Free Sucking Bites (San Francisco Vampires Series #3) by Jessica McBrayer Page A

introduce yourself, Lily. He is anxious to meet you.”
    We find everyone in the library. Liam rises to meet us. He pushes back dark hair, un-parted and a little long, and it immediately slips down on his forehead—a losing battle. The firelight accents his high cheek bones. His slight frame is well muscled and he is average height, about five foot ten.  He smiles tentatively. The expression in his almond shaped eyes is haunted. His grooming is as far from bestial as he could get. He smells wonderful.
    “I can understand now, why you couldn’t tell me anything over the phone.” He wipes at an invisible spot on his silk tie.
    I smile back at him and shake his hand. This is not the slavering beast I was picturing but a young man as confused about his condition as I am—maybe more so, because I have Julian and my friends to support me.
    “I’m sorry. This must be overwhelming. It’s not every night you meet a djinn, a vampire, and find out you’re a werewolf.” I take his hands with both of mine. Warm hands, warmer than average I judge. I wonder if my body temp will rise, something I wouldn’t regret.
    “I’m the one that is sorry. They told me that I attacked you last night. I remember your hair, but that’s all I remember. I was running pretty fast. I was scared to death. I don’t remember anything about the attack. God help me, I never wanted to hurt anyone,” he says. Eyes so brown they are almost black glisten in the low light of the room.
    “I know, Liam. From what I understand, you had no control at all. There is nothing to feel guilty about. What you and I have to do now is figure out what we will do the next full moon.”
    “Yes, I refuse to hurt anyone else, or force this madness on anyone.”
    “Do you remember how this happened to you? Do you remember getting bit?” Julian asks.
    “About three months ago I was attacked while on vacation in New Orleans. It was very different than what happened between Lily and me though. I was mugged and when he had taken my wallet he looked at my driver’s license. He spoke in French but I heard him say San Francisco. Then he held the gun at me and took my wrist and bit it. It was a nasty bite. It was infected for days. I went to the doctor. It was incredibly painful. It finally healed, about the time of my first blackout.”
    “This poses a unique problem for us. A werewolf intentionally bit you and deliberately infected you. Another puzzling thing is he was not in his wolf phase, which poses another dilemma. There is another issue. Lily needs to feed but she can’t go around infecting innocent people. You see?” Julian asks everyone.
    “There has to be a cure!” Sebastian says. “I don’t care how much money it takes to find out. Everything I have is at your disposal, Julian, you know that already. Please, find something. She has to eat.”
    I sit down, dumbfounded. “I’ve already bit someone.”
    “Yes, you fed right after you were attacked,” Aidan says. “But it would have been too soon after the bite you received to have passed the virus along.”
    “We have to try to contain this. Keep it from spreading. So far, for sure we know of Liam and Lily. Let’s not worry about what might have happened. I agree with Aidan. The virus hadn’t gotten into her system yet,” Helena says.
    “Yes, but Helena, I have to feed. I only have a week before I need to feed again. We have to figure something out,” I say.
    “Easy honey, we don’t know if you and Liam are contagious like this other werewolf was. Liam may be but we don’t know if you are since you have extenuating circumstances,” she says meaningfully.
    “Liam, would you consent to some tests? I would do them here in the house. I assure you that they would be very discrete. I just want to compare yours and Lily’s blood,” Julian asks.
    “I would do anything that would help sort out this mess,” Liam says instantly. “I need to get some rest though. I must have been running for all