by HELEN HARDT
“I’m opening her up,” Logan said. “Erin, prepare for laparotomy.”
God, no. If Logan couldn’t stop the bleeding, he’d have no choice but to—
Once Patty’s abdomen was open, Logan massaged the uterus with his gloved hands.
Come on. Stop bleeding. Please.
“Damn!” Logan huffed. “Come on!”
After a few more seconds, he pulled his blood-covered hands out of Patty’s body. “We have to stop the bleeding, or she won’t make it. Erin, prepare for hysterectomy.”
“No! You can’t do that to her. She’s only seventeen. She won’t be able to have another child.”
“She won’t be able to have another child if she’s dead, Erin. Let’s allow her to be a mother to the one she has.”
“No.” I was adamant.
“Do you have a better idea?”
“Dante,” I said.
“Quit thinking about your boyfriend. You’re on duty.”
“He can help.”
“He’s not here, and he’s not a doctor.”
“You saw what he did for Lucy.”
“That could have been a fluke. Besides, how do we find him? He could be anywhere in this damned compound by now. We’re losing precious seconds, Erin. Do your job!”
“I can get him here. I can get him here fast.” I grabbed a scalpel off the table and cut the skin of my forearm.
“Christ, Erin! What the fuck! I’ve got a bleeding patient here!”
“Dante’s on his way. He can help her. I know it.”
I continued to monitor Patty’s vitals. Dante would have found someone to care for the baby by now, right?
It didn’t matter, because he was coming. I felt it.
“Bandage that up!” Logan yelled. Then, “You!” He pointed to a young man in green scrubs. “My nurse is indisposed. I need your assistance with a hysterectomy.”
“I’m just an orderly, Doctor.”
“Do I look like I care? Get over here!”
Dante burst through the door.
I gasped. “I knew you’d come!”
He inhaled. “You. Now.”
Oh, shit. I hadn’t thought about the potential side effects of my actions. “No, Dante. We need you. We can’t stop Patty’s bleeding. Help her. Help her like you helped Lucy.”
He growled, baring his fangs. “Hungry.”
Damn! What had I done?
“Come on, Patty. Come on!” Logan turned to the young man assisting him. “Sponge, please. Hurry!”
Dante glared at me, burning two holes in my skin with his fiery eyes. “Erin.” His voice was low and primal.
“Please, Dante. For me. Help her.”
“Erin.”
“Please!” I squeezed my eyes shut to force back tears. “Please! This is important to me. Help her!”
He snarled and then walked toward the operating table.
“Get him out of here, Erin,” Logan said. “He’s not wearing a mask. He hasn’t washed up.”
Dante growled at Logan, but Logan didn’t flinch.
“Do what you want to me,” he said. “My concern is for my patient.”
Dante ignored him and pushed him out of the way. He laid his hand on Patty’s abdomen.
Energy sizzled in the room.
“Damn,” Logan said.
I ran to the table.
Patty’s bleeding had stopped.
Chapter Twenty-One
Dante
My skin radiated heat, and every nerve within me was jumping with energy.
Erin had wanted Patty to stop bleeding, and I’d do anything for Erin. Now that Patty was out of danger, though, I could only think of what brought me here.
Erin. Her blood. She’d called me here with our bond, and now I’d take what she’d promised.
I removed my hand from the young woman and then turned to Erin.
“Now,” I said through clenched teeth.
“Dante, no. I need to see to—”
“Erin,” I snarled. “You called me here with your blood. Don’t expect me not to answer that call. I won’t say it again. Now.”
“But Patty—”
“Logan and the others will deal with her. She’s out of danger. You’re forcing my hand here. You woke the beast within me. Now you must sate him.”
She nodded, gulping. I yanked her out of the operating room and into the first alcove I came across.
Then I brushed her hair away from her neck and sank my fangs into her milky flesh.
Sweet red gold. As it trickled over my tongue and down my throat, I calmed.
But only a little.
Blood was not enough to sate my lust anymore. I needed all of her. I inhaled. Her musk was thick in the air. The dark truffly scent of her, the fruity arousal. I released her and then gazed at her.
She was still dressed all in black, vest and all, and she was wearing rubber gloves. Her beautiful face was obscured by a white surgical mask.
I ripped the mask from her and crashed my lips down onto hers. Yes, a kiss. A ferocious, raw kiss. I dived into her mouth, tangling my tongue with hers, groaning, my cock a granite bulge in my pants.
I wanted to lift her in my arms and thrust into her against the wall, but all these damned clothes!
I broke the kiss and turned her around, shoved her leggings and panties over her hips and down her thighs, and then released my cock.
I didn’t check to see if she was wet.
Didn’t ask what she wanted.
Didn’t think about anything other than sating my own animal lust.
I pushed into her, hard.
“Dante!” she cried out.
“That’s right. Say my name. Say my fucking name, Erin.”
“Dante!” she screamed again.
“Who is fucking you, Erin?”
“You. Dante.”
“Who do you belong to?”
“You. Dante.”
“Who did you call to you with your blood?”
“You. Dante.”
“And who came to you?”
“You. Always you. Dante.”
“That’s right.”
Thrust.
“I’ll always come to you.”
Thrust.
“So you’d better always be fucking ready for me.”
Thrust.
Thrust.
Thrust.
And then—
Sweet release. Sweet release into Erin’s perfect body. With each contraction of my cock, I came closer to nirvana, closer to pure peace, closer to heaven itself.
Heaven. Erin was heaven.
But this place was hell.
With that abrupt realization, I pulled out of her and helped her clean up. When she looked up at me, her cheeks were streaked with tears.
My stomach dropped. What had I done? I cupped her cheek. “Erin.”
She closed her eyes. “I’m so sorry.”
She was sorry? “What for, baby?”
“I called you here for…” She shook her head. “I didn’t think. I wasn’t thinking. I just knew I couldn’t let Logan sterilize Patty. She’s only—”
“What? Sterilize her?”
Erin sniffled, nodding. “He couldn’t stop the bleeding, so his only choice was to remove her uterus. A hysterectomy. It would have saved her life but left her unable to have any more children.”
“That’s why you called to me with your blood?”
She nodded again. “I’m sorry.”
“Baby, don’t be sorry for wanting to save a young woman’s ability to have children. You’re a nurse. A very good and caring one. That’s what you do. But why me?”
“I was desperate. You healed Lucy. I knew you could heal Patty.”
“I wasn’t sure I could. I don’t know what I did.”
“Oh, Dante, that doesn’t matter. I was sure. And you did.”
“You believe in me that much?”
“Absolutely.”
I thumbed Erin’s soft cheek. God, she was so beautiful,
so perfect. And her belief in me… I was unworthy of it, with the darkness that threatened to control me.
But the last few times it had creeped up, I’d allowed it to surface, and I’d controlled it.
Was that energy part of what gave me these odd powers? The ability to heal was certainly not a dark power. It was an amazing power of love and light.
And it hit me, like a brick falling on my head.
I had control over everything in me—the light, the darkness. The black, the white. The beginning, the end.
It was all part of me.
It was all me.
She might have fed me her blood and tortured me and forced me to fight for survival for her own purposes, but in the end, I could control the powers she’d given me.
I could control her.
Already I’d incapacitated her twice simply with my anger. She knew I had the upper hand now. She knew.
“Are you okay?” Erin asked.
“Yeah. Why?”
“You haven’t said anything in a few minutes.” She adjusted her clothes.
I adjusted mine as well. “Just thinking. Let’s go see how Patty is.”
“I’d like that,” she said.
We walked back to the operating room.
Logan was just walking out, looking haggard. “Patty’s in recovery. She’s going to be okay. I don’t know how you do what you do, but thank you.”
I said nothing until Erin nudged me.
“You’re welcome.”
“I’d like to bottle whatever you have inside you, man,” he said. “You’ve saved two lives down here.”
Again I said nothing. What could I say? I had no idea what the hell I was doing.
“I know we didn’t meet under the best of conditions,” he continued, “and not that you care, or that it even matters, but I’ll have your back from now on, if I have anything to say about it. Down here or up there.”
I nodded. I supposed I should reciprocate, but I still remembered catching him about to fuck Erin.
“Anyway”—he rubbed his hands together—“thank you again.”
“Can we see Patty?” Erin asked.
“Yeah. She’ll ask about the baby as soon as she’s coherent. Where is she?”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Erin
Dante cleared his throat. “I had the chance to get the child out of here, and I took it.”
I gasped. “What?”
“She’s fine. She’s shielded.”
“What do you mean shielded?” Logan demanded.
“You seem to think I can perform miracles,” Dante said. “I shielded her, her and Lucy. I sent Lucy above ground with the baby. She’s in good hands.”
I sighed in relief. Both Lucy and Isabelle had gotten out of here. Good news indeed. “Lucy will take good care of her, but what will we tell Patty?”
“We’ll tell her that her baby is safe. She’ll be happy about that.”
Logan shook his head for a second and then stopped abruptly, a glassy look taking over his gaze. “I’ll leave that to the two of you to work out. I need to take a break.” He ambled off.
“Did he look okay to you?” I asked.
“Wasn’t really looking that closely,” Dante said. “I still can’t stand the guy.”
“After that speech he just made?”
“Call it a flaw in my character if you want. I’ll always have a problem with guys who tried to fuck you.”
“I’ll remind you that it was entirely consensual.”
He let out a sarcastic laugh. “You think that matters?”
“Apparently not. Did you think Logan looked a little weird just now?”
“I think Logan looks weird all the time.”
“I’m serious, Dante. He seemed to gaze off into nowhere and leave suddenly.”
“He’s probably tired.”
“Maybe. I feel like we should follow him, but I need to look in on Patty.”
“When will she be able to get out of here?”
“She just had surgery. Her abdomen was opened up. A few days, probably.”
He sighed. “All right. I want to get Em out of here right away. Then the others. They’re in those rooms behind the locked doors. Now that I know the shield works, we need to accomplish what we came here to do.”
I nodded. “I agree.”
“After that, you and the others can leave. I’ll take care of Bonneville.”
I had no intention of going anywhere, but arguing with Dante on the point wouldn’t be productive. “Is she still in Patty’s room?”
“I have no idea,” he said. “I don’t know how long whatever I did to her will work.”
“Are you sure Lucy and the baby got out? Did you personally see them?”
“No. I sent River and Jay with explicit instructions to see them safely to the ladder to the manhole.”
“Okay. They’re coming back, right?”
He nodded. “They won’t leave. Not as long as you and Em are down here.”
“None of us can leave until all those women are safely out of here. If you’ve found a way to do it, let’s get it done. Then we find your uncle.”
Dante stayed eerily silent.
“Dante?”
His eyes widened. “Nothing. Yes. Let’s get the women out of here. Unfortunately, Patty won’t be able to go until she’s—”
“You can heal her, Dante. You healed Lucy. Her injuries from the fight are all better. They healed while she was in wolf form.”
“Erin, I have no idea how I did any of that.”
“But you—”
I gasped as Julian appeared.
“Damn, Julian!”
“I’m sorry, but I need the two of you. Dr. Bonneville has taken River.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Dante
“What?” Rage surged through me.
“I would have stopped it if I’d been there. I was with your sister.” He shook his head. “Though I don’t really know how I’ve channeled my energy before.”
“I hear you,” I said. “I have no idea how I do it either.”
“Wait. Wait,” Erin said. “If you weren’t there, Julian, how do you know Bonneville has him?”
“Your brother, Erin. He said he was paralyzed, incapable of helping River. It was a glamour I’d never heard of before. He remained in his own mind but couldn’t move.”
“Oh!” Erin clasped her hand to her mouth. “That must have been terribly frightening for him.”
“It was, but he’s okay. He’s resting in Emilia’s room.”
“I want to get Em out of here, Dad,” I said.
“I agree. Jay can take her out of here. You will shield them both.”
“I need Jay here,” Erin said, but then she shook her head. “I’m sorry. You’re right. He should go. He should be with the mother of his child.”
“That’s the only way he would agree to go,” my father said. “He wants you to accompany them, Erin.”
As much as it pained me, I nodded. “I agree, baby. You need to leave while you can.”
Erin whipped her hands to her hips, taking that indignant stance that set my loins on fire. I breathed in. God, yes. Angry testosterone coupled with everything else Erin drove me to the brink of madness.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she said defiantly, holding out her bandaged forearm. “You need me, Dante.”
Her blood beckoned me. I’d just had a taste—of her blood and of her body—yet now I wanted more. I tamped down my desire as best I could. I had to think of River.
“Erin, please.”
“I’m not going.”
“All right, Erin,” my father said. “Dante will protect you. And so will I.”
“Good. Now let’s get those women to safety.”
“Now is the time,” my father said. “The thugs have gone above ground. Dante can unlock the doors and shield the women, and you two lead them to safety. Then get some rest if you can. You will both need your strength for what is to com
e.”
But I would get no rest. Not as long as River was missing.
Three hours later, Emilia, Jay, and twelve other women, including Sybil Downey, were safely above ground. I glamoured the women, except Emilia, to forget where they’d been. Right now, having cops sniff around would only hinder what we had to do.
We’d accomplished our primary objective—free the women.
The next objective was my uncle, and now we had another. River.
She’d warned me. Warned me if I didn’t cooperate, she would turn to River. Had I taken her seriously? Apparently not enough.
Erin desperately needed to sleep. She fell against me, her legs no longer able to hold her. What could I do? She’d been awake for days, and so had I.
She trusted me to protect her. “Dad?” I whispered.
Nothing. Damn him.
I held on to Erin and went into the first unlocked room. I removed her pack and laid her gently on a bed and sat down next to her. I’d wake her in a few minutes. Hopefully a catnap would be all she needed. I couldn’t afford to waste any more time. In the meantime, I tried to force more memories from my time in captivity. Nothing. The memories presented themselves when I didn’t want them, but now, when I wanted them? They were nowhere to be found.
Even she had stopped speaking to me.
That was a good thing. It meant I had exerted control over her and over the darkness that was part of me. All good.
But no longer could I count on her to force me into action.
I was me.
Only Dante.
Then I smiled as I buried my nose in Erin’s soft hair and inhaled the apple-mandarin scent.
Not just me after all. I had Erin. Always Erin. Erin, who chose me over her own safety. Erin, who I loved more than anything.
Time had no meaning in this place. Only darkness. I’d figured out early on that I was underground. Darkness became a friend to me. My only friend in this hellish place.
I always felt ill after she forced me to take her blood. My throat was raw, as if her blood had crawled down, sinking its talons into my esophagus. My stomach churned and coiled, growling at my body. My muscles tautened and tightened, and I flexed against my bindings. My bones creaked. And my vision became so acute that I almost forgot the darkness for a moment.