cut off. “Are you putting this thought in my mind right now? Are you doing to this to me—making me want you.”
Murhder shook his head. “No, I would never do that. That is a total violation.”
“But how do I know that for sure.” She nodded at his hips. “I mean, you’re … aroused, and it would get you what you want.”
“I am turned on. In my mind, my hands are on your skin, my mouth is on yours, I am on the verge of entering you.” Murhder smiled a little and then got serious again. “But no, I’m not making you feel this way. Your reaction is all your own body’s, it is every bit your free will and nothing else—and trust me, the fact that you want me of your own volition? It’s the hottest thing about you right now.”
Sarah didn’t have time to respond to any of it. Not what her commando had revealed about himself and his … kind. Not the currents of sex that ran between them. Not her questioning him about the mind control.
Before she could go any further, the doctor came out of Nate’s room, and instead of letting the door close slowly on its own, she pulled it shut.
“I think he’s doing well. You can’t beat that Chosen blood. But we’ll be monitoring him.”
As the woman smiled, Sarah focused on her teeth. No fangs.
She shook herself back to attention. “How does that process work? At the cellular level, for example—I just don’t understand any of it.”
The doctor looked at the commando. Looked back. “Their pituitary glands take about twenty-five years to properly mature, and during that time, their bodies and organs are fairly nascent. When the pituitary reaches its proper size and functioning, their version of growth hormone is secreted all at once, triggering a firestorm of cellular activity and change that can be lethal to them. As adults, they require regular feeding from the opposite sex, and he will have to do that from now on to remain healthy and strong.”
“ ‘Their’? So you’re not a …”
The doctor smiled again. “No, I’m not. Listen, I’m going to go check on John again. Do you want to join me? Take a look at him? You might as well while you’re here.”
As Sarah’s inner scientist woke up in a big way, she glanced at the door to Nate’s room. “Someone will come and find me if he needs anything?”
“You got it,” the commando said.
Before she headed off with the doctor, she glanced at the commando. He was watching her with those hooded eyes, his big body throwing off waves of heat that surely the doctor felt, too?
The fact that his hands were loosely linked in front of his hips, over his erection, made her flush.
“It’s okay,” he murmured.
She wasn’t sure what exactly he was reassuring her about. But for some reason … the fact that he cared enough to try warmed the center of her chest.
Forcing her mind away from … well, everything, she focused on the doctor and then walked away with the woman.
“How long have you been … here?” Sarah asked.
“Awhile now.” The doctor pushed open an unmarked door. “It’s a long story.”
As they entered another clinical room, the tall commando—um, vampire—with the shoulder injury looked up from the exam table. He had his shirt off, and he was poking at the nasty black stain on his skin.
It was much larger, Sarah thought.
“It’s bigger,” the doctor muttered.
The solider looked over and nodded grimly.
Sarah approached the man—vampire—oh, God—and leaned in for a closer inspection. “It’s like cellulitis.” She glanced over at the doctor. “And you’ve tested it for fungus?”
“I’ve tested it for everything.”
All at once, Sarah’s researcher brain came fully online. Sure as a football stadium would turn its lights on at night, section by section, her mind blazed with questions, thoughts, observations, ideas.
Dimly, she realized she had been on autopilot at work for quite a while, going through the motions at the lab, being competent, although not extraordinary.
It was only now as her enthusiasm got her buzzing that she recognized the slump she’d been in.
She straightened and addressed the doctor. “I want to see everything you’ve got.”
The blond woman looked at the solider. “John, would you consent to—”
When he nodded vigorously, the doctor smiled a little. “Come on, Sarah, let’s go to my computer. We can start there.”
Xhex strode through the subterranean tunnel that connected the Brotherhood mansion to the training center at a fast walk. She wanted to run, but she