I turned to Jared. “Is that possible?”

“Yes. It’s a little like Jude’s gift, only much stronger. Whereas Jude can only delete last twenty minutes of memory, these people can choose which memories they want to delete and there is no time limit.”

“So we have nothing,” said Jude through her teeth.

“Not necessarily,” interjected Stuart. “See, the brain is made up of so many compartments that it would be impossible to completely erase a memory. It’s a little like a computer. When you delete things, it simply goes into the recycle bin, so it’s more like the vampire suppressed his memories. One memory can trigger another to resurface.”

I nodded. “Okay. So how do we get to those memories?”

“We use Antonio’s top interrogator, Ryder,” announced Jared. “He can do a mind swipe. Basically, he has a psychic hand. He uses it to sift and browse through what’s there. If there is anything at all left of those memories, he’ll find it.”

Cool gift, but… “If he’s that good, why doesn’t Antonio send him on assignments? It would be a hell of a lot easier to get answers if we had someone like him with us.”

“Ryder never leaves The Hollow. He’s only five months old, so he’s not in control of his bloodlust yet. Antonio keeps him isolated, just as he would with any newborn.”

“We’ll have the Deliverer, too,” David reminded us. “She might know stuff.”

“Then let’s get these humans to The Hollow.” When Jude stepped forward, her eyes flashing with anger, I gave her a pointed look. “Jude, you will get your vengeance, I promise you. But we need Ryder to sweep through their memories first. We need what info they have so we can find out what they know. Once we have it, they’re all yours. Okay?”

Her nod was reluctant, and I couldn’t blame her for being so impatient.

“There’s something I want to know first.” Jared turned back to the male Medic. “What were you going to do with the baby once you had it? Is there someone waiting for it right now? Bear in mind that I’ll know if you’re lying to me.”

“No one’s waiting. We can’t do it at a moment’s notice, so we were always given a week to get a baby. Once we had one and we were confident it would survive the Caesarean, Erik would send a message on his cell phone and then they’d message him with a location for him to drive to with the baby. He never took me or Sandra with him.”

“Good,” I said. “No one will suspect anything if this lot doesn’t show up with a baby today. When is the latest they’ll expect to be contacted?”

“In four days.”

“Think Ryder will be done within four days?” I asked Jared.

“Let’s hope so.” Jared sighed. “This place needs cleaning up. We don’t want human forensics finding Salem’s blood or any traces of us. It would probably be easier to just teleport it to the ocean or something. First, I want Harvey, Max, and Damien to search the vehicle. Look for any files or paperwork or anything that might even seem important. If I’m tied up, one of Antonio’s guards will teleport in and pick you guys up in a couple of hours.”

I looked at Salem, who was still holding Sandra, and at Reuben, who was still restraining Mark. “When we get back, take them straight to the containment cells. Make sure they’re put in separate ones. Ask Denny to do the same with Weird Wendy.”

Once Jared had teleported everyone, with the exception of Harvey, Damien, and Max, back to The Hollow, he and I made a quick stop at our apartment.

“I need to get this Belly and these clothes off,” I grumbled, not too happy with having splatters of Erik’s blood on my sweater. Catching sight of myself in the large oval mirror, I stopped. A pang of sorrow ran through me as I realised that this was the closest I would ever get to being pregnant. Never would I look like this, never would I know what it was like to carry and raise a child – my child, mine and Jared’s child.

I hadn’t considered whether I’d ever want kids before now. Although I wasn’t the most maternal person, I would rather not have had the choice taken away from me. Now that it was, I realised exactly how much I had wanted a child someday.

Obviously having sensed my change of mood, Jared appeared and slipped his arms around me. “What is it?”

I twirled in his hold. “Just thinking.”

“About what?”

“Don’t you regret that you’ll never get to have kids?” I didn’t like the way his face seemed to shut down.

He backed away, shrugging. “I don’t think I’d have been good at parenting anyway.”

“Why do you say that?”

He sighed, shrugging again. “I just don’t. Some people shouldn’t have kids.” And with that odd little comment he disappeared back into the living area.

Suspecting it was something to do with his mother and making a mental note to ask him to elaborate later, I changed into my white tank top and combat pants. It was then that we sought out Antonio. To my surprise, he wasn’t in one of his parlours. He was sitting on a bench in his indoor botanical gardens with Luther, Wes, and Lena. As usual, his guards and dogs also lingered close.

After hearing Jared’s account of what had happened, Antonio shook his head sadly. “I was hoping to find that Jude was wrong about vampires being involved in such an awful thing. I think it is now safe to say that she was correct. I’ll get Ryder to…”

Antonio’s voice seemed to fade away as my attention was snagged by the pulse beating in Jared’s throat. I couldn’t seem to look away from it, I felt literally mesmerised by it. Watching it throbbing had me licking my lips, had my stomach clenching. Then everything went black.

(Jared)

Shock seized and froze my entire body as Sam suddenly dived on me and latched on to my throat. It was nothing like her usual bites. There was nothing teasing or sensual about the way she sunk her teeth down hard, gulping my blood like she’d die on the spot if she didn’t. Antonio tried to pry her away, but she locked her limbs around me and growled.

She f**king growled!

Worse, in spite of the pain, her Sventé saliva was making me horny as shit and I was going to come in my jeans if someone didn’t detach her from me quickly.

It took the combined efforts of Antonio, Wes, Luther, and the guards to wrench her away. She fought their hold – kicking, scratching, and punching them. All the while, she hissed, growled, and snapped her teeth. Her pupils were completely dilated and she was shaking. She looked…crazed. The bottom fell out of my stomach as a heavy weight hit my chest. Shit, no.

I cupped her chin hard, but she managed to escape my grip. Then she curled her upper lip at me; it was a warning and a challenge. I framed her face with my hands, holding it still. “Sam, stop!” She didn’t. “Sam, I said stop!” My words didn’t even seem to register. Her focus was now solely on my throat. If the others weren’t still restraining her, she’d have been latched on to my throat again.

“Maybe you should try slapping her,” suggested Wes.

I shot him a scowl. I had no intention of hurting her. But that did give me an idea. Not knowing what else to do, I released a small harmless electrical discharge – something I hoped might snap her out of it. Her body jerked, but not in pain, in shock. I did it again, and again, and again, breathing a sigh of relief when her struggles stopped.

Reason and rationality soon returned to her eyes, and she glanced at us all oddly. “What the f**k?”

“Let her go.” Dubious, the others slowly released her. I curled my arms around her and kissed her hair. “I don’t know what the hell just happened. It was like you flipped or something.”

“Flipped?”

“You acted much like a newborn vampire,” said Wes. “You were wild.”

She swallowed hard as anxiety and worry flashed on her face, but she quickly blanked her expression. “I’m deteriorating, aren’t I?” It wasn’t really a question.

Antonio patted her back. “Let’s find out, shall we?”

Five minutes later, after Reuben had once again amplified Lena’s gift, she and Sam sat on the bench as Lena studied her. I held Sam’s hand, needing to touch her. Nothing had ever shocked me more than when she leaped at me like that. Nothing. Watching her in pain was awful, but looking at the only woman I’d ever loved and seeing nothing of that woman there…That was ten times worse.

Finally, Lena took a long breath and sat back. After taking a few mouthfuls of the NST that the guards had given her, she began to speak. “Your DNA has changed since I last looked. As last time there were certain equations that didn’t add up, I had expected – after what just happened – to find that those equations made absolutely no sense. But it is not that at all. In fact, those equations almost add up perfectly. What has changed is that these equations have become more complicated.”

I didn’t like the sound of that. “What does that mean?”

“It means that rather than her body going into ‘override’ and fighting the dramatic changes, it is…entering the next stage of the alterations.”

“I don’t get it. How can she enter the next stage without fully completing the first stage?”

“It is similar to the predicament of a caterpillar. If you were to open the cocoon, it would die. It has to be able to have the strength to free itself or it will not have the strength to fly away.” Lena placed her hand over Sam’s. “However, do not take that to mean that you will die – or fly, for that matter. My point is, you don’t yet have the strength to move on to the next stage, but your body has done it anyway. That is what most likely caused you to experience such an attack of bloodlust. Your body feels the need to compensate, it needs to replenish. Perhaps it would be a good idea for you to drink a few more NSTs a day than you would normally do.”

Antonio stopped in his pacing. “Does this mean that she is not deteriorating?”

“My opinion is that, on the contrary, she is strengthening. She is simply not seeing or feeling anything of these changes because the alterations are not yet complete.”

“When will they be complete?” I asked Lena.

“That, I do not know. But it was not all that long ago that I first looked at her DNA, and already there have been big changes. Give it a few days.” She smiled at Sam. “So how do you like your new pet?”

Sam’s smile took over her face. “He’s gorgeous. I’ve named him Dexter.”

Lena chuckled. “I look forward to meeting him. When you take him into the rainforest, take some tropical vine branches back to your apartment and create a jungle set-up. That’s what Wes and I did for Toto.”

I couldn’t believe they were talking about vines and pets in the middle of a conversation like this. Unreal. But sensing that Sam was spooked by having blacked out, I didn’t try bringing the matter up again. She wasn’t the type who liked to talk about stuff until she had sorted things through in her own head, and I knew she needed a little time to do that.

So I pretended that I bought the relaxed act, pretended I didn’t know how scared she was. Even when she wanted to take the damn snake for a walk…well, a slither…in the rainforest, I continued pretending, and I didn’t try coaxing her to open up. But after watching her stare at her office desk for two hours, I couldn’t keep quiet any longer.

She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t notice I’d crouched beside her chair until I rested my hand on her thigh. “Baby?”

Turning to look at me, she double-blinked. “Sorry, what?”

I gently moved her hair away from her face. “I know you’re scared, just like I know you’d prefer to pretend you’re not scared, but you have to have faith in Sebastian. That guy could find God if you asked him to. He’ll come through for you, I promise you. And then I’ll get those brothers to put everything right.”

“I have faith in all of you. It’s just…it freaks me out that I lost control like that. Worse, I don’t even remember it. I hurt you.”

“You didn’t hurt me.”

“Jared, I bit you without permission.” For vampires, that was a sort of rape. Cursing, she got to her feet and started pacing.

Feeling a shadow of her guilt, I pointed hard at her as I stood. “You do not have to feel bad about that. You don’t need my permission. I’m yours.”

“That’s not the point.”

No, it wasn’t the point. “Still, I don’t care. Do you hear me? I don’t care.”

“And what if it hadn’t been you? Not only could I have hurt someone else, but I’d have drank from someone else, and don’t tell me you wouldn’t hate that.”

Of course I’d hate that; I wanted her to feed from me, no one else. “But that wasn’t really you, Sam. That wasn’t my Sam. That was bloodlust taking over.”

“That freaks me out as well. But the worst is the ‘not knowing’. If I knew what they had done to me, I could deal with it. I’d probably be pissed and scared, but I could deal. Not knowing is harder.” Looking defeated, she backed into the wall and sighed.

I went to her and slid my hands into her hair. “I hate seeing you like this.”

“I’m entitled to sulk now and then. You do it all the time.”

I smiled at that, kissing her softly, teasingly, making her mouth chase mine. “You do know that even if you grow five heads, I’m keeping you, right?” Her laugh made me relax a little. I licked along the seam of her mouth, wanting entry again. “Let me make you forget for a while. Let me make you feel good.” The second she opened for me, I slipped my tongue inside, seeking hers. Quickly the kiss went from soft to demanding; it sent fire sizzling through us both as it usually did.