Chapter 12 #3
“You think she’ll come looking for you,” the vamp surmised.
He tossed his duffel in the backseat of the Jeep Raze selected. No reply was necessary, so Elijah didn’t give one.
“You’re holding yourself in high esteem, Alpha.” Raze slid behind the wheel. “But after what she did for you yesterday, I guess you have a right to.”
“Mind your own business,” he warned without heat. “She’s safe with me.”
The vampire pulled out of the lot, leaving a small sand cloud in their wake. “There’s an off chance I might come to like you.”
“I won’t hold my breath.”
“Yeah… I wouldn’t recommend it.”
“We need to get that cooler to Grace.” Vash jerked her chin at the red and white ice chest on Syre’s desk.
He lifted the lid and frowned at the contents. “What’s all this?”
“The stuff we used to transfuse Lindsay’s blood into Elijah.”
Syre’s gaze met hers. “You’re suspicious. Because Adrian sent her instead of a bag of blood?”
“I saw his eyes when I had a knife to her throat. He’d bleed for her and wouldn’t think twice. So why didn’t he?” She paced. “I wish I knew what she’d said to him while I was knocked out in the back of the car.”
“You think she talked him into letting her come. Why?”
“I know she did. And she did it for him, of course. Hasn’t everything she’s done been for him?”
“But wasn’t this as much about the Alpha?”
“Yeah, she came for Elijah, too.” Her hands fisted, and she clasped them behind her back to hide the telltale movement.
“But that wouldn’t have been enough for Adrian to let her go.
There’s something else. After all, what she gave us was pretty much Adrian’s blood, filtered.
Why was that acceptable and not the pure stuff? I’m hoping Grace can figure it out.”
Closing the cooler, Syre leaned back against his desk and tracked her movements with his gaze. “Grace is busy researching the Wraith virus.”
“Then we get someone else. We need more lab rats anyway. Every day that passes, the infection spreads. If we don’t get a lid on this, we’re going to give Adrian the excuse he needs to take us all out.
We need to test lycan blood as well. The wraiths were all over Elijah.
They completely ignored Salem and me, but ingesting El’s blood killed them.
I know we want a cure, but we may not have the luxury of one.
We may need to take the infected down for damage control, and if lycan blood is poisonous to them, we should know that. ”
“I’ll look into some suitable ‘lab rat’ candidates. As for lycan blood, it could be the touch of demon in them that’s the culprit.”
“Well, there’s an endless supply of demons. If we need to test them, too, I’ll round some up when I get back.”
“You’re heading out?”
She stopped pacing and told him about Elijah’s queries to Adrian.
“And Adrian just gave up this information voluntarily?” Syre crossed his arms. “To the very lycan who’s weakened his position so drastically?”
“I’m sure Lindsay argued on Elijah’s behalf. Again.”
“She’s that close to the Alpha? Is there something between them?”
Vash exhaled harshly. “Friendship. Adrian would’ve killed him if it were anything else.
Actually, maybe they’re more like family—siblings or close cousins.
She gave up her mortal life to be with Adrian; I can’t imagine she had many close ties to be able to do that so easily.
And Elijah…he’s somewhat of a lone wolf.
He’s a hands-on leader, but he doesn’t share so much as supports.
What few friends he has are valuable to him. ”
He’d kill for them. Was planning on killing her for one of them.
That Lindsay was one of the few fortunate people to be part of that inner circle in Elijah’s life irritated Vash to no end.
Knowing there was nothing romantic involved didn’t stem her irrational jealousy.
And thinking about just how much Micah must have meant to Elijah sent acidic surges of guilt through her.
She’d learned long ago not to nurse regrets. It was too dangerous to do so when living an endless life. But hurting Elijah as she had…for a crime he’d turned out to be innocent of…it ate at her.
“So you’re taking him with you to Huntington?” Syre asked.
“Yes. I told you my price in the beginning—I’d round him up for you, but I get what I need from him, too.”
His mouth curved. “I haven’t forgotten.”
“I’ll check in and keep you apprised. It shouldn’t take long.” She was eager to get going. Not just to get the task done but to work alongside Elijah. In the tasks they’d tackled together so far, he’d balanced her. Leveled her out. And she’d done the same for him. They worked well together.
It was his more intimate effect on her that knocked her off kilter.
“Be careful, Vashti. And watchful for traps. His authority is still being established, and he’ll be challenged often. I don’t want you caught in the crosshairs. No one wants to see what I’d do if something happened to you.”
She caught his hand and squeezed it, grateful for him and for his faith in her, something that must have been hard to maintain in the years since Charron died.
Opening the office door, she strode out into an eerily quiet warehouse.
Not a soul moved in the cavernous space, and while it might have been possible that Elijah was in one of the offices, she knew right away he was gone.
She felt the void, and her stomach knotted, a reaction that set off her temper.
She wasn’t mad that he’d left—it didn’t take a genius to figure out what must have unfolded while she was distracted—but it infuriated her that it rocked her to find him gone. It stung that he had been able to leave without a fight after she’d struggled with just the thought of it.
Grabbing a set of car keys off the wall rack, Vash was halfway to the door when it opened and the next busload of lycans poured in, brought to her courtesy of Salem, who’d headed out before dawn to pick them up.
“Fuckin’ A.” She was trapped until she and Salem could get the new teams squared away. Elijah had plugged in his suggestions for team compositions that morning, which would save her time, but there was no way she’d catch him before his flight left the ground.
Her anger simmering, she hung the keys back up and got to work.