Chosen by Sin (4 page)

“I’m willing to share my information with you, Mahone. About the
shape-shifters and other races. The weres. The mages. The question is how much
you’re willing to pay for it.”

His mouth tightened and an odd sense of disappointment washed through
him. For some reason, he’d expected better of the vamp. “So this is about money
then?”

He heard the female sigh with what almost sounded like regret. “
Oui
, it’s about money. A whole lot of money, in fact.
But only because the money is necessary to achieve something important.
Something that if I can accomplish, you’ll be very, very interested in. Whether
I share it with you will depend on what happens next.”

“Tell me more.”

“I will. But first, tell me everything you know about Dex Hunt.”

Jes spotted the diner she was looking for a couple of blocks ahead of
her and deliberately slowed her pace. She also placed her hands in her coat
pockets, not because of the slight evening breeze but because it would make her
look even more laid back.

She didn’t actually
feel
that
way, of course.

After her close call with Dex outside her hotel last night, her blood
still zipped with excitement. Unfortunately, she was also feeling anxious and
uncertain when she needed every drop of confidence she could muster to do what
was necessary. She couldn’t deny, however, that when it came to deceiving Dex,
her resolve was splintering.

Oh she’d talked to Mahone anyway. Set things in motion. She’d even
arranged to meet Rurik Pitts, one of Dex’s former pack brothers, at a nearby
diner to learn more about Dex.

Yet she was torn between duty, and her desire and respect for Dex.
Bottom line, she liked him. And she wanted him.

She wanted to explore the sexual sparks that flared to life whenever he
was near, even if that’s all it ever was.

She wanted, for once in her life, to do something simply because it
made her feel good. Because it made her feel
alive
for the first time in almost one hundred years of
living.

But she couldn’t.

As a child, she’d watched as her parents were murdered, and later had
witnessed over and over again as members of her adoptive Draci family died. It
was just her luck Bodin of Hammersham had saved her only to put her in the care
of dragon-shifters whose life span lasted thirty years.

Did that mean she had to spend the rest of eternity standing by and
doing nothing while those she loved continued to die?

Non
.
Absolument non
. Absolutely not.

She was a scientist, for Goddesses’s sake, one who’d spent years
acquiring the skills and the information that might, someday, somehow, be able
to keep someone she loved from leaving her again. Maybe she’d even discover
something soon enough that she could save Bodin, who was coming to the end of
his own life cycle. Each day, Bodin was weakening. So was the peace between the
Draci and their natural enemies, the European were-packs.

There was only one problem: Dex could be the answer to all her prayers,
but he had every reason to hate Bodin and no incentive to help the Draci or
her.

Maybe he’d turn out to be her white knight anyway.

Mentally playing back her thoughts, she shook her head.

Might.

Someday.

Somehow.

Maybe.

When had equivocation become a mainstay of her mental thoughts?

Maybe since the day she’d first heard about the Legend of Wolves. Maybe
equivocation had grown as over the years she’d put together the bits and pieces
of information that had finally led her to Dex. Bodin’s grandson. The one
rumored to fulfill the legend. The one who could gift immortality, although no
one knew quite how.

It was up to Jes to find out if it was true. And if it was true, how it
was possible.

If
it was possible.

Was she simply fooling herself? Was she so desperate to save Bodin and
her Draci family that she actually believed she could prolong life through
manipulating DNA and duplicating the effects of vampire regeneration? After
all, she’d fooled herself about someday being able to have a baby—her
body just wouldn’t carry a fetus to term—so why not this, too?

These were questions she asked herself daily, right along with whether
she should even be trying to further her current goal—not to have a baby,
of course, since that was now impossible, but to prevent anyone else she loved
from dying. Prolonging life through healing illness was one thing, but
prolonging individual life spans through science was unnatural, wasn’t it?

With Herculean effort, Jes pushed aside her troublesome thoughts. Rita,
the old Draci seer who’d lived decades longer than she was supposed to, had
often told her that knowledge in and of itself was never a bad thing—what
she chose to do with that knowledge was something she could decide if it ever
became an issue.

Although Kyle Mahone had been willing to exchange money for the
information she could provide him, he’d claimed ignorance of Dex Hunt’s medical
history. Jes hadn’t believed him, but it hadn’t mattered. As she’d told Mahone,
she was an expert when it came to ferreting out information.

Having reached the diner, Jes pulled open the door and stepped inside.
Immediately, she spotted a big, mangy werebeast sitting in a back booth. She
made her way toward him, jerking to a halt when a young boy darted in front of
her. To her shock, he raced behind her and grabbed hold of her leg.

A couple was hot on his trail. The human male looked completely pissed.
There was a female beside him, a pretty feline with a soft and gentle face who
nibbled her lip and blinked rapidly to stem her tears.

Instinctively, Jes reached behind her and laid a reassuring hand on the
boy’s head. Then she peeked into the mind of the angry-looking male.

This was his son. He loved him. But he loved the feline, too, and
desperately wanted them to get along.

The human glanced apologetically at her then addressed the boy through
gritted teeth. "Give your new stepmom a hug, Eric.
Now
.”

“It’s fine, Greg—” the feline began.

“No. It’s not. You’ve been trying so hard and it’s your birthday. It’s
the least Eric can do.”

“But—”

“
Now
, Eric,” Greg insisted.

Jes twisted and looked back and down.

Eric glared, then shrunk back and dug his fingers deeper into Jes’s
leg. He met her gaze. “She’s not my mother,” he warbled, clearly fighting back
his own tears. “She’ll never be my mother.”

No, Jes thought, tugging information from his mind. No one could ever
replace the mother who’d died of cancer several years earlier. Just like no one
had been able to replace Jes’s mother or father, no matter how hard they’d
tried.

For a horrible moment, the memories barreled down on her. Fear. Pain.
Loss. An illogical feeling of abandonment.

Her parents had left her. It hadn’t been their choice, but they’d still
left.
Everyone
left her.

The walls of the restaurant blurred and a haze darkened the room. Jes’s
breath seized somewhere impossibly deep in her throat. A roar built in her
ears, and the walls and booths of the diner fell away until all she saw was the
boy and his fear.

She’d felt that fear. So had Dex, she realized. Never mind that Bodin
had been trying to protect Dex by sending him away to the were orphanage. Dex
had felt the loss of love. Of family.

They’d both lost love early, but at least Jes had been loved by others.
Had Dex? Had he ever had the chance? Had he ever let someone truly love him?

It struck her then, how desperately she wanted him to be loved. How
desperately
she
wanted to be the one to
love him.

What a strange thought. She barely knew him. To her scientific mind,
love at first sight was impossible.

A foolish dream.

Jes dealt with reality not dreams. So she focused on the facts.

She and Dex had lost family, but they’d both survived.

So would this boy.

Deliberately, she pushed back her sorrow until the world slowly came
back into focus. She patted his head and pretended to check out his stepmom,
raking her gaze up and down the feline’s body. She pasted a playful grin on her
face and knelt down. “Do you know what I am?” she asked, letting the tip of a fang
show and deliberately flicking her silver hair.

“You’re a vampire,” the boy said.

“Right. So I can sense things others can’t. And I always tell the
truth. Your stepmom? She looks okay to me. And I can sense how much she loves
you,” she whispered. “Give her a chance.”

The boy stared at her with a furrowed brow, glanced at his stepmother,
then glanced back at Jes. Slowly, the sharp peaks of his shoulder blades
relaxed. Hesitantly, he released Jes’s leg and stepped around her.

His parents stared at her.

“Thank you,” the feline said. “My name is Lisa.” She turned to Eric and
knelt down to his level the way Jes had. “It’s okay. You don’t have to give me
a hug, Eric. But would you mind—would you mind if I gave you one?”

Eric glanced at all of them in succession. His father. Jes. Then Lisa.

He nodded.

As Lisa enfolded him in her arms, Jes couldn’t help noticing Eric’s
small arms hugging her back. Taking a lurching breath, she made her way to a
smirking Rurik Pitts.

Twenty minutes later, she cocked a brow at the big werebeast. “So Dex
Hunt is what? Some kind of medical miracle?” she asked, lacing her tone with
disbelief despite the fact she believed every word she said.

Pitts frowned. “I’m telling you, Dex was healthier than anyone I’ve
ever met. He never got sick.
Never
.
There’s something unnatural about him.”

“But you were only around him for what? Five years? For all you know,
he was sick before and afterwards,” she drawled, choosing her words very
carefully to play devil’s advocate and still speak the truth. Because of her
vampire blood, Jesmina couldn’t lie. Of course, over the years, she’d
discovered there were ways around that, but nothing she was willing to undergo,
not when it was just as easy to manipulate people by what one said or didn’t
say.

Inside, however, it was more difficult for her to remain composed.
Excitement thrummed through her. Pitts was on to something. Everything he’d
told her merely confirmed what she suspected about Dex.

Protect the one who can gift immortality.

Cast him out before you let him be found.

The Draci believed Bodin had cast out his grandson in order to protect
him. Before she’d died, Rita had pounded that belief into Jes, telling her time
and again of her duty to discover the truth.

If the legend
was
true, Dex
wasn’t natural. More like supernatural.

Comprised of the stuff of legends.

But the werebeast leaning back in his booth seat didn’t know that. He
stared at her as if she was an idiot. Jes took advantage of the extra few
inches of space and breathed in shallowly. Not only was he arrogant and
condescending, but he was extremely unkempt. Thankfully, she knew from
experience that not all werebeasts smelled so bad. In fact, Dex Hunt had
smelled
très…
délicieux
.

Even in the packed nightclub that reeked of sweat, alcohol, sex, and
drugs, his scent had called to her just as powerfully as if someone had held a
glass of pure immaculate blood to her nose. The same thing had happened last
night when he’d confronted her outside her hotel. And it had happened again
when he’d lost control and pushed her back into the elevator, ready to take
what she’d previously offered him.

When Lucy had shown up, it had taken even more self-control than she’d
ever thought she’d need to keep herself from taking a bite out of him.
She
—who’d never once drank from a male during sex
and who drank blood like clockwork, thus rarely experiencing blood
lust—still felt it that night. Her skin had been rippling with desire
ever since, and this unkempt were’s words only further fueled her determination
to see Dex again.

“Listen, sweet cheeks, Dex and I rode together for six years, five of
those during the War. We weren’t exactly staying in luxury accommodations
during that time, either. The Ferals are tough, we keep tough company, and
we’re a hearty race, but no matter what shit holes we stayed in or what
disease-infested company we kept, Dex was the only one of us who didn’t end up
puking his guts out or oozing puss at one time or another.” He smirked, as if
he really thought talk of oozing puss would intimidate or sicken her. “What do
you care about Dex’s health anyway?”

“It’s not just his health I care about,” she said. “I told you, I have
a business proposition for him, and a smart negotiator never goes into a deal
unarmed.”

Again, all true. She just didn’t know if she’d actually make Dex the
business offer she had in mind. She couldn’t know until she got him alone and
had a chance to read his mind again—this time when he wasn’t blocking her
powers with the gold charm Mahone said he carried.

“He works for the FBI now,” she reminded the werebeast. “He’s got a
pretty good thing going with them. Luring him away won’t be easy.”

“But you’ll do what you need to in order to do it, right?” Rising,
Pitts planted his palms on the table and leaned toward her until his ghastly
smell made her eyes water. The way he said “it” made it apparent he thought
she’d willingly use her body to sway Dex’s mind.

She didn’t take offense, since he was right.

“So who told you he has a thing for vamps?” he asked.

She raised a brow, which made him bust up laughing. Her heart
fluttered, then clenched.
That
was
information she
didn’t
have
before. Dex was attracted to her, but was it only because she was the right
race? One of a handful—and who knew how large those handfuls had
been—of vampires he’d wanted?