He knew it was wearing off.That’s why he brought me back here.The sharp pain must have been a sign that the injection was weakening.He knew I’d go to the ER—how?I’m not sure—and he made sure the nurse gave me…
The shot.
That shot I received wasn’t a tetanus booster.
It was…
I rub my arm.
He’ll come for me now.Rogan will be sure to come for me.
So I can’t be here.
I love him too much to condemn him to a life with someone he’s not meant to be with.
I rise, pack a quick bag, and then rub my abdomen as I stand at my open door, ready to leave.
The test results.Results I wasn’t expecting.Results I didn’t know could even occur.
The results that surprised me.Made me happy.Made me numb.
A child.
I’m carrying Rogan’s child.
Birth control pills don’t work when you don’t take them, and you don’t take them when you’re being dragged in and out of parallel worlds so often that you don’t know what day it is or how much time has passed.
“At least I won’t be alone,” I say to my belly.“Your father isn’t mine.He wasnevermine.Butyouare.You’re mine, little one.We’ll always have each other.And if it’s the last thing I do, I’ll figure out why this all happened.I’ll find the truth.”
I hastily pack a duffel bag with all the documents I stole from my father’s office along with a good supply of black jeans, tank tops, and leather boots.
Plus my pistol and the knife I stole from Rousseau.
Rogan is in the middle of a war in the ether, but still, he’ll come for me.He’ll scent me, thanks to the injections.
Why?
Why would my father do this to me?And how?He’s no scientist.What does he know about pheromones?
I don’t know where the answers lie, but I have nine months to figure it out.
I know one thing, though.
I didnotcut out the hearts of those two vampires.
And I will fucking prove it.
2
“Doyou believe I cut out those vamps’ hearts?”
“No, Hannah.I do not.Why would I have sent you to Rogan if I already had the answers I wanted you to find?”
“I sent you to Rogan to?—”
Then I was back in Chicago, in my father’s office, the pain unbearable.
And now…I’m back where I started.Freshly inoculated with pheromones to attract one Victor Rogan, and?—