Total pages in book: 165
Estimated words: 159487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 797(@200wpm)___ 638(@250wpm)___ 532(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 159487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 797(@200wpm)___ 638(@250wpm)___ 532(@300wpm)
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.
“Like something I do not want to describe—especially not while standing in the kitchen after supper.”
Understanding flickered across his face.
“Pleasure?” he murmured. “Is that what you feel when we get too close? “Desire, maybe?”
She closed her eyes.
“I hate this conversation. It’s so freaking embarrassing.”
“Cassandra, you don’t have to be embarrassed. You just—”
“Yes, okay?” she snapped, opening her eyes again. “It’s pleasure and desire. When you touched me, the bite wound sent heat all through me, and when Ravik got close, it got worse…or better.” She shook her head. “I don’t even know anymore.”
Ravik made a distressed sound.
“Cassie is sick?” he asked, sounding worried.
“I don’t know,” she said, and the honesty in her own voice scared her more than the glowing wound. “I don’t know what I am.”
The room went quiet and for a moment, the only sound was the low hum of the bunker’s ventilation system and the faint clink of a bowl settling against another on the counter.
Cassie stared down at her arm, watching the glow pulse beneath her skin, and the terrible truth she had been avoiding all day finally rose up and looked her in the face…
She was infected.
Not like the Visskous and not like Ravik. She wasn’t going to start hungering for living flesh or losing her mind but she was infected just the same.
And the infection was getting worse.
She could ignore an ache between her thighs. She could ignore tight nipples and embarrassing fantasies and the urge to take three showers in one afternoon. She could even ignore the way both Kindred warriors seemed to know exactly what she was feeling every time she got too close to them.
But she couldn’t ignore this—her body was literally glowing.
“Oh God,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around herself. “Oh God, what am I going to do?”
Ravik took one careful step toward her.
“Cassie?” he said, and there was so much worry in his deep voice that it nearly broke her.
Severin’s expression softened.