Bitter Blood (Blood and Moonlight Book 3)(28)

She knew Aidan was about to freak the hell out.

She heard Dr. Bob’s door open behind her. The hinges squeaked.

“I’m so sorry,” Jane said.

Aidan swallowed. “I know…about Paris.”

Wait, what? Shock rolled through her.

“I need to see him.”

“Aidan, I never meant for this to happen.” Never in a million years. “I was trying to get him out of the fire. I was…” I chose you. Oh, dammit. I chose you instead of helping him. I had the chance to take Paris out, but I was afraid you’d be dead before I got back upstairs. I did this. It is all on me. “It’s my fault,” Jane said, voice sharpening. “And I want to fix it.”

“You can’t fix the dead.”

A throat cleared behind them. “He’s not dead yet,” Annette announced.

Jane looked back at the other woman.

“Not fully, anyway,” Annette said. She put her hands on her hips, glaring at Aidan. “And you won’t be taking his head. You’ll have to go through me in order to do that, alpha.”

Aidan took a step forward. “Taking his head…” Confusion flashed on his face.

“He came back,” Jane whispered. “Paris is…he’s a vampire.”

And Aidan lunged for that lab room.

Annette pushed her hands onto his chest, stopping him before he could blaze past her. Though Jane knew that if he’d wanted, he could have easily gotten around the other woman.

“You will not take his head,” Annette said again. “He’s stood by you time and time again, and I don’t care what your wolf says when you enter that room and see him…you will not kill Paris.”

Aidan…nodded. Then he glanced back at Jane. “If the instincts kick in…”

The werewolf’s instincts to attack and destroy a vampire.

“Knock my ass out,” Aidan said.

Jane released the breath she’d been holding. Then she hurried to Aidan’s side. Her fingers curled around his.

Annette slipped out of the way.

Aidan opened the door, and they entered the cold lab together.

Paris was strapped down on the table. Dr. Bob was perched over a microscope and— Aidan strode toward his friend. Paris seemed to be out cold, a good thing. Jane darted a quick glance at Aidan’s face and she saw the torment there.

Enough pain to steal her breath.

Aidan lifted his hand. He touched Paris’s shoulder.

Paris didn’t move.

“He’s under deep,” Annette said from behind them. “I made sure of it…after he bit Jane, I didn’t want to risk another attack.”

Aidan looked up at Jane. “He…bit you?”

“He wasn’t himself.” No, far from it.

“That’s because he’s a vampire now,” Dr. Bob huffed, rising from his stool. “I can see it in his blood. He’s changed. The man you knew before is gone.”

Vampire.

“How?” That was the part that Jane just didn’t understand. “How could this happen?” It shouldn’t have happened. “I don’t—”

Aidan cut through her words, growling, “I…I can’t stay this close to him.”

“Aidan?”

His claws were out. He turned toward her and she saw the shadow of his beast on his face. “The wolf wants…to attack.”

Jane shook her head. No, she’d been praying it would be different. She’d— Aidan pushed past her and ran back into the hallway. She hurried after him and when she got into that hall, she saw Aidan on all fours. His hands had slapped against the floor and he was transforming. His muscles were swelling, thickening. His bones starting to pop and snap.

It was a werewolf alpha’s primal reaction to a vampire. Kill or be killed. Only Aidan hadn’t responded that way to her, so she’d hoped that he wouldn’t attack Paris, either.

“Paris is your best friend,” Jane whispered, lost.

Aidan turned back to look at her. His jaw had elongated. “That’s why…” His voice was barely human. “He still…has…his head.”

Tears pricked at her eyes. Someone had done this. Someone had changed Paris. Somehow, at the chaos of that fire scene, a vampire had gotten close to Paris. That was the only explanation she could think of.

And, thanks to Annette, Jane knew exactly which vampire was still in town.

She crept closer to Aidan. “There might be a way to fix this.”

He laughed. Stuck in mid-shift, that laugh was a very scary sound. “Only fix…is death.”

Then the fire of the change swept over him. Brutal, agonizing. The man he’d been vanished. Fur burst along his skin. Razor-sharp teeth filled his mouth. His hands became the powerful paws and claws of a beast.

The change was fast, sweeping over him so quickly. One minute, he’d been a man. The next, a wolf and— Footsteps. Coming toward them. She looked down the hallway and saw that Vincent Connor had finally decided to grace them with his presence.

Tall, with a powerful build. Dark hair, gleaming eyes.

Fangs bared.

Yes, that was Vincent, all right.

The wolf growled when he saw the man there—not a man, really, but a vampire.

Vincent froze as he stared at the beast. Jane raced forward and grabbed Aidan’s fur, trying to hold him back before he attacked Vincent. “You can’t kill him,” Jane fired at Aidan. “We need him!”