Page 35 of Kingly Bitten

“I doubt it,” I replied. “But with Lilith, anything is possible.”

“So you don’t know how far the protocol went?”

“My duty was to manage and supervise Bunker 47. All information outside that lab was not under my jurisdiction.”

“Then how do you know about the lab specializing in blood types?”

“Because I was born there before the revolution.” I met his gaze. “And I know of its most recent purpose because Lilith often enjoyed telling me about her victories. She did it to make me feel like a failure for not working faster. But our labs were very different, so I never took it personally.” A fact that used to drive her to violence.

“How old are you?” he asked softly, his fingertips grazing the top of my thighs as he stared up at me from his kneeling position.

I gave him my birth year in pre-revolution terms. “I think that makes me close to a hundred and thirty-nine or a hundred and forty. But I stopped aging around twenty-two.”

“Because of your lycan genetics.”

“And theErositamanipulation, yes.”

He frowned. “Are you mated to a vampire?”

“Not really.” I considered how to explain my ties to immortality. “My father was anErosita. But that wasn’t enough to tie me to the soulmate bond between human and vampire. My birth was a test and part of Lilith’s goal to secure immortality without the requirements associated with theErositaconnection.”

“Hmm, that explains why her political platform has pushed to haveErositasdiscredited rather than revered. But that doesn’t tell me how you’re immortal without a mate bond.”

“TheErositalink exists in the same section of the brain to the lycan hive mind. Lilith’s researchers have been exploring that part of the mind for almost two hundred years. A part of it was inserted into my psyche during my creation.”

He cocked his head. “So you’re a successful case—a tasty blood bag that can’t die.”

A crude description, but an accurate one. “To you, yes. But not to Lilith.”

His nostrils flared. “What flaw did she perceive?”

“The one that caused her to feel possessive over me.” My fingers started to tingle, the blood finally returning to my extremities. “It’s why she kept me away from my other links to immortality.”

“You have more than one… mate?”

“I consider them links, not mates. But yes. I have at least three. One was to Lilith, and as I’m still alive, I can only imagine my other two links are in a similar state.”

“Who are they?” he demanded.

“Lilith never told me, so I don’t know.” I held his gaze, deciding to give a subtle hint of leverage that would ensure my cooperation. “The logs were never ones I could access. But maybe I can find them at the server farms.”

His expression softened, his eyes twinkling with amusement. “You’re giving me a reason to trust your cooperation.”

“I am.”

“Hmm.” He started a slow perusal down my body, his palms flattening on my thighs. “You’re also providing a potential lead because whoever is linked to you was obviously working with Lilith.”

“Yes.”

“Clever,” he murmured, placing a kiss on the inside of my knee. It was decidedly intimate, what with his position between my spread legs.

I shivered as his touch shifted upward, his mouth tracing a path directly to my femoral artery.

“If Lilith was possessive, then I imagine she never shared you,” he said softly, his icy eyes flicking up to mine. “Yes?”

I swallowed but forced myself to nod. “She threatened it but never followed through.” Something I learned long ago, which helped me not to fear those particular taunts.

However, she wasn’t here now.