Chapter 15 #3
She scrubbed the back of her neck. “Perhaps the subject had only recently been infected, within a few hours, maybe. Not enough time to fry the synapses. Or maybe he’d been infected long enough to kickstart his brain cells again.
I honestly don’t know. I haven’t run across anything like that here in the lab. ”
“Too many questions, Grace.”
“And not enough answers. I know. I’m doing the best I can.”
“Keep me posted.”
“Absolutely. And if you can get me more of that blood, it would really help. Totally the other end of the spectrum there. One annihilates; the other is a possible cure. Knowing you, you’ll want both in your arsenal while dealing with this, and I’ve got a friend here I’d like to have back.”
Syre thought of his daughter-in-law. It was too late for Nikki, but hopefully others could be saved. “I’ll work on it.”
“And the virologist, please. I’ve got skills, but this is really outside my field of expertise.”
With a nod, he ended the call and exhaled harshly.
“What do you know, Adrian?” he murmured softly to himself. “And what will I have to do to get you to tell me about it?”
Vash raced through the trees, darting and weaving, her heart and limbs pumping strong and steady.
Her body was a machine, built for her existence as an angel and sculpted by her life as a warrior.
Although she heard the pounding lunges and heaving breaths of the lycan hot on her trail, she didn’t look back.
There was no point. It would only slow her down, and knowing where he was or how close he might be wouldn’t make her run faster.
She’d never been outrun by a lycan. Never. She was too quick, too nimble.
But she knew Elijah was different. He’d proven that back on the highway, and even while she thought of that, he proved it again.
She leaped agilely over a fallen log, but he vaulted past her. His front paws dug into the earth, and he pivoted, his tail end whipping around 180 degrees.
“Damn it,” she hissed.
Faced with a wild beast she didn’t have the heart to injure, she sprang and flipped over him. But the leaf-littered forest floor gave her no traction. Her feet slipped out from under her. She hit the ground on her belly and skidded forward, her fingers and toes scrambling for purchase.
He was on her in a heartbeat, straddling her and catching her by the shoulder with his teeth. His breath was hot and fast, a growl rumbling in his chest. When she tried to move, he shook her gently, his teeth dug in, but not breaking the skin. He snarled a warning.
Vash melted into the ground, completely pliant. Her stomach quivered with something she began to suspect was delight. Perhaps triumph. Certainly relief.
He’d chased her. Captured her.
Her heart rate kicked up, as did her breathing, reactions her exertions hadn’t been capable of eliciting. She lay prone beneath him, absorbing his warmth into her back, her fingers digging restlessly into the dirt.
It took several moments before Elijah released her. When he did, it was with another growled admonition to remain unmoving. He gave her a few moments to prove that she would do so without his interference; then he nuzzled her cheek with his wet nose.
The surprisingly tender gesture had her lifting her head to meet his gaze. “Elijah…”
His lip curled in a snarl. His eyes still had that primal light burning inside them.
“Okay. All right.” She exhaled and relaxed again, her mind trying to work out why she was submitting so meekly. She submitted to no one but Syre and only in certain respects. In many others, she was the dominant. Yes, because he allowed her to be, but still…even Char had known to give her the lead.
She jolted a little when Elijah settled his weight carefully on her, his belly curving into her spine. He didn’t give her the whole of his weight, which would have crushed her, but he gave her enough to pin her and make sure she didn’t forget he was there. As if that were possible.
Vash couldn’t say how long they lay like that—he atop her and quietly panting, gently sniffing her and nudging with his snout. She couldn’t say why it soothed the jagged edges of her mood, edges that had been ripping at her from the inside since he’d shown her the door the day before.
She couldn’t say when she realized those edges had been tearing her up for years.
She knew only that the equanimity she found in the forest with Elijah exposed an inner torment she hadn’t been aware she was carrying.
Anger and hunger for revenge were her constant companions, but the pain had been buried beyond her awareness of it, an ache not noted until it was gone.
When he shifted forms, she felt the power of it, the ripple that displaced the very space around her.
The softness and warmth of rough satin fur morphed into rock-hard muscle and scorching skin.
He continued to rub his cheek against her.
He continued to pant as if he were exerting himself to his limits.
Her palms grew damp when she felt the unmistakable length of his erection resting in the seam of her thighs. “Elijah…?”
“Vashti.” His voice was still guttural. Rough. Sexy as hell. “Isn’t enough… Sorry.”
She stiffened, disappointment piercing her like a blade. She wasn’t enough? What they had—whatever it was—wasn’t enough?