Page 53 of Blade's Battle
How the virus had destroyed Tess’s ability to shift instead of killing her was a puzzle that Anna had worked on all those hours after Tess had left. Anna hadn’t had paper and pen, data, or any equipment except her mind, but the puzzle had kept her going.
“You and I should do some tests to see if your ability to shift is truly decreasing. Some timed tests would be a good start. Once I have an idea of what’s happening, then we can figure out if something can be done to improve your ability to shift.”
“Thank you,” Tess said, a slight but worried smile on her face. “Not knowing is stressful.”
Not knowing, expecting the worst, and then watching someone die.
“I’m glad to have someone to talk to about this.” Tess’s smile was back in full bloom.
“We’ll keep it between us,” Anna said.
There were so many questions. Damien shouldn’t have escaped a blood-bond unscathed, but he had. Anna had met the alpha for herself and seen him shift as he ran off into the woods, tracking Blade. Not even Blade had shifted as fast as Damien. Was Anna’s understanding of the virus or her understanding of shifter genetics wrong?
This definitely warranted more study. It wasn’t just Tess’s future on the line, but Blade’s too. Before Anna had changed the focus of her work in shifter genetics to help Kurt, she’d been working to prove her theory that a shifter going feral was nothing more than a breakdown in the genes that ultimately stabilized during a blood-bonding. She was getting close to identifying the genes but had run into a series of roadblocks. Tess’s blood-bonding had done something it shouldn’t have done. The issue could shed light on how to prevent a male from going feral. At the very least, she had to try to help Tess, as well as Blade.
“Enough about me,” Tess said, trying to keep her voice upbeat. “And don’t avoid the question this time. Do you like Blade?”
“Of course, I like him.”
“I mean like-like. As in a potential mate? Callen hasn’t told us much about what happened, but Blade took off the second I started asking about you.”
Anna straightened her back and folded her hands in her lap. “There is nothing between Blade and me. We’re not suited for one another.”
“Bullshit.”
Anna sagged in relief that Tess saw right through her. She didn’t want to lie to Tess. She wanted someone to talk to, and it couldn’t be Blade. Not after how she had left him, how she had turned him down. It wasn’t that there couldn’t be a future with him. She had already lost Kurt, and she couldn’t imagine losing anyone else.
“I miss Blade. I wish that. . .” Anna shook her head. No matter how often she told herself that it was too soon after Kurt’s death, or how hard she tried to deny her feelings for Blade, her entire body thrummed with the need to see him, to touch him, to be touched by him. The idea of his mouth on her lips, sliding lower to her breast made her core clench with need.
“There are too many complications in my life to get involve with another shifter, or human for that matter.”
“If you were really convinced there was no way of working this out with Blade, then you wouldn’t have come here.”
“I didn’t come for Blade. I came for Damien’s help. Trust me when I say this. There’s no way I’ll ever blood-bond with Blade.”
Chapter Nine
BLADE
Despite the residual pain in his shoulder and torso from the beat-down he’d taken at Liam’s, Blade poured all his energy into running as fast as possible. Anna was here, and he couldn’t wait to see her. Damien would let her stay, he’d said as much. He’d only wanted to make sure of Blade’s feelings for her first, to anticipate any possible trouble.
For the first time in days, Blade’s wolf settled, and this merely from the knowledge that Anna was nearby. She’d returned to him. Blade couldn’t wait to hold her, to breathe in her delectable scent, and gaze into her beautiful blue eyes as she greeted him with one of her heavenly smiles.
As Blade’s wolf bounded up the steps to Damien’s house, his ears perched forward, ignoring the sounds of his brothers behind him. He wanted to listen for her, for his sweet Angel. Blade shifted to human form as he reached the top step.
Tess’s uplifting laugh, the one Damien would drone on and on about when the guys hung out by the river after a hunt, wafted through the closed door.
“I didn’t come for Blade,” Anna replied. “I came for Damien’s help. Trust me when I say this. There’s no way I’ll ever blood-bond with Blade.”
Blade froze at the door. Then the guys were at his back.
Frank shoved a pair of pants at him. “Dress. We’ve got company inside. Human company.”
“Is that some sort of dig?” Blade asked, turning on Frank so fast the guard instinctively put his arms up to defend himself.
“Just pointing out the obvious,” Frank said, shrugging as he lowered his arms.
Hell, damn wolf’s got me jumping at Frank now.“Sorry,” Blade muttered as he headed down the steps.
