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Discomfort tightened his mouth as he looked away.
Dominique placed his hands on the edge of the granite countertop as he faced Jackson. “So, did you bring me fire, Jackson?” His gaze darkened as he let the vampire rise and his senses expand.
Looking through his eyes, Cassidy saw Jackson had changed more than she realized. His aura, once muddy red with anger, had brightened into the powerful crimson of a man whose mind and purpose were clear.
Jackson took a deep breath and pressed a fingertip onto the little black case. “In a way.”
Dominique tilted his head, brows drawing together. “This is from the lab?”
“Yes, it is.”
The lab was the Striker Foundation’s clandestine research facility, staffed with bright scientific minds compelled to maintain absolute secrecy. The lab existed for one reason, and one reason only, and it was that reason that caused Dominique and Cassidy to become stone-still with anticipation.
“They did it, Dominique. They found a way. You can have the sun again.”
3
Beware the Fire
Dominique’smindwentasstill as his body. He could only stare at Jackson, incapable of speech or reaction. Cassidy leaned against him, seeking support, providing comfort. Her mind, too, was silent.
The sun.
For all his determination to see daylight again, he realized now he had never truly believed it was possible, or at least not so soon. Certainly not now that he was the literal center of the vampire world. The mere possibility of such a thing rendered him near senseless.
“I think I was expecting a little more excitement,” Jackson said, uncertain.
Cassidy wiped at her face. “We’re speechless,” she croaked.
Dominique found his voice, low and soft and in words that felt safely removed from his exposed nerves. “Have you eaten?”
Jackson’s turn to look startled. He shook his head.
“Then sit,” Cassidy said. “We’ll make something.”
“You—” He looked between them. “Okay.”
Dominique opened drawers and retrieved two pots and utensils before checking the fridge for the meat he had set to marinate last night. Cassidy poured more juice for Jackson and herself, collected her hair in an efficient pile on top of her head, and headed to the pantry to collect the ingredients Dominique had in mind. Meanwhile, his thoughts circled Jackson’s revelation at a wary distance. There was nothing to be done with it right at this moment. The night had only just begun. He needed to stay busy, and staying busy for Dominique meant either getting on his bike and hunting for fresh veins to seduce, seducing Cassidy until she fell into a sated sleep, or cooking a meal he would never eat.
Maybe never eat,he amended, and paused, stunned all over again.
He didn’t trust himself to speak until the flank steaks were seared on one side and flipped to the other on the stove-top grill. He didn’t look at Jackson. “Tell me about it.”
Jackson shifted in his seat. “Well, it’s not a cure, but it could be in the future. For now, this compound can only suppress the condition when it’s at its weakest, during the day.”
Dominique turned to the pot with the stewing vegetables. So, not a permanent cure, but if it would allow him to experience daylight again? Even for an hour? He would take it.
With a comforting touch on Dominique’s shoulder, Cassidy turned to face Jackson. “The ‘condition’ is genetic. Not an infection.”
“Right. And this targets the genome.”
“Gene editing?” she said dubiously.
“Gene editing,” he confirmed. “CRISPR. I can’t explain the exact science, but…”
“It’s increasingly used to cure genetic…conditions,” she finished, sounding as astonished as Dominique felt. In a regular research setting, there were likely many standards and guidelines that would try to keep the science from getting ahead of the ethics. Nothing about the Striker labs was regular.
Jackson placed a hand back on the case beside him. “Correct. This targets the vampire mutations we’ve been able to identify and neutralizes them. Most of them, anyway. There are others we haven’t been able to isolate that reverse the process once they become active again at night. So, for now, this is a suppressant more than a cure.”
