He wanted to but… “There are two ways this can work.”
She shook her head.
“You can tell us what we want to know. Start talking now, on your own…” He closed in on her. Shane leaned close to Olivia. Her sensual scent wrapped around him. “Or we make you talk.”
Fear flashed in her beautiful eyes. He hated that look of fear. Hated that he was the cause of her terror.
“I thought you were protecting me,” she whispered as she gave a confused shake of her head. “Why are you doing this?”
He leaned in even closer. Close enough to kiss her. And he could still taste her on his tongue. “Because you’re a weapon that can be used to hurt a lot of people. I can’t let that happen.” He’d seen too much death, too many slaughters in all of his centuries.
“I’m not a weapon.” She shook her head once more. Her hair slid over her shoulders. “I’m just a person.” Her voice lowered to a desperate, husky rasp, “Please, Shane, don’t do this to me. I-I’m scared.”
His gut clenched. “Just talk, Olivia. Tell us what we need to know!”
She jerked and the chair bounced on its legs. “There’s nothing to tell! I’m a normal woman, I’m not some—some djinn! I thought you were helping me!” Now her voice wasn’t a whisper, it was closer to a yell. “But you’re playing some game that I don’t understand!”
His hands closed around her delicate shoulders. He pushed down, stopping her frantic movements. “Why are you drawn to monsters?”
“What?”
“Human killers. Paranormal killers. Why do they fascinate you so much?”
Her eyelashes flickered. “Because I want to stop them. I-I don’t want anyone else to get hurt—”
He brought his mouth next to her ear. “You’re lying to me,” he murmured. “Don’t do that. Not again.”
The scent of her fear deepened.
He pulled back. Stared into her eyes once more. “Why do you like the monsters?”
She shook her head.
“Why, Olivia?”
“I don’t like monsters!”
He nodded even as a cold dread slid through him. “So you’re choosing option two?”
The door creaked open behind him. Footsteps padded into the room. He glanced back and saw both Pate and Connor enter the room.
“The Para Unit will take over Purgatory. My men will stand guard until I say otherwise,” Pate told him flatly. “Provided, of course, they get there and the whole place isn’t already a bloodbath.”
Shane was sure there would be plenty of blood on the ground at Purgatory.
Pate’s brow lifted as his stare shifted to Shane’s hands—and their hold on Olivia’s shoulders. “Are you ready to talk, Dr. Maddox?”
“I don’t have anything new to say! I was sent to do research—you okayed my trip there! You’re the one who sent me!”
Pate shook his head. “I didn’t want to send you there. I wasn’t given much of a choice. Again…” His gaze darted to Shane. “The senator was using his pull. Senator Quick wanted to make sure that humane conditions were being maintained at the facility. Getting a shrink in there for the inmates…that was his brilliant idea.”
Connor propped his back against a nearby wall. Both his brows climbed as he said, “And the senator wanted her to be the one going in?”
Pate rubbed his jaw. “She was the one directly recommended by Quick. The senator said she was already well acquainted with paranormals, and when I interviewed her, she backed that up.” His gaze narrowed on Olivia. “You said you knew all about the monsters out there.”
Shane forced himself to release Olivia’s shoulders.
“Just how well acquainted are you?” Pate asked Olivia.
Her breath blew out in a hard rush. “The senator…I’ve known him for years. He helped me get some grants that I used with my research—”
“That tells me nothing about your relationship with other paranormals.” Pate’s voice was flat.
“I-I don’t have a relationship with other paranormals.”
Pate glanced at Connor, then back at Shane. Finally, his considering gaze returned to Olivia. “How did you learn of the existence of paranormals? That little bit wasn’t in your file, though I am starting to realize that file of yours…data in it was no doubt faked. Perhaps by your friend, the senator.”
Olivia licked her lips. “I saw werewolves attack when I was a teenager, okay? Th-the senator’s daughter, Chloe, she and I went to school together. We were friends.”
Pate waited.
“We were walking home together one night when the werewolves attacked. It was a pack of them, and they closed in on us as we screamed.”
Shane’s teeth were fully extended in his mouth. Fucking werewolves…
“You weren’t bitten,” Pate said as he studied her with avid interest. “Obviously.”
“No.” Voice softer, she said, “I wasn’t.”
“And I’ve never heard anything about the senator’s daughter being a werewolf.”
Olivia’s mouth closed. Because Shane was watching her so closely, he saw the faint flicker of her eyelashes.
And Pate must have seen that telling movement too, because he pounced and asked, “Is Chloe Quick a werewolf?”
Olivia just stared at him.
A long sigh slipped from Pate. “You are making this too hard.”
“Chloe Quick is my friend.”
Pate circled around her, like a lion, closing in on his prey. Shane didn’t move.
“You want to find out why monsters attack…” Pate mused. “The senator is supporting you, giving you upclose and personal access to the monsters. Why? Why is he doing that? Is it because you both want to help Chloe? She’s changed, she can’t control her beast, and you’re trying to save her?”
“Chloe doesn’t need saving,” she said softly.
“Who does?”
Olivia jerked back against the chair. “We all do. My research can help so—”
“I’m done with this.” Pate waved his hands in disgust. “I don’t have time to waste this way.” He nodded toward Shane. “Bite her. Make her talk.”
“No!” Olivia’s desperate cry. Her gaze jerked to him. “Shane, no!”
“Do it, Shane,” Pate said. “Then you can make her tell us what we need to know.”
That was the way things were supposed to work. But this wasn’t a typical situation. “My bite doesn’t work on her.”
“What?” Shock was clear on Pate’s face.
Shane brushed back Olivia’s hair, revealing the faint marks he’d left on her neck. His marks. “Controlling her that way isn’t an option.”
The room got very, very quiet then. Shane knew Pate was absorbing the full magnitude of this revelation. As ancient as Shane was, he should have been able to control anyone or anything.
There were only a handful of vampires who could claim to be older than Shane. And with the vamps, age brought power.
“A djinn,” Pate said. “Sonofabitch, I didn’t want that shit to be true.” Then he turned and reached for the instrument table. He picked up the knife. “I guess we have to do this the hard way.”
“St-stop!” Olivia shouted.
“Pate…” Connor began, a nervous edge in his voice.
“I’ve never met a djinn. The last one was supposed to have been killed about twenty years ago, after he went on a killing spree and took the lives of everyone in his path. Humans. Werewolves. Vampires.”
Olivia shook her head. “I’m not…I’m not!”
Pate was staring down at the gleaming edge of that silver knife. “If she’s a djinn, we have to bind her power so she can’t hurt anyone.”