Marked By The Vampire (Purgatory #2)(41)
Author: Cynthia Eden

“I have the advantage here. The wolves were able to attack us so well at the cabin because they had the woods for cover. All of the animal scents were already there. Here it’s different. I control everything here.”

Her fingers tightened around him. Suspicion flashed on her face, but vanished almost instantly. “Control is great. Staying alive is even better. Let’s go.”

He inhaled. “Two werewolves are coming up the elevator now. A man and a woman.”

“Why aren’t we leaving?” Again, suspicion flashed across her face.

“I won’t let them hurt you,” he promised.

And he saw understanding sink in. She looked at the bed. At him. “You control everything here,” Olivia repeated his words in a quiet, hurt voice. “I-I was never free of the Para Unit, was I?”

The car had been equipped with a tracking system. Just in case she’d tried to slip away without him. She wouldn’t have been able to go far. The Para Unit would have been able to remotely disable the car.

“Bait.” She said the word like a curse. “You didn’t want to compromise the precious location of the Para Unit, so you tossed me out? To the wolves?”

She had it wrong. “No one will hurt you.” He sure as hell hadn’t tossed her anyplace.

Olivia ran from the room. He followed her, body tense. “Olivia—”

She was at the window, looking down. “It’s too high for me to jump.”

Hell, yes, five stories up was too high for her to jump.

Olivia spun around and rushed for the door. “Guess that means I have to run.”

He beat her to the door. This was the moment that they had been waiting for. The leverage the team needed. “They’re on the other side of that door.”

Her eyes were stark. “What have you done?”

He pushed her back. Opened the door. Stared at the man and woman waiting there.

It was easy enough to recognize the warden. Case Killian looked like hell, though. Deep lines marred his face. Dark shadows swept under his eyes, and stubble covered his jaw.

Shane had never met the woman who stood just beside Case, but he’d seen pictures of Chloe Quick. She was petite, deceptively fragile, with bright blue eyes and black hair that skimmed her shoulders.

“I need to see Olivia,” Chloe said softly. Then she added, “Please.” Her voice broke on the plea.

Shane lifted a brow but before he could speak, Olivia was hauling him out of her way. “Chloe? What are you doing here?”

Chloe’s lower lip trembled. “I’m so sorry…”

“Sorry? Why?”

Olivia was far too trusting. “Because, love,” Shane told her, his words an angry growl, “your friend Chloe is the one who set you up.”

Chapter Eleven

Apparently, she couldn’t trust anyone.

Chloe, Shane, and the warden—the warden!—were all pacing around the apartment like caged beasts.

Olivia sat on the couch, her spine ram-rod straight, her hands between her knees, and she tried to figure out just what the hell was happening.

“You…aren’t the bad guy?” Olivia blurted to Case.

He stopped his pacing. Winced. “No, I kind of f**king am. Especially after getting bitten.”

“He needs a cure,” Chloe said, rubbing her arms, still pacing. “Just like I do.”

“There is no cure for a werewolf bite. You know that!” Her words flew out, but…they were wrong. Because Holly had told Olivia that she had survived the werewolf bite. That she might be the cure.

Chloe swung toward her. Anger and pain battled in her eyes. “If that’s the case, then why didn’t you turn? We were both bitten when we were teens, Olivia. Both of us.”

No, she didn’t remember that. Olivia shook her head.

“You went down first. That whole pack—they came for you. You were bleeding, and I tried to help you.” Chloe lifted her hands. Claws had sprouted from her fingertips. “But they turned on me. They bit me, clawed and attacked, and then they left us…to die.”

Only they hadn’t died. “I don’t remember the attack.” Because when the first wolf had leapt at Olivia, he’d knocked her to the ground. Her head had slammed into the concrete and she’d passed out. When she’d woken, Chloe had been on the ground beside her, covered in blood.

“You had already healed when the EMTs arrived,” Chloe whispered. “They didn’t believe you’d ever been bitten, but I knew the truth.”

Shane’s hand settled on Olivia’s shoulder. He was—what? Trying to comfort her? Now? She glanced back at him. He stood behind the couch, behind her, and his face was a dangerous mask. “You told your father about Olivia,” he accused Chloe.

Olivia glanced back at her friend and saw Chloe’s head sag forward. “Yes. After I changed…I-I was desperate to go back. To be human again. I hated what I was.”

“Not like it’s a f**king cake walk for me,” Case snapped.

Chloe flinched. “I thought if my father could just get a sample of your blood, that maybe he could find out what made you different. I tried asking you directly, but you acted like you had no idea what I was talking about.”

Because she hadn’t known. And she remembered… “That’s why you insisted I give blood with you that time…” Hell, she’d thought she was participating in some kind of blood drive back then—several freaking blood drives—but all along, they’d been studying her?

Shane’s hand tightened on Olivia’s shoulder. “After he got the results of her blood work, your father knew Olivia was special, didn’t he?”

Was “special” a code word for djinn?

Miserably, Chloe nodded. “He knew she was different, but he didn’t know what she was.”

Olivia’s gaze slid to Case. “Is that where you come in? Did the senator pay you to find out what I was? To throw me in with those werewolves at Purgatory?” Only the plan had backfired, and Case had been the one bitten.

Case shook his head. “I’m not working for Senator Quick.”

Uh, oh…If he wasn’t working for the senator—

Shane’s hand slipped from her shoulder. “He’s working for the Para Unit. Another undercover agent that Pate sent in, only I didn’t learn about the guy until yesterday.” His voice was an angry rumble. “Until then, I just thought he was some dick who needed taking down. A psychotic ass**le who got off on hurting the inmates.”