“Financial or social?”

“I’m serious, Celia.”

“I know, Aric.” I imitated his gruff voice. He scowled at first, but then glanced away to hide his grin.

Our hands swung close enough to touch as we swept through the parking lot. This time Aric didn’t link us together. Maybe finding Misha on my doorstep upset him more than he’d allowed me to see. I wanted to show him he meant more to me than Misha and thought about reaching out to him. I angled a little closer, gathering my nerve to try.

Aric opened the wide glass door for me. We stepped inside, wincing from the obnoxious fluorescent lights bleaching the industrial white tile floor.

I instinctively clasped his hand as my eyes burned. “I’m sorry, Aric. These lights are designed to kill any bacteria brought into the building. They’re brutal on our vision, but the sting will pass soon.”

Aric opened his eyes and fixed them on our hands. The warmth between our palms assembled into a solid force, just like the other night, only more intense. “You make me crazy—you know that?” he murmured.

I released his hand, unsure whether the heat electrifying my body was something special…or if Aric had this effect on every female.

He paused before following me into the elevator and watched me as I hit the button to the fifth floor. “What’s going on between you and the vampires?”

Aric’s change of subject made me think his strong sex appeal naturally sizzled every gal’s core. Damn it. I shrugged. “Nothing.”

Aric crossed his arms and slumped against the wall of the elevator. “Then why were you having dinner with that idiot?”

My fingers tapped against the metal railing. “Misha just showed up, Aric. I was as shocked to see him as you were.”

“Somehow I doubt that.”

For a wolf, Aric really knew how to work the Catholic guilt.

The elevator doors opened. Aric grasped my arm and planted his foot to keep the doors ajar. “I don’t trust him, Celia. And neither should you. If he tries to pull you back into this mess, you let me know right away.”

His hand held me with gentle firmness, telling me he meant business, but with a promise that he’d never hurt me. I focused on his hard knuckles, wondering whether he’d ever allow himself to really touch me. And although my tigress argued against it, I considered the objection of his Elders. “Your pack might not approve,” I said softly.

Aric rubbed my arm with his thumb. “I don’t want you to worry about them.”

“Ah. Hey, guys.” Danny stood holding empty buckets in each hand, sporting a polo shirt and jeans beneath his stain-smeared lab coat. He glanced away from where Aric and I remained in the elevator. “I’ll take the samples if you have them. You don’t have to stick around if you have other plans.”

Aric released his hold. “It’s all right, Dan. I want to know what you find.” His eyes cut to me. “So long as it won’t take long.”

“The basic steps will take only a few minutes.” Dan hurried away.

I waited for Aric to step out before following Danny…and was rewarded by his hand slipping against the small of my back and rubbing gently. A purr rumbled softly in my throat before I could stop it.

Aric’s voice fell to a deep bedroom gruffness. “Have I mentioned you’re driving me crazy?”

My lids fluttered. Good…Lord. I concentrated hard on taking one step at a time, forcing my body straight into Danny’s lab and not into one of the dark offices.

Danny’s workspace was about the size of a high school science classroom, with counters and cabinets to match. Aric kept his arm around me while he dug into the back pocket of his jeans for the two vials. He tossed them to Danny…who dropped them on the floor. Good thing they were plastic.

Danny scrambled to pick them up. “Sorry, Dan,” Aric said. “I forgot your reflexes aren’t to the level of ours.”

Danny tried to hide his humiliation with a chuckle. “It’s all right. My reflexes don’t meet most human standards either.”

I smiled softly at my friend. What he lacked in coordination he made up tenfold in heart and brains. “Do you need help with anything, Danny?”

“No, Celia. I set everything up when you called.” He took Misha’s blood and smeared it on a glass slide with a swab and then placed it under a high-powered microscope. “Holy…Wow! Celia, come here.”

He moved so I could view the slide. Science was never my forte. Had Danny not tutored me through physiology, I never would have graduated nursing school. Yet I remembered what cells looked like. Misha’s cells, while similar to humans’, were significantly smaller, pink tinged around their perimeters…and still alive. They also held three nuclei at their center and moved in a swirling pattern as if searching for their host. “That’s so cool. Aric, would you like to see?”

Based on his scowl, I would have guessed for sure he would have said no. Yet curiosity grabbed stubbornness by the throat and pimp-slapped it a few times. Aric stood at least a foot taller than me. He had to bend practically in half to view the cells. “They’re trying to regenerate, since the idiot is still alive. They’ll die soon enough,” Aric muttered. “Ours are similar, but have a blue tone to the edges instead of that pansy-ass pink color.”

Danny shook the vial and held it up to the light. “How have humans not discovered your idiosyncrasies before?”

Aric stepped away from the scope. “Our preternatural magic helps camouflage our differences. The cells revert to a more human appearance when exposed to air. What preservative did you use to keep their form?”

Danny frowned when he read the top of the stopper. “One I didn’t think would work…a highly potent saline.”

Aric smirked. “It’s the salt. Salt has a strong use in our world. It’s used to capture and hold evil.”

I couldn’t hide my chuckle. Aric’s view on vamps was very black-and-white. Dan busied himself preparing the infected blood for examination. Aric used the opportunity to hook a finger into my belt loop and pull me against him. I glanced up at Aric as my back rested against his chest, hoping Danny wouldn’t be too much longer.

“Oh, crap,” Danny whispered. His fingertips quickly played with the knobs of the scope. “It…can’t be.”

“Danny, what’s wrong?”

Danny ignored me and hauled out another microscope from beneath the table. He wiped his finger with alcohol and pricked it with the edge of a lancet. His hands shook as he smeared his blood along the slide and examined it under the scope. He raced back and forth between his blood and the infected vampires until the preservatives holding the bloodlust together broke apart and the cells disintegrated to ash.

Sweat moistened Danny’s brow, and the whites of his eyes bulged like ostrich eggs. My tigress stirred with growing angst. So did Aric’s wolf. He fixed his alpha stare on Danny. “Dan. What did you see?”

Danny’s troubled expression bounced from the ash-coated slide to Aric. His voice trembled as he spoke. “The vampires are infected…with human blood.”

CHAPTER 25

Aric’s rage filled the small room. “That’s impossible. All preternaturals are immune to human infection.”

Danny backed away from Aric’s wrath. “I know, but those are human cells.”

I blocked Aric’s path as he moved toward Danny. He wouldn’t hurt Danny, but his formidable presence intimidated the hell out of him. “Danny, I saw the green blood coursing beneath the skin of those severely infected. No human disease does that.”

“Celia, the fluid surrounding the cells is green—the bloodlust, I presume. But the cells are human. There’s no doubt in my mind.” Danny scratched his thick curls. “They have the same shape, size, and single nucleus as mine. If they were vampiric or were, they would have been smaller and held three nuclei—like the ones you saw.”

Aric shoved his hands to his h*ps and swore. “How the hell are humans becoming infected?”

Danny didn’t answer. His eyes darted back and forth on the floor, and he appeared lost in his thoughts. “So much of this doesn’t make sense.” He turned to me. “Celia, if you were to eat a burger, your digestive system would break down the food—not send cow cells into your circulatory system. When a vampire feeds, the process should be the same.”

Aric stepped around me. “So then why were there human cells in this infected vamp’s system?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you know?”

“Nothing yet.”

Danny backed away at Aric’s growl. I placed my hands on Aric’s chest. “Aric, please. You’re scaring him again.”

Aric covered my hands and took a breath. “I apologize, Dan. My anger is not directed at you. Nor will it be taken out on you. I’m worried about what’s to become of the innocents.”

Danny’s shoulders slumped with relief. I could have told him Aric wouldn’t harm him, but it meant more coming out of the big, scary werewolf’s mouth. He returned to examine Misha’s blood. He sighed. “Misha’s blood holds no trace of human cells. Which supports my theory that their digestive process mimics ours. Something else is happening….” He rose and rubbed his chin, springing up when his mind latched onto a theory. “Celia, have any of the human populace come to your hospital with any unusual symptoms or strange infections?”

My eyes widened; I knew the direction his mind had wandered. “No…if they had, the Centers for Disease Control would have been contacted and we would have been notified across the board.”

Aric frowned at Dan. “Why do you ask? Bloodlust doesn’t affect humans.”

I twisted my hands to grip his. “I think Danny is suggesting they might be carriers.”

Aric’s jaw tensed so tight, I feared the bone would snap. “Carriers of a virus. A goddamn bloodlust virus.”