“You don’t need to be. You are surprisingly sensitive for a human, but I still should have better control.”
“Any better control and I really would think you were dead.” Jody’s expression went completely blank, and then she laughed.
The transformation was as breathtaking as the sunrise. Drake felt herself smiling, warming inside, as if she’d received an unexpected gift. She wanted to make her smile again, and dimly recognized that she didn’t usually react this way, no matter how beautiful the woman. Predators often lulled their prey before striking—could Vampires do the same?
“Tell me about the girl,” Jody said.
Drake shook her head, as much to clear it as to signal she wasn’t going to answer without more information. “You first. Why would a human have Were fever?”
“You should ask your Were medic that. Sophia, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” Drake wasn’t going to volunteer anything. While the detective was admittedly charming when she let down her formidable guard, Drake didn’t know what she was after. Gates was subtly interrogating her, that much was clear, but Drake didn’t think she was the target of the detective’s suspicions. She couldn’t help feeling that the Were Alpha was somehow the one Gates was after, and her immediate response was to shield her. She wasn’t reacting at all like herself, which was all the more reason to be careful of what she said.
Jody Gates reached inside her leather blazer and came out with a plain white card embossed with her name and telephone number, which she placed squarely in front of Drake. “Call me if you see or hear of an adolescent female, Were or human, with Were fever.”
“What about patient confidentiality?”
“It’s a communicable disease,” Jody replied. “You have an obligation to report it.”
“I’ve never seen any official communiqué from the International Institute of Health or the Center for Communicable Diseases classifying it as such.” Drake desperately wanted to know what she might be facing with this disease, because the ER was a battlefield, the front line where every minute could make the difference between life and death. She wouldn’t be forced to stand helplessly on the sidelines while patients died because she didn’t know how to treat them. This detective obviously knew something, and Drake didn’t intend to be played. “Without that, my hands are tied.”
“You’ll have to trust me when I tell you that you’ll be saving more than just the life of a single patient if you call me with anything you learn.”
“Why should I trust you?”
“Because I have everything to lose. I and every other member of the Praetern races.”
Drake immediately thought of Sylvan and her apprehension escalated. How big was this problem? “What are you saying?”
“Can you conceive of what it means for an entire species to suddenly be vulnerable, overnight”—Jody said with quiet lethality—“to mass genocide?”
Even as recently as the day before, Drake would have answered yes. Intellectually, she understood that the Praetern races had taken a big chance when they’d emerged from the shadows, risking that the humans who vastly outnumbered them would accept them despite their differences. Even though she’d seen the subtle prejudice directed at Sophia, she hadn’t truly appreciated the extent of human distrust until she’d tried to aid Misha and Sylvan. Then she had been the target of suspicious looks and quiet disdain. The Weres were different—admittedly frightening—and yet so powerfully compelling. What kind of pressure must Sylvan feel to protect her Pack? Drake had given even less thought to the plight of the other Praeterns, all of whom seemed on the surface so much more like humans than the Weres, with their animal shapes and predatory natures. And no one really knew what to think about the Vampires. If they were dead, what claim did they have to any rights at all?
“No, I can’t know what it means for any of you,” Drake replied. “And it’s precisely because I can’t that I don’t want to inadvertently endanger anyone.”
“It’s too late for that, Dr. McKennan. We’re all in danger now.” Jody Gates stood and pointed to the card. “If humans come to realize that Were fever is not only untreatable and lethal, but also that they are at risk, there will be open hunting on Weres.”
“I’m curious,” Drake said, pocketing the detective’s card. “Why come to me? Why trust me with this?”
“Because I saw your picture in the newspaper.” Jody’s mouth flickered with a half-mocking smile. “And you had your bare hands on that young female’s shoulders, inches away from her face. If she was infected and had bitten you, you might be dead by now. Her Alpha might easily have killed you on the spot just for touching her. But you tried to help her anyhow.”
She shrugged, a gesture so eloquent Drake felt an involuntary twinge of arousal. This Vampire was the most effortlessly seductive woman she’d ever seen. Something in her response must have registered with Jody, because for the briefest instant, her eyes flamed crimson.
Drake felt a tug in her belly.
“I’m a medic. I was doing my job,” Drake said, steadfastly ignoring the heat kindling in the pit of her stomach.
“Then I have to believe you’ll keep doing it. I didn’t agree with my father when he supported the Exodus. I think he has placed our people in unconscionable danger by exposing us. But I didn’t get a vote, and now it’s done.” Jody stopped with her hand on the door, her eyes flaring as she fixed on Drake. “It doesn’t matter which species is the first target of a purge, the other Praetern races will fall. First the Weres—then the Vampires. Then the witches and the sorcerers and the farsighted and the telepaths. Which are you, Doctor—friend or foe?” Her voice dropped, grew smoky and smooth.
“I’d like it to be friend.” Drake became breathless, trapped in a vortex of incredible power that caressed the very center of her being. The detective’s gaze probed her mind and laid claim to her body. Heat flooded her senses and she ached for those long cool fingers on her flesh. Hungered for a touch, eager to be devoured. She saw Jody’s parted lips flush crimson, the tip of her moist tongue just visible between blinding white incisors. Drake longed for that mouth on her. Every instinct pulled her forward, urged her to sink into the abyss of immeasurable pleasure. Struggling not to go to her, Drake gripped the table and her hand brushed the newspaper to the edge. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sylvan Mir’s face in the photograph—fierce, predatory, proud. She shuddered, clinging to that image as she fought the Vampire’s compulsion.
“Stop it,” Drake whispered.
Almost instantly the agonizingly erotic grip on her senses released, and Drake sagged as if loosed from a powerful undertow. To Drake’s surprise, Jody was breathing as hard as she was. Jody grimaced as if the loss of their connection pained her, and her incisors flashed faintly.
Drake still felt like prey, but not in the usual sense. The Weres might be natural predators, but the Vampires were sexual ones. She’d just been hunted, and had barely escaped.
“It’s never wise to lie to the police,” Jody murmured. “Whatever Sylvan Mir is to you, it’s much more than an acquaintance.” She opened the door. “I’ll be waiting for your call.”
Sylvan followed the river south, slipping through the underbrush along its banks like a sliver of moonlight flickering among the shadows.
Her centuri would follow her trail, but they would be long minutes behind her. Her powerful muscles bunched as her legs swept over the ground in huge bounding strides. She tasted the morning on her tongue, felt the wind ruffle through her pelt. Rabbit and deer scattered at her approach, but she was not hunting. She was running. Running to burn the heat from her blood and the frenzy from her loins. Running until the exhaustion dampened desire and clarity eclipsed instinct. She ran, even though she knew her quest was fruitless. She was Alpha, and as long as she breathed she would have one purpose—to lead and protect her Pack. Nothing short of death—not injury or fatigue or the clarion call of reason—would override that most primitive drive. But she ran nevertheless.