Caleb winced. She exchanged the full vial for a fresh one. "We had to think of the greater good."

"A funny thing about the greater good. It's a moving target whose significance changes according to whom you speak."

"We were wrong to ask that of Slade."

"Is that an apology?"

"Yes."

"I don't know if I accept it."

"We didn't want Slade to get hurt," Jared explained.

"If you cared so much about your brother, if you were so worried about his happiness, you wouldn't have asked him to betray me."

"He can't mate with you. h.e.l.l, you're allergic to just his saliva. About the only thing being with you can do for him is send him insane." Jace pointed out with his usual bluntness.

Jane withdrew the needle from Caleb's arm, and then asked him, "If you could never touch your wife again, would you just walk out of her life without a second glance?"

"It's not the same thing," Caleb answered.

The h.e.l.l it wasn't. "Let me put it another way. If one of these Sanctuary whack jobs snipped off your p.e.n.i.s, would that be the end of your emotional attachment? Would you be any less committed to Allie's well-being?"

"Of course not."

Jared snarled in his throat.

She tossed the syringe into the trash. "I'm getting darned sick and tired of you sanctimonious b.a.s.t.a.r.ds growling at me. You love your brother. I get it. Well, guess what. I love him, too. And from where I'm sitting, I'm not the threat. You are. You keep him in this lab twenty-four /seven as if his life is the lamb you sacrifice to your ambitions."

"Slade loves his lab." Caleb snapped.

"Slade loves you, and he has an overgrown sense of responsibility that doesn't allow him to say no when you produce yet another demand for the impossible."

Jace took a step toward her. "We're at war."

"But you have wives and children to go to at the end of the day. Loved ones who demand your time and give you balance. Slade doesn't. And you're so thrilled by what he can do, it doesn't even occur to you that Slade might want the same."

"Of course it occurs to us," Caleb said.

"Really? I don't think so because if it did you'd consider how much time it takes to give you what you want and how much of his life he gives up to produce the next gadget that you want. I mean honestly, when did you expect him to find this mate if you keep him locked in this lab?"

Tension filled the room, building on energy already there. The brothers exchanged a glance that told her they were communicating mentally amongst themselves. Good. Let them talk. "Face it, you use him. You use his brains and you use his love."

Caleb jumped to his feet. She caught the flash of his fangs. "The h.e.l.l we do."

"The h.e.l.l you don't. You don't do it out of spite or malice, but you do."

Jared and Jace took a step in. Too little, too late. She was way past the point of intimidation. Jane took the energy-damping device and put it on the table.

"I've been in Slade's mind in a way none of you probably can. As much as you love him, he loves you back, and he will drive himself into the ground to give you what you need. All you have to do is ask, but I can tell you right now there's one thing he's not going to give you." She jabbed her thumb toward her chest. "Me. I don't know what Slade and I are going to do from here on out, and neither do you. But none of you, not Tobias, not Derek, not you or your wives are going to manipulate it. Do you understand me?"

"Or what?" Jared challenged.

"I swear to G.o.d if you even try, if you interfere in any way, whether it be under the guise of brotherly love or the greater good, I'm going to lock myself up in this lab and create the most effective torturous compound I can come up with."

"You're serious?" Jace asked.

"Slade is my mate. My man. I've been a bit off balance, but today has put me back on my feet."

Reaching out, Jane put her hand on the energy-damping device. "Your game ends now."

With a flick of her thumb, she switched it off. "Stay out of my relationship and stay out of my life."

Caleb towered over her. "If you hurt him, we'll toss your a.s.s to the first Sanctuary pack we find," he countered in a drawl that sounded like a snarl.

She stepped into his s.p.a.ce. It'd been one h.e.l.l of a day and she was done being afraid. "If I hurt him, then Slade and I will deal with it. I repeat, our relationship is none of your business."

"She's right."

Jane spun around. Slade stood in the doorway, leaning against the doorjamb. His face was ghastly pale, but his energy was brilliantly alive. And he was as p.i.s.sed as h.e.l.l.

"Slade," she whispered.

With a flex of his fingers he summoned her to his side. She went eagerly.

"What the h.e.l.l do you three think you're doing?"

"Jane needed blood," Jared explained, that smile still hovering on his lips.

"And you all just had to wander over here to provide it?"

"Slade ..."

"I might be your little brother, boys, but I'm a grown man, and this for-my-own-good s.h.i.t? It ends now."

"We're worried about you, Slade," Jace said. "You spend more time in the lab than you do in the world and-"

"I'm in this lab so much because things need to be done, not because I'm afraid of the world."

"You don't know what you're letting yourself in for," Jared added.

"Just get the h.e.l.l out." He stumbled. As one, his brothers rushed forward. With a flash of fangs he drove them back. To her he said, "In the future when a vampire threatens you, I expect you to run."

She was done with being threatened. "Before you flash those fangs at me again, I should warn you I'm in a pretty mean mood myself. One more threat from any of you, and I'm going to bring my rotary tool to the party. We'll see how tough you look with those nasty fangs filed flat."

"h.e.l.l," Jared muttered.

Caleb rolled his sleeve down and eyed her speculatively. "You know, we may just have been sticking our noses where they don't belong."

"May have?"

Caleb's energy snapped out at her. "Don't push it."

The energy was gone as fast as it had arrived, replaced by a sense of calm. Slade had deflected. "Back off, Caleb." he snarled.

Caleb held up his hands. "Done."

Closing her eyes, Jane savored the sensation of having the old Slade back. But as he was just coming off an injury, she did a little emotional smoothing of her own. She knew she'd succeeded when Slade's muscles relaxed and he dropped a kiss on the top of her head.

"What's going on with Joseph?" Slade asked her when the tension in the room had abated.

She glanced at Caleb. He didn't say anything, leaving her to break the news. "He's not doing well."

He probably had another day before he pa.s.sed the point of no return, but Caleb didn't need to hear that.

"What have you done?"

"Not enough," Caleb bit off.

Slade held her to his side when she would have moved away. "We're working on it, Caleb."

"Son of a b.i.t.c.h, I know." He ran his hand through his hair. "But I want a guarantee."

Jane flinched. Slade didn't. "Life doesn't come with those."

"Yeah."

"But if you all get out of here and let us work, I'll see what I can do."

As one, the brothers headed for the door. As they drew abreast, Caleb stopped. He glanced at Slade and then at her. Slade took her hand. Caleb looked up.

"About what you said earlier about your relationship being your business?"

She nodded.

"I'll think about it."

"Thank you."

When the doors closed behind his brothers, Slade tugged her down onto his lap. She made a token protest. "We have to get to work."

"In a minute."

"We don't have a minute."

He tipped her head back. His gaze met hers. "I need this."

Come to think of it, so did she. She rested her cheek against his shoulder. "Your family doesn't like me."

"My family doesn't know what to make of you."

Linking her fingers behind his neck, she smiled softly into his eyes. "But you do."

"Uh-huh." The skim of his hand down her side snapped her nerve endings to attention. His fingers curled around her hip, sinking into the softer flesh. Hot and familiar desire thrummed through her veins. Turning her face into his chest, she whispered, "I thought I'd lost you."

His lips brushed her hair. "Never."

But he lived with the daily knowledge that he might lose her.

"How do you do it?" she asked.

"I focus on what I have."

She wasn't good at that type of thinking. As if reading her mind, he added, "And if I can't do that, I focus on my work."

That she could do. "I think I've figured out the formula."

"So why the tension in your voice?"

"It's got to be right this first time. I didn't want to say anything in front of Caleb, but Joseph is too weak to hold on much longer."

"And?"

"What if I'm wrong?"

His lips brushed her hair. "Then no one in this world would get it right."

Maybe. Maybe not, but all that mattered right then was his faith in her.

"We need to figure out the delivery system."

He arched that eyebrow in that way that made her heart leap in an inner smile. "Are you inviting me into your research, Jane Frederickson?"

With a start she realized she was. She who had always worked alone was actually inviting someone into her "inner sanctum." And she wasn't the least bit nervous. "Yes, I believe I am."

17.

A FEW minutes pa.s.sed, and with each one, the tension within Jane eased.

"You were right, you know," Slade said, breaking the silence.

She tipped her head back. "About what?"