“Not poison. You’re too important.” Ross smiled as if enjoying the conversation. “At first, I wasn’t sure if you were a normal, but you reacted to the powder. Not much, but it was enough to trigger my curiosity.
“You see, shifters react rather violently to it. Only alphas are able to withstand the chemicals without being forced to take their animal form. But not you. I had to inject you with the liquid form, and you’re still not reacting as predicted. You’re not human, but I can’t place what type of breed you are.”
Ross paused as if he were waiting for her to supply him with answers. Raven laughed, unable to help herself. “You fool. I can’t change into any animal.”
A smile broke across his face, and a deep ‘oh, shit’ passed through her. “That’s what makes you such a superb specimen. You’re the closest thing to a shifter and human that I’ve run across. You’re the key to my research. Vampire blood can heal wounds, but did you know that shifter DNA can be extracted and used to slow some diseases?
“All the answers are in the blood, but shifter blood isn’t compatible to humans. I need to do more tests. Though shifters can heal incredibly fast, their blood weakens after a few weeks of study. When they have nothing else to offer me, I hand them over to the hunters. It’s a win, win situation.”
“Why?” Her voice rasped painfully, her numb throat fighting her.
Ross lost his smile. “My mother died after a prolonged hospital stay, rotting in a bed, hooked up to machines. She died for nothing. A shot, once a week, would’ve prolonged her life.”
“You were trying to find a cure.” Though his original intent had been noble, she didn’t feel a twinge of compassion for him.
“I wasn’t in time. I didn’t have enough subjects to test. I found a way around that now.”
“By draining people until they’re near death to create the serum.”
“Filthy animals.” His lips curled in rage, his movements grew more agitated and violent as he spread out a tarp on the floor. “Scientists have always experimented on animals.”
He actually believed it was no big deal. “They’re people.”
Images of Ross with a needle in his hand, holding her down and taking her blood exploded through her mind. “You did something to me when I collapsed.”
He nodded as if talking to an associate and not someone he planned to kill. “I wanted a viable sample. By the time I was able to work with yours, the blood had degraded too much to profile it.”
He shook his finger at her as if she were naughty. “But I know you’re different. You’re the key to perfecting my cure. This time I’ll take tissue samples. You heal amazingly fast. I’ll take care not to let you die.” Despite his words, malice gleamed in his eyes. He’d keep her alive, too, until he found his answers.
Ross puttered around the room, dragging out an old black doctor’s bag. He whistled tunelessly, while pulling out a pair of heavy shackles. She tried to rise, but found her muscles unable to obey as if her hands and knees were cemented to the floor.
“Don’t try to run. You won’t make it far. The shot last night at the crash has weakened you, leaving you susceptible. The second dose I just gave you will keep you docile for a few hours.”
Her head snapped up at his mention of the crash. “Where’s Taggert?”
Fear plummeted through her. She didn’t know what was worse, the thought of Taggert being hunted or being the subject of an experiment.
Rage like she’d never known shimmered up her spine. Energy flared under her skin, sizzled, burning away the drug, but it faded too fast to completely flush it out of her system. The trauma over the last few days had taken its toll. If she could just hold him off for a little while longer, then she’d show him what it meant to be part of a pack.
“Your Taggert hasn’t been harmed.” He glanced at her with calculating eyes. “I wouldn’t try anything. If I’m not at my laboratory to answer the phone at ten, they’ll release him, and the hunt will begin. Obey me and he might live.” He smiled slowly. “Who do you think will get him first? The hunters who’d paid for him, or the leashed shifter who craves the taste of flesh?”
Sickness lurched through her. The girl in the woods. The killer who eviscerated the bodies, then buried them to save to snack on later. Ross’s experiments must have pushed her past the limits of her sanity if she’d eat the flesh of her own kind.
A cough racked her again. Her ribs protested but each exhale expelled the powder from her lungs. “You hunt them in the woods.”