Chapter 18
Adrian exited his private plane first, then held out a hand to assist Lindsay down the short steps.
“Wow,” she said. “It’s definitely cooler here in Ontario.”
Soon she wouldn’t notice such things. Every day, the vampirism in her blood took greater and greater hold, and every day, he was relieved to find her soul pure and intact. It seemed Shadoe’s soul had indeed been enough of a sacrifice, leaving Lindsay’s unmarred by the curse of the Fallen.
Although he had doubts that the Creator paid any attention to him anymore, Adrian still offered up his gratitude for the miracle of her.
With his hand at her back, he steered her toward the Mitchell Aeronautics hangar Siobhán was using as her home base. They stepped through a slender parting between the massive hangar doors, then headed to the stairs that led down into the subterranean storage areas.
The eerie quiet they descended into was very much at odds with his last visit. Then, the screams of the maddened infected minions had been damn near deafening. He’d since had the rooms soundproofed to preserve the sanity of the Sentinels who worked there.
“Captain.”
He turned to face a doorway he’d just passed. “Siobhán. It’s good to see you.”
The petite brunette stepped out with a smile for Lindsay and a quick nod of greeting for him, but her eyes went immediately to the carrier in his hand. “What have you brought me?”
“What you asked for.” He passed it over.
“Come with me,” she said, running a hand through her cropped hair, which was still damp and fresh-smelling from a recent shower.
As was her usual, she wore urban camouflage pants, Army-issue jungle boots, and a plain black T-shirt.
The hard-edged attire did little to toughen her appearance.
She was tiny and appeared delicate, a ruse that had blindsided too many of her opponents to count.
He followed her and Lindsay down the hall and into a laboratory outfitted with the best equipment his considerable fortune could buy. Freezers and glass-windowed refrigeration units lined the walls, while microscopes, tablets, and laptops covered the metal tables in the center.
Siobhán cleared space on the nearest tabletop with a sweep of her hand and set the cooler down. She smiled when she opened it and read the label on the blood bag. “Wish I could’ve been there when Raguel gave this up. And you got a sample from Vashti, too! You’ll have to tell me all about that.”
“Certainly, although I expect you have information to share with me as well.” Adrian pulled out a metal stool for Lindsay and stood behind her. “Where’s everyone else?”
“The others are in the infirmary or out in the field.” The Sentinel moved to the closest refrigerator and put the two bags inside. “I wanted us to have some privacy while I talked to you about my latest discoveries.”
“Oh?”
Lindsay reached for his hand and linked her fingers with his.
Siobhán returned and leaned a hip into the edge of the table. She was flushed and bright-eyed, almost glowing. He’d never seen her look so…happy. “I ran tests using the various samples that were sent to me over the last few days. Lycan blood, for the most part, has no effect.”
“For the most part?”
“There was one sample that was anomalous. When I tested it, it caused a violent reaction. The virus became unstable very quickly. Had I been testing with a live subject, the subject would have expired.”
“What sample was this?”
“The Alpha’s.”
Lindsay’s hand tightened on his. “Elijah’s? Why?”
“I’ll have to run more tests to be certain, but I believe it’s because the virus was created with his blood or blood similar to it.
I’m trying to ascertain whether Elijah has a unique genetic anomaly or if it’s common to Alphas in particular.
” Siobhán crossed her arms. “Unfortunately, I can’t get a hold of Reese to get more samples. ”
Adrian thought back to the last time he’d heard from Reese, the Sentinel in charge of the Alphas.
The dominant lycans had been segregated from the others to prevent revolt, and they were used for assignments requiring the utmost stealth, ones in which a lone hunter was the best offense.
“I haven’t spoken to him in about three months, but he checks in regularly and reports no trouble. ”
“Do you scan the reports personally?”
“No, I delegate to my second.”
“So it was Phineas’s job, then Jason’s, and now Damien handles it?”
“Correct.”
She nodded. “I would suggest you speak with Reese directly, Captain. One donor wouldn’t be enough for the size of the outbreak we’re dealing with unless they synthesized the identified protein.
They’d need a lot of Alpha blood to pull that off.
I’m talking about countless points of blood and a considerable length of research and development time. ”
“I don’t understand,” Lindsay said. “If there are genetic markers that identify Alphas, why was Elijah placed under observation first? There shouldn’t have been any question as to what he was, if a simple blood test could prove it.”
“This is all news to me,” Adrian said quietly, while inside his thoughts were raging.
How could something so vital and elementary have escaped their notice for so long?
He was afraid it was impossible, which led to even darker thoughts.
Lindsay had been abducted from Angels’ Point by someone with wings and delivered to Syre, who’d Changed her.
From that incident, he’d known it was possible that one of his Sentinels had become a saboteur, but this…
This spoke of a conspiracy of breadth and far-reaching consequence.
“Have you ever been to Alaska, neshama?” he murmured.
Lindsay looked at him over her shoulder. “No.”
“Well, we’ll be changing that tomorrow.”
Siobhán’s hands twisted nervously together. “Captain?”
He looked at his Sentinel. “Yes?”
“There’s something else.” She took a deep breath. “I’ve fallen in love with a vampire.”
As the hotel room door shut behind them, Vash tossed her bag on the bed and shot a worried glance at Elijah’s leg. “How are you healing?”
“I’m fine.” He offered her an easy, heartbreaking smile. “Good as new.”
She nodded, but worry knotted her stomach.
Like most lycans, he hated flying, and his discomfort had rubbed her raw over the short flight to West Virginia.
She’d barely paid attention to the town of Huntington as she drove through it on the way to their lodging.
Her thoughts were firmly on the events of the day and how dependent her equanimity had become on Elijah’s well-being.
Once she’d made up her mind to keep him, everything had changed. She now had something to lose, something she couldn’t bear to lose. What was building between them was too new, too rare, too precious with all its myriad possibilities. The challenges, the joys—
“Vashti.” He came to her, sliding his hands into her hair and cupping her head. “It was a broken leg. It happens.”
She caught him by the belt loops and yanked him closer.
“I saw you get pulled into that room and the door shut… I panicked. I’ve never felt anything like that in my life.
The sheer terror. I had to fight my way to get to you, and every second felt like an hour.
And when I got there and saw the gun in her hand, everything froze… I could barely think—”
“Shh…” He pressed his lips to her forehead. “It’s okay.”
“No. No, damn it, it’s not okay. I don’t want to feel like this. It’s too much.”
“Yes, it is. Scary as hell.”
“You don’t sound scared,” she accused. “You don’t act like it.”
“I fight to keep a lid on it.” His voice was low and soothing. “I knew what you are…who you are…when I took you on. If I tie you down to keep you safe, I’ll lose you. And since I can’t lose you, I’m working on dealing with it.”
That his words so closely mirrored hers was soothing, but it wasn’t an answer. It didn’t fix what was aching inside her chest. “I’m not as strong as you. I don’t want to let you out of my sight.”
He nuzzled against her, and she leaned into him, her knees weakening with his tenderness. “Because you’ve already let someone out of your sight once, and you lost him. I can imagine it’s tough to take that leap again.”
“This wasn’t supposed to happen. I’m not supposed to feel this way again. I had my shot. I had Char. It’s not supposed to happen a second time.”
Pulling back, Elijah watched her with those verdant hunter’s eyes. Cool and assessing. “What’s not supposed to happen?”
“You. This. Us.” She squeezed her eyes shut to block out the way he was looking at her. Butterflies were having a field day in her stomach. The anxiety was killing her. “Damn it. Why can’t sex be enough? Why did all this other stuff have to get in the way?”
He tilted her head back and sealed his mouth over hers.
The first lick of his tongue drove her mad, goaded her to push up onto her tiptoes and capture him with soft suction.
His groan rippled through her, inciting the fiercest hunger.
Her desire was always smoldering, ready to combust with the slightest provocation.
Vash took his mouth with savage greed, her tongue stroking deep. Her hands shoved up beneath his shirt, seeking and finding his warm, rough satin skin. Her fingers dug into the muscles bracketing his spine, pulling him hard against her so that nothing came between them but their clothes.
His rumbling laugh vibrated against her tender breasts. “You’re definitely trying to screw me to death.”
“I want you,” she muttered while kissing along his jaw and throat.
“Good.”
She shoved his shirt up and buried her face in the light dusting of hair on his chest, breathing in the hardworking scent of his skin. Her tongue found the flat disk of a nipple and teased it, worrying it with fluttering strokes.
“Fuck, that feels good,” he said hoarsely, lifting his arms to pull his shirt off.
Dropping to her knees, she yanked open his fly with frantic fingers.
“Hey.” He tossed his shirt aside. “What’s the rush?”