We arrived back at the castle very late into the night.Daniel took the bag of folders and assured me he would leave it on Cain's desk for me to look over in the morning.As someone who hadn't slept the night before, I was grateful for the opportunity to rest before digging into the mess I was sure to uncover.I walked slowly back up all those flights of stairs, lugging my suitcase with me.By the time I reached my room, I was more than exhausted I opened the door to see the fireplace lit and the bathroom door open with the light on inside.Shit, I thought. I forgot this was Cain's room.He walked out of the bathroom, a towel hanging low on his hips. Clearly, he'd just gotten out of the shower."Sorry," I said quickly. "I'Il go find somewhere else to sleep." "I didn't expect to see you again," he said, stopping me as I turned to leave. I turned back around slowly, looking for a way to explain why I'd stayed.I was silent. No words would come to me.I couldn't tell if this was becau
Narrative P.O.V.Daniel and Jai walked in a drowsy daze down the stairs to the basement. Earlier, at around three in the morning, each of their phones lit up on their nightstands, summoning then down to thebasement.They walked into the cold autopsy room where Cain stood between two metal examination tables. The two men on the examination tables had been cut into, their chests open and ventral sections of their rib cages removed to reveal dead organs.Daniel and Jai both recognized the men as the one Jai had killed at Otto Müller's funeral and the other as the man who had broken into the castle, nearly killing Ella."What do you want, Cain?" Daniel sighed, rubbing his eyes."What do you see when you look at these men?" Cain asked them.Cain speaking in a normal speaking voice in the small, metal room made an echo that rung in Jai and Daniel's tired ears."I see corpses who are getting more sleep than I am," Jai muttered."You're looking at Vampires who had once been human," Cain said
Ella's P.O.V.I woke up the next morning feeling like a giddy high schooler. After barely getting five hours of sleep, I had expected to be sleepy the next morning but I woke up bright-eyed and ready to g.After changing and brushing my hair and teeth, I went upstairs to Cain's office.I felt my heart pounding in my chest as I walked up the staircase and heard him talking in his office. As I entered the office I noticed that things had been cleaned up and organized since I'd last been up there.All of the lamps were on, offering ample light to read and look around Cain heard me coming and turned around before ending the conversation with whoever he'd been talking to on the phone."Good morning," he said, turning his attention back to what was on his desk."You cleaned up here," I said. "It looks nice.""Perks of not sleeping," he said. "You get to stay up and do important things.""Have you been having trouble sleeping?" I asked him. I saw a corner of Cain's mouth perk up slightly i
"Soulmates? Really?"I couldn't help but laugh at Cain's ridiculous statement."I'm being serious," he said, remaining straight-faced.I shook my head."It's a little bold to say that to someone you've only known for a few weeks," I said, trying not to smile."I knew when I met you, Ella."I sighed. "When I told you I thought we were more than friends, soulmates wasn't exactly the first thing that came to mind. I think maybe we should do dinner first or something," I said honestly.I could've sworn he rolled his eyes as he pushed himself away from the desk.Cain walked over to one of the many bookshelves that lined his office and picked a book off the top shelf before opening it and flipping through it.After finding the page he'd been looking for, he walked over to me."Read this," he said, handing me the book.I looked at him warily before sitting down in the chair across from his desk. I began to read the passage he'd pointed to. During the time when Lycanthropes were being hunted
Narrative P.O.V."You didn't tell her?!"Cain stared at Daniel, trying to regain some semblance of patience."She left the office before I had the chance to," he said."You couldn't just bring it up?"Jai took a deep breath, wondering when the day would come that Daniel would find a way to keep everything he was thinking inside his mind and not let it roll off of his tongue."All of her questions were about me, I wasn't going to bring up her grandfather until I had answered them. Any more issues about my personal life that we need to resolve before we discuss what you called me down here for?"Daniel huffed and crossed his arms.Jai threw the two files across the freshly-sanitized steel medical examination table. Cain reached across and grabbed them both, eyeing Jai warily ashe read the contents of the folders under the harsh, bright lighting of the autopsy room.Cain took a deep breath as he read the line that had been highlighted by Jai. He closed the first folder and opened the ot
My heart was pounding.The doctor nervously shifted the clipboard in his hands as his eyes glanced from myself to Cain."Well?" I asked, my voice shaky."Ms. Schulz, as we suspected, you're not entirely human.'’The pounding in my chest came to a screeching halt. I began to take deep breaths, immediately feeling light-headed.There was something about hearing him say it that made me sick to much stomach."What do you mean?" I asked as I tried to catch my breath."You have the Lycan gene," the doctor said.I shook my head slowly, rejecting the idea."There is no way," I said.Cain stood from his chair and took the clipboard from the doctor. He examined the contents of the piece of paper with an intense look on his face."Can I read it?" I asked him.I felt my heart in my throat as Cain handed me the clipboard.I grabbed it from him with shaking hands.As I read over the various numbers and data lines, I realized very quickly that I hardly understood any of it."What does any of this me
Narrative P.O.V.Dr. Zosak looked at Cain in disappointment.When Cain noticed this disapproving look, he snapped. "What did you want me to do?"The old man sighed, the wrinkles in his face sinking deeper into his skin with his frown."You should have told her the truth from the beginning," he pressed.Cain scowled and pushed past the doctor, heading out of the room."I may not know what it's like to be in your shoes, but I know a thing or two about relationships," Dr. Zosak said, stopping Cain."No one, human or otherwise, enjoy being lied to. Even if it's to protect them."Cain looked at him over his shoulder. Cain thought on his words for a moment, his hard stare making it difficult for Dr. Zosak to decipher exactly what he was thinking."Have the lab run the rest of the tests," Cain said. "I want to find out how dominant the Lycanthrope gene is. I need to know whether her body can handle being marked."With that, he left the room.Ella was on his mind the entire time he walked u
Ella's P.O.V.I sat on the floor in my room, all of the documents we had acquired in the past few weeks spread out around me. The only thing I didn't have was the duffle bag full of files on the doctor that Daniel and Jai had gotten in Frankfurt.Those were in Cain's office.I was still angry with him, even though it had been several hours since the revelation of my grandfather's Lycanthrope heritage that he had passed down to me. While this theory had yet to be officially confirmed, I gathered from several pieces of information that he was indeed a Lycanthrope.For starters, the book I found in his attic on Lycanthropy was a neon sign that flashed in my face. If I was being honest, I felt like an idiot for not noticing it sooner. After a careful review of his medical records, I could see now that there were indicators of Lycanthropy all along. His white blood cell count, for one, was incredibly high, especially for a man of his age. Not to mention that he was nearly seventy years old