Bound by Shannon Mayer

then a spray of fast acting sedative darts. The other explosions were from Vincent’s crew.”
    “What do you want with the pack?” I asked.
    Donavan bobbed his head while he smiled and steepled his fingers, a veritable Mr. Burns. “We’ll run blood work on all of them, see if there are any anomalies. It’s the only way we will be able to find a better cure. The sedatives are not working on the two big males, not at all.” He grimaced, then his eyes brightened and I had a very bad feeling wash through me.
    “If you think he will let you draw blood off him perhaps that could change things.” He lifted an eyebrow at me. “Perhaps I could let you go if you were of enough help to me.”
    I frowned and thought quickly. I couldn’t trust Donavan, that much was certain, but what if there was a cure? Something better than what Vincent had used on Adam and Eve. It was the best I could do at this point, and I would take it for what it was worth; at least Sebastian was alive. I nodded, my eyes glued to a dark stain on the floor.
    Donavan and Clint stepped out of the room and a woman came in, the first I’d seen that wasn’t a Nevermore. Her name tag on her starched white nurse’s uniform said, “Lucy”. She wrapped my arm with a plastic band and flicked at a vein until it came to the surface. I stared up at the ceiling and the sparkly chandelier, wincing as she jabbed me with the needle.
    “You didn’t take Nevermore?” I asked, just wanting to speak with another woman that wasn’t pumped full of the supposed miracle drug, even if she was on Donavan’s side.
    She frowned down at me, her face a twist of unhappiness. “I hadn’t put together enough money for it when the true nature of it reared its ugly head. Pure dumb luck. You?”
    “I’m allergic to scotch broom. The doctor said it would kill me if I took it. Kind of squashed my plans of getting pregnant.”
    Lucy stared at me, and then pulled up a chair, all the blood drawn. “But you’re pregnant now? That seems beyond stupid to get knocked up at a time like this.”
    I gave a half laugh that nearly tumbled into a sob. “My husband took the drug when the fertility tests came back that he was the problem, not me. I didn’t know he took it. We were trying but not really.” I didn’t care that she was being rude to me; it was just nice to have someone to talk to.
    She reached around me and grabbed another empty vile that she plunked on to the end of the needle. After three more vials full she pulled the needle out of my arm and pressed a cotton ball onto the open vein.
    “Hold here for at least two minutes; I’ll be back to put a bandage on in a few minutes.” She stood to leave, her frazzled brunette hair tied into a messy bun.
    “Can I ask you a question?”
    “You can ask, I’ll answer you if I can.” She turned at the doorway, impatience highlighted in her hand on her hip, the arch of her eyebrow. I wondered if perhaps we were the only human women left on Vancouver Island. That was a horrible thought.
    “Is Donavan as bad as Vincent made him out to be?”
    “I don’t know how Vincent made him out to be. But genius often comes in the guise of madness. Right now we need a genius to make this mess right again, to get our people back.”
    “Is there a cure?” I asked. Marks had thought so. I prayed he was right.
    She shook her head. “He’s close to a breakthrough, but that’s all I know.”
    Lucy left the room, the door locking behind her. My eyes closed slowly, in what I thought was a blink, and when they opened, she was back in the room puttering.
    “Mara, they’re bringing the ultrasound in now. Drink this.” She held out a glass to me and I took it, grateful for the cool clean liquid. “Was I asleep?”
    Lucy grimaced. “You slept right through the night, didn’t move a muscle, not even when I put a bandage on your arm. I should know, they made me sit in here and keep a watch on you.”
    I swallowed hard. A lot of things could