by Lexi Blake
Then something even worse happened.
It completely went away. I couldn’t feel anything from the elbow down on my right arm. It was like my forearm ceased to exist. The Browning dropped uselessly to the floor. Instinctively, I punched out with my left hand, hitting the demon squarely in the face, and he let go of my now useless arm.
I would have kicked out and continued my assault, but I dropped to my knees. Panic threatened. I could feel it welling up inside me because that chill was still in me. Alien. Foreign. It curled around in my body, and I worried that whatever had happened to my right arm was going to happen to the rest of my body. I looked down at my hand. It was sort of waxy looking, the skin going an odd opaque. Thick blisters were coming up as though I’d shoved it into a pot of boiling water.
And I felt nothing.
“Oh, shit.” I was in trouble because the demon was back on his feet.
He walked toward me. His eyes had bled to red, and his hands were out. Those hands were coming for me. They contained Julius Winter’s power. Somehow this shitty halfling—who I should be able to kill without breaking a nail—had the power to freeze off my body parts.
A smirk hit his mouth and his hands were squarely aimed for my throat. I scrambled, trying to move the gun to my left hand. I wasn’t great with my left hand. Marcus made me practice with it, and I was grateful to him. It didn’t look like it would matter. I couldn’t get a grip on it fast enough. I fumbled and fell back on my ass. Just as the demon was about to wrap those cold hands around my neck, gunfire exploded, and his red eyes widened. His hands fell, shocked as a neat hole opened in his forehead. He slammed backward.
“Are you all right?” Liv stood over me. She still held the gun she’d used to save my throat from becoming Elsa’s playground.
I wasn’t. Not even close, but I was alive for the moment. That was all she needed to know. Nausea rolled in my stomach, but I managed to nod. “Nice shot.” I forced myself to my feet, protecting my damaged hand. “Thanks, Liv.”
“I have no idea how I did that.” Her whole body was shaking. The gun she’d used to save me twitched in her hand. “What did he do to your arm?” She looked a little sick as she caught sight of my useless limb. “Oh god, Kelsey…”
There wasn’t time for sympathy. I managed to get the Browning into my jacket pocket. “We have to go. They called for backup and the cops will be here any minute. I don’t think we can use the train. They’ll look for us there. We have to run and hide and hope my uncle can get to us before the bad guys do.”
Liv helped me, putting her shoulder under my good arm. I shoved the bad one into my jacket, Napoleon style. I was worried if I let it dangle, it might fall off. We started to make our way to the door.
Suddenly Casey was standing in front of us, his blue eyes wide with pure anxiety. He went a little white as he noticed the bodies on the floor. He took a long breath and I saw his fangs lengthen. Blood. There was blood everywhere. Casey was a baby vamp so he had impulse issues. Yet another thing I probably should have thought about before taking him into the field. Luckily, he was also an academic, and control was their stock-in-trade.
Casey shook off the blood lust and got to the point. “Come on. I hot-wired a car. Dude, what happened to your arm?”
“Talk in the car.” Liv pushed past him, dragging me along, and sure enough there was a nice SUV sitting on the snow-covered street.
Liv shoved me in the front seat then hopped in the back. Casey jammed the car into gear, and I held on for dear life. It was harder than usual since I only had the one hand to hold on with.
“I’m sorry it took so long. I had to find one with four-wheel drive,” he explained. “It’ll handle the ice better. I also called in. Henri is beyond pissed. Marcus is on his way. I don’t know how he knows where we are, but he’d already called Henri.”
I knew what had happened. Marcus had felt my terror and potentially my pain. The fact that he was out there, trying to get to me gave me great strength. Casey moved down the street as I heard someone pull on to the road behind us. I managed to turn in my seat. The van behind us was dark. I prayed it would stop and whoever was inside would go into the clinic and waste precious moments investigating.
Unfortunately, the van barely slowed down. When we turned, it turned, and I saw an arm come out of the passenger side window and a glint of steel reflecting our way.
“We have company.” I pulled the Browning with my left hand, trying to keep the right hand as still as possible. “Keep your head down.”
Liv lay down in the backseat, getting her head out of the way in case they decided to fire into the car. “Are they following us?”
“Yes. They’re coming after us.” I reached up and hit the button that opened the sunroof with the back of my hand.
Casey glanced my way. “Uhm, Kelsey, I don’t think we need fresh air. If you haven’t noticed, it’s snowing. Let’s keep the cold air out.”
I groaned as I turned in the seat and got up on my knees. “You just drive, pretty boy.”
Cold air blasted in from the sunroof. Casey was booking it and the wind whipped in. The last thing I wanted was to get more of my body frostbitten, but I had a better chance with a clear view of the car behind me. I got to my feet and popped the top of my torso through the sunroof.
Pure cold bit into my skin, chaffing every inch of me that was exposed. My lips cracked, but I concentrated on the van racing behind us. I held the Browning tightly in one hand, preparing myself for the recoil. I lined up my shot and pulled the trigger as I released the breath I’d been holding.
Just as I shot, Casey slid across a patch of ice, throwing me into the side of the car. My feet slipped on the leather seats and I slammed my head as I went down. My peripheral vision started to fade, but I managed to keep it together.
“Sorry.” Casey wrestled with the steering wheel to get control over the vehicle.
He turned into the slide and the van behind us took advantage. There was a loud crack as the passenger shot at me through his window. He hit the mirror on my side of the car. I forced myself back up and managed to get a shot off while Casey straightened out the SUV and started toward the freeway.
Blood dripped down from my forehead, clouding my vision. Naturally, I didn’t have a free hand to wipe it away with. I was going to miss my right hand if Henri had to amputate. I hoped Marcus’s blood could heal it, but it felt really dead. I took a deep breath. I wouldn’t have time to miss my arm if the rest of me got shot up.
Casey cursed as the wheels spun out again.
“Hey, could you keep it steady for more than two seconds?” I have to admit that I was the tiniest bit irritable.
“Don’t bitch at me.” Everything about Casey seemed tense. “I’ve never driven in this shit before.”
The van behind us wasn’t having the same trouble. Perhaps their security detail had been brought in from someplace cold. I struggled back into a position to fire from. Again, this is where Trent would have come in handy. I bet that Boston boy knew how to handle some snow. “Try to keep us on the road.”
“Maybe we should wait until Marcus gets here.” Liv hunkered down in the floorboard of the backseat.
“Not an option,” I replied.
The back windshield cracked as it took a bullet.
“Owww!” Casey yelled. His right arm was bleeding freely, staining his shirt. “I think I got shot.”
“Stay calm,” I ordered. “Keep moving. Whatever you do, keep moving.”
Casey tried. He really did. It became impossible when the van slammed into us and our SUV hit the side of a building. The impact jarred through my body and seared my senses. The sound of metal tearing hurt my ears. The airbags deployed, leaving an acrid smell hanging in the air. I wasn’t wearing a seat belt, so I slammed against the side. Pain flared and then the sound of gunfire seemed more distant than before. I could hear someone shouting, but the world seemed hazy and then dark.
When I came to, it was to the sound of gunf
ire. I couldn’t figure out what was going on. I was in a car. It was the car Casey had stolen, but it wasn’t moving. The window had shattered and I could feel blood on my cheek. There was glass everywhere, though it was in tiny bits. I tried to sit up.
Casey had my Browning in his hand. He was firing out the sunroof, trying his damnedest to keep the bastards off of us. There was blood on his coat. Lots of it. He’d been hit more than once.
I groaned as I pushed myself up, which wasn’t easy because only one arm worked. I looked into the back, desperate to make sure I hadn’t managed to kill my best friend. Liv was still huddled in the seat, but she had one hand out of the ruined back window. She fired randomly. Her head was down, so she couldn’t see a thing. I guess she had to try something.
That’s the thing about being desperate. You’re willing to do anything.
“Can you get us moving?” I had to yell to be heard over the loud pop of guns firing.
Casey grunted as his body took another bullet, slamming him against the back edge of the sunroof. If he hadn’t been a vampire, that impact would have likely damaged his spine.
As he was, he groaned and took another shot. “No way. Car’s dead.”
“We have to run.” I couldn’t see any other way out. We were sitting ducks. Sitting, bleeding, one-armed ducks. At least I was.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Casey shot back. “They’re closing in.”
And then I knew he was here. I felt him like a calm wave pushing against the adrenaline and panic. Marcus brushed his mind across mine and he was calm, sure. He was certain he was going to save me.
Outside the car, the gunfire picked up. Someone was shooting, but this wasn’t a handgun. This was bigger. I heard the lovely sound of a Remington twelve gauge being primed. I know my guns like most women know shoes or lip-gloss.
Casey slumped down into the cab, and I could see where all that blood had come from. His chest was riddled with bullets. Luckily, it looked like the day shift didn’t use silver bullets.
“Someone else is here.” His voice shook. I noticed a fine tremble in his hands as well. “There’s some big dude with a shotgun. He’s walking down the street shooting them down. When did we land in the middle of a Western?”
I forced my body to move. I managed to turn and look out the ruined window. Grayson Sloane. I couldn’t help but smile because Gray was doing exactly what Casey said. He was walking down the snowy street, his big chest covered in body armor. He wore a Stetson on his head and his favorite boots. He looked like he’d walked straight out of a John Ford film. I couldn’t take my eyes off him as he tore through the security force the clinic had sent after us. They weren’t so tough without a huge vehicle behind them.
Definitely not as tough as my Texas Ranger.
Already, the white snow around us was turning a stark, brutal red. A scream sounded through the air, and I saw two of the men walk out of the van and draw their weapons. They aimed and shot each other in the head. Their bodies slumped to the ground. Marcus would never get his hands dirty when he could persuade his enemies to kill themselves.
“We’re good now.” I slumped over, quietly waiting.
I wasn’t worried about the backup squad taking out my men. They were dead the moment Marcus and Gray caught up to them.
“I can’t get the door open.” Casey pushed against the driver’s side door, but it was lodged shut. He turned his blue eyes to me, his face a stark white. He was as white as the snow falling through the sunroof. “I need to feed, Kelsey. I hurt real bad.”
Luckily, the bullets he’d taken didn’t look to be silver. They were already coming out of his body. He winced as one fell from his shoulder. It was probably the first time he’d been shot. I doubted combat had been in his training schedule. I reached out and took his hand.
“It’s all right. You did good, Casey.” I held out my left hand, showing him my wrist. He’d kept us alive, and I knew that had cost him. I owed him blood.
His eyes widened and his fangs were out, but he backed away from the offered appendage. He moved as far as he could before his back hit the door. “Not on your life, sister. I want to heal, not have Marcus take me apart.”
Liv sat up, her disheveled hair all around her face. “He’s right. That’s not such a great idea. I can’t imagine Marcus is going to be in a great mood after this.”
There was the horrible sound of the door being pulled off the car. One minute it was there and the next it was being tossed aside like a toy.
“You alive in there, Kelsey?” Sloane asked, his voice tight.
I let his deep Texas accent wash over me before nodding. Now that we were safe, my body shook as I came down from the high of trying to survive. Now I was faced with the consequences. I was bleeding from several places, my head hurt, and I probably had a concussion. I couldn’t feel my arm. I couldn’t feel it at all. I was covered in blood, much of it mine.
Gray pulled the vampire out of the car, and suddenly Marcus was there. He reached in and gathered me into his arms, lifting me free from the wreckage.
“Oh, bella, what have they done to you?” he asked as he held me close. His beautiful face was stoically calm as he ran a hand over my face, my hair.
In the distance, I heard the whir of a siren.
“We need to move, Vorenus.” Gray helped Liv out. “The police are coming.”
“I can handle them,” my boyfriend promised.
Up ahead, Casey stumbled toward Gray’s massive truck. Gray carried Liv while Marcus held me securely in his arms.
“Let’s make sure we don’t have to,” Gray said, hustling toward the still running vehicle. “I don’t want all this caught on someone’s phone and posted on YouTube. I’m supposed to be undercover.”
“I apologize if saving Kelsey blows your cover.” Marcus got into the cab of the truck. He pulled me up into his lap, arranging me into a semi-comfortable position.
Casey and Liv climbed into the back.
Gray’s mouth was a stubborn line as he put the truck in drive. “That wasn’t what I meant. I would give my life for her and you know it. I got us here as fast as I could.”
“Stop fighting.” My words were slurring slightly. Light-headed was a soft term for what I felt. The world was threatening to spin out of control.
“She hit her head.” Casey leaned forward to look into the front of the cab. “She hit it a couple of times, and when we crashed, she wasn’t wearing a seat belt.”
“You mean when you crashed, Mr. Lane,” Marcus accused the young vampire. “You were driving the vehicle. You crashed and my mistress paid the price.”
“Don’t.” I was too tired to listen to recriminations. “Don’t blame Casey. He did a good job. He didn’t fuck up. I did. It was my fault.”
I was so tired. I let my head rest against Marcus’s shoulder. There was a fuzziness to everything. My head seemed as snowy as the world outside.
“Don’t you fall asleep, Kelsey!” Gray barked the order, bringing me out of my twilight. “Vorenus, are you going to yell at the newbie or save your precious mistress? Cause from where I’m sitting, she’s in a bad way.”
Marcus forced my head up. “Kelsey, look at me.”
My eyes weren’t capable of obeying the command. They wanted to close and rest. I sighed and let them shut. If only all the people would stop talking, I could sleep. Sleep seemed like such a nice thing to do. I could rest my eyes for a few moments…
“Darling, wake up.” Marcus shook me gently. “Bella, you must stay awake.” He seemed far away. Sleep beckoned much more urgently.
The world began to go dark, but even that seemed nice after the ultra-bright of the snowy day.
“You open your eyes, Kelsey Jean Atwood!”
I couldn’t ignore that sharp bark. My head came off Marcus’s shoulder, and I was caught by seriously blue eyes. Gray had one hand on the steering wheel and one locked in my hair.
“You fight, Kelsey,” Gray ordered. “You take that blood
and you live, you understand me?”
He knew how to get my attention.
“Fuck you, Sloane.” I said it out of habit and because I didn’t like having my naps interrupted. He was right. Something was seriously wrong with me.
“Spit all the shit at me you want, but you take that blood and you take it now,” he ordered.
I forced my head to move, to shift toward my boyfriend. Marcus popped sharp claws in his right hand and tore open a hole close to his neck. I needed that blood. My head kind of fell forward and I managed to get my mouth where it needed to go. I felt Marcus’s arms tighten around me, holding me in place.
“That’s right, cara mia. Drink.” His breath was warm against my ear. I felt his anxiety as though he couldn’t quite contain it, and I caught the edge of it. I must look pretty bad if Marcus was so worried I could feel it.
Rich, velvety blood filled my mouth. My head started to clear.
“Keep drinking.” Marcus held my head to his flesh when I tried to pull away.
I gamely continued, but after another minute I couldn’t take any more. I pulled away and sat up, so much better than I was before. My vision was clear, my thoughts lucid.
“Oh, my god.” Liv moaned from the backseat.
I glanced over Marcus’s shoulder and saw that my best friend was taking one for the team. She had her arms wrapped around Casey’s shoulders. His fangs were firmly in her neck. Casey’s hands were around her back, and Liv’s head was thrown back in what looked like complete ecstasy. Her whole body stiffened and then she relaxed. I knew that feeling. Heaven. After a moment, Casey released the vein. Liv slumped against him, completely exhausted.
I couldn’t help but stare, shocked at the sight of my proper BFF looking languid and sexy in the arms of a vampire. Her head rested against his chest, her whole body relaxed as he held her.
Casey shrugged. “If I didn’t pull her in, it would hurt.”
“Be ready for her to kick your ass later.” Liv was going to be completely embarrassed that she’d had an orgasm in front of Marcus and Gray.