Fated (1) by Zanetti Rebecca

Author:Zanetti, Rebecca [Zanetti, Rebecca]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Romance, Fiction, Paranormal, General
ISBN: 9780758259233
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2011-02-22T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

Cara studied the screen as angry tension chiseled through the silence in the underground conference room. “Or it’s the DNA of any mate, I guess.” She thought for a moment. “Maybe this has something to do with the allergic reaction you get with someone else’s mate.”

“Maybe.” Talen didn’t conceal the raw anger riding through his voice.

The giants sitting at the table kept their gaze on the large screen.

“Oh, shit,” Kane said through the monitor as he sent additional images to replace the strands of DNA.

A healthy cell came onto the screen before a prickly round blue blob attached itself to the cell and wormed its way inside. “It’s a virus,” Jase said somberly.

Cara nodded and her heart started to stutter as the blob infected and changed the cell. “They’ve created a virus that attacks the mates of vampires?” A dull ache pounded in her stomach. “If the cells are from the vampire mate, why wouldn’t the virus attack vampires, too?”

“Maybe the three extra pairs of chromosomes we don’t pass on protect us and the Kurjans from the virus,” Talen said, fury riding his words.

That actually made sense. Cara shifted in her seat.

Kane watched something off camera for a moment before turning back to the group, his eyes narrowing as he spoke. “Talen, you might want to take your mate back to your quarters.”

“No,” Cara protested. “Whatever it is, I want to know.”

Talen looked her over for a moment before giving his brother a short nod.

Kane shook his head and punched in a button. A small woman pacing a cold square cell came into focus. She had dark blond hair, light blue eyes, and milky pale skin—Cara guessed her age at about twenty-five.

“Who is she?” Dage asked quietly.

“She was a Kurjan sotie,” Kane answered after reading something off the screen.

“What’s a sotie?” Cara asked.

“A mate.” Jase answered.

“Why would anybody mate a Kurjan?” Cara wondered out loud.

Talen cleared his throat. “Mating doesn’t have to be done willingly.”

Her stomach dropped. She wished she’d gone back to their quarters.

“The woman was injected with the virus less than an hour before this recording was made,” Kane said quietly, shuffling a stack of papers.

The woman paced the cell before starting to talk rapidly to herself, the words incoherent and full of pain. She slapped one hand against the stone wall and then punched the unforgiving surface several times in quick succession; blood sprayed from torn knuckles as she started to scream in agony. Cara jumped in surprise.

The woman’s hands went to her head with a resounding clap as screaming turned to moaning and then back to screaming before she began to rip blond hair out of her head in thick chunks that soon matted the cement floor. Her eyes wild, her body contorting, the screaming stopped as madness overcame her, and she began slamming herself against the steel bars. The shrill snapping of bones echoed through the camera. Cara’s own bones ached in response but she refused to turn away. She somehow couldn’t leave the woman alone in her misery, even if it had already passed.

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