The reinforced glass on the lab door can’t take much more of Hunter’s pounding. Camille watches the spidering in the glass nervously. “I need you to calm down. This isn’t like you. I’m getting more blood, it’s coming, just please calm down.”

Hunter’s fangs protrude from his gums, he’s in full on vampire mode. His throat is parched and his stomach twists with pain, “Let me the fuck out of here.”

“You know I can’t do that until we figure out what’s wrong with you.” Camille holds her tears at bay. She’s known Hunter for four hundred years and has never seen him lose himself. She turns away from him and leans against the door, blowing out a breath.

The vibration of his pounding on the door resonates through her entire being and the pain in his voice when he speaks twists her stomach at what he must be going through.

Hunter stops his assault on the door and watches the elevator. “Just a little, I’ll only take a little.” He begs to feed from Meghan.

Meghan hurries off the elevator, carrying a cooler. “Here.” She pushes it toward Camille, eyeing Hunter through the glass.

Camille watches Meghan’s nervous reaction. “Thank you. You can go upstairs, if I need you I’ll text. But if you could please ask Owen to come down, I’d appreciate it.”

Camille turns toward the lab and places one of the bags of blood in the pass through, closes the lid and pushes the button to send the blood through.

Hunter opens the lid and sinks his teeth straight through the plastic and sucks the bag empty in seconds. “More,” he growls.

Camille puts another bag in the pass through and presses the intercom button, “Are you feeling any better?”

“No.” He takes the bag and drinks it down.

Meghan nods then hesitates before turning to leave, “What’s wrong with him?”

Camille presses her eyes closed with sorrow, “I don’t know.”

Meghan worries the hem of her lab coat, “You know, until this moment I always wondered if he was a vampire.” She releases a nervous breath, “I mean, you were very upfront with me when I started here, but I’ve never seen him…” She trails off, at a loss for words.

“Act like a vampire?” Camille finishes for her.

“Yeah. He’s one of the kindest people I’ve ever met. He gave me a shot when no one else would. He’s never been inappropriate, always just...kind.”

Camille pushes out a hard-won smile knowing how right she is. When Hunter found her, she was on the verge of becoming something loathsome. He took her in, trained her, fed her and has been like a brother to her ever since. He helped her maintain her humanity. “We’re going to figure this out,” She turns and looks at his wild eyes, “We’ll get him back.”

“Do you think that he’s been infected by anything we’ve been working on?” she asks, furrowing her brow in thought. “Maybe he found something that vampires aren’t immune to.”

The wheels in Camille’s mind start turning, “That’s not a bad thought. Although I don’t think we’re working with any active viruses other than vampire blood.”

“There could’ve been a mutation, that would explain,” Meghan motions toward Hunter who’s pacing the floor inside the lab. “Him being more like a vampire.”

Camille’s eyes light with hope. She nods while working out the possibility, “Okay, this is a good start. I want you to go upstairs and access Hunter’s drive, the password is Odin's Bane, one word.” Camille taps her finger to her chin, “Look at his entries for the last three days, see if you can find anything out of the ordinary. All the cellular mutations should be there, too. He logs everything.”

Meghan’s eyes fill with alarm, “Camille?”

“What is it?” She turns to make sure Hunter’s still secure in the lab.

“If this is viral, that means you could also be affected.” Meghan presses her lips into a tight line.

Camille sucks in a sharp breath, “You’re right.”

Meghan’s gaze falls to the ground. “We can quarantine you in another lab,” she suggests.

A sad smile stretches across Camille’s lips and she shakes her head, “He would never leave me alone and I won’t leave him.”

“How are we going to get you in there without letting him out?” she asks.

“I’ll make it happen,” Camille assures her. She turns back to Hunter, “Are you ready for more?”

His eyes plead with her, “Yes. Please, it helped, but I need more. The pain…”

Camille puts two more bags in the drawer and pushes the button to transfer them through. She turns back to Meghan, “I want you to go upstairs, when you get there put this elevator on lock-down. I’ll communicate with you via cell phone. No human comes down here, do you understand?”

Meghan nods, “Yes.”

“We’re going to need more blood.” Camille inhales a deep breath through her nose, “Also, we need to very quietly quarantine the rest of the vampires in the building. I’ll discuss it with Owen. Go ahead up and send him down.”

Meghan agrees and turns for the elevator.

Camille reaches for her shoulder, “Meghan?”

Meghan looks over her shoulder, “Yes?”

“I want you and the rest of the humans in the building to go,” Camille says thoughtfully.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Meghan insists.

“You are.” Camille nods once, “You can work on this from home, but if all hell breaks loose and this,” she hitches her thumb back toward Hunter, “happens to all of us, you’re going to be in real trouble.”

Meghan smiles, “I don’t think either of you would ever hurt me.”

“He’s not in his right mind and if whatever this is can do that to a man I’ve never seen lose control, think of what it can do to someone with far less control,” Camille warns.

“I’ll take care of myself.” Meghan turns and goes to the elevator. “We’re going to figure this out.”

Camille watches as the elevator doors close.

“Camille,” Hunter says quietly over the intercom.

Camille turns around and the anguish in Hunter’s eyes cinches her stomach with sorrow. “Hey, how are you feeling?”

“A lot more like myself.” His eyes gaze downward with shame.

“You look a lot better.” She points to her mouth, “Fangs are back in place.” She smiles.

“Yeah,” he says, pressing his hand on the glass. “But Meghan’s right. You need to be quarantined, too.”

Camille nods slowly, “I know. I’m coming in. But I want you to go to the back clean room and close the door while I come in. I can’t completely trust you right now and I think I can make it in before you could get out if you weren’t bullshiting me about feeling better.”

“Let’s wait until we see that Meghan’s locked down the elevators.” He lowers his head, “I don’t think I can trust myself right now.”

Hunter goes to the clean room and closes the door behind him. Camille waits for the red flashing light to come on indicating the elevators are locked down before pressing the button to open the door. She walks into the lab without incident. When the lab door is closed, Hunter comes out of the clean room, his eyes wild with hunger again.

“I need more.” Hunter takes another bag of blood.

Camille tries not to be disgusted watching him gulp it down. For the first time since she’s known him she can envision the barbarian he was thousands of years ago in the fjord. The animal characteristics taking him over are something she barely recognizes in him.

He wipes his mouth on his sleeve, “Sorry. I’m just incredibly parched.”

“Okay, let’s talk about what you were working on before this happened,” Camille says hoping that buckling down and working will keep her mind off the thought of her being infected next.

Hunter steadies himself, “Before we get into that, I want to discuss something with you.”

He pulls out one of the rolling chairs for her. She takes a seat and he sits across from her. “I want you to know I have a contingency plan.”

“What are you talking about?” The corner of her mouth rises in question.

“I have a will. You are the sole beneficiary, everything I have goes to you,” he says, pressing his lips into a thin line.

“That’s really not necessary, it’s not going to come to that,” she says with a sad smile, not completely convinced by her own words.

“If I can’t control myself…” He unbuttons the top button of his shirt and pulls on the leather cord around his neck until a silver key appears.

Camille’s eyes widen, and she pushes the chair away from him, “Oh no, you’re not putting that on me.”

“Camille, if this can’t be cured, I don’t want to be set loose on the world like this.” He brings himself closer to her, putting his hands on her knees. “I’m far too dangerous. You have to kill me.”

“You can’t ask me to do this,” she insists, walking away from him.

“I am asking you,” he says calmly.

“Let’s focus on figuring it out,” she pleads, she doesn’t want to be the one to have to take his life. She’s not sure she could go through with it.

“Agreed.” He takes the cord from around his neck and presses the key into her hand and closes her fingers over it, “Take this and if it comes down to it, you know what must be done.”

The key burns in her hand, making her heart heavy with sorrow. She sees his kindness but is aware of the savage that lies beneath. It’s dangerous. He can’t be set free on the world in this state.

Hunter’s demeanor changes, putting Camille on alert. “What’s happening?”

Hunter’s eyes dart around the lab, “I have these insane urges. Things I’ve not dealt with for centuries.”

“Like, what kind of urges?” Her brow wrinkles with concern and she takes a step back from him.

“Like urges.” He widens his eyes. “I haven’t been with a woman in…” he searches his memory.

“I’ve never known you to be with anyone.” She takes another step back, “Quite frankly, I don’t know how you live like that.”

“I’m promised to only one woman.” His voice becomes distant, “But right now, I really feel the need for–”

Camille raises her hand to him, “Hold up right there.”

His eyes are heavy with lust and he takes a step closer to her, “Haven’t you ever been curious?”

“About what? What fucking my brother would be like? Nope. Not ever.” She puts more distance between them. “You need to calm down, drink some more blood.”

Camille reconsiders her decision to be quarantined with him. “Let’s get started and try to figure out what’s wrong with you. Let’s backtrack, go over the last twenty-four hours.”

She goes to the workstation and turns on a computer, “Tell me everything you’ve come in contact with.”

Hunter doubles over, letting out a growl of pain, “I need more blood.”

Camille finds there’s none left, “You drank it all?”

“I had to,” he grunts out.

The elevator light goes green and Owen’s huge form appears when the doors slide open. Camille goes to the door and presses the intercom button, “Please tell me that’s more blood.”

Owen carries the large box with ease and sets it down in front of the door, “Yes, but this is it. I’ve contacted the blood bank, we’ll see if they send more.” He loads the bags in the pass through. “What’s happening?”

“I’m not sure, it seems the only thing that somewhat calms him is blood. I don’t know how he’s consuming this much.”

Owen pushes his hair back behind his ear and asks with an edge of concern, “Do you think this will affect wolves?”

Camille thinks for a moment, “I really don’t know, but be on alert for any strange feelings you might have.”

Owen nods with certainty, “Nothing so far. We’ve gotten all the humans out of the building and locked things down. All the vamps are in quarantine and they are, of course, already combing over the data Meghan provided.”

Camille picks up on something in his tone when he says her name, “Are you and Meghan...”

Owen’s cheeks flush with color, “We’ve gone out a couple of times.”

“She’s really a sweetheart.” Camille smiles before her expression darkens, “Keep an eye on her though. If shit starts to go south here, get her out.”

“I’ve already told her that I’ll carry her out myself if she doesn’t go.” He laughs, “I think she liked the idea.”

“Who wouldn’t? Look at you, for God’s sake.” Camille laughs, even though she’s dedicated to Sophie, she can still appreciate a wolf as sexy as Owen.

Owen laughs, “Thanks.”

“No problem.” Camille brings a bag of blood to Hunter, “Here, drink.”

“I don’t–” Hunter stops speaking and takes the bag and drinks.

Camille goes back to the door, “Stay in contact, I’ll let you know if there are any changes here.”

“Okay, will do.” Owen hesitates, “Do you think we need to call Maxwell?”

“Let’s hold off on that as long as we can. We can contain this,” she says with certainty. The last thing they need is The Directive involved.