Page 27 of Hunted

I tapped a pen against the edge of the desk. “Why here? Why this particular detail?”

His pale eyes didn’t flinch. “Pretty sure you’re one of the few people who can understand what it’s like to have done something so horrible you hear people scream in your memory every time you try to sleep at night.” When I said nothing, he smiled, the expression holding no warmth. “And don’t even try to deny it. You’re not that good at blocking.”

His words stuck with me as I finished up paperwork. They were still rattling around in the back of my head an hour later when I wound up being held prisoner by one Ellie Crowe while she stirred a bubbling cauldron of soup on her aunt’s stove. Nineties rock played in the background. Two giant menacing rabbits hopped at her feet, nibbling up dropped carrot peels. The fluffier one (Waffles, I was nearly sure) gave me dark looks every time I attempted to reach down to pet its ears.

“Your beasts hate me.”

“They can be wooed with cilantro and celery.” Making a clucking noise with her tongue, she dangled a sprig of greenery from her fingers, instantly calling the herd of demon bunnies to her like we were in a freaking Disney movie.

Ellie Crowe: Rabbit whisperer. Fantasy addict. Possible kitchen witch.

“Did you get your lab samples straightened out?”

“We’re rerunning everything.” She tapped a bit of garlic into the pot and replaced the lid.

“That has to be costing you weeks of work.”

“There’s no way to know exactly what was contaminated and we can’t take any chances. We’re having to obtain samples again from our vampire donors, which I feel terrible about since I’m practically draining them dry.”

“Ironic, huh.”

“I just feel bad about Rowan, you know?” Ellie swiped at a loose curl that had sprung free from her messy top knot. “This is hard on her, even if she would never admit it.”

“Rowan is a big girl. She knows donating blood to your lab isn’t the same as having it drained by her mother. And she can make the choice to say no.”

“Can she?” Ellie folded her arms, a furrow forming in her brow. “You and I both know there are far more nuances and gray areas to this than just that Zara coerced her to be used as a blood slave throughout her childhood and now she can say no if she doesn’t want to share her blood as an adult. The only way my protection detail can guard me safely during daylight hours is if they’ve consumed varewolf blood. Rowan is the only adult varewolf we have contact with. So her choices are to refuse to give blood and maybe that means vampires everywhere like her brother and her friends get sick and die because the project fails. Or she refuses and Vlad and Jori make the choice that the project is more important than their own safety and they drink shifter blood and she has to live with that choice, too. Or she chooses to donate her blood to all the vampires on my team, and for my research, which she has been doing. And she bottles up the trauma because that is the choice she can live with. But I can’t pretend that any of those choices are black and white. Or easy.”

“They never are.” I rubbed my temples. “We’re in a fight for our survival right now. There are no easy answers. Whatever choice Rowan makes, she has my respect.”

Biting her lip, Ellie turned back to the stove, removing the lid from her pot of corn chowder. The summer squash I’d brought her sat beside the pot out on the counter. Tonight she had on what were possibly the tiniest pair of navy blue track shorts ever made, so short they barely skimmed the crease of her thigh when she bent over to get vegetables out of the crisper. I groaned, rubbing the heels of my hands into my eye sockets. Her tank top was ribbed and outlined every curve and angle of her body like a glove, from where I wanted my hands grasping her hips to the small tight apples of her breasts. She didn’t have a bra on, and it was driving my wolf fucking wild seeing her nipples teasing through the fabric of her tank, remembering how she’d moaned when my tongue had slowly circled those tight peaks, her fingernails clawing scratches up my back that made me see stars for how good I was making her feel.

She came over to my barstool, blowing softly on a spoon she had cupped in one hand.

“Is this part of your plot to poison me?”

“Obviously. How else am I going to get all your hoodies?”

When she stuck the spoon in front of my mouth, I obediently opened, inhaling the mouthful of creamy corn chowder.

“Good? Or does it need more cheese?”

“Mmm… hard to say. Maybe ladle me up a bowl so I can get a better sample.”

Smirking, she poked me in the chest. I caught her wrist, drawing her fingers up to kiss the palm of her hand, watching as her pupils darkened.

She swallowed. “You’re not allowed to do things like that to me when I’m trying to cook.”

“Oh. I think that’s pretty much the perfect time. You’re very distracting. I love watching you here at home, slinging vegetables all over the kitchen, your guard-rabbits nibbling at my ankles.”

“Waffles is very sweet. You’ve been buying too much into Hayden’s propaganda.” Pulling the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog into her arms, she kissed its ears, then handed it to me while reaching for soup bowls.

“Did your aunts go out of town?” I asked, stroking Bunnicula’s back while feeding it celery pieces.

“It’s their anniversary, actually.” Ellie set a steaming bowl of soup and a glass of iced sweet tea in front of me, took my rabbit away, and slid onto the barstool beside me. “They always go to this cute little diner on South Lamar where they had their first date. Meera lets Piper steal all her French fries. They’re kind of adorable.”

I spooned up a bite of savory corn chowder with potato and celery. “I’m glad you have them in your life.”

Ellie nodded, stirring her spoon through her chowder. “My dad struggled with addiction. Drinking. Pills. Anything to deal with his depression and anxiety. You know that’s why Hayden and I rarely ever drink? Piper doesn’t either. It’s always there in the back of my mind. Did I inherit that part of them where I go to the emergency room one night because I was in an accident, they give me a dose of painkillers and I’m hooked?”