“I’m sorry, my Jane.”
She tried to yank out of his arms, but he held her too tightly. She caught a fast glimpse of Paris. He had something in his hand. Something—
He injected her.
“Told you that would come in handy,” Paris muttered.
Jane’s veins began to feel cold. Her knees buckled, but Aidan scooped her into his arms.
“I love you, Jane,” Aidan said. And it was the man talking, not the beast.
The man killed me?
Her lashes slipped closed. At least there was no pain this time. If she was dying again…
At least there is no pain.
Chapter Eighteen
Jane looked so helpless.
Aidan swallowed the thick lump in his throat as he stared at her. She was strapped down to an exam table, heavily sedated—sedated enough to knock out a damn elephant. Or an alpha werewolf. The vial Paris had taken from Annette had certainly come in handy.
After they’d drugged Jane, he’d brought her back to his home, the estate deep in the swamp. Aidan had only kept his most trusted wolves with him…and a few other needed individuals.
Dr. Bob Heider was currently curled over his microscope.
Annette was staring into her scrying mirror.
Paris was staring at Annette.
And the bastard vampire Vincent…well…Garrison had a gun pointed dead-center at the vamp’s heart. A gun that was loaded with wooden bullets.
“The gun isn’t necessary,” Vincent stated for what had to be the twentieth time. “I’m not here to hurt anyone. As I told you from the beginning, I want to help Jane.”
Something inside of Aidan just broke at the guy’s words. He flew toward him, caught the vamp’s neck in his hands and snarled, “The way you helped her when you broke her neck?”
Vincent blanched. “She was already dying. Did you want me to prolong her suffering? You couldn’t get to her, you were barely breathing yourself! And your blood kept…changing her. I was afraid of what she’d become if she took more. I didn’t want her in agony, I didn’t want—”
Snap.
It was too easy to break Vincent’s neck.
Aidan released a long, hard breath.
“Did that make you feel better?” Paris asked him, voice curious.
He considered it. “A little bit.” Aidan motioned to Garrison. “He’ll wake up again in a few minutes. That broken neck will heal all too soon, so keep the gun on him.”
Garrison nodded. His hold was tight on the weapon. A little too tight. “Don’t get trigger happy on me yet,” Aidan warned him. “The vamp came to us willingly. And he’s provided us with a lot of information about Jane.”
Like the fact that Jane hadn’t been able to keep down bagged blood or human blood that had come straight from the source. She’d only been able to take werewolf blood.
And…according to Vincent…the fact that Jane hadn’t killed when she’d taken that blood meant her humanity remained. At least some of it. Jane wasn’t a killing machine.
Neither am I.
Because while the beast had raged, while the wolf had snapped and snarled, it hadn’t gone for Jane’s throat. Even my beast didn’t want to kill her. The wolf had gone against its natural instincts because Jane…
She still smelled like she was mine. I looked at her and thought…Mine.
Was that how it had been for his father? Was that why he hadn’t been able to stop Aidan’s mother?
Am I just fucking fooling myself? Prolonging all of our pain? He raked his hand through his hair. “Fuck me. What the hell does ‘the end’ even mean?” Aidan demanded. “Why was it branded on her?”
Garrison pointed toward Vincent’s slumped form. “That’s probably something you should’ve asked him.”
“Yes, well, I will.” He paced back to Jane’s side. Her cheeks had a little color in them. Her hair had been washed, her body washed—all of the blood cleaned away. I did that. I knew she’d want to be clean. He’d dressed her, too. Carefully. Tenderly. Because she was still his Jane.
She always would be.
“Her blood has mutated,” Bob said as he straightened away from the microscope Aidan had brought in for the doctor to use. “But it’s…it’s not like other vamp blood that I’ve seen.”
Aidan curled his fingers around Jane’s hand. “What does that mean?”
“It means…shit, it means her cells actually look like—like yours.”
Aidan kept his hold on Jane, but his gaze zeroed in on the ME. “Explain.”
“It’s like a weird mix. Half vamp, half werewolf. I’m seeing traits of both when I examine her cells. It makes no sense to me. I mean, she has to be one or the other right?” Dr. Bob yanked off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I am so working above my pay grade here.”
Annette gave a low gasp, and the mirror she’d been holding slipped from her fingers. It hit the floor and splintered, heavy, dark chunks flying in every direction. “You did this.”
Aidan blinked.