The next morning, I woke early, wanting to get an early start on the sunlight serum with Amy, but I hadn’t even touched my feet to the floor when my stomach started doing flip flops again. I needed blood. I ran to the bathroom with my hand over my mouth and barely made it to the toilet, unloading the contents of my stomach as cold sweats erupted all over my body. Still on my knees, I rocked back onto my feet, when big hands caught my back. Spots appeared before my eyes, preventing me from seeing clearly. I got to my feet and walked over to the sink, turned the water on cold, then splashed my face and rinsed out my mouth.
“Are you all right?” Lance whispered into my ear, concerned, as I bent over the sink. “Why don’t you stay home today and lay down? You need to rest.”
“Home,” I said, forcing a smile so as not to worry Lance. “I like the sound of that.”
“Up you go,” Lance said as he scooped m
After our shower, I tried to dress into my scrubs, but I couldn’t get into them. In fact, I couldn’t even pull the pants up past my upper thighs. I sighed, opting for a loose-fitting blue dress that came to just above my knees and showed off my legs. Then, I slipped into some low heels. At least I hadn’t gained weight anywhere else other than my stomach, ass, and breasts, of course. I was beginning to think that I had two cantaloupes on my chest instead of breasts. I laughed to myself as I ran a brush through my hair and pulled the front up, but let the rest fall loosely into blonde waves over my shoulders. I wasn’t going to work, after all, so I could look a little more casual. I stepped in front of the mirror, satisfied, but ran a hand over my stomach, unable to believe that it had actually grown bigger overnight.Lance let out a long whistle, looking at me, as he came into the room, dressed in a light gray suit and blue shirt, open at the neck. Obvi
Amy opened the door and I was shocked to see Kellen standing there, with his dark blond hair falling across his forehead and brilliant green eyes. Somehow, it never dawned on me that he was a vampire. “Lance sent me to help test your sunlight serum.”“Kellen, really? You’re a vampire?” I laughed. Somehow, I didn’t catch it with him. He hid it well. He shrugged, grinning. “Don’t you have to work today?”“No, this is my day off,” he said, smiling, as the dimple appeared on his cheek.“And you’re going to spend it letting us torture you?” I asked in disbelief.“Yes, I want to live a normal life … well … as normal as possible,” Kellen said with a shrug.Then, a thought suddenly occurred to me. “Have you seen Christina since she was discharged?”Kellen suppressed a smile. “Crissy? A few times … after dark.”
“Okay,” he said, cringing. I snapped the drapes closed and he doubled over to his knees.“What happened? How do you feel?” I asked, stooping down beside him.“It was painful, but not as painful as before.”“And you didn’t blister this time,” Amy said, jotting down the results.“Again,” Kellen said, rising to his feet.“Do you need to rest?” I asked instinctively.Kellen smirked. “I’m a vampire. We don’t need rest.”“Do you need a minute, then?”“No, I’m fine,” he said, bracing himself, ready to go. “Again.”I nodded and filled a syringe with another ounce. “Ready?”“Let’s go for two more ounces this time,” Kellen said, as a smile played on his lips.“We really should go slowly so that we can record the results at each stage,&rdquo
“I don’t know, but we have to get out of here,” Amy said, already headed toward the door, but I stopped her.“Amy, there’s something that you should know,” I said, looking into her eyes.“Leila, we have to get out of here …”“Someone is after the baby,” I blurted out.“What?”I turned around to look at Kellen, who was standing with his fists clenched by his side.“In New York, someone compelled Lance’s driver to take me to Central Park, but I got away and two of Lance’s men stopped him before he could take me to them,” I said, following Amy to the door.“Okay,” Amy said, then ran quicker than human speed behind a counter and pulled out a very large curved knife that resembled a handheld sickle. “Stay close and we’ll protect you.” Then, she looked over at Kellen. “Are you up for this?”
I carefully stepped around the bodies lying on the floor, writhing in flames around us, as if we had just stepped into a living picture of Dante’s Hell. Kellen pulled me back and Amy rushed to the door just as another vampire rushed in, growling, when someone pulled his head back from behind. A moment later, his head was removed from his body. When the body fell away, Charlotte was holding his head in her hand by the hair, and then dropped it. It blazed as it rolled across the floor.“No!” I said, backing away.“Charlotte, good,” Amy said, shoving me toward her. “Help me get her to Lance.”“Yes,” Charlotte said innocently, reaching out to me. “Let me help you …”“No, Leila’s right!” Kellen yelled, pulling me behind him. “She’s a traitor!”“Charlotte? A traitor?” Amy asked, confused.“Yes, she is! Amy, she tried to co
“Okay, that’s enough,” he said, pulling my arm until I was on my feet.“Let me go!” I yelled. Then, Garrett picked me up off the ground and carried me to the waiting limo, and shoved me inside. Amy slid into the backseat on the other side of me, Charlotte slid into the front passenger’s seat, and Garrett slid behind the wheel of the limo. “Let me go! When Lance finds me, he’s going to kill all of you!”“Shut up about your precious Lance!” Charlotte said, slapping me hard on the cheek across the seat.“Don’t hurt her,” Amy said. “I can’t lose my test subject. I’m tired of being my own guinea pig.”“Yes, you most certainly are a pig,” I agreed angrily.Amy grabbed a chunk of my blonde hair and yanked my head back. “Shut up or I’ll kill you … now!”“No, you won’t,” I corrected calmly.
Charlotte laughed so hard that tears sprang to her eyes. “And how, pray tell, do you plan to do that?”“I’ll find a way,” I walked over to the chair and sat down at the small table. “Tell me, why did you kill Steven?”“How very perceptive of you!” Charlotte said, clasping her hands together excitedly.“Well, I was the one who killed him, actually,” Garrett said as a smirk played on his lips.“Yes, well, at my insistence, of course.” Charlotte walked over to his side and ran her hand over his chest.“Why?”“Well, after I happened to find you in the alley with those thugs, you said that you were following a scent,” Charlotte said, sitting on the chair across from me at the small table. “I knew it was blood, so I just put two and two together. The only time that humans crave blood is when they’re pregnant with a dhampir child. It wa
Garrett obeyed, stepping into the center of the warehouse. He took his clothes off and stood stark naked in the middle of the room. Before I could object, he bent over slightly and his body began to contort and morph. His face protruded outward into a muzzle as he doubled over, and his hands turned into massive paws just before they touched the floor. A moment later, a giant brown wolf was standing in the center of the room before me, snarling, growling menacingly.“You’re werewolves,” I said in disbelief. Why the hell not? I had already met vampires and witches. Why not werewolves, too? Abruptly, I realized that I had been living a blissfully sheltered life.The brown wolf growled.“Although we are werewolves, we can change at will,” Leo said as a smile played on his lips. “That wasn’t always the case, but I developed a serum.”“And what do you want with my baby?” I asked, trying to fit all the