Chosen by Blood (40 page)

Wraith immediately stiffened and pushed her away. “Okay, everyone’s obviously shaken by my reappearance so I’ll cut you some slack, but let’s remember the reason for the ‘don’t touch the wraith’ rule—it hurts me. You don’t want to hurt me, do you?” She sounded almost desperate.

“You didn’t look like you were hurting too bad when O’Flare was kissing you,” Lucy said archly. Felicia thought she did a commendable job disguising her true feelings for O’Flare. No one but a woman who’d pined for love for almost a decade would guess her feelings for her teammate.

“I—I—” Wraith shot a wary glance at O’Flare, who had almost reached them. His eyes threatened retribution, but he stopped by Felicia’s side.

“It did hurt her,” O’Flare said gruffly. “And I’m sorry about that. By the time I was thinking straight and I realized that, I pulled back, but then you kissed me—”

“I did not kiss you back,” Wraith countered. “I—I was just setting the stage for my attack. And your apology isn’t accepted.”

“Neither is your bullshit,” O’Flare said.

“Whatever—”

Wraith’s succinct comeback was interrupted by a sudden groan. The last ailing Other had regained consciousness and was thrashing weakly at the blankets that covered him. Lucy ran to him and whispered, “It’s all right. You’re going to be okay.” As the emaciated vamp writhed in pain, Lucy knelt beside him and went into what Felicia had termed her “magic mode.” Soon, the vamp’s body stilled and he was breathing peacefully again. Lucy readjusted his blankets, looked up, and nodded. “He’s okay. I blocked the pain and he’ll sleep for a while longer. What do you think is keeping Knox?”

Felicia shuddered. How had she allowed O’Flare and Wraith to distract her so completely from thoughts of Knox? Guilt was a bitter taste in her mouth. “I don’t know. He should have been back by now. He should have—”

Before she could finish her thought, Knox suddenly appeared in front of her. He wasn’t happy and he wasn’t alone. Felicia flinched back when she saw the rage on Knox’s face as he shoved Kyle Mahone to the ground next to O’Flare. “Restrain him,” he ordered O’Flare.

Felicia’s nausea was immediate. No, she thought. Not Kyle.

O’Flare moved quickly and without hesitation, pinning the man down while Wraith and Lucy ran to wrap his hands and feet with rope.

“Knox, where have you been?” Felicia grabbed his arm and he immediately swept her into his arms.

“How are you feeling? Are you feeling okay?” He shook her slightly when she didn’t answer. “Talk to me, Felicia.”

“I—I’m fine. I’m okay. Why have you brought back Mahone?”

Slowly, Knox released her and looked at her searchingly. Something like confusion, then suspicion, flashed across his face. He took several steps back. “This isn’t Mahone,” he said slowly. “It’s a shape-shifter in disguise.”

“What?” Lucy narrowed her eyes and mumbled something about roses.

The scent on the chilled air instantly registered.

Lucy waved her hands in front of Mahone’s twin. In one blurred rippling motion, Mahone’s face disappeared and was replaced by the bug-eyed exterior of a shape-shifter.

“This is the third shape-shifter we’ve encountered today,” O’Flare said. “Before today, I’d never seen one in person.”

“Few people have,” Lucy said. “They’re more accepted by the mage community, although that’s changed recently. Their population has been plagued by rebellion. So many shape-shifters are unhappy with the way they’ve been treated since the War.”

“Yes, well, they need to get in line,” Wraith snapped.

Lucy shrugged. “Instead, a large number of them are choosing to separate from their leaders in order to take action. Whatever action’s needed to further their own agenda.”

“This one’s agenda has to be monetary,” Knox growled. “Whoever he’s working for wants to use the vamp antidote to wipe out this entire country.”

“But how can the antidote do that?” Felicia whispered. Knox hadn’t looked at her again. Why wouldn’t he look at her?

“It purifies human blood but also poisons it and eventually kills its host. That’s how the scientists died.” Pacing, Knox tunneled his fingers through his hair. “So the FBI decided to change the terms of our agreement. This shifter was supposed to keep the antidote in North Korean hands and stop me from bringing the rest of you back.” Knox turned and punched his fist into a tree, sending splinters flying.

Fear seized her instantly but she managed to stay calm. Of course he wouldn’t look at her. Since she’d probably been given the antidote, that meant she was going to die just like those scientists had. Or was she? “But if that’s not Mahone,” Felicia said, “you can’t know the FBI has betrayed us. You even implied you don’t know who hired him. Maybe one of these rogue shape-shifters kidnapped Mahone. Or maybe it was a vamp, someone like your cousins who wants to force change.”

Knox shook his head. He circled the shape-shifter now, flexing his hands as if he was imagining strangling it. He knows things only Mahone would know, but not everything. “Not
everyone
.”

“Okay,” Felicia said slowly, guessing that Knox was talking about Mahone’s relationship with Bianca. She certainly couldn’t know for sure. Yet Knox had proven he’d trusted her. He’d revealed more than one vamp secret to her. So why was he ignoring her? Why was he being so cold when he must know how worried she’d been at his delay? How scared she’d be by what he was telling her? “But this shape-shifter hasn’t said it was Mahone who betrayed us, has he? Because—”

“Your girlfriend is smarter than you give her credit for, dharmire,” the shape-shifter said, looking calm as it sat bound hand and foot on the ground. The way he said “dharmire” sounded remarkably similar to the way Lesander had said the word.

Knox froze behind the shape-shifter. “I’d ask what you mean, but why don’t I just read your mind instead?”

Seconds ticked by as they all held their breath. Watching Knox’s face, Felicia knew immediately something was wrong.

“You can’t do it?” she asked.

“I can, but it’s all jumbled,” Knox said. “It’s like I’m reading fifty different answers to the same question, but they’re all in the same voice.”

The rage in Knox’s voice was overshadowed only by his confusion. To Felicia’s disbelief, the shape-shifter laughed. “Want me to add one more?” With a soft ripple of movement, the shape-shifter changed its appearance to look like Knox. “How’s this?”

“Let’s see if you can duplicate something else. Wraith?” Knox commanded, “Gun.”

Wraith immediately tossed Knox her pistol.

Leaning down, Knox ran the barrel down the shape-shifter’s cheek. “I’ll give you a choice. I can either shoot you in the head and silence those voices or I can rip out your throat and let you bleed dry. Either way, you’re going to die if you don’t tell me who hired you. Was it a vamp?”

“I don’t know.”

“Knox . . .” Felicia tried to interrupt, but Knox ignored her.

“Male or female?”

“Male.”

“Knox . . .” she tried again.

Again, he ignored her.

“What’s his name? Was it Lafleur?”

“No, but I don’t know his name.”

Knox cocked the trigger on the gun. “Then how do you know it wasn’t Lafleur?”

“He—he—” The shape-shifter was whimpering now, the high-pitched sounds of his fear sounding a staccato beat. “Because Lafleur’s the one who took Mahone and fed me the information. Right before Lafleur was killed.”

“What about the Others we brought back? Where were they taken?”

“The medics and most of the agents you saw when you teleported the Others were really with the FBI, so I assume they were taken to get medical care. Cloning Mahone just ensured that I and the other agents could get inside.”

“One last chance,” Knox crooned and held up Wraith’s gun. “Who was he?”

Knox’s image disappeared as the shape-shifter frowned and regained his own form. “I’m telling you, I don’t know. He contacted me only by phone. I was supposed to keep you from returning the antidote, that’s all. He said the antidote would serve two purposes—saving vamps and killing humans, but only the humans he chose to kill.”

Knox glanced at Felicia, but she couldn’t figure out why.

“What do you mean?” Knox asked.

“I don’t—”

Knox shoved the barrel against the shape-shifter’s face. “What else did he say?”

“Nothing, nothing. He just mentioned some doctors who’d died and that he was the reason.”

“Him? Not the antidote?” Knox clarified.

“Right.”

Once more, Knox looked at her. This time, the look on his face was clear—suspicion.

That look snapped something loose inside Felicia. Maybe it was the image of a vamp bleeding Mahone dry for information. Or maybe it was the image of Knox holding a gun to someone with
his
face while he ignored her. Whatever the reason, Felicia felt rage spark inside her, as sudden and intense as if someone had suddenly doused a dying fire with gasoline. “How did this person get in touch with you in the first place?” Felicia snapped. “Do you guys have a service or something? Need to impersonate someone, call 1-800-NOT-REAL?”

“Felicia,” Knox began, his voice wary.

Now he was wary? Now he chose to acknowledge her? Before he could guess what she intended, Felicia wrested the gun from Knox. He grasped for it, but was too late. She shoved it between the shape-shifter’s eyes. “Where’s Mahone? Is he alive?”

“I—I don’t know.”

“Who has him?”

The shape-shifter’s mouth worked up and down as if he was trying to talk but was too scared to get the words out.

“Tell me who it was that hired you.”

Eyes rolling back crazily, the shape-shifter’s gaze skipped from Knox back to her. “I don’t—”

Felicia lowered the gun and fired it into the shape-shifter’s leg.

He screamed in pain.

Tears filled her eyes and she raised the gun once more. “You tell me—”

“Felicia,” Knox said. “Felicia, love, give me the gun.”

“Don’t you dare call me your love,” she snapped, her voice trembling. “He needs to tell us. Tell us,” she screamed, part of her thinking Knox’s refusal to acknowledge her had been based on transferred betrayal. He’d agreed to work for Mahone, Felicia’s boss, to save his clan. Over and over again, they were confronted with evidence the FBI had been playing them.

Did he blame her?

Yes, she realized, he did. He might not realize it, but he’d been blaming her for what he’d seen as Mahone’s disloyalty. Biting her lip, she finally shifted her gaze to his. She saw the newfound knowledge in his eyes, as well as the regret. She shook her head and turned back to the shape-shifter, who cringed back, whimpering.

“Tell me or I’m going to blow your head off, I swear.”

“Pri—”

Felicia jerked as someone spoke from behind her.

“What?” Knox leaned forward, obviously thinking the word had come from the shape-shifter.

Felicia, on the other hand, turned toward the forgotten vamp, lying underneath a tree where they’d left him.

Hand trembling, she dropped the gun and ran toward the gurney. She knelt down beside the vamp. It took everything Felicia had not to flinch back from the sight of the male’s skeletal features. The grooves under his eyes were so deep that his eye sockets practically dropped into them. Starving, she thought, and I can feed him. I can give him strength. But right now, she needed—Knox needed—information. “Who? Who was it?”

“Pri—” he gasped again.

“Prime,” Knox said from behind her, his voice tight with fury. “Dante Prime? Is that what you’re trying to say?”

The vamp closed his eyes and nodded. Shifted. He coughed and his features tightened as if he was in great pain.

“How—How do you know that?” Knox asked, but the vamp was obviously unable to answer more questions.

Felicia looked at Knox, expecting to see anger, pain, confusion—something—but he’d closed himself off. There was no hurt there. No betrayal. No nothing. Despite what had just gone on between them, she placed her hand on his arm, knowing that he had to be hurting, wanting to offer him some comfort.

Once more, he moved away from her. Her hand fell. At the same time, her heart shattered completely.

The pain was sharper than any set of fangs could ever be, piercing not just her exterior but her very being. She’d always known that deep down inside, Knox hated his human half and feared one day she’d betray him. Yet even when she hadn’t, even when it was Kyle or another vamp who hurt him, he rejected her.

He’s just surprised. Hurt, she told herself once more. He didn’t mean anything by it.

But it meant something to her. Something significant.

She glanced over her shoulder and saw O’Flare tending to the shape-shifter’s leg wound. Felicia swallowed at the chastising look O’Flare shot her. Even Wraith looked a little critical. Felicia knew she deserved it. She, who was trained to read a person’s expression, intonation, and syntax—she, who’d rather not use force but would if necessary—had shot the shape-shifter when everything pointed to the fact that he’d been telling the truth. She’d lost control of herself, and her desperation to learn the truth about the antidote—not just for Knox, but for herself, she realized—had made her willingly hurt another with no good cause.

She turned away and once more stared down at the ailing vamp. Perhaps it was only another attempt to make amends to the friend whose husband she’d desired and taken into her bed—or perhaps it was to make amends for shooting the shape-shifter. Whatever the reason, Felicia rolled up her sleeve. “I’m going—I’m going to feed him.” When Knox whipped around, his eyes flashing, she shook her head. “Not at my throat, but with my wrist. Like I fed Zeph. I can’t—I can’t bear to see another vamp hurting. Not when he might actually accept the help I offer.”

Her meaning was obviously clear to him. It seemed to penetrate the defenses he’d once more built around himself. Frowning, he said, “I didn’t mean . . .”