Page 94 of Twice Bitten

Silas’s brow furrowed. “Poisonous blood?”

I nodded. “Alric said it was a defect. He had to provide blood for Beckett since his turning.”

Silas slowly shook his head. “No, Alex. A few months ago, Beckett was an asshole, but he was completely normal. He doesn’t have poisonous blood.”

The Shifter King rolled his sleeve up to expose his right forearm. His veins were raised and black. I gasped in alarm.That mark. I’d seen it before in my kitchen the first time he’d visited and had forgotten about it.

Silas continued. “Beckett is infected with some kind of virus or spell. I had a run-in with him a few days before you ran into us in the alley. It turned physical and the bastard scratched me.”

I hissed and ran my fingers over his arm. “What is it?”

“No idea, but if it can infect me, I don’t think anyone is safe.” He ran his fingers over the raised veins. “I feel…urges,” he confessed. “I want to scratch and bite and kill.”

Silas swallowed hard and looked at me. “This thing wants to possess. It wants to blaze through me andtake.”

Alric had kept his cards close to the vest. “That bastard lied to me.”

Silas nodded. “Looks that way. I bet his people are infected and he’s trying to keep it under wraps.”

“If the vampires feel the same way you do…” My voice trailed off. Vampires already felt those urges when they first woke up. Only time and training helped them squash those particular desires. “He wants to use me to find him. Just like you did.”

Silas’s jaw tightened. “I could have gone about it another way.”

I cracked a laugh. “You think?”

“I am still learning how to interact with other supernaturals. Being King is not all it’s cracked up to be. Everything feels like a minefield, and I have to remember I cannot always demand things and expect to be obeyed.”

I stared at him. “Wow. That’s insanely arrogant. And self-reflective. I’m not sure whether to be impressed or appalled.”

“You can be both,” Silas said with a slight grin.

“Appalled it is.”

Silas kept walking. “I assume you turned the Prime down as well.”

“I did.” Something else was bothering me. “Are any of your other people infected?”

“Just me. None of my shifters know, and I plan to keep it that way. Finding a cure is my top priority.”

I glanced up at him. “How do you propose finding one?”

“I’m ninety percent sure the witches are behind the virus.”

My stomach dropped. “Surely you aren’t serious.”

“I’m dead serious. If I can find the witches responsible, I can force them to cure me.”

My lips thinned. “I don’t think the witches would do such a thing. Why would they risk a war with the shifters and vamps? There’s no way they’d win.”

“You’d be surprised. We are animals at heart and possess little magic, other than the type that ties us together as a Pack. As King, I possess the most magic, but I cannot summon storms or create potions or do fantastical things like your kind. My magic provides physical benefits among other things, but they are small powers, designed to keep us close and acting in good faith with each other.”

“Why do you think the witches are responsible?”

He held up his arm. “There is magic in this virus. I feel it inside me.”

I stopped walking. “Let me see your arm again.”

Silas held out his hand. I pushed up his sleeve again, my fingers sliding over the crisp hair on his arm. The dark veins had crept from the underside of his forearm to the edges of either side. I wasn’t sure what I could do, but I was good at sensing magic.