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)
“Since when?” he asked.
“Since this morning. It got worse after…” She glanced at Ravik, then away. “After I swallowed his seed.”
Ravik made a low sound that was half growl, half groan.
Severin closed his eyes briefly.
“When you told me in the shower that your body felt strange, was it like this?”
Cassie frowned.
“Yes, but not as strong. It’s been building all day.” She looked down at her arm again. The glow had faded slightly now that both males were keeping a careful distance, but the pulse was still there. “And now my zombie bite is doing mood lighting, so I’m guessing we’ve moved past ordinary perimenopause symptoms.”
“That would be a reasonable assumption,” Severin said.
Cassie shot him a look.
“If you say anything about needing samples right now, I may throw a knife at you. We’re in the kitchen—I have lots at hand.”
“I do need samples,” he said carefully.
She stared at him.
“Severin…”
“But not because you’re some kind of specimen,” he added quickly. “Because you’re frightened and something is happening to you that I don’t understand yet. I need to understand it so I can help you.”
The anger drained out of her again, leaving only exhaustion and need and fear…which was arguably worse.
Because she could fight anger. She could make jokes around embarrassment. She could push back against coldness and cruelty and being treated like a defective inconvenience, the way Sskarth had treated her.
But the gentleness she felt from both of the big Kindred kept getting under her skin.
Cassie wrapped her arms around herself, partly to cover her breasts and partly because she felt suddenly vulnerable.
“What if you can’t help me?” she asked Severin. “What if I’m so infected by the virus that I just…burn up? I mean from fever or heat or need?”
Though could you die from sexual need? She was afraid she might find out if this kept up.
The questions hung between them.
Ravik growled softly, but this time it sounded less like desire and more like worry.
“Sev helps,” he said. “Sev always helps. He helped me—he can help Cassie.”
Severin looked at him for a moment, and something moved through his eyes—pain, gratitude, fear. Then he looked back at Cassie.
“I will find a way to help you, sweetheart,” he said softly. “I swear by the Goddess I will.”
“You sound very sure,” of yourself, she said. She was trying to for a light tone but her voice came out sounding desperate instead.
“I am not sure.” His voice was quiet. “But I am determined.”
Cassie laughed weakly.
“Well, that’s something, I guess.”
He spread his hands.
“It is all I can offer right now.”
It was more than Sskarth had ever offered.
The thought came out of nowhere and Cassie felt it in her bones. Sskarth would have looked at her glowing bite wound with revulsion and called it instability. Mitch would have accused her of being dramatic. But Severin looked at her like a problem he would break himself trying to solve, and Ravik looked at her like a mate he would tear the universe apart to protect.
And still, under all the fear and tenderness, her body kept pulsing.
Need…Need…Need.
Cassie shut her eyes for a second. It was like a neon sign flashing in her brain and lighting up her whole body with desire.
She couldn’t keep pretending everything was okay—not when her arm was glowing…not when Severin’s expression had gone grave, and Ravik was watching her with worried golden eyes and breathing like it hurt him not to come closer and hold her.
Cassie had to admit it—she was tired of being brave all by herself.
“All right,” she said, opening her eyes again. Her voice trembled, but she forced herself to keep going. “I need help. I don’t know what kind of help exactly. I don’t know if I need medicine or another cold shower or to be locked in a room until my body stops acting like it belongs in one of my spiciest why-choose romance novels. But something is wrong with me and I can’t ignore it anymore.”
Severin took one careful step toward her.
“Then we will help you,” he said.
Ravik nodded, his eyes fixed on her face.
“Cassie says what she needs,” he rumbled. “We listen.”
Her throat tightened. Their words shouldn’t make her want to cry…or maybe they should have. Maybe after years of men not listening, of being dismissed and used and tossed away when she became inconvenient, the idea of two enormous Kindred warriors waiting for her to tell them what she needed was enough to crack something open inside her.
The bite wound pulsed again, warm and bright beneath her skin and Cassie drew in a shaky breath.
“Then take me to the lab,” she said. “And Severin?”
“Yes?”
She lifted her chin, trying to sound braver than she felt.
“If you need samples, take them. If this is the virus, I want to know what it’s doing to me.”
His pale blue eyes held hers.