"Soulmates? Really?"
I couldn't help but laugh at Cain's ridiculous statement.
"I'm being serious," he said, remaining straight-faced.
I shook my head.
"It's a little bold to say that to someone you've only known for a few weeks," I said, trying not to smile.
"I knew when I met you, Ella."
I sighed.
"When I told you I thought we were more than friends, soulmates wasn't exactly the first thing that came to mind. I think maybe we should do dinner first or something," I said honestly.
I could've sworn he rolled his eyes as he pushed himself away from the desk.
Cain walked over to one of the many bookshelves that lined his office and picked a book off the top shelf before opening it and flipping through it.
After finding the page he'd been looking for, he walked over to me.
"Read this," he said, handing me the book.
I looked at him warily before sitting down in the chair across from his desk. I began to read the passage he'd pointed to.
During the time when Lycanthropes were being hunted for the pelts, they evolved to allow an assurance for future offspring: mates.
The term soulmate being used loosely, the idea is that two Lycanthropes, when initial contact is made, emit compatible pheromones and that would draw them to each other. This assured them that offspring produced between the two would be healthy.
While finding a pair of mates during the 21st century is a rare occurrence due to the lack of original, pure-blooded Lycanthropes, they do still exist and produce the more elite and powerful offspring of the Lycan race.
I stopped reading and looked up at Cain.
"So you're saying that you and I are mates like the book is describing?" I asked him skeptically.
He nodded.
"That's impossible," I said, looking back down at the book. "It says Lycanthropes emit the pheromone. I'm a human, Cain."
"You're right. It should be impossible," he said, pulling up the chair beside me. "Which is why I wanted to ask if you would be willing to subject yourself to a blood test so we can be certain you are, in fact, a human."
My eyebrows furrowed.
"Of course I am," I assured him. "But I'll take the test if it clears all of this up."
He nodded, satisfied with my answer.
"There's another thing," I said to him. "The book said that to have a mate, a Lycanthrope had to be pure-blooded. You're a hybrid, you shouldn't have a mate either."
"I know this," he said sitting back. "But I'm the first genetic hybrid to walk the earth. I was the first one born both Lycanthrope and Vampire. Normally the Vampiric disease shuts down the body's ability to produce biological children, but it didn't do that to my mom. Since I'm the first, we assumed I wouldn't have a mate due to the fact that I'm not one-hundred percent Lycanthrope, but I guess being born to two pure-bloods means that I'm pure-blooded too. "
I nodded slowly, taking all of it in.
"So can you turn into... ya know, a wolf?" I asked him.
I could tell Cain was trying to stifle a laugh.
"I've only shifted a few times," he said. "I don't prefer to."
My eyebrows furrowed.
"Why not?"
He sat back in his seat and sighed.
"Vampirism kills the human body when someone is turned, like a parasite that just needs a host. You can still think and process information, but your brain's ability to deal with the entire spectrum of emotions is inhibited. The only thing you need to survive is blood and you don't die as long as you have it."
"So it's like a virus, then?"
He nodded.
"Lycanthropy, on the other hand, as you've read, is genetic. It's in my DNA. It works with your body and enhances it, which is why it's nearly impossible to kill a Lycanthrope and is also why we have near immortal lifespans. As it pertains to shifting, it takes a lot of energy to take a wolf form. Normally, Lycans can just eat until they're content and get ample amounts of rest and that keeps them from over exhaustion, but with me, the only thing my body will process is blood."
I nodded slowly, my untrusting mind still trying to decipher whether any of this was true.
"So you can't shift because it means you need more blood?" I asked him.
He nodded.
"And you can't drink more blood because...?"
"The blood has to come from somewhere," he said. "I don't like taking more than I need. I don't want to become too dependent on a high volume of it."
I hummed, somewhat understanding what he was saying.
"Anything else I can clear up?" Cain asked.
I thought about it for a moment.
"Why do your eyes get so dark?" I asked him.
He sighed and leaned back in his chair.
"It's not very pretty, is it?" he asked.
"That's not what I asked," I said.
"Vampires are nocturnal creatures. In older times, they had to hunt in the dark. So, their eyes evolved to allow them to visually detect body heat. When I need blood, it's an instinctive response that my body has for my eyes to get darker in order for me to see. It's kind of like tunnel vision."
I raised an eyebrow.
"But why does it look like that? I'm surprised you can see anything at all when you're bleeding into your eyes like that," I said.
"It's not bleeding necessarily," he protested. "It's just the blood flow to my eyes increases significantly during that period."
"Oh," I said.
That would explain the veins and arteries that became so prominent around his eyes.
"It's not so terrible when you think about it like that," I said.
Cain grew quiet and I wondered if I'd said the wrong thing.
"I'm sorry," I apologized. "I didn't mean to overstep—"
"No, no," he said quickly. "It's just... you're the only person that's ever said that."
My eyebrows furrowed.
"Well it's not like you can help it," I said incredulously.
I thought I saw a hint of a smile pass over his lips.
"Does it hurt your gums whenever they grow out?" I asked him, pointing at my own canine teeth.
He nodded.
"Just a bit."
We sat in silence for a moment as I dealt with the internal war raging in me.
Did I ask another question and risk being nosy or did I keep asking them for the sake of conversation and my own curiosity?
There were only two questions I had left and I wasn't sure I wanted to know the answers to them.
"How often do you have to..." my voice trailed off.
What do you even call drinking someone else's blood?
Feeding? Drinking? Murder?
"Four times a day," he said, understanding my question.
"Your dad said you were fasting," I noticed. "What does that mean?"
Cain drew in a deep breath.
"I don't particularly enjoy killing people for their blood, Ella."
I felt my breath get caught in my throat.
"I spend my sleepless nights wondering what child died that day because we bribed a hospital out of a week's worth of blood so I don't have to kill someone for it."
I looked down at the nervous tangle my fingers had found themselves in, wondering if I should ask my final question.
Looking up at him, my eyes caught his and I found the words tumbling out of my mouth.
"Why did kissing me do that to you?"
Cain looked at me warily before standing up and taking the book from my hands and placing it back on the shelf.
"I think that's a question best saved for after we get the results of your blood test," he said, turning back to me.
I nodded slowly.
I understood that I was asking a lot of questions and I understood that there was a chance he wouldn't have liked to answer all of them. I just had to trust Cain enough to know that I would get the answers eventually.
But did I trust him?
Everything he said was either a very well-thought through lie or the truth. Seeing as I had my grandfather's book to back up everything he had said, I was assuming for the time being that he was telling the truth.
There was still a part of me that wanted to research everything a bit more.
If this was true and I was some kind of mate for Cain, I couldn't see my future as clearly and that scared me.
One thing was for certain, if this was my new reality, I wasn't about to sit around and pop babies out all day. I'd worked my ass off for a college degree and I wasn't about to let someone come between me and what I wanted to do for a living, even if that someone was built like a god and had a face to rival the hottest Hollywood had to offer.
Once I finished graduate school—
I gasped suddenly.
"What is it?" Cain asked, becoming increasingly alarmed.
"I have paper due tonight that I haven't finished."
His eyebrows furrowed as my stomach dropped to my feet.
I stood up quickly and began to run from the office.
"We'll talk later," I assured him. "Just let me know when I can take the blood test."
With that being said, I went down the stairs and went into my new bedroom.
It was only a few doors down from Cain's and it was much smaller, which I was grateful for. The chest of drawers was empty and it didn't look like anyone had been in the room for a while except to clean it.
Going into the room, I closed the door behind me and pulled my backpack out from under my bed to get my laptop.
I sat down in the chair with my laptop and textbook in hand.
Opening the textbook, I prayed quietly that I could forget the world around me for enough time to finish writing the paper.
- - -
Narrative P.O.V.
"You didn't tell her?!"
Cain stared at Daniel, trying to regain some semblance of patience.
"She left the office before I had the chance to," he said.
"You couldn't just bring it up?"
Jai took a deep breath, wondering when the day would come that Daniel would find a way to keep everything he was thinking inside his mind and not let it roll off of his tongue.
"All of her questions were about me, I wasn't going to bring up her grandfather until I had answered them. Any more issues about my personal life that we need to resolve before we discuss what you called me down here for?"
Daniel huffed and crossed his arms.
Jai threw the two files across the freshly-sanitized steel medical examination table.
Cain reached across and grabbed them both, eyeing Jai warily as he read the contents of the folders under the harsh, bright lighting of the autopsy room.
Cain took a deep breath as he read the line that had been highlighted by Jai.
He closed the first folder and opened the other only to read nearly the same result.
"What does this mean?" Jai asked solemnly.
Cain laid the file folders back down on the table.
"It means our job just got harder."
The results of the DNA testing of both the man Jai had killed at the funeral and the intruder that Cain had killed were less than desirable.
"So it's confirmed. They were Vampires," Jai said.
Cain could only nod.
"Who could be putting these men up to this?" Jai asked. "The one guy you killed only would have known about this castle if someone with Lycan connections told him about it."
Cain stood in silence for a few minutes as he tried his hardest to fit the pieces in a puzzle and formulate a plan.
"Put the search for the missing men on hold," he said. "Get Ella and Priya to help you look for any link between these men. Use whatever means necessary."
Jai and Daniel exchanged wary looks.
"How do you think Ella's going to feel about pausing the search for her missing and presumed dead grandfather to dig into the past of a man who tried to kill her?" Daniel asked.
"She'll care," Cain assured him. "I'll explain everything to her. Once she figures out there could be a connection, I'm sure she'll understand."
Jai took in a deep breath.
He was worried for the girl. There was no way that Cain understood the pressure he was putting Ella under. Jai wondered how long it would take for her to crack.
He watched as Cain left the autopsy room and he sighed.
God help her.
- - -
Ella's P.O.V.
A few hours later, the paper proved to be a good distraction from the world around me.
I was certain I'd walked more steps in that day than I had in months as I paced the floor in the room, searching for words to write down.
The essay was almost completed as I watched the sun set off behind the mountains in the distance.
I was a few words away from finishing the essay when there was a knock on the bedroom door.
"Come in," I said, typing out the last sentence.
I looked up as Cain walked inside the room.
"How's your paper coming?" He asked, closing the door behind him.
I drew in a deep breath as I placed my hands on my hips and looked down at the computer screen.
"It's finished," I told him. "I just need to submit it."
"Can that wait until later?" He asked.
My eyebrows furrowed as I looked up from the laptop that sat on the edge of the bed.
"Why? What's wrong?"
"Nothing," he assured me. "Dr. Zosak is ready for your blood test."
I took another shaky breath as I remembered that I had agreed to taking the test.
"Sure," I told him.
He led me out of the room and down the hallway.
"You're more than welcome to move back into my room," he told me. "I don't need it."
I shook my head.
"I'm fine where I am, don't worry about it."
I saw the muscles in his shoulders tense but I didn't think about it again.
Cain led me down a few flights of stairs before we came to the hallway that I recognized from when I had gotten my concussion. The smell of disinfectant was too prominent not to remember it.
We walked into a similar room to the one I had been in before and the doctor was waiting for us.
"How are you feeling?" He asked me. "Still having headaches?"
I shook my head.
"Only a few, but they aren't unbearable."
"Sleeping at night?" He asked.
My voice faltered.
I hadn't been sleeping, at least not well.
I shook my head slowly and he hummed.
"Have you been resting?" The doctor asked.
"I have," I assured him.
Probably not as much as he would have liked though.
I didn't dare tell him that I'd written an entire essay in the past few hours or that I'd used my brain more in that past week than I had since I'd been in university.
"We can get you some sleeping medication and see if that helps," he said. "For now, let's get some blood drawn."
I wondered briefly if he knew what the blood test was for.
It took only a few seconds for him to prick my finger and get a sufficient amount of blood for the test.
Cain and I sat in the room as the doctor left to analyze it.
"How long will it take?" I asked him.
"Not very long."
A few minutes went by of silence.
Finally, the door to the examination room opened and the doctor walked in holding a clipboard and a grim expression.
He took a deep breath before he spoke.
"I don't know if you're going to like what I have to say."
- - -