Read Kissing Phoenix Online

Authors: Shona Husk

Tags: #General Fiction, #Erotica

Kissing Phoenix (7 page)

BOOK: Kissing Phoenix
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Lil wiggled in her seat. Her pulse was a rapid hammer both Vampires in the room would be listening to. Her uncertainty may not have shown on her face, but it was revealed by the way she moved and the way her heart pulsed. He couldn’t do anything to settle her. He couldn’t tell her about Theo’s research without his emotions clouding the discussion. He was too involved to be impartial. He wanted Lil to live—regardless of the cost. She may not agree and he didn’t want to force her into a life she couldn’t cope with. The potential cure had to come from the doctor.

“I’ve read your file Ms. St. Jack.” Theo tapped the open file on the large wooden table. He would’ve sourced her medical records as soon as he’d hung up the phone.

Lil glanced at Aidan, one eyebrow raised, but he kept his gaze on Theo. He had to act as if he had every right to be here, instead of pulling century-old favors. Vampires had long memories and debts could be carried for decades, yet there was no guarantee Theo would help even though Aidan had something Theo would be interested in. Lil.

“I’m curious why you didn’t come here to start with, you are a…?” Theo let the sentence hang for Lil to finish.

It was the question Aidan had expected Theo to start with. It was where he would start if he were on the other side of the table.

“Human?” she ventured.

“Yes, we all are,” he laughed. “But what type?” Theo pressed.

“Lil is plain human.” Aidan voice was flat and smooth like polished steel. He couldn’t let emotion slip out and make him stumble. Theo would hone in on any weakness and that would be it, appointment over. Fendrake called in. Theo had his own skin to think about, just visiting was dangerous.

“Aidan. You should know better than to bring a human here.” Theo closed the file and the air in the room froze. “There’s nothing I can do for a human.”

Lil slumped into the chair as if she’d been hit. Aidan didn’t reach for her. He didn’t move. This was why he was here. It wasn’t Lil’s cancer that could be cured. It was her fragile humanity.

“I know.” Aidan had been through this argument a hundred times in the car on the way here. A hundred times before he’d even picked up the phone. Somehow it had been easier when Theo wasn’t glaring at him as if he was the lowest form of rat-sucking Vampire who’d just crawled out of the nearest sewer covered in shit. “As a human she is untreatable. I’m aware of this. I’m also fully versed in your research. I turned down your offer ten years ago, but I have followed your success.”

Theo blinked and a small smile turned the corner of his lips. He’d always appreciated flattery.

“Hang on, have I got this right? You won’t treat me because I’m human?” Lil put her hands on the desk as the understanding that her last chance was being decided for her pushed down on her fear.

“As you have been told, your cancer is untreatable. I can’t perform miracles.” Theo spoke as if he were speaking to a child.

“No. But you can perform transformations.” And that was all Aidan was asking for. If Lil wasn’t human, she would live.

“That’s illegal and you know it.”

Aidan pushed on. He wasn’t going to let Theo brush him off. “Explain to Lil why Weres don’t get solid mass tumors.”

“This is not a path you want to travel, either of you. Stop trying to save Eve.”

He could never have saved Eve. Eve would never have accepted the existence of Vampires and Weres. While he’d loved her with all of his heart, he could never be himself with her. He’d rushed into marriage thinking it would solve their problems. It hadn’t. The outbreak of war had given him an out and he’d taken it rather than explain to Eve why she wasn’t aging. He wasn’t here for Eve. He was here to prove he wasn’t a coward and that he’d do anything to save the woman he loved.

“I’m here because of Lil. Let us make that decision.”

“No, you’re still second guessing—”

“What has cancer in Weres got to do with me?” Lil interrupted.

Theo’s eyes narrowed. “You haven’t told her?”

“I thought it best to come from you, it’s your research.” And Aidan couldn’t be lover and doctor. He wasn’t even sure he wanted Lil to take this chance. It was illegal and dangerous, but the alternative was worse—death. She had too much life and too much good in her to let her die. She was everything he loved about humans. The way they could care for no reason and love without holding back. Lil deserved all the facts, every choice and every chance.

“Were children are susceptible to the same cancers as human children. However, if they survive to adolescence, the shifts halt the growth, in some cases the tumor actually shrinks.” Theo paused to let Lil soak up his words. “Aidan would like to turn you into a Were, Ms. St. Jack.”

There it was, nice and simple. A solution to a deadly problem. If Lil became a Were of any kind, her cancer would stop growing, it wouldn’t choke off her artery and she would survive to live a long life. Hopefully with him, unless she decided to never speak to him again which, given the dark look in her eyes and the heavy thumping of her heart, was becoming quite a strong possibility.

“You want me to do what?” she spoke to Aidan.

“If you become a Were, your cancer won’t kill you.” It was the only solution he had. Not even non-humans could cure all diseases.

“A Were. As in wolf?”

“There are other forms,” Theo added unhelpfully.

“Seriously, there are really Were-wolves in London like the song?” Lil let out a little giggle. “Do they eat Chinese?”

“This is why we don’t bring humans here. Get over the human obsession, Aidan.” Theo picked up her file and stood. “This discussion is over. I won’t take part.”

Aidan stood. He wouldn’t let Theo leave without at least giving them a chance. “I’ll run the risk, Theo, I only came for a correct blood sample.”

“You’ll lose your license.”

“I haven’t practiced in nearly eighty years.”
If our friendship ever meant anything,
give me this
.

Theo glanced at Lil, then back at Aidan. He nodded even as he dismissed them. “I understand your plight and I’m sorry I don’t have a magic bullet. This way will bring only madness and death.”

 

The door clicked closed behind the doctor. The weight of the air threatened to crush Lilith. She couldn’t breathe. Aidan hadn’t lied; he’d just left out the truth. A great big slice of unholy, impossible, hairy truth. She pushed her chair out and fought her way to the window. From here she could see the park, half hidden by rain. Now she knew what the rain hid. It had been easier not knowing the creatures who crept through horror films also shared the suburbs. She pressed her palms and then her forehead to the cool glass.

“A Were-wolf.” They wanted to change her in to a Were-wolf. A cold, clammy hand stroked her back. The cats in her clinic would love that. The cold hand slid around her throat and tightened as she realized what she was thinking. “Were-wolves seriously exist.”

Vampires existed, so why the hell not?

“What else exists?” Her fingers slid down the glass. “What other monsters are hiding out there?” She spat out the words and turned to face Aidan. “Maybe I’d be better suited to being one of them.”

He shoved the chair back. “You have nothing to fear from us. Humans have killed more non-humans than we have killed humans.”

Realization knocked her back against the window. Aidan was one of them. And always would be. A forever youthful Vampire. In his world, humans were the monsters, hunting them down.

“You should’ve told me before we got here.” Given her some warning. Given her a chance to refuse and run away.

He walked over to her. “Would you have come?”

“What difference would it have made?” What difference did any of this make? She wished Aidan had never shared his secret and never let her glimpse another world. He’d offered a taste and then left her to starve. “Madness and death is not much of a cure.”

“It’s a chance. Your only chance.”

“Dr. Godwen said what you want is illegal.”

“He’s right.” His hands rubbed down her arms.

Lilith pushed him away and ran her fingers through her hair.

“Why, Aidan? Why raise my hopes?” She forced back the tears. He didn’t get to see her cry. Not now. Not ever. They’d go home and she would pack up and head south to spend her days on a golden beach in France, leaving Aidan to his unnatural life. He could find another human to seduce with tales of Vampires.

“I love you, Lil.”

The words that should have warmed her cut like knives. “But only if I join your secret society of nightmares.”

Aidan laughed, but it was dark and half strangled. The Aidan she knew was gone, replaced by a man who couldn’t live in his own skin. “Hardly, love. Weres and Vampires don’t make good bedfellows.”

“What do you mean?”

“If there was another way, I would be showing you. This is the best I can offer. If you want to live, this is all I have to give you.” Aidan grasped her hands. “I don’t want you to change, but I want you to live. I want to get the chance to ask you to marry me.”

She stopped fighting his hold. “You want to marry me?”

“I’ve thought about it.”

So had she, but she wasn’t about to agree to a pity marriage. She’d rather die single. “It doesn’t matter anyway. Dr. Godwen said he won’t help.”

“Right now Theo will be checking his research samples for a matching blood type. You are his ultimate guinea pig.”

“Guinea wolf,” she corrected.

Aidan didn’t smile, his face more suited to a funeral. “He wants to know if Lycanthria will halt cancer in humans.”

Halt cancer. Not cure it—possibly. She would be the clinical trial. He’d dragged her down here on a hope more delicate than fairy wings.

“It may not work?” Lilith shook her head. This was insane. “Become a beast in the hope of a non-cure. That’s a big ask, Aidan.”

“It’s not like the movies. You’re in one form or the other. You like animals.”

“That doesn’t mean I want to be one.” Exasperation colored her words. Everything she knew was human. Aidan’s world operated concurrently, but never crossed her world. Her world and her humanity was the price of Aidan’s maybe-cure.

“That’s your decision.” His fingers slid through her hair as if he were trying to hold on to her, but losing his grip. “I wanted to give you an alternative to certain death.”

For me or for you?
She leaned against him. Join him or die. Some choice. Yet the thought of cheating death and living regardless of the cost was already sounding appealing.

“Is Lycanthria a virus?” Her words were muffled against his chest.

“Yes, it’s a mitochondrial virus. Different strains cause the different Weres.”

Mitochondria were the cells’ energy producers. A virus of the mitochondria would have an effect on the cells ability to function.

“How does it work?”

“The virus ramps up the energy and causes the shift in form. It’s passed from mother to child. Occasionally humans get infected.”

“Our children would be Weres?”

“There would be no children. Vampires and Weres can’t breed.”

“No children?” While she wasn’t ready to be a mother, having that choice taken away was another blow that ricocheted around her delicate heart. Her mind tried to grapple with the flood of information and latched onto the bits she understood. She was a vet. She knew medicine. “If Lycanthria is a virus, there’s a cure.” Lilith slipped her arms around his waist, using him as an anchor.

“There might be, but that research is banned. Weres don’t want to be cured. Plus you would need a cure for cancer first.”

But it could be temporary. A treatment until something better came along. The madness receded as the idea took hold and began to look like a rational option. A lifeline until a real cure came along and she was sure it would. Too many people got cancer for the scientists not to be researching a solution. It was just a matter of time. Becoming a Were would give her that time.

She lifted her head to look up at him. “But in the future…”

Aidan pressed his lips together and the rest of the sentence dissolved on her tongue.

“We’re not second class citizens wishing to be human. I can’t promise a change in policy. I’ve already broken half a dozen rules bringing you here. One word from Theo and Fendrake will be breathing down my neck, asking for a pint of blood. I don’t mind, they could bleed me dry every day for you, but you need to decide. I will fully support your choice, whatever it is.”

“Fendrake?” The name seemed familiar, but she couldn’t place it, the thought just out of reach. The harder she tried to find the memory, the further it faded. Fendrake was hiding a potential halt, if not cure, to cancer.

“They broker peace between the different species and keep us all in line. Keep us out from under the human microscope.”

“If Lycanthria is successful in halting my cancer, will there be a human trial?”

“No.” He kissed her lips. “Humans aren’t ready to share the world with us.”

Aidan was right. She couldn’t defend her own species and their awful track record with minorities. Was she any better, using something of theirs to save her life and breaking their laws in the process?

BOOK: Kissing Phoenix
3.52Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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