Nicole winced at the tug of the tape, but didn’t make a sound.
“It’s shallow,” Vera whispered thoughtfully. “If it scars, it’ll be silver and thin.”
“He did better after he marked me, like claiming me settled the darkness in him. I want his bite to scar. I want him to be reminded that I’m his mate every time he sees it. Can you fix it?”
“I have something, but it’ll burn like hellfire.”
Nicole barely resisted the urge to balk and bolt. She wasn’t awesome with pain, but the thought of his mark disappearing when it healed made her braver. Link was going through a lot more pain. She could do this for him, and if there was even a chance it would help as his anchor, it was worth a try.
“This way. You get to see my lab, you lucky ducky.”
Vera’s lab was a huge room at the back of the house. A long table took up the entire length of the space, and it was covered in vials, burners, microscopes, scattered notebooks, and against the back wall was a row of machines Nicole couldn’t even guess at.
It looked like thousands of dollars worth of equipment. “Where did you get all of this?”
“Clayton.”
That name sent a chill through her blood. Link had told her all about Clayton. He was the Silvers’ absent father who had been sending them on kill missions all these years under the guise that he was someone else. He enforced the two most important shifter laws: don’t expose shifter nature to humans and don’t hurt humans. Only Vera used to be human, and he’d hired some asshole fox shifter to Turn her against her will, and then he’d banished her to Perl Island. Apparently, Clayton thought he was above shifter laws.
“You probably think I’m crazy for working for the man who did this to me,” Vera murmured as she rifled through a cabinet full of different colored powders. She turned, clutching a jar of what looked like black sand to her stomach.
“I’m a little shocked, yeah,” Nicole admitted. “He hurt you. He hurt his sons.”
“Well, Clayton is complicated. He’s a villain and he’s good. He’s a lot like a McCall.” Vera cocked her head and narrowed her eyes, as if she was debating saying more. “We have common interests.”
“Such as?”
“Like saving the McCalls. Specifically one Lincoln McCall. Clayton bought all of this equipment. All I have to do is tell him what I need, and he has it delivered within a week. He understands time isn’t on our side. Sit down there and grip the table. No screaming or Link will be in here in a second with my throat dangling from his teeth.”
Nicole pulled her sweater off and took a seat on a stool near the table, her back to Vera. “I won’t scream,” she promised.
Vera patted the powder into her torn skin, and she had been right. It burned like she was lying down on a hot metal stove. She squeezed her eyes closed and clenched her teeth as the agony dragged on.
“A few more seconds, and it’ll be done,” Vera whispered, her hand gentle on Nicole’s other shoulder, holding her steady.
And as promised, a few more seconds and Vera was cleaning the awful powder out of her injury. She re-bandaged Nicole as she sagged heavily against the table, relieved it was done. It still hurt like a mother fluffer, but at least it wasn’t an active burn anymore.
“He must love you very much,” Vera murmured. “He didn’t want to hurt you when he made this mark. McCalls aren’t usually this gentle by nature. Elyse got one of these marks before Ian covered it up.”
“From a McCall?”
“Yeah, from Cole McCall.”
Nicole lurched from under Vera’s gentle touch. “What?”
“You knew Cole?”
Her breath was ragged as she leaned heavily on the tabletop. “Buck Lund was my dad. Cole McCall killed my dad.”
Vera’s eyebrows arched high. “Oh, my God. Is that how Link found you?”
Thoughts racing, Nicole nodded slightly. Elyse had been claimed by Cole? “Did she love him?”
Vera shook her head sadly. “Cole went after Elyse because he thought she could save him. He didn’t treat her well.”
“Elyse tried to save him from the curse?”
“Elyse didn’t know there was a curse, but even if she did, no. No one could’ve saved that man. He was too far gone and didn’t even try. Link is different from his brother. Really, he’s different from his entire damned bloodline. He’s trying really hard to stay good.”
A short yell sounded from the other room, and the clatter of glass crashing against the floor echoed through the house. The murmur of angry voices followed, and Vera arched her delicate eyebrows pointedly at Nicole. “Are you ready?”
“For what?”
“To see some fireworks.” Vera’s nostrils flared delicately. “I smell Clayton.”
Chapter Twelve