Total pages in book: 165
Estimated words: 159487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 797(@200wpm)___ 638(@250wpm)___ 532(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 159487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 797(@200wpm)___ 638(@250wpm)___ 532(@300wpm)
His frown deepened. What the fuck had they both been doing with the curvy Mature Elite and why did she carry both their Bonding Scents?
“Are you done sniffing me yet?” she asked and Ravik realized he still had his face pressed to her hair.
“Uh, sorry.” He straightened up. “You do smell fucking amazing, but I don’t understand why you need to keep near me. I’m going to the fresher to jerk off, you know,” he added bluntly. “So you might want to give me some privacy for that.”
Her cheeks went bright pink, but she lifted her chin.
“That’s fine. It won’t be the first time I’ve seen you come.”
“What?” Now Ravik was really confused. “What does that mean?”
She shook her head.
“You really don’t remember anything, do you?”
“No, but I wish I fucking did!” Ravik growled. What in the Seven Hells had he been doing with the gorgeous little human and why couldn’t he remember it? Why—?
“I have some news.” It was Sev, coming out of his lab and his face was filled with excitement and relief.
“What news? About the sample you took last night?” Cassie asked, looking up at him hopefully.
What sample? Ravik wanted to ask, but his friend was already talking again.
“Last night I made a compound from your honey, Ravik’s blood, and my essence,” he was explaining to Cassie. “But it kept degrading—it killed the virus but I couldn’t keep it alive long enough and it needed a living host—a live delivery system, if you will—”
“Severin, please—” Cassie put up a hand to stop him. “Please for once, just skip the science and get straight to the point. Were you able to make a cure from the sample I gave you or not?”
“Yes.” Sev took a deep breath. “And I need to administer it to you.”
“All right—where is it?” She held out an arm. “Please, give it to me. I’m ready.”
Sev frowned.
“I can’t give it to you in a syringe or an injector,” he explained carefully. “You see, as I told you, it needs to be delivered in a healing medium from a living host.”
“Uh, Sev, what in the Seven Hells are you talking about?” Ravik asked, frowning.
His friend looked irritated.
“I’m saying that I injected myself with the cure, last night,” he said. “I knew it was a risk, but—”
“Wait a minute, wait a minute…” Ravik held up a hand. “You injected yourself with what?”
“The compound I told you about,” Sev said impatiently. “It’s in my system now—I’m carrying the cure.”
Cassie shook her head.
“I don’t get it. If it’s inside you, how do you give it to us?”
Severin took a deep breath.
“You might not like this but…I’ll have to bite you—both of you. The compound will be carried by my essence into your bloodstream and the cure will enter your body that way.”
Cassie had a curious, uncertain look on her face but Ravik was already backing away.
“Uh-uh, no. I don’t think so,” he said, frowning. “Males don’t bite other males—you know that, Sev. Besides, you can only heal the woman you love with your essence—not another male.”
Sev immediately looked frustrated.
“I know that’s usually the way it works,” he said. “But I believe in this case I’ll be able to heal you both because I care for you both.”
“Well, I care for you too but as a friend,” Ravik emphasized. He would do just about anything for his best friend but letting Sev bite him was out of the question.
“You don’t understand—without the cure, you’re eventually going to slip back into the mental fog the virus causes!” Sev exclaimed. “You’re only as coherent as you are now because we slept in the same room last night and my body was incubating the cure, which came out in my scent.”
Ravik frowned at him.
“What the fuck? First you tell me I have to be near Cassie because her scent is keeping me sane and now you’re saying it’s your scent? And you want to bite me? I don’t think so—I feel just fine.”
“You only feel fine because of my scent!” Sev looked really upset now—more upset than Ravik had ever seen him. “Please, I don’t want to lose you to the fog again!” he begged. “You don’t know what it’s been like these past three months—working on antiviral after antiviral only to see them all fail while watching you slip away, getting further and further from your right mind and any chance of the two of us ever getting home to the Mother Ship again.”
Ravik thought uneasily of the strange fog that seemed to cover his most recent memories. Could Sev be onto something here? But he couldn’t just let his friend bite him—he fucking couldn’t.
“Well you can bite me if you want to,” Cassie said, frowning at both of them. She looked up at Ravik. “I don’t understand what the big deal is. Blood Kindred bite their mates every day. I know—I worked with some girls who were bonded to them.”