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I’d given the project a go-ahead, but I’d told Jerry the Jackass I would only move forward if Liv was on the project with us. Had that been a bad move? I’d been hypnotized by her since day one. What was it about her that made me want her so badly? I had to be careful of that—of her.
I wouldn’t have turned down the project either way; we needed the tech. This machine would be the breakthrough we needed in enchanted healing. It was for me, sure, but Rory was serious about what it could do for medicine in general. She was a saint with a heart of gold in this ugly world, always wanting to help.
It was high time we came up with something that worked for the enchanted creatures, too, and not just humans. The human world didn’t really know about us, for the most part, so all the medical breakthroughs were focused on human blood.
Enchanted blood was different. Blood disorders in enchanted beings couldn’t be fixed with human technology, no matter how medically advanced, so something had to be done.
My dad had started this whole project years ago. He’d wanted to develop a machine that could detect enchanted blood disorders and develop cures in time, so that he could cure himself.
After he’d died, I’d put the whole thing in the closet. I hadn’t wanted anything to do with him or my stepmother. I hadn’t wanted to continue my dad’s legacy and live the life of a man I’d hated.
Until I’d found out I had the disorder, too. Now, it was a whole different ballgame, and I was as eager to get this show on the road as Dad had been.
Ihatedthat I was like him in some ways, but I would finish this and beat it. I would change our family’s fate.
All the better if we saved a couple of lives in the process. No one thought I was the type to give a shit, but hey, we all had hidden sides. And as much as I wanted to pretend that I didn’t care, deep down, Ididcare that this machine helped other beings.
The only person who knew it was more than just a machine to do something for my people was Rory. She was my closest confidant, my beta’s sister, and she had an extensive background in enchanted healing. She’d studied enchanted medicine, and she was very involved with work at the enchanted clinic on the other side of town.
I’d bought that clinic a while ago to pave the way for this project, and now Rory was in charge of it, making a difference in ways I hadn’t thought she could.
She knew this machine would change my life, too, but I wouldn’t go into that until I knew the facts, until I knew that our new direction would work.
We’d failed too many times already.
We were doing it, if Jerry didn’t sit there pouting like a child.
“The machine is calibrated, and in theory, the results are conclusive, but we won’t know until we do our first testing with enchanted blood.”
Liv frowned at Jerry when he said it.
“Enchanted?” she asked. “Like… fairies and witches?” Her mouth curled into an amused smile.
She only knew about the human side of the project. The tech would eventually be used for humans, too, but that wasn’t our focus right now. It was all she was aware of, though.
I pinned Jerry with a hard stare.
Liv, for all she knew, was human. I’d picked up something about her when I’d met her—something was different about her that had made warning bells go off in my head—but whatever it was, she didn’t know about it. She didn’t know anything other than the world she’d grown up in.
I shouldn’t have put her on the project, if I was going to be honest with myself, but if she was one of us, or… whatever she was, then she would have to figure this out eventually.
Besides, I had to keep an eye on her. If I’d sensed something different about her, then others would be able to do that, too. Did Jerry know?
I studied him. Jerry wasn’t very high on the food chain when it came to power. He was a vampire and all that implied—immortality, super strength, speed, and he lived off the blood of others to animate himself. Vampires were the undead; it was what they became after a shitty life where they’d made all the wrong choices as humans. They were somewhere between demons—the keepers of the Underworld—and humans. They had one foot in the grave, literally.
Those who’d lived a whole extra life as a vampire, aging for centuries, grew in power, and they could pick up on others’ magic a lot easier, but Jerry wasn’t that old, and he wasn’t that clued in, either.
Being dumb in his past human life had translated to him being dumb in death.
Go figure.
No, I decided. I didn’t think Jerry knew, or he’d have reacted differently when I’d figured out something was different in our first meeting.
“If we can get a sample, we can get those tests started, so if you’ll see to it that we get a test subject,” Jerry continued. “They’ll listen to you.”
I glared at him. Was he going to keep rambling until Liv figured out this wasn’t just a joke, something to be laughed off?
“We can’t go straight to human testing,” Liv offered. “That is completely illegal and unethical. We must take the right steps.”
