Benny had no right to dictate to her, but the protectiveness sweeping through him had his jaw tensing. Even so, he kept his tone gentle. “Karma? For a moment, just consider the danger.” The female was far more delicate than he’d realized when he’d met her three years ago. “You could keep the mark and live a good life, although you wouldn’t get to have, well, sex.” That sort of life was unthinkable to him, but she’d gone without for a couple of centuries, so who knew what she thought? Of course, maybe abstinence had made her crazy. She seemed sane, though. Perhaps she was good at self-pleasuring.
The idea smashed through him, landing in his balls. He shifted his weight to keep the jeans from killing him. “Just a thought,” he managed to croak out.
She looked him right in the eyes. “I have no plans to mate again, and yet, I’d like the freedom to choose. It’d be nice to shake hands with somebody without getting a rash.”
Why did it warm him that she didn’t want to go off and mate somebody again? Benny looked at Emma. “If she takes the virus, will she still be immortal?”
Emma’s shrug was anything but casual. “I can’t guarantee that, Ben. Everyone I know who has taken the virus has gotten re-mated fairly quickly, so we don’t have a trial to compare to. I know immortality lasts at least for a little while, maybe a year. After that, I just don’t know. It’s possible an enhanced human’s chromosomal pairs, which have increased to grant immortality, will unravel again down to those of a mortal human. Or it’s possible the pairs will stay strong, even without the mating bond. I truly don’t know.”
Benny exhaled. “All right. Well, if her chromosomes start to unravel, I’ll mate her.” That only made sense, considering the mark he wore was for her. At her soft gasp, he winced and focused on her. “I mean, if that’s what you want. If you wish to be human, that’s okay, too. Although why anybody would want to be human is beyond me.” Could he really allow her to be human, get old, and die?
If that’s what she wanted, he didn’t have a right to stop her. Especially since he couldn’t mate and still do the job he planned to do. “Karma?” he asked.
Emma held up a hand. “You need to know that the second I inject you, there’s no turning back. There’s no way to stop the virus once you have it. So, you have to be perfectly sure. It’ll do its job until it runs its course, and if all goes well, you’ll be fine.”
Benny winced. “No risk there.” It wasn’t his decision to make. “Karma?”
She remained perfectly still. Pretty but pale. Now that he looked closer, he could see soft lines next to her eyes where the delicate muscles were pinched. “I’d like to take the virus,” she said.
He moved toward her, ducking his head to peer into her eyes. “Does your head still hurt?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“You can’t heal it?” The marking on his palm burned hotter now that he was close enough to touch her.
She shrugged.
Well, what the heck. He reached out and rubbed his thumb across her eyebrow, trying to pull the pain into himself. Agony flared in his head, behind his eye, and then detonated in his ear. He blinked several times and pulled away. “That’s a hell of a headache.”
Her eyes went wide, and the pupils contracted. “You took the pain away.”
He took a couple of steps back. “Well, yeah.” That mating mark had some power.
Chapter Eight
Karma’s limbs felt weak. Jittery. Rubbery. She allowed Benjamin to escort her back to the suite of rooms after spending most of the afternoon in the lab. The queen had injected her with Virus-27, and the Kurjan plan was going as they’d directed. She walked to the sofa and sat, shivering as rain clipped against the sliding glass door.
Benjamin flipped on the gas fireplace and took a furry blanket off the adjacent chair to settle over her. “How are you feeling?”
“The same,” she admitted, her muscles aching. “Thank you for taking me out of the lab. I couldn’t stay in there any longer.”
Benjamin leaned against the stone fireplace. “Emma will be along to check your vitals every hour or so. If you need to sleep, feel free. Besides Em, nobody will bother you.” He stood tall, looking dangerous despite the concerned glint in his patina colored eyes.
Weariness rustled through her, and her skin prickled. “What’s your secondary eye color?” she murmured. She’d heard vampires and demons had secondary eye colors that emerged during stressful situations.
His eyebrows rose, and he sat in the chair. “They say my secondary color is kind of a blackish green. I’ve never looked in the mirror, but I’ve been told.” He shrugged, and the muscles across his chest played nicely. “Never thought about it, really.”
Was it true that the color emerged when a male mated? Her palms dampened, and a trickle of sweat slid between her breasts. It had been so long, but she now remembered what being ill felt like. What a fever actually felt like. Interesting. She was kind of enjoying how mellow she felt at the moment. Almost safe, in a cozy cocoon. “Why have you never taken a mate?”
He grinned. “Not sure anybody would have me. I’m not exactly a settle-down type of guy.”
She smiled. Oh, he definitely was not. There was a wildness in him—a pure, primitive energy—that sped up her heart rate, even without the fever. “You’re a soldier. A warrior.” Her gaze dropped to his large hands resting on his jeans. Oh, what he could do with those hands.
He kicked back and stretched out his legs. “Are you hungry? You didn’t eat much of the soup at lunch.”
“No.” She’d vomit if she tried to eat. So she concentrated on his rugged face. His skin stretched over strong bones, all angled to create the masculine handsomeness of years gone by. The tough and primal look of a predator. Beautiful and deadly. The shadow along his jaw only added to his maleness. “You’re beautiful, Benjamin.” Yes, that statement would get her beaten when she returned home, but she didn’t care. Not right now, anyway.
He snorted. “Darlin’, I think your fever is taking over.”
She laughed before she could stop herself.
He sobered, and an intense look flashed in his eyes before a heated crimson crossed his cheekbones. “Now, that’s a pretty laugh. The sweetest sound I’ve ever heard.”
What a kind male. Darkness edged around the room as her vision narrowed. So she kept her gaze on the soldier. “If you ever do mate, I assume you will find somebody modern and strong. Brave and tough.”
He cocked his head. “Like you?”
She smiled, her eyelids dropping to half-mast. “That’s funny. I’m none of those things.” She plucked at the pretty material of her skirt. “I am not even comfortable in pants, so how could I be tough? One can’t fight in a skirt.” If she ever got free, maybe she’d work on becoming strong and even wearing jeans.