Cassandra looked at the twisting pathway again.
“So what happens now?”she asked quietly.
Severin wished he had a definitive answer for her, but they were still very much on unproven and experimental ground.
“We find out how much of your symptemology is the virus,” he said, “Andhow much is your body fighting back.”
She looked at him, then atRavik, then down at herself as though she no longer quite trusted the signals coming from her own body.
“What if my body wants something…embarrassing?”
“You never need to feel embarrassed around us,”Severinsaid softly.“RavikandIwill give you anything you need…anything you want.Andthere’s no judgment in science—only hypotheses and results.”
His words seemed to reassure her—at least a little.
“Well…all right.”Shenodded.“Iguess that will work, for now, anyway.”
And with that, he had to be content.
But as he watched her lean againstRavikfor comfort, he realized the data was becoming clear.InCassandra, the virus was creating sexual need.Ravik’sseed might help it andSeverin’sown essence might as well but that had to be her choice.
In the meantime, all he could do was keep looking for a cure so the three of them could get out of here and go back to theMotherShip.
33
CASSIE
Cassie tried desperately to ignore the need that was growing inside her.Allday long she ignored it.Sheignored it while she was cooking and cleaning and eating with the guys.Sheignored it when she took a second shower and then a third, in an attempt to cool down and ease the heat that was growing inside her.Sheeven ignored the looks thatSeverinandRavik—who seemed to be more and more himself—exchanged and the way they sniffed the air when she got near either of them.
They can tell,whispered the traitorous little voice in her head.Theyknow what you’re feeling…what you need.Theycan smell it on you—the heat…the desire.
Well even if that was true, she wasn’t about to tell on herself and admit what she was so desperately craving.Shewasn’t going to go through another humiliating experience like she had earlier today when she’d been impaled onRavik’scock and hadn’t been able to stop herself from grinding on him.
Maybe ifIignore it, it’ll just go away,she told herself desperately.Butshe wondered if maybe the others who had been bitten or scratched by anInfectedhad been telling themselves the same thing.Becauseit was theHungerVirusdoing this to her—making her feel so needy.Onlyinstead of living flesh, she craved male contact and male seed.
Which seemed like an absolutely ridiculous situation to find herself in, but her whole life had been turned upside down recently, so she supposed she shouldn’t be surprised that the virus that was turning everyone else into zombies was turning her into a nymphomaniac instead.
She ignored her body as long as she could but it all came to a head that evening.Itwas right after a supper ofthigianstew and both males here helping her clean up because, despite their size and strength,Kindredwere much more domestic and helpful with chores than human men.
Cassie was standing between them washing dishes whenSeverinreached around her to take the bowls from the narrow table andRavikstepped close behind her to help stack the cups.
It should have been nothing—just two males helping clean up after supper.Twovery large, very muscularKindredmales who both smelled entirely too good and who had apparently decided that domestic chores were a group activity.
Ravik was behind her, his massive body radiating heat like a furnace, andSeverinwas at her side, cool and elegant and controlled as he reached past her to collect the dishes she was trying very hard not to drop.
But when their scents mingled around her—Ravik’sdark leather-and-smoke spice andSeverin’sclean, sharp ocean-wind scent—Cassie’sbody reacted like someone had lit a match inside her.
Heat bloomed low in her belly, sudden and fierce.Hernipples tightened so sharply that she had to bite back a gasp, and the ache between her thighs turned from annoying to almost painful in the space of a single breath.Shegripped the edge of the sink, her knuckles going white, and tried to pretend she had simply lost her balance.
Of course, neither of them was fooled.
“Cassandra?”Severinsaid at once, his blue eyes worried behind his glasses.
At the same time,Ravikleaned closer from behind her and inhaled deeply.
“Cassieneeds,” he rumbled.
Cassie closed her eyes.
