Page 25 of Betrayed Pregnant Mate

“I came as soon as I could,” Maisie says, coming into the room, her med bag bouncing off her full hip like usual. Her eyes skipped to me. “Hey, are they the same symptoms as before?”

“Yes,” I say, squeezing my arm to keep the blood pumping. “Faint, weakness, color drained from his cheeks.”

“He seems to be recovering,” Maisie says, flashing her light into each of his eyes. He winces a little, still weak, but conscious. “So that’s what, at least twenty-four hours since the last transfusion? I’m going to work on a way to test his body for the strength of the venom, but I think this is a positive sign. We already see that the treatments will be needed further apart.”

Which means that, eventually, I’ll be able to leave. Once Percy is healed from this.

“Couldn’t you just store the blood?” Aris asks, his hand to his chin. “Seems kind of precarious, to have to set this whole thing up when the attacks happen.”

“I was thinking about that,” Maisie says, tapping her pen against a clipboard. “It would be convenient, but my hypothesis is that this method works best because it aligns with how the vampires must feed.”

“How they must feed?” I ask, raising an eyebrow at them.

“I forget you’re not a part of this world,” Linnea laughs. “If vampires could gain power by drinking donated blood, there wouldn’t be such an issue. But it only works if it’s blood fresh from the source. Any blood that doesn’t come directly from the human—like if it’s been sitting in a bag for a while—doesn’t do anything, and can even sometimes make them sick, I believe.”

“Yeah,” Aris says, sighing and running a hand over his face. “It would definitely alleviate a lot of ethical issues if the vamps were able to just open a blood bank and live off of the blood given freely by humans. But that’s not possible. They need to feed off of them to live any sort of quality life, and that leads to them treating humans like they’re a food source. Shifters and humans typically co-exist. We have no reason to harm them, or take from them. For many humans, living in an area with shifters can even be a positive thing, as we often boost the economy and provide a level of safety they wouldn’t have without.”

As has been the constant since this thing started, there’s a part of my brain that rejects all of this—vampires and shifters and paranormal politics—but an equally large part of my brain can’t ignore all of the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

“That’s interesting,” I say as Ado fixes his gaze on me, his eyes calm and deep, like he knows more than he lets on.

“You smell strange,” he comments, and I open my mouth in surprise.

“Uh, okay, damn,” I say, putting a hand to my chest and sniffing at my armpit. “I didn’t—”

Everyone laughs except for Maisie, who looks white as a sheet.

“He’s not talking about sweat,” Aris says, on a laugh. “I smell it, too—you smell like a shifter, obviously, but there’s just something off about it.”

“Could be the bite,” Percy offers weakly from his place on the cot. Maisie nods, clearing her throat and clutching the clipboard to her chest like it’s her lifeline.

“Yes!” she says, “Veronica’s immunity and the venom in her body are likely altering her scent.”

The look she gives me says we need to get me another injection of that stuff as soon as possible to keep the others from catching on.

“I wish I had been there,” Linnea says, putting a hand on my cot as Maisie starts the process of disconnecting the lines between Percy and me. “I’ve never heard of a vampire bite triggering a shift. I wonder if—”

“We love you exactly the way you are,” Aris says, grabbing her and tugging her in, settling his chin on her head. I look away, the intimacy of it too much to bear. But that just means I’m looking at Percy, who already has his head turned in my direction, his curls only a little flat and sweaty from the episode.

Even rumpled, he looks adorable. Looking at him, I get the same feeling as when I want to scoop up a cat and settle in my lap.

I just want to trace my finger of the swell of his bicep, and feel all that warm, heavy skin under my hands. I swallow and stare forward, wanting to avoid all the pressing emotions in my body.

“Veronica,” Linnea says, having extricated herself from Aris’s arms. “That man mentioned something about you and Percy being together?”

I try to swallow, but my throat is dry, so I just cough instead.

“Yeah,” I say, when her stare doesn’t waver, her eyes searching over me. I get the impression that lying right now isn’t the right choice. “A few years ago. In New York.”

The room goes quiet for a moment, Aris and Ado looking at Percy in surprise.

“When you took all that time off,” Aris murmurs, his gaze darkens. “Percy, with a human?”

“She’s not a human,” Linnea interjects, and I almost breathe a sigh of relief. “Maybe Percy could sense that. I’m sure he would never truly take advantage of a human-like that.”

Percy doesn’t say anything; just closes his eyes against the bright lights.

“Great!” Maisie says, her voice tense. “You two are no longer tethered to one another.”

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