“You’re sure?”
“I’m sure.” He leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “He would have had to have been drained in order for the vampire essence released in the bite to have any effect.”
“Well, that’s good to know,” MacMillan muttered. “But you need to do something about this,” he added, motioning toward Nix. “Now.”
Tobias stared down at Nix. Her skin was as pale and thin as paper. She labored to breathe, the air rasping in her throat. She was cool to the touch, and he knew she didn’t have long to live. A few minutes at best.
Pain clawed at his insides, churning his gut with regret. To save her life he’d have to take her humanity away from her. Take away the one thing she valued the most. He couldn’t do that to her. He briefly closed his eyes. He could turn her, or let her die.
God in heaven. The only choices he had were bad. One day, and one day very soon if Tobias had anything to do with it, Natchook would die for what he’d done here today. He had to ignore, for now, his own culpability in this fiasco.
Her breath rattled in her throat and she gasped, her mouth open as she tried to drag in air.
“Damn it, Caine. Do something.” MacMillan’s anguished voice came at him through a fog of sorrow.
“I…can’t.” Tobias looked at MacMillan. “Don’t you understand? If I take away her humanity, the one thing that’s kept her centered, allowed her to keep control over her demon, she could…”
“I could go insane,” Nix whispered, finishing his sentence when he trailed off. He looked back down at her to see her gaze darken. The demon was now nowhere to be seen, and the knowledge of her upcoming death was clear in her brown eyes. “It was only a matter of time anyway, right?” Her lips trembled in a smile.
She could be just fine…or not. He stared down at her. “You’re sure about this? It’s not like I can undo it.”
“Yeah, well, you can’t undo it if I die either.” She swallowed and then winced at the pain. “I don’t want to die.” Emotion sparkled her gaze with tears. “Please, Tobias. Please don’t let me die.”
Chapter Seventeen
Nix stared up at Tobias through eyes rapidly losing the battle to stay open. She was so tired. And her body hurt all over. Damn. Even her eyelashes hurt. And she was pretty sure she had cacti needles in her behind.
All she wanted to do was close her eyes and sleep. But she knew it would be the Big Sleep and she wasn’t ready for that. She wasn’t sure she was ready to live forever, either, but between the two she’d take life every time.
“Please,” she whispered again. She hated that she’d put Tobias in this position. If he turned her and she went insane, he’d feel it was his duty to end her. She knew him well enough to know he’d never forgive himself.
He’d also never forgive himself if he let her die.
While she still had the strength to form words, she said, “I’m sorry I screwed things up. If I hadn’t tried to jump him, maybe you would have been able to fend him off and finally finish him.”
He shook his head. “Don’t. None of this is your fault.” His throat moved with his hard swallow. The self-recriminating look in his eyes clearly proclaimed who he thought was responsible.
“It’s not your…” She closed her eyes. So tired. Even with the solid feel of Tobias’s arms around her, his chest and legs supporting her weight, she felt as if she were lighter than air. If she opened her eyes, would she see a bright light beckoning her to enter?
“Nix!” Tobias gave her a little shake.
She forced her eyes open, relieved when all she saw was his dear face. Lifting her hand, which felt oddly heavy, she stroked his cheek. “Don’t look so worried.”
He cupped her fingers against his face, then pressed a kiss into her palm and held her hand against his chest. “You’re sure about this?” he asked again.
She nodded. But she had to tell him something, just in case. “If…if this doesn’t work—”
“Don’t.” His lips firmed. “Don’t talk like that.”
Nix gave a slight shake of her head. “Let me finish. If this doesn’t work, you remember I love you. I never stopped loving you, even when I hated you.” A tear slid from the corner of her eye, leaving a heated trail down her cold cheek.
Tobias stared at her, unspeaking, but his heart was in his eyes. He swallowed again and she caught the slight tremble of his lower lip before he regained control. His pupils dilated completely, swallowing up the stormy gray of his irises. He parted his lips, baring his fangs.
Feeling the need to say something, and with her uncertainty and fear came sarcasm, she whispered, “Do it on the other side. You don’t know where his fangs have been.”
Tobias sighed. With his hand at her chin, he gently turned her face toward him. She felt his tongue at her throat and the fleeting pain of his bite. Then ecstasy flooded her as his mouth drew on her flesh, the natural euphoria produced by the effect of his bite ramping up her arousal even as her body began to die.
She tried to stay focused on Tobias, tried to hold on to consciousness as long as she could, but all too soon her eyes closed and she lost the battle.
Tobias felt Nix slump in his arms and knew his timing was critical. If he released too much of his essence into her bloodstream too early, it would be ineffective. Release too little, same result. Release it too late…
He would lose her forever.
Her heartbeat was almost nonexistent. One more beat. Then another.
It was now or never.
Tobias closed his eyes and willed part of his other-dimensional being into Nix’s bloodstream. With its release came a feeling of dizziness, his neck the only thing keeping his head from floating away. After a few seconds, he pulled away, licking across the wound to aid in its healing, and straightened.
“What happens now?” MacMillan’s voice was hushed.
“Now we wait.”
Tobias felt his fangs slide back into his gums and ran his tongue across his teeth. He stroked his hand down her cheek. Waiting would be agony. Especially at the moment when…
There it was. Her breath stuttered and then stopped.
MacMillan leaned into him, peering down at her face. “She’s not breathing!”
“It’s part of the process.” Tobias hunched his shoulder and gave the detective a slight shove. “In case you hadn’t noticed, I don’t breathe except to talk or smell something.”
“Oh. Right.” MacMillan moved around to the other side of Nix. As he lowered himself to the ground, he gave a grunt of pain and then groaned when he sat down, resting his forearms on his bent knees. He wore the expression of a man racked with pain and tortured by his thoughts. By his worries. “When will we know?” he asked, his voice deep and soft.
“It will be a while.” Tobias was just as quiet.
“Hey.” When Tobias looked up at him, MacMillan met his gaze. “I get how bad a guy that…Natchook, is it?” Tobias nodded and MacMillan went on. “I’ll stay with Nix if you want to—”
“No.” Tobias looked down at her face, so pale and still. “I won’t leave her.” Never again. He should have responded when she’d told him she loved him. He should have let her know with words that she was so much a part of him he’d never be the same, whether she lived or died. And if she died…
He would never recover from his loss. With a quick glance at MacMillan, he said, “I appreciate the offer. But I’m not leaving Nix.”
The other man nodded. “I understand. I’ve known since you hit that first crime scene that she was still in love with you.” He gave a crooked grin. He stared at Nix a moment and then stood, brushing the seat of his jeans free of dirt. “I’ll call dispatch and have them get in touch with the council to send a, ah, cleaning crew out for these guys.” He waved toward the bodies of the fallen vampires.
“Thanks.” Tobias at the moment didn’t care about anything but Nix. He looked down at her as the detective moved away, his cell phone to his ear. In the two hundred years he’d bee
n on this planet, Tobias had never before turned someone into a vampire. And he hated the fact that his first was Nix.
He stroked one hand through her hair, not caring that his fingers shook. And for the first time in a very long time, he prayed. Let Nix survive. Let her be all right.
Because, God help him, he didn’t think he had the strength to kill her if she went insane. He would let her drink him dry before he harmed her.
Long minutes passed while he held her, his gaze never leaving her for long as he waited for some sign that the turning was successful. He was just about to give up hope when her eyes flew open and she gave a little gasp.
Already he could see the changes taking place in her body—her pupils were dilated, and the little bit of iris he could still see was the yellow of her demon. Elongated canines protruded over her lower lip.
A panic-stricken look covered her face as her brain directed her body to take breath it didn’t need. He remembered those first few minutes so long ago when he’d woken up in a strange body, and figured that this moment wasn’t much different for Nix. “Easy, honey,” he soothed, cupping her cheek. “Look at me. Look at me,” he coaxed.
Her eyes connected with his.
“Don’t fight it, sweetheart. You don’t need to breathe but your brain doesn’t realize that yet. It hasn’t reset. It’s trying to run the autonomic systems. Just let it.” As her struggles and panic lessened, he kept crooning to her. “That’s it. Easy. Easy.”
He was aware that MacMillan had approached and stood nearby, close enough to jump in and help if needed but far enough away to still give them some privacy. Tobias felt a grudging respect for the other man’s strength of character. He could almost like the guy.
“Tobias?” Nix reached up and gripped the front of his shirt.
He knew what she was feeling, he’d been there before. She was a creature of instinct right now—bewildered, scared, and hungry. He lifted her to a sitting position, keeping his arm behind her back to support her, and tipped his head to one side. “Go ahead, honey,” he murmured. “Take what you need.”
Her teeth sank into his throat with the fierce single-mindedness of a starving tiger cub. Or a mindless revenant. He would soon find out which.
The pull of her lips against his flesh fired up his libido. His penis hardened, and he groaned, closing his eyes. He felt her hand curl over him and he thrust his hips into her touch. Then he remembered they had an audience, so he grabbed her hand and held it against his chest. She pulled away from him and he stared at her, waiting to see how she’d react to her first feeding as a vampire.
Her tongue swept across her lips, removing the traces of his blood, leaving her mouth shiny. Her eyes were slumberous, the yellow of her irises fading to the human looking brown he was used to. “That was amazing.” She lightly touched the tip of his chin with two fingers. Her fangs hadn’t retracted completely, giving her a sexy kittenish look he couldn’t resist.
Tobias held her gaze. “How’re you doing?” The next couple of minutes were critical. The fact that she’d stopped feeding on her own accord was promising. But how she acted now that she had blood in her belly would tell the tale.
“I’m a little tired. Kinda lethargic.” Her head rolled to one side. “It’s different.”
“What is?” Tobias was aware of MacMillan hovering in the background, the detective clearly wanting to be included in the action surrounding a newly turned vampire yet at the same time savvy enough to keep his distance and not become potential prey.
“Drinking blood. I thought it would bring the demon out, but…” She looked sad for a moment, then frowned and closed her eyes.
When she didn’t continue, he prompted, “What?” He couldn’t keep from touching her, sliding his hand through her hair, stroking across her soft cheek. The gash on her face was beginning to heal. In another few seconds there wouldn’t even be a scar.
She looked at him, her gaze perplexed yet relieved. “I don’t feel that inner burning that I just about always have.” Her brows dipped in a frown. “That’s odd.” She blinked. “You know what else is odd? Wouldn’t adding a vampire to a demon make the bloodlust stronger?”
“Does it feel like it has?” He brushed her hair away from her face, tucking thick strands behind her ear, and let his hand linger on her face.
She nuzzled him like a sleepy kitten. “No, Dr. Phil.” Her expression turned teasing. “Answering my questions with more questions. That would be why I said it was odd,” she stressed with her eyebrows raised.
Little smart-ass.
But her light-hearted response took away any remaining fear he’d had. If she were going to be a raving lunatic—which had always been the fear because of her being a hybrid—the madness would already be evident. Bloodlust only heightened the insanity.
MacMillan came closer. “Maybe it’s because she’s not human anymore.”
Tobias looked at him, aware that Nix had done the same. “What do you mean?”
The detective gave a one-shouldered shrug. “Maybe her humanity at odds with the demon part of her was what would have driven her mad. Now that that’s been changed…” He shrugged again. “I’m just thinkin’ out loud.”
“No, that makes sense.” Nix sat upright.
Tobias was sorry to realize she didn’t need his physical support anymore. Would she remember what she’d said when she had been about to die? Had she even meant it?
“It was the demon fighting against my humanity that caused the problem.” Her expression was concerned. “But…”
Tobias waited, but MacMillan wasn’t as patient. “But what?” the detective asked as he came closer.
Nix looked up at him. “That would explain why I don’t burn inside anymore.”
“So, no more tai chi, is that what you’re saying?” One corner of MacMillan’s mouth tilted up.
Her smile came full and bright. “Well, maybe, but just because I want to, not because I have to.”
Tobias caught MacMillan’s eye. The detective seemed about to say something but then stopped himself. “What?” Tobias asked.
“Nothing. Well, not nothing.” He shook his head. “Sorry about your guy getting away.”
Nix jumped to her feet. “You let Natchook get away?”
Tobias stood. “It was either that or let you die.” He tried but couldn’t joke about it. “I couldn’t let you go.” His voice rasped from a throat tight with the emotion of what might have been. “I’ll find him again.”
“But he took the rift device, too.” MacMillan hooked his thumbs over his belt. “He can just go into hiding and keep right on doing what he’s been doing.”
Nix reached into her back pocket and pulled out a black box the size of a cell phone. “You mean this rift device?” She waggled it back and forth. Her grin widened as the two men stared at her in disbelief. “I managed to slide this out of his jacket when he first bit me.” She scowled and rubbed the side of her neck, the wounds already nearly healed. “Bastard.”
Tobias gave a shout and hauled her into his arms. He planted a hard kiss on her lips and hugged her tight, lifting her off her feet. She laughed and hugged him back, her newfound vampire strength evident in the fierceness of her embrace.
“So,” MacMillan said, “we have the schematics and the device?”
Tobias reluctantly let go of Nix. “What?” He looked from one to the other. “You have the schematics?”
“Oh, yeah, we haven’t had a chance to tell you yet.” MacMillan cocked a thumb toward Nix. “She had the brainy idea of looking on the bottom of the desk. We found an envelope with schematics and a flash drive.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out the small plastic drive.
Nix did the same with the schematics, holding the folded papers up for Tobias to see. “It sounded like he doesn’t have a copy of these. If that’s the case, it’ll take him a while to get another one built.” She appeared highly pleased with herself as she tucked the papers back into her pocket. The look was ruined by a face-sp
litting yawn.
“I need to get you home.” Tobias put an arm around her shoulder and drew her close. “You need to rest.”
“Go.” MacMillan leaned against the rock outcropping. “I’ll stick around to wait for the cleanup crew.”
“We can’t leave him alone,” Nix said, though her droopy eyes spoke of her need to get horizontal. Tobias felt his flesh quicken at the thought of sliding her beneath him, and inwardly cursed his unwieldy libido. She needed to sleep, not go through a round of bedroom gymnastics with him.
“I’ll be fine.” MacMillan lifted his chin toward the vampire he’d killed. “I took care of him, didn’t I? He wasn’t so tough.”
“He was injured.” Tobias lifted a brow.
“So?” MacMillan folded his arms. “I’m the one who hurt him. Besides, someone has to fight the wounded.” His grin was as cocky as they came. “That could be my niche.”
Tobias rolled his eyes. MacMillan could be ridiculous, but it was hard not to like the guy. He gave him a nod. “You called dispatch about half an hour ago, so they should be here soon.”
“Yeah, as long as my directions were good.”
Tobias shook his head. “Most teams have at least one shape-shifter on them.”
MacMillan looked a bit shamefaced. “Oh, yeah. Right.” He tapped his nose, indicating they’d smell their way along just as Tobias and Nix had been able to do. He looked at Nix, his expression growing more concerned. “She looks dead on her feet.” He pressed his lips together, no doubt fighting a grin.
“Hey!” She frowned at him.
“Sorry.”
Tobias didn’t think he looked very sorry. He couldn’t resist joining in the teasing. “He has a point.” Tobias bit back a grin when she tossed a scowl his way. “You can’t deny it. You are dead on your feet.”
“Isn’t the term ‘undead,’ fang boy?” she muttered.
Before she could get any testier—Tobias remembered what she was like when she was really tired—he urged her forward. “Come on, honey. Let’s go home.”
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