Page 108 of Cruelly Bitten
Hope was a fickle emotion, one I wasn’t sure I wanted to indulge in right now.
But I would take Mira’s advice and shower. Maybe it would help wash away Michael’s touch.
Or maybe I’ll just drown.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CAM
A Few Minutes Earlier
“Dr. Wagner,take the test subjects to the lab next door. You can proceed with the physical examination and blood draw there.”
“Of course, my liege,” Wagner replied from behind me. We’d been discussing some of his research results in the adjoining room when I’d sensed Ismerelda’s presence.
I had no idea why she’d been wandering in the catacombs, or how she’d found my family’s crypt, but I was more interested in Michael’s audacity at the moment.
Not only had he touched myErosita—again—he’d brought her here, to a room full of blood virgins about to enter a research compatibility trial.
My teeth ground together as Wagner led the test subjects out of the room. His movements were methodical and stoic, just as they’d been each time I’d spoken to him.
He was one of Lilith’s successful immortal creations, just like Jace’s newErosita, Calina. Both Wagner and Calina had beencreated using a golden-blooded surrogate and a mixture of other supernatural genetics.
Unfortunately, my brethren had killed all the known golden bloods in the world, leaving the blood virgins as the closest available blood type.
Wagner was testing all of them to see if any of the females had close enough markers for a potential surrogacy trial involving the Blessed Ones.
So far, none of the candidates had proved viable, something Wagner had been saying when Michael had barged in with Ismerelda.
The door whispered closed, leaving me alone with my progeny. He’d claimed he’d brought Ismerelda here because she’d demanded to see me, and while that might have been true, he shouldn’t have been with her to begin with.
“You should have called me the moment you realized where Ismerelda was,” I said as I faced him. “Instead, you took it upon yourself—again—to discipline myErosita.”
Because there’d been no question as to her injuries or how she’d acquired them.
The bruise forming on her face had been fresh, and I’d sensed her exhaustion, too. I had no idea what he’d done, but I fully intended to find out once I spoke to her.
“I found her in your family crypt.” He uttered the words like they were an explanation. No, not just an explanation, avalidation.
“Which is when you should have called me so I could have handled the situation,” I returned.
“I had to stop her, my liege. She was in the middle of opening up your brother’s tomb.”
I frowned. That was a strange thing for her to be doing. “Did she tell you why?”
“No. She insulted me, then she demanded that I take her to you. That’s all she said.”
My nose twitched as Michael’s scent sweetened. It did that often, something I was beginning to think might be a tell of some kind.
A tell that he’s lying to me.
“How did she insult you?” I asked, curious as to if that was the source of his changing cologne or if it was the latter half of the statement.
Because the bruises I’d seen forming on myErosita’sthroat had suggested Ismerelda hadn’t been given much of a chance to speak.
“She reminded me of my mortality,” he bit out, causing my eyebrow to arch.
“And?”
