Page 236 of The Curse Trilogy

“That’s not it,” I mutter in a near whisper.

“Oh really? Because that’s what it looked like to me. I can stand to deal with this savage shit when you can’t control it, but I won’t just be your first alternate.”

“That’s why,” I mumble in a near muted tone.

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” he growls.

“You wanted to know why I was done with him, that’s why. He cheated on me with Alex numerous times. The words left his mouth to confirm my suspicions right before he told me he had never loved me. I spent years with him to find out I was the only one who had ever given a fuck. Seeing her just really sent a shocking jolt through me, not because I can’t bear the sight of him being with her, but because it made all those unresolved issues surface at once. I never dealt with it before. I just walked away from it and shoved it into the forgotten corner of my mind.”

Brazen’s eyes shift from angry to understanding, and then he walks over to wrap his arms around me. His soft lips stroke mine as he pulls me up on top of the interrogation table, and his gentle hands cup my face as he stares into my eyes.

“I’m sorry, baby. I’m sorry,” he murmurs against my lips, and my hands jerk his body to mine as I feel his perfection through his shirt.

“We have to get to the lab right now. We’ll leave in the morning though, and we’ll just make the journey back and forth until this is resolved.”

“Thank you,” I whimper as several tears stream down my cheeks, and his comforting lips embrace mine.

“I can’t believe he told you all that shit on your birthday,” he growls as he lowers me to the ground to lead me out.

“He didn’t tell me that on my birthday, that’s what he told me the night I came to your hotel room in Berimond. He just went to see her on my fucking birthday. It’s the same thing he did three years ago on the same exact day.”

Brazen’s eyes show some confusion now as he opens the door to the quiet hallway. Alex’s body has been removed, and I’m sure Hale is feeding her blood to help heal her. My free hand fists at my side while my other grips Brazen’s almost too tightly.

“He told you he went to see her on your birthday?” he asks in bemused suspicion.

“Yeah. I don’t want to talk about this anymore. Let’s just get this lab thing sorted out, and then let’s go act like a couple who just got engaged for the second time - champagne and sex… lots and lots of sex,” I sizzle out, and a smirk invades his face.

He’s not smiling as large as I expected though. He seems distracted now, and it’s a little puzzling. His pale eyes seem to be studying facts I can’t see as he stares straight ahead.

He opens the door to the lab for me to walk in first. I know his detective look when he’s thinking about a case, but normally he doesn’t mind thinking aloud to get my input.

“What’s wrong?” I whisper as we slide in behind the crowd in the tight space.

“Nothing, baby,” he lies, and I narrow my eyes at him just as Clay walks over to pull up a large screen.

“Our friends in the northern United regions have discovered something none of us were able to catch. I’ll let Dr. Sallan relay his findings, and the reason we’re meeting here is because from now on all of our meetings will seem as something else - a staging process. We have insiders apparently stashed in every compound, every group, and every station. You all are some of the most trusted people within the United and its allies.”

Brazen’s grip tightens on my hand, and then the short full blood doctor steps up in his white coat fashion.

“This blood had us baffled for a minute. We thought it to be a superior understanding of biology and possibly a cloned form of blood when we first examined it. It’s not though. This blood is from a dead human which is why there is not a sexual need following consumption,” he blurts out very matter-of-factly.

Disbelieving gasps and jaw-drops spread around the room. I’m too numb to really react. I look over to see Hale’s eyes burning into mine. My eyes dart away promptly, and now it’s my grip on Brazen’s hand that tightens.

“It’s impossible for us to feed on dead blood. The antigens, healing properties, and all together taste expire with the host. It becomes toxic in our mouths,” Alex chimes in, and my eyes dart across the room to see her standing without flaw.

Fucking bitch.

Brazen’s arm now wraps around my shoulders, and he glances at my pupils to check for my Ms. Hyde half.

“You would be right under normal circumstances,” the doctor chirps. “These people, however, have found a way to preserve the blood after life has expired. The complex strands of blood we thought to originally be synthetic are actually created from a complicated preservative. This procedure would involve injecting the human veins with the preservatives while they’re still alive. They then drain the living human of all their blood. It would be an excruciatingly painful process to say the least. This sort of practice has never been thought to exist, and it would cause a riot among the humans if they found out.

“Right now we take blood donations, and they easily feed our population though the diluted taste is not desirable. If many full bloods learn they can drink the blood without infecting the human, moral coats will be shed instantly. The human race will be extinct in far less time than we originally projected if this gets out. Hence the privacy of the lab walls for this meeting. Obviously this isn’t the answer we had hoped for, but Commander Jude assures me he and his team have come across something that will sustain the full bloods within three years. So all is not lost, and we will have the opportunity to hear more on that when they have conclusive results.”

Clay steps back up to take the head of the room, and he clears his throat before speaking.

“As you already know, this is highly confidential. Only the people in this room, along with the other heads of the United regions not yet in attendance will have privy to this information. I’ll speak with all of you at a later date,” he says in adjournment, and we all start shuffling out of the small space to head back out into the oxygen rich hallways.

“It’s just one big twist after another,” Brazen sighs out.