t it? I mean sure—hook me up to the milking machine right now—as long as I’m only producing nectar, why should I mind?”
“I still don’t understand why you and I have to be involved,” Ravik growled, glaring at Severin.
The Blood Kindred closed his eyes for a moment and Cassie had an idea he was gathering every scrap of patience he still had left.
“Because,” he said at last. “Cassandra will need genetic material from both of us. She’s going to need our seed.”
Cassie bit her lip and thought about saying that she already needed their seed. The bite mark on her arm was glowing almost constantly now and the deep aching emptiness inside her was driving her crazy.
The thirst was unrelenting too. No matter how much water she drank, her throat was dry as chalk. She’d been thinking longingly of their flavors—salted caramel mixed with white chocolate—but the memory of sucking them both only made her thirstier and sadder.
“So Cassie needs us both to incubate a cure inside her tits,” Ravik said rudely. “In other words, you want to share her again. Why don’t you just go fucking bite everyone aboard the Mother Ship instead? That’s more your fucking style, isn’t it?”
“You know, Commander Sylvan asked me about that.” Two spots of color were burning on Severin’s cheekbones, but he kept his chin high and held Ravik’s golden eyes with his own as he talked.
“He wasn’t sure how I was able to bite you and cure you of the Hunger Virus, since a male Blood Kindred’s fangs only get sharp enough to bite someone he loves. ”
Ravik just looked at him, but Severin didn’t look away.
“I care about you, Ravik,” he said in a low voice. “More than anyone else in the universe—with the possible exception of Cassandra, now that she’s come into our lives. If I didn’t care for you, I couldn’t have cured you. I’m sorry that it made you hate me, but—”
“I don’t fucking hate you,” Ravik interrupted, frowning. “But I can’t be sharing a mate with you either, Sev. You know how my people feel about that.”
“The same way mine do,” Severin said calmly.
“I know it’s forbidden in both our cultures—only Twin Kindred share mates.
But I’m asking you to come with me and Cassandra—if she consents to go—to Cherubin Three in order to make a vaccine so we can all get back to our normal lives.
And yes, there may be some ‘sharing’ involved.
If you want to end our friendship afterwards, I’ll understand.
But for now, I’m asking you to help make this cure available to everyone—including the uninfected Visskous still trapped on Visslick Prime. ”
“Fuck them—they threw Cassie out into the Dead Zone,” Ravik growled. His eyes narrowed. “And fuck you if you think you can guilt me into sharing again. I’m in my right mind now and I’m not going to do it!”
“Not even for me?”
Cassie had been silent, just letting them talk it out. This was the first time they’d talked since the three of them were quarantined—she knew because Severin had told her—and she wanted to let them get their feelings out. But she couldn’t help interjecting now.
“What?” Ravik asked and both of them looked at her through the clear barrier.
She took a deep breath, trying to hold back the tears that threatened just behind her eyes.
“I said, would you do it for me, Ravik?” she repeated.
“Because the need inside me is…is tearing me apart.” She put a hand to her heart, unable to stop the tears from coming now.
“You don’t know what it’s been like, being separated from the two of you,” she said, and her voice came out sounding broken. “I feel so empty inside…so thirsty…”
She stopped then, because she couldn’t go on. The sobs overtook her, tearing out of her chest from the deepest, loneliest place inside her.
“I just…just want to feel the two of you holding me again,” she managed to get out at last. “Please, I need you…need you both.”
She buried her face in her hands, hating to be so weak in front of them.
But she couldn’t help herself. The need was riding her hard—like a cruel master with a whip.
She hadn’t known how much she needed both of the big Kindred on the other side of the clear barrier until she was separated from their touch… from their scents.
All this time she’d been holding out hope that they would be released from quarantine and allowed to be together again but now Ravik was saying it was never going to happen and she just couldn’t take it!
“Gods, sweetheart—I’m so sorry,” she heard Severin say. Ravik was silent, though.
He probably got up and left, Cassie thought, sobbing harder. He doesn’t want anything to do with this because he’s so damn scared of looking gay or sharing or whatever the problem is!
The thought made her mad—mad enough to look up and she saw, to her surprise, that the big Beast Kindred was still there, sitting on a stool beside Severin on the other side of the barrier.
“You know, I don’t know why you won’t even try,” she snapped at him. “Are you that afraid of being anywhere near another guy—even your own best friend?”
“It’s not just being near me sexually that’s bothering him,” Severin said in a low voice. “You don’t understand the stigma around sharing a mate—especially in the Beast Kindred culture. It’s even worse than being a lover of males—though it carries that connotation too,” he added.
She shook her head.
“But Twin Kindred share mates all the time.”
“Because they are biologically programmed to—they can’t physically reproduce otherwise,” Severin said. “Also, because they’re brothers, they don’t touch each other sexually—they only tend to their mate.”
“Oh, so no one thinks they’re gay, I guess,” Cassie said dully.
She glared at Ravik. “It’s the twenty-first century, you know.
People are fine with other people being gay now.
Well, most people are, anyway,” she amended.
“And if you’re so afraid of sharing me with Severin that you’ll let me suffer and refuse to help make the vaccine—”
“I’ll do it.” His voice was so low it barely registered in her brain.
“I mean, I’m the one who’s going to be a real-life hucow, you know!
” she went on, her sorrow turning to rage.
She swiped at her eyes. “They’re going to hook me up to a freaking milking machine but oh, no—you’re the injured party because you and Severin rubbed pee-pees together one time and you might have to do it again! You can’t even—”
“I said, I’ll fucking do it!” Ravik raised his voice to a roar and it finally broke through to her.
She stopped talking abruptly and stared at him.
“What?” she asked at last, afraid she hadn’t heard him right.
He frowned at her, his golden eyes blazing.
“I’ll do it. I’ll go with you to Cherubin Three. I’ll even share you with Sev if you need me to. Hell, I’ll suck his cock or let him suck mine, if that’s what it takes to cure you. Because I care about you—because you’re my mate. At least in here.” He pounded himself on the chest.
Cassie’s mouth went dry.
“Ravik, I don’t know what to say.”
“Don’t fucking say anything, because I’m not done yet.” He pointed a finger at her through the glass. “Because after that—after the vaccine is made and everybody’s cured—the three of us are going our separate ways.”
Severin looked troubled.
“Ravik—” he began but the Beast Kindred held up a hand to stop him.
“No—I don’t to hear it. I don’t want to hear another fucking word about it. Don’t try to talk to me or I might change my mind.”
He got off the stool and stalked away, his broad shoulders tight with anger.
Cassie stared after him, not sure of what to say. She looked at Severin, who had a stunned and stricken look on his face.
“Do you think he really means it?” she asked softly.
The Blood Kindred shook his head.
“I don’t know. But I’ve never known him to change his mind once he makes a major decision.” He sighed and ran a hand through his tousled blonde hair. “I guess we’ll find out.”
Cassie felt like her heart might burst and she wanted more than ever to get through the barrier and hug him.
Not for her own comfort this time, but for his.
The big Blood Kindred just looked so beaten down and defeated—he looked like a man who had just lost his best friend.
Which he probably had, she thought sadly.
“I’m so sorry, Severin,” she said softly, putting a hand on the glass. “I never meant to come between you two.”
“You didn’t.” He looked away, towards the direction Ravik had taken. “You brought us together. That’s the problem.”