He shook his head.
“Please. I know it might not seem that big a deal, but shock can kill you.”
“I’m not in shock, I’m not… I—”
“It can be hard to tell—”
“He kissed me.” Vic ran his fingers along his lips. “I’ve kissed a lot of people in my life. A lot. Hundreds? But this—”
“Was different?”
Vic nodded. “Yeah. Do you know why?”
“No.”
“Then how did you know it was different?”
“His brother was special.” And Luca could only be the same. Possibly more if Koda sacrificed himself and his team to save him.
“Special? What does that even mean?”
“I think I fell in love with Koda the first time I met him.” Before he’d even taken his first breath, a cold body on a metal slab. Reese hated thinking about that day. He hadn’t understood why till sitting near Vic and seeing the haunted look in his eyes.
Vic wrapped his arms around himself. “I’m not crazy, then?” He hugged his ribs tighter. “I really felt it?”
“If Luca is anything like his brother was, yes.”
“When he told me he had cancer, I think a part of me died right there, but I thought it was the beer or my dick or—”
“Luca has cancer?”
Vic nodded. “Leukemia. He said there wasn’t anything they could do.”
“Did Luca know the werewolves were after him?”
“They’re not werewolves, are they?”
“No. They’re called Anubis.”
“Are you allowed to tell me that?”
“Probably not, so I wouldn’t repeat it.”
“What are Anubis?”
“A mistake we made when we messed with something we should have left alone.”
Vic stood, then sat back down. He watched Reese for a very long time before he spoke again. “Why the fuck would you make something like that? Never mind. Never mind because I don’t want to know.”
But Reese needed him to. He needed someone to know it wasn’t an act of evil. “To cure people of diseases that can’t be cured.”
For a moment Vic had hope in his expression, then the anger returned. “Don’t bullshit me.”
“I’m not.”
“The fuck you aren’t.”
“That was why we started the program. We didn’t know what would happen, but that’s why we tried. Things just….” Vic was right, it was bullshit. Bullshit Reese had told himself over and over because he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t make the same choice again.