He nodded curtly.
“How is this any different?”
He pivoted to face her. “It just is, dammit!”
“There’s nothing wrong with needing something from the one you love.”
He snorted softly.
“What’s really bothering you?” She frowned, then snapped her fingers. “It’s your stupid masculine pride, isn’t it? Needing my blood makes you feel weak.” She shook her head. “Why is needing my blood any worse than needing anyone else’s to survive?”
“Because I’m not in love with them. When I’m hunting, they’re prey, nothing more. I don’t see you that way. And you’d better hope I never do.”
“I love you, too.” She kissed his cheek, then took the vial from his hand and removed the cap. “What do you think is in here?”
“Wolf ’s bane. Your blood. Mara’s blood. A handful of herbs, a dash of hemlock.”
“Hemlock!” Sheree exclaimed. “That’s poison, isn’t it?”
“Maybe it’ll kill the werewolf.”
She glowered at him. “And you with it.”
“I guess there’s only one way to find out.”
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” She stared at the vial. In the dark, the contents looked thick and black.
“Have you got a better one?”
She worried her lower lip with her teeth, then shook her head. “No, but I don’t trust Edna and Pearl to have your best interests at heart. No one knows what it will do to you.” She took his hand in hers. “I’d rather have a husband who was a vampire and a werewolf than no husband at all.”
“It’s a chance we’ll have to take, love. I can feel the moon calling to me. If this shit doesn’t work, tomorrow night I’ll have to answer.”
“I’m scared, Derek. Please don’t drink it. I have a bad feeling about this.”
He lifted one brow. “Woman’s intuition?”
“Maybe. I don’t know.” She shook her head again. “I just know something’s not right.”
“I almost killed a man last month,” he said quietly. “I don’t want to be that out of control ever again.”
“I don’t know much about vampires, but it seems to me that the more often you drink from me, the stronger our bond becomes. Maybe, between the two of us, we can control your urge to kill.”
“And maybe we can’t.”
“Then let’s wait and see what happens. If you can’t control it, we can always try the serum next month.”
Derek stared at the bottle in her hand. Truth be told, he wasn’t crazy about drinking some untested concoction either, but he was desperate enough to try anything that might work. “What if I go on a killing spree tomorrow night? Do you want that on your conscience?”
She squeezed his hand. “You won’t be able to kill anyone if we lock you up. This time I’ll make sure your mother stays with me so you can’t compel me.”
“All right, love,” he agreed. “We’ll try it your way. I just hope to hell we’re doing the right thing.”
With a sigh of relief, Sheree emptied the bottle’s contents onto the ground. Deep inside, she knew it was the right thing to do.
And yet, what if she was wrong?
What if she had talked Derek into something they would both live to regret?
Chapter Thirty-Nine
The morning of the twenty-fifth dawned cold and overcast, with the promise of rain before nightfall. Sheree woke early after a restless night. She’d had nightmares in the past—more so since meeting Derek. But the ones she’d had last night had been horrible in the extreme.
Thankfully, she remembered only bits and pieces, but what she remembered was enough to make her break out in a cold sweat. Derek had turned into the very monster he feared—a soulless beast with no conscience, and no memory of who he had been. He had chased her through an endless forest until, at last, she had found what she thought was a safe hiding place behind a waterfall, only to discover Mara waiting for her, death shining in her cold green eyes.
The worst nightmare had been the last, when Derek—his body twisted into some grotesque creature that was half vampire and half werewolf—tied her to the bed and then invited Mara, Logan, and the two elderly vampires to come in and drink their fill.
Sitting up, bracing her back against the headboard, Sheree wrapped her arms around her waist. What if the serum would have worked? Maybe it would have cured Derek of being both vampire and werewolf, giving them a chance for a normal life together. Last night, disposing of the serum had seemed like the right thing to do. Why did it feel so wrong now, when the serum was gone and it would take weeks to make a new batch?