“‘Infected’ is as good a word as any,” said Sam. “I hope there aren’t more. For one thing, they don’t deserve this. For another, they’ll lay waste to the wildlife if they’re in a permanent grip of bloodlust.”
“We need to put The Hollow on lockdown until we can be sure,” Jared declared. “The only people who should be allowed to leave are those we send out to hunt for more of these poor bastards.”
Maya folded her arms. “What I’m wondering is … if someone at The Hollow can do this, why are they doing it now? Why, if they’d rather not bring attention to their gift, would they use it like this all of a sudden?”
Sam sighed. “I truly have no idea. That’s what we need to find out.”
CHAPTER THREE
(Maya)
Standing at my side not far from the ballroom dance floor, Cassie leaned into me. “I know we shouldn’t really talk about this at a party, but I still can’t quite wrap my head around the fact that someone can infect animals with vampiric rabies.”
I blew out a breath. “It’s totally fucked up. And will leave us no choice but to put the poor animals down, which sucks. I really hate that part.” I loathed that I’d been forced to kill the leopard.
“But it would be cruel to them to leave them in a permanent state of bloodlust,” said Cassie. “I remember what it was like during my conversion.”
“Same here, so I get why it’s best to put the animals to rest—if there are more out there, that is. I’m hoping like hell that there aren’t.” Our squad had gone hunting for evidence of more earlier, but we’d so far hadn’t discovered any. “The Hollow’s researchers claim there are a few vamps here who possess an ability that, if stronger or looked at from a different angle, could cause something like this. Ryder will be scanning their minds to find out.”
“Speaking of Ryder, he looks damn delicious tonight. Then again, he always does.”
She wasn’t wrong. I’d purposely kept my back to him as much as possible so that there was no way my eyes could wander to him. I wasn’t too proud to admit to myself that I’d otherwise struggle not to ogle the shit out of him.
“That was one hot kiss you guys had the other night.”
“We were responding to a dare,” I reminded her.
“Uh-huh,” said Cassie, all sarcasm.
“He’s with Krista anyway.” The female vampire was all over him, which was another reason I kept my back to him. The sight of them together made my stomach roll.
“I don’t know about that. I mean, she sure is doing her best to wrap herself around him like a victory flag, but he doesn’t seem to want her attention. And I heard from someone that he didn’t actually sleep with her the night before he left for his trip, nor did he ask her to ‘wait’ for him. She just said that shit to put other women off. It seems that she’s determined to make the guy hers. I don’t see that happening.”
“It’s their business.” I truly sounded like I didn’t care either way, but Cassie knew me too well to fall for it, so her inelegant snort was not unexpected.
“Did word of the not-really-fake-kiss get back to Coop?”
I nodded. “I explained it was a game. He didn’t seem fussed.” On the contrary, he’d waggled his eyebrows.
“Really?”
“We’re not exclusive or anything.”
“So it doesn’t worry you that he and Arlo have been very subtly eye-fucking each other all night?”
I smiled. “It’s kind of hot.”
She chuckled. “It is, but you’re supposed to be jealous.”
“Why? I barely know him. And like I said, we’re not exclusive.”
Cassie narrowed her eyes. “You’re hoping to spur Arlo into making a move on Coop, aren’t you?” She sighed. “Only you would help the guy you’re dating get together with another person. You know, Derek hasn’t failed to notice the eye-fucking either. He doesn’t seem happy about it.”
I felt my mouth tighten. “I don’t like that dude. I really don’t like how he treats Beatrix.”
“Me neither. But she’s a sucker for punishment. Forgives him again and again, always sure it’ll be different the next time round. It never is.” Cassie grinned as her boyfriend approached. “Hey there, handsome.”
“Hey there, beautiful,” said Donnie. “You promised me a dance.”
She hummed. “I did. And I intend to deliver on that promise.”
He looked at me. “What about you, Maya? You got any plans to dance tonight?”
“I’m not comfortable doing it without my pole,” I replied.
He blinked and then chuckled. “I have nothing to say to that.”
“Donnie!” someone called out.
He cursed beneath his breath. “I’ll be one sec, Cass.” With that, he disappeared.
“You should ask Coop to dance,” Cassie told me. “He’s too shy to ask you. You’re gonna have to take the lead when it comes to him. In pretty much all ways that count.”