C5 LYCANTHROPY

Ella's P.O.V.

I jumped as I came face to face with Cain.

"What are you doing?" He asked, pulling me out of the hallway and into the car.

I felt my heart stop when his hand touched my upper arm. He closed the door behind me and I looked around him to seenthat Jai and Daniel were nowhere to be found.

"I was looking for a bathroom," I lied.

The stoic look on his face made me believe he wasn't convinced. He knew I had been looking for a way off the train. The glances that I had seen between the three strange men were unsettling, like I was missing a huge piece of the puzzle.

The enigma behind who they were, why they cared about my grandfather, and why I was allowed to tag along was dizzying.

I had a crazy theory that they worked for the German government. How else could someone order an autopsy?

But I was still conflicted.

If they worked for the German government, why did they need me to get his medical records and financial statements? Why was I invited? And why the hell was it worth noting that I was a human?

I had tried to convince myself that 'human' was just supposed to mean that I was an ordinary person. Even that definition scared me, though. What did that make them?

I had a nagging feeling that I was being incredibly naive, but the face of the man in front of me put my brain in a blender.

One look into those lavender eyes sent every ounce of logic and reasoning that I had out the window.

It occurred to me then that it wasn't normal for people to have purple eyes. It also wasn't normal for someone to be six and a half feet tall and have shoulders that were so broad they filled a doorway.

Not to mention he was the most attractive man l'd

ever laid eyes on.

Nothing about him was normal, but those eyes... those shouldn't have been possible.

I gulped and walked around him, heading back for my seat. I could feel his eyes burning into my neck as I did so and I felt my cheeks turn red.

I hated being stared at.

I sat back down and Cain took his seat in front of me.

I watched as he lifted his cup from the ground to his lips. I looked into the box of records and files that I had taken from my grandfather's house. I pulled out the books I had taken from the attic shelf and I placed them on the couch beside me. I was hoping to get a look at the bottom of the box and see that the

missing medical records had just fallen out or become mixed with a few of the other papers.

I heard the door to the car open as I dug around in the cardboard box and I looked up to see Daniel and Jai walk in, both of them staring at me.

Jai caught sight of the books sitting next to me and he walked over slowly and picked one up.

It was the green one, the one entitled The Occult Truth of Lycanthropy.

The look he gave me was indecipherable.

"A little light reading?" He asked sarcastically, thumbing through the huge, five-hundred page book.

I wished in that moment that I could have been small enough to fit in that box and disappear.

How embarrassing.

"It was just something I found on his shelves," I said, as if that justified it.

I caught the look that Jai gave Cain as he showed him the cover of the book just before I buried my head in the box full of paper again.

Cain's stoic expression remained the same as he read the title.

"Aha!" I exclaimed, finding a piece of paper with a hospital's logo on it. "Here's something..."

I looked the paper over, squinting to read the words on the page in the dimly lit car.

"It's a little dark in here," I said, reaching behind me to pull back the curtain from the window.

"No!" Daniel and Jai said simultaneously.

Cain jumped up from his chair as my hand touched the heavyncurtain.

Their over-the-top reactions startled me and I immediately let go.

"If we let a little sunlight in, I could read the words on the page," I said pointedly.

"There's a lamp beside you," Cain said, sitting back down.

The confused look on my face showed just how stupid I thought the idea was.

What do they have against opening a curtain?

The thought struck me that they might be part of an organized crime group. Maybe they didn't want to risk someone seeing them with the window open, but with the high speed that the train was traveling, it was unlikely someone would have.

This theory explained why they wouldn't have been able to gain access to my grandfather's records without my help.

I kept the thought in mind and I moved forward from that moment cautiously. Shaking my head, I leaned over and turned on the lamp beside the couch I sat on and read what was on the page I had found.

"Oh," I said, sighing.

"What is it?" Cain asked.

I shook my head. "It's just a doctor's record of a blood transfusion and the results of a CBC test.

"CBC?" Jai asked.

"Complete blood count," I explained. "It's a blood panel they typically do before giving a transfusion. It tests the levels of red blood cells, white blood cells, hemoglobin, and platelets. It can also test coagulation risks. They also do it regularly for people with severe anemia"

"How do you know this?" Jai asked

"My roommate during my senior year in college was studying for her medical college admission test. I helped her study more than a few times."

"Does it tell you what the results were of the test?" Cain asked.

I looked back down at the sheet to see the chart in the bottom of the left corner.

"Yeah, it looks like he had low levels of nearly everything. He was definitely anemic. His hemoglobin was almost bottomed out, which would explain why he had the transfusion."

The three men fell silent, all of them thinking.

"When did he receive the transfusion?" Cain asked. I found the date on the sheet before I handed it to him.

"Beginning of August," I answered as he took the piece of paper from me and examined it himself.

"I just can't believe that's the only thing we can find that is recent," I said, continuing to dig through the box of records.

"I mean, if he had a low blood count in every area, he should have been seen by a doctor before this, right?"

"It'll be enough," Cain said, sliding the paper into the file folder of the other medical records.

I stopped digging for a moment as I processed what he said. "How is that relevant to finding him?" I asked.

Jai laughed as he handed me back the book.

"It's about as relevant as your book here," he said.

So it was worthless, I thought.

"What are you going to do to find him?" I asked.

"I've got someone that has a paper trail together for the other men that this has happened to," Cain said before taking another drink from the stainless steel cup in his hand.

"When we get back, I'll put you in touch with her and you two can work together to see if there is any correlation between them."

"Where exactly are we going?" I asked.

"Cain's crib," was the answer that Daniel gave me, accompanied by a devilish smile.

The train slowed down almost half an hour later and, once it had stopped completely, we all stood up and gathered our things. I put everything back into the cardboard box before Daniel offered to carry it.

As Daniel and I began to leave, we noticed that Cain had stayed back with Jai.

"You two can go ahead, we'll be out in a minute," Cain said, noticing we had stopped to wait. Daniel shrugged and turned to me.

"Follow me," he said, wiggling his eyebrows.

I stepped off the train into one of the most gorgeous

trainbstations I had ever been in. It was small, but the natural-colored sandstone walls and floors were crafted beautifully. It was underground, the ceiling was constructed of multi-colored mosaic tiles that pieced together to depict a vibrant forest.

"That is beautiful," I said, staring up at it.

Daniel stopped walking to look up as well. "I forget that's there sometimes," he admitted. "Apparently

Cain's mom had that done a while after he was born because it was too bland in here for her."

My eyebrows furrowed as I took my attention from the ceiling and looked at Daniel. "His family owns a train station?" I asked.

Daniel looked at me and smiled. "You're in his basement, sweetheart."

I felt my jaw go slack as he laughed.

"And only part of his basement at that," he added.

I was still in shock as I followed Daniel up to an elevator that sat in the far wall. When we got in the elevator, I saw everyone piling out of the train, including Cain.

Who are you?

Narrative P.O.V.

"I want you to put her in my room."

Jai's eyebrows furrowed. "That's a little forward, Cain."

Cain rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "I'm not sleeping in there with her," he clarified.

"Where are you sleeping then?" Jai asked.

"Where I normally do, in the tower," Cain said.

Jai shook his head. "You know something, Cain... I never expected you to get a mate, but I'd always hoped you would."

Jai chose his next words carefully, already noticing the tightening of Cain's jaw. "I'd hoped she would have been the one person who could get you out of that tower, not keep you there."

"This isn't up for discussion," Cain said. "I only asked that you make sure her and her luggage are in my room and nowhere else. I didn't ask for your opinion."

With that, Cain walked out of the car and exited the train onto the platform, just in time to see the elevator doors close.

He caught of glimpse of Ella's face before the doors had closed completely and he sighed.

I wish I could tell you.