“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?”