Page 85 of Property of Crypt Keeper

“You would be surprised how much can be learned from hospital records, coven archives, old vampire ledgers, demon genealogies,” he prattled on as he seemed to study me. He walked back and forth as he looked at me from all angles. “Your parents were well compensated for their participation. Yet that didn’t work out exactly as I planned. He wasn’t supposed to fall in love with her. It’s why I stopped using voluntary subjects—things get too messy.”

Well compensated?

Before I could dig into that, he paused when he got to my side. His eyes dropped briefly, and I could tell it was to the marks along my spine. They tingled as if he had touched them.

I went rigid. Too late. He saw. His face changed.

For the first time since he entered the room, something like surprise flickered through his expression.

Rafael noticed immediately. “What?”

My neck cracked as I turned to watch the Doctor as he stepped closer, eyes fixed on where the mate mark crawled down my back beneath torn fabric and dried blood. He was silent for several seconds. Then he whispered to himself, “That should not be possible.”

A cold blade of dread slid through me.

Rafael’s gaze sharpened. “What should not be possible?”

The Doctor looked at him. Then back at me. “The demon female?”

Katalina.

No.

My wolf surged again.

Rafael smiled slowly. Not the Doctor’s curious smile. This one was darker. Triumphant.

“You mated her.”

I said nothing. But my silence was answer enough.

Rafael’s smile widened. “I wondered why she hesitated.”

My vision pulsed red. “Leave her out of this.”

“Oh, I’m afraid that’s no longer an option,” the Doctor explained as he circled back into view, still staring like he’d discovered a new law of nature.

“Demon-human mate marks are rare,” he murmured. “Demon-shifter bonds should be impossible. Unless…” His gaze locked on mine again. “Unless the amplifier trait stabilized the bond.”

Rafael’s expression turned thoughtful. Dangerously thoughtful. “Meaning?”

“Meaning,” the Doctor explained slowly, “he may not simply stabilize offspring.”

My blood ran cold. Hairs stood at attention all over my body as a chill washed over me.

“He may stabilize incompatible bonds.”

Silence. Heavy. Awful.

Rafael looked at me like I had just become something far more useful than a prisoner. The Doctor looked at me like I had just become the answer to a question he hadn’t known he needed to ask.

“Do you know how many failures came before you?” the Doctor asked softly.

The words sank hot and heavy beneath my skin. Failures. The room beyond the glass. The restraints. The blood. The claw marks in concrete.

Zara.

I wasn’t the first attempt. Just the first successful one. The thought should have broken something inside me. Instead, it sharpened me. Because I was beginning to understand, this wasn’t about one child. One facility. One asshole demon with ambition.