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Marco was looking from Nicky back to Zack. Finally, he perched one hip on his desk. “So if you killed this Tim and buried him, then how the hell do you account for his wolf being inside Nicky? Are you saying you believe in ghosts now?”
“I don’t know what to think, but I know Tim when I see him. And that was Tim’s wolf. As for his wolf being inside Nicky, I haven’t a clue how that happened.”
“It would kind of make sense in light of Nicky’s obsession with Gabe,” Jax said.
Marco bristled. “I wouldn’t say he was obsessed.”
Nicky leaned forward to put a hand on Marco’s arm. “I am obsessed with him, Marco.” He squeezed Marco’s arm when he glared at Nicky for a moment and then tried to turn his face away. “No, babe, don’t do that. I love you more than anything. You know that, but I can’t get Gabe out of my mind. It’s like a sickness. This theory would account for that—and the feeling that I’ve got two separate people inside me all the time.”
Marco’s voice was gentle as he replied. “You and Gabe are good friends, that’s all. You’ve just been a little confused.”
Nicky shook his head. “There’s more to it than that, Marco. Gabe and I have been good friends, but this is different. I’ve been having trouble controlling what I want to do to him. And I never felt any kind of attraction to him before.”
“But how does any of this explain how a dead man’s wolf wound up inside of you? What the hell did Tate inject you with?”
“Heartsblood,” Cade said softly and everyone turned to stare at him. “Remember that old book my father sent to us, Marco? Detailing the legend of the bloodlust?”
Marco made a scoffing noise in his throat. “It was only an old legend.”
“But what if it wasn’t?” Cade continued. “What if there was some truth to the legend?”
“What are you talking about?” Jax interrupted.
“When all this happened to Nicky, and Dr. Cornsilk explained that he had the Bloodlust from whatever Tate injected him with, we contacted my dad in Louisiana. He had some of the books and papers the D’Alisandes brought over with them when they emigrated from France. According to one of those books, there was once a necromancer who lived in France, near the Pyrenees.”
“Oh my God,” Marco said impatiently, getting up to turn his back on them and stare out the window behind his desk. “Really? Once upon a time?”
“No, listen to me. According to what the book said, this necromancer…”
“What the hell is a necromancer?” Casey asked.
“Like a magician, only they sometimes summon the dead to use them in their spells,” Cade said. “Anyway, this guy made an elixir from the heart’s blood of a wolf. He mixed in other things—”
“That the book conveniently didn’t mention,” Marco said, breaking in, his hands gripping the windowsill.
Cade shot Marco an irritated glance but continued as if he hadn’t interrupted. “And the necromancer called it the Bloodlust. He was working with a group of people the book calls the Hunters.”
Nicky leaned forward in his chair. “The Hunters!”
“Right. No idea if it’s the same group, but the name is very coincidental, to say the least. He told them the compound would make the wolves more vulnerable to attack, but he lied to them. He had a whole other purpose for it. He killed the alpha wolf that had been attacking the village and drained its heart of blood. Then he made his elixir and drank it himself. He turned into one of the wolves, and since he had taken on the characteristics of the alpha male whose blood he drank, he was able to find and mate the Alpha female. The book said that she became his virtual love slave.”
“So you’re saying what? That Tate somehow made this magical elixir from the heart’s blood of Zack’s cousin?” Marco shook his head. “That’s crazy.”
“What about this isn’t?” Nicky said softly. “We all accept that you and the other Werekin aren’t human. That you can turn yourselves into werewolves and that your bite can infect human beings and turn us feral. Then these humans have to drink your blood to stay alive. Is this really such a stretch?”
“But Tim is dead,” Zack said. “And we buried him right away. I watched the burial myself. How could Tate have gotten any of his heartsblood?”
“You said Tim disappeared for a while when you both younger. When exactly was this?” Nicky asked.
“When I took over the leadership of the pack. About six years ago. He disappeared for over a year.”
“About the time the Hunters were rounding up rogue wolves to use in their experiments, isn’t that right, Marco?”
He nodded. “Yes, that’s right. We found documentation of their experiments on rogues when we overran their compound and killed Elias Winters.”
“Oh my God,” Nicky said, getting to his feet. “Jeremy Tate is a heart surgeon. If he was working with them some even back then…” His
face was so drained of color that Marco came immediately to his side.
