The sense that they were no longer alone cranked Kane’s head around and he bared his fangs over his shoulder, prepared to attack if he had to.
The white-haired wolven in the open doorway to the bathroom was staring into the shower with a look of horror on his face. And as hisnostrils flared like he was testing the air to judge a scent, he had to grip the jamb to keep his balance.
“You fed her. Jesus Christ… youfedher.”
“Will you shut the fucking door! She’s unclothed!”
“Her naked is the least of our problems.”
The door slammed shut and Kane had a brief impulse to punch a wall. That faded quickly, though.
“Nadya, I’m going to put you down, dearest one.”
Bending over, he set her on the clean tile floor, right over the drain, and when she couldn’t keep herself upright, he laid her down on her side. She looked desperately ill, her body with its stiff joints and thin limbs the kind of thing that surely did not have much more life left in it.
In spite of the heat inside of her, she was horrifically pale.
“I’m just outside,” he told her. “I won’t be gone long.”
He took one lingering look at her, and then he snapped into action, prowling out of the bathroom and closing the door behind himself. On the far side, he leaned back against the panels to keep her protected, even though neither of the males now in the living quarters made like they wanted inside.
The wolven was pacing up and back, as if in his mind, he was doing some calculations that spelled out the doom of the earth’s population.
In contrast, Apex was standing at the base of the stairs in total stillness.
His eyes were alive, however, and they were locked on Kane as if he couldn’t believe something or another.
“Of course I fed her.” Kane looked down the narrow space at the back of the wolven’s head. “It’s how vampires work—”
The male spun around and jabbed a finger. “Not you, and not anymore.”
“What the hell are you talking about—”
“You killed her, you asshole. You fucking killed her!”
“She hasn’t fed in decades!” Kane didn’t bother to keep his voice down. “The seizures are because her body has had an influx of nutrients, and we need to get medical help—”
“No! She can’t handle what’s in your veins!”
“It’s just blood—”
“Not anymore!” The wolven marched up and went nose-to-nose. “You’re not who you once were. You are not you anymore!”
All at once, an image came back: Kane was in the hut… with the female with the long gray hair. She was telling him that he could be saved, but that he…
Kane looked back at the bathroom door he was guarding with his life. With quiet intensity, like he could force reality to meet his standards if he just willed it enough, he repeated, “She just hasn’t fed in a long time.”
“No, she drank poison.”
A sudden suffocation stole all of the breath out of his lungs. Maybe all the air out of the quarters.
Glancing down at his wrist, he saw that he was still bleeding from the puncture wounds she had made. With a sense of utter unreality, he brought the wounds up to his mouth and braced himself.
Closing a seal around the leaks, he ran his tongue over his flesh. Then he tasted for himself what she had taken into her body—
A terrible sense of dislocation took him over, transporting him outside of his body, taking him far away even as he stayed exactly where he was.
Lowering his arm, he swallowed the unfamiliar taste, the foreign… utterly different… taste of his own blood.