Page 8 of The Way You Bite
Eric eyed him suspiciously. “You should’ve seen your face when your woman-magic didn’t work on her. I don’t recall ever meeting a female who could saynoto you. That alone was worth the absurdity of this trip.”
Her resistance to his innate enthrallment made her different…intriguing.
He didn’t need her to be interesting. He just had to teach her how to handle shifting from vampire to wolf, and then drop her off in a country that wasn’t in the middle of the wolf hate zone, which had to be far away from Scarpas and DiFalcos. Too bad she had no clue she was about to grow fur. “Did you obtain her historical information?”
“Don’t you mean background check? That’s what they call it these days.” Eric smiled smugly with agotcha-speaking-like-an-old-guy-againgrin.
Lexan glared. This game Eric waged to see how often he could catch him using dated terminology wore thin.
Eric scanned his cell phone. “Public record says Velvet Scarpa did undergrad at Princeton. Then she got an MD from UNC Chapel Hill and graduated in the top ten of her class. Started an internship at Carolinas Premier Hospital. That’s here in Charlotte. Abruptly quit to do veterinary school at UC Davis.”
“Why’d she run to the West Coast for vet school? Wonder what made her flee the family coop, and then return.” Lexan ran a finger along his lips and gazed at the hospital’s side door.
“Maybe the temptation to bite humans was too much as an MD.” Eric turned his way. “I hope she’s worth all this.”
“I made a promise.”
“To whom exactly did you promise to relocate her?”
TheIOUthat brought him here required he keep the identity of the ancient wolf a secret. “It’s complicated.”
“No shit it’s complicated. If she’s a wolf-vamp mix, she doesn’t seem to know.” Eric massaged his forehead. “A bloody demisang. Are we even sure she’s a half blood?”
Lexan nodded.
“I highly doubt the psychotic vamp clan who raised her instilled her with love for us, given a wolf murdered her mother.”
“There is no concrete evidence to prove a wolf killed Velvet Scarpa’s mother. She’s also not a Scarpa by blood. Dominic isn’t her father.”
“So your source says.” Skepticism oozed from his words. “You could end this fight once and for all. We could bomb the Scarpas with one of the new chemical weapons we designed.”
“I haven’t decided on the ethics of using the chemicals yet.”
“You question ethics when they already do it to us? Sometimes I don’t get you.” Eric sighed. “I didn’t detect even a hint of wolf off her. She reeked of pure vamp. Are you sure your info is true? Not many demisangs survive infancy. Those that did… Well, there aren’t many, if any, who survived the past decade.”
“She’s a mix. No question.”
Eric shifted in his seat to stare at him. “Did you get a clear read on her?”
He’d tried to read her but couldn’t. The only other being he couldn’t read was her real father, Blaylock, who was an ancient werewolf.
“She’s a healer.” He recalled the soothing euphoria she infused into his mind before her exam. That small comfort had kicked his respect for her up several notches.
“Her impending DiFalco union complicates things.”
“No shit.”
Lexan rubbed a finger along his eyebrow. “She’ll be hunted and executed when Ambrose’s father finds out she’s not pureblood. If the elitist prick finds out I was involved in introducing her to her inner wolf, it might push his complacent ass off his throne and into open war. The one thing Viktor hates more than mixed-bloods is me.” Lexan preferred to avoid warfare for his people, but he thought it inevitable. The DiFalcos started an underground war several years ago. Few knew about it. How he’d establish peace…he hadn’t worked out the specifics yet. “Get me Roman’s phone number. I need to know what she meant by protocol for wolves to show up here.”
“Of course.” Eric texted for a moment.
“I don’t know how it’s possible to have remained concealed for so long, but I’m convinced she has no clue. The wolf side in her won’t remain silent forever. My source predicts it to hit her on this moon cycle.”
“That’s three days away. You didn’t say we’d be here three more days. I thought it was today and tomorrow? Do you plan to help her through the change?” Revulsion passed through Eric’s eyes. “She’ll need blood. I heard a rumor she might need wolf blood. Never seen it, though.”
“Maybe.” Lexan also hadn’t seen it. He worried his blood might kill her.
“I’m sure as hell not letting her near my veins,” Eric grumbled.
