by Kate Douglas
“Good to see you again, Kingston.” His tone was pleasant, bland enough to be discussing the weather. Then again, murder was everyday business for the vampire, so this might be just that boring for him. This was no recruit for Smith’s cause, but a mercenary who whored his deadly skills out to the highest bidder.
Merek shrugged, easing one hand off the butt of his weapon to try to angle his fingers in the bloodsucker’s direction. “I wish I could say the same, but my day is never good when I run into you.”
Gregor laughed easily. “I’m flattered, Detective, I really am. Now, are you going to try to use that hand to cast or are you going to be reasonable?”
As usual, the vampire carried no weapons. He didn’t need them. Merek didn’t want to think about what he’d do to Chloe or Alex if he got his hands on them.
That wouldn’t happen. Merek wouldn’t let it. Playing in his favor was the fact that Gregor couldn’t know Merek’s best weapon—his precognition—was toast in this situation. He’d take any advantage he could get, even one based on a false assumption.
He let a knife-thin smile curve his lips. “When have I ever been reasonable?”
The vampire grinned, anticipation flashing in his gaze. His eyes burned red around the edges. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
Instead of moving his hands as Gregor expected, Merek slammed his toe into the ribs of the dying elf at his feet. The shriek that ripped through the air made the vampire flinch, but before Merek could launch a spell at him, Gregor had used his superhuman speed to disappear. The underbrush didn’t even rustle with his passing.
A wolf’s howl roared from the lakeshore, the sound of a cornered, angry animal.
Alex.
Pivoting on his heel, Merek bolted out of the trees and toward the beach. His pistol was up and ready, but he kept one hand free for casting. The vampire with the broken wing hunched over Alex, the tip of one wing dragging in the sand behind him. His talons were bared, arching with deadly purpose toward the young wolf’s throat.
He couldn’t get a shot off. The vampire was too close to Alex. Flicking his fingers, he fired a percussive boom into the air. The vampire slammed his hands over his sensitive ears, crying out hoarsely. Alex writhed on the ground, one half-Changed arm covering his head to block the noise. Gregor’s enraged bellow sounded in the distance behind Merek.
Not even pausing in his movements, Merek launched himself forward to catch the vampire around the waist and roll him away from the wolf. Fleshy wings tangled around them, and Merek tore at the skin trying to get loose. The vampire screeched, slashing his talons down Merek’s bicep, and Merek lost his weapon as his arm spasmed.
Pain.
It exploded into his body, reverberated through his skull until he thought it would split. Black spots spun in front of his eyes, and the need to vomit cut through the adrenaline pumping through his system.
The vampire hissed, and only the thought of those talons biting into him again cleared his head enough to react. He swung blindly, slamming his fist into the vampire’s mouth. The fangs ripped through his knuckles.
Hard bones from the top of one massive wing clipped him in the jaw. He swayed, caught the top of the wing near the shoulder and blasted through the flesh, bone, and cartilage with a fireball. When the vampire shrieked and bucked under him, Merek was ready, rolling toward the severed wing to escape being entangled again.
Staggering to his feet, he opened his hand. “Gun,” he ordered, and the universe obeyed. His weapon whooshed through the air and smacked into his palm.
The amount of magic he was using began to drag at him, his energy sapping. And they weren’t out of the woods yet. His body shook from the strain, but he moved toward Alex, dropping to his knees beside the boy. Alex had regressed to a half-shift, the monstrous form worthy of any Hollywood depiction of werewolves, twice the height and breadth of any human. Three times as heavy, too.
Alex’s hand was pressed tightly over the bullet hole in his side, but blood still flowed between his fingers. Merek grabbed Alex’s free arm, hoisted him up, and hauled both of them to their feet. “Keep pressure on that wound.”
Will do. The voice was a bare whisper in his mind. Still, it meant the boy was conscious and aware of his surroundings. That helped. Marginally.
I’m bleeding pretty badly. You’re slashed up. The vampires can track the scent of our blood.
“They can?” Merek didn’t bother swearing. Gregor was still out there, and that thought alone sent ice flowing through his veins.
Luca said so. It’s how he tracked me down the day my dad disappeared and Smith’s men were hunting me.
Shit. He wished that was a skill Luca possessed personally and not a purview of the entire vampire race, but he couldn’t take the chance of assuming these vampires couldn’t track them the same way. This sounded like just the kind of thing the Vampire Conclave would want kept secret from other Magickal races.
Alex staggered with every step, his legs giving out from under him as his bones broke and reformed over and over again, transitioning between the half-shift and human forms and back again. Spittle-laced gurgles of agony spilled from the boy’s mouth.
He tensed against Merek, trying to pull away, but not strong enough to do so. Get Chloe out of here!
“Not leaving you,” Merek grunted.
Shaking his head, Alex again tried unsuccessfully to escape Merek’s hold. She can’t die because . . . of me. Not . . . another one.
He didn’t know what that meant, and at the moment, he didn’t give a flying rat’s ass.
“Sorry, son. Not happening. I won’t do it.” He paused to fire at the sound of movement behind them. A vampiric hiss answered him. “She wouldn’t leave without you, anyway.”
Fuck! The wolfish face snapped its jaw, fangs dripping as he bared them. Then the facial bones broke, the muzzle retracting, and Alex’s human face surfaced. He choked on a breath, sagging against Merek’s side.
“Concentrate on getting to the car.”
“I’m with you,” he rasped. Pushing forward one unsteady step at a time, he took as much of his weight off of Merek as possible while keeping hold of him for balance. The boy’s jaw clenched on a groan of pain, his face set in grim lines, but he kept moving.
Merek’s respect for the kid doubled, but he focused on keeping them moving. Blood dripped steadily down his arm, the wound weakening the muscles and making them burn with a ferocity that made him want to howl. The adrenaline rush wasn’t enough to overcome the pain of it, but he gritted his teeth and rocked Alex and himself forward.
He hitched the boy higher, trying not to lose his grip. A low snarl of warning vibrated from the boy’s chest. Merek was already swinging his weapon around, squeezing the trigger when Gregor and a woman who moved with the competence of a trained operative came within range.
His bullets hit, but though the vampire staggered, he kept coming. The woman dove for the ground, rolling away while she fired off shots with both her weapon and her magic. Both missed, but the percussive force of her spell sent Merek and Alex staggering backward. The smile on Gregor’s face as he advanced had that same anticipation he’d worn before; this time the eyes flashed full red. Merek squeezed the trigger again.
The distinctive click of an empty weapon sounded from his pistol. He dropped it, lifting his hand to send a blast into the bloodsucker that he knew wouldn’t have enough effect. Merek moved in front of Alex, spreading his fingers and feeling his exhausted power gather more slowly than the vampire could move.
The whine of a car accelerating cut through Merek’s mind, and then the SUV plowed into Gregor and sent him flying. Brakes squealed as Chloe pulled up beside them. The doors whipped open, and her eyes were wide and wild. Her knuckles were white on the steering wheel, and Ophelia hunched on the dashboard, hissing.
Merek stuffed Alex in the backseat, then shoved Chloe over in the front seat, slammed both doors shut with what was left of his own magic, and hit the accelerator. “Everyone st
ay down!”
His words were all but lost as the rear window shattered from a flying bullet.
“Chloe, will you keep your head down?”
“No! I’m going to help Alex.” She flipped down the console between the front seats and squirmed through the narrow opening, maneuvering onto her knees on the floorboard behind the passenger seat.
“Ophelia, get off the damn dashboard,” Merek barked. Chloe heard a small thump and assumed her familiar had obeyed.
She flinched as another spray of bullets hit the car. The dull slap of metal hitting metal made her insides freeze with terror. Gods, don’t let them hit anything important. She rocked sideways, slamming her chin into the door as Merek swerved hard. The tires squealed, spinning for purchase before they raced down a bumpy road.
Alex lay sprawled across the backseat, one hand pressed to his side while the other held tight to the back of the bench seat. The werewolf, at least, was strong enough to hold himself in place as the SUV swung around tight turns and switchbacks in the road. His eyes were pinched closed, a muscle ticked in his clenched jaw, and his normally tanned face was ashen.
There was blood everywhere.
All over the floor, Alex’s naked body, pooling on the leather seat. Seeping into her jeans. Chloe felt the color leech out of her face. This was why she’d gone into pharmaceutical research rather than into practicing medicine. The stench of blood, the blank eyes of hurt, dying people. It reminded her too much of her mother.
A shudder ripped through her, but she shook herself, forced those memories into the deepest, darkest corner of her soul and locked them in tight. Alex needed her now. Her fears from that day would not be allowed to take someone else from her.
“Let me see, Alex.” She tugged his hand away from his side to get a better look at what she was dealing with.
“It’s silver,” he gasped, his body twitching and writhing. “Gods, it burns. It’s like my insides are on fire. Help me, Chloe. Please, help me.” The pleading in those green eyes gripped her insides tight. Memories of him rushed at her: a gap-toothed little boy, a stringy adolescent, and as he was now, almost full-grown, but just as beloved.
Silver. Oh, gods. The bullet hadn’t hit a vital organ or he’d be dead already, but the wound didn’t look good. The flesh around the entry was charred and beginning to fester. The speed of werewolf healing meant the allergic reaction to silver also intensified. She tried to keep her voice reassuring as she spoke to her godson. “I’ll help you, honey. Just hang in there.”
“You’re going to have to take the bullet out before it dissolves into his bloodstream,” Merek boomed from the front seat, meeting her gaze briefly in the rearview mirror.
“I know,” she shouted back over the wind. “I’m getting the first aid kit.” And a lantern for some light. She pressed Alex’s hand back over the wound, and he choked on a groan.
Merek seemed to have found them a straight road to speed down, but trying to remove a silver bullet from a werewolf was tricky even under ideal conditions. These were not ideal conditions.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
Shoving herself up on shaky legs that weren’t helped at all by the moving vehicle, she tried to ease over Alex and into the back of the packed SUV. The various crates and bags were a tumbled mess littered with shattered glass. She tried to remember which ones held which items. After a few minutes of frantic searching, she came up with the small lantern Merek had given her to sleep with.
Where was the fucking first aid kit? Chloe wanted to snarl, but knew it wouldn’t help. Wind rushed through the broken window, the cold air chilling her to the bone. Her fingers felt stiff with it as she fumbled through another crate of camping equipment, but she ignored the slight discomfort. It was nothing compared to what Alex was going through.
There. Relief washed through her as she spotted the large white box with a red cross on it. Wrapping her hand around the handle, she yanked it out from under the ice chest. Maneuvering back over the seat with her treasures was a complete bitch. Her leg slipped out from under her when she was halfway, and she crashed on to Alex’s legs.
He jackknifed upright, his eyes wild and fangs bared in a grimace of pain. Fuck!
His voice roared so loudly in her mind she wanted to whimper and slap her hands over her ears, but knew that wouldn’t do a damn thing. “Lie back down, Alex.”
The feral gleam in his eyes didn’t fade, but he obeyed jerkily. Flipping the lantern on high, she wedged it between his chest and the seat. It cast a bright light over the area she had to work with. Not great, but much better than trying to pull out a bullet in the dark.
Running over everything she remembered from med school about werewolves and silver as well as bullet extractions, she straddled her godson’s thighs and tried to keep her balance as Merek wheeled the SUV up what had to be a highway on-ramp. It didn’t matter. Their safety was his job, helping Alex was hers.
She cracked open the first aid kit and rifled through the contents. Antiseptic, bandages of all sizes, a few vials of herbal infusions. The most useful thing in there for pulling the bullet out was a pair of tweezers that she knew wouldn’t be useful at all.
Okay. She could do this with magic. She’d never tried it herself, but she knew it could be done. Her heart gave a sickening lurch. If she messed it up, missed even a single sliver of silver and it got into his bloodstream, he’d be dead by morning. No pressure. She wiped her sweaty palms on her shirt and noticed Alex’s pain-filled eyes latched on her every movement. She didn’t even bother with a reassuring smile.
Gods, please. She closed her eyes for a moment and sent up a silent, fervent prayer.
Sucking in a deep breath almost made her gag on the sickly sweet scent of blood. She gritted her teeth and placed her hand over his wound, seeking the metal with her magic. She’d never even watched anyone do this before, even in her rotation in the ER. She didn’t know a spell to do what she wanted to do, but she focused as hard as she could, working every single fragment of the silver back up through the hole it had left behind while Alex’s claws shredded the rental SUV’s upholstery.
His skin smoked and sizzled as each silver piece oozed out. Blood so dark it was black flowed in a thick, sluggish stream from the wound. His muscles spasmed and sweat poured down his face, mixing with tears as he sobbed in agony.
Moonlight shown in the window, slicing across Alex’s face. His eyes went wolfish, fangs extending as he gurgled on a growl. She swallowed at the sight. “How are you even in human form right now?”
“Silver,” he choked out. “Leave . . . some of it in, so I can . . . stay human. Rampaging right now would be . . . a bad idea.”
“No. It could kill you.” She recalled vividly the bronze searing into her wrists, and that was an external application of the metal witches were allergic to.
“Better than me trying to rip you and Merek apart so I can go bite and Change some Normals.” Another sob heaved from his chest, and he turned his face away from her. “So they can live through this every month.”
She scanned the wound with her magic, closing her eyes to focus better. “All the silver is gone already.”
Shit. The word was no more than a weary whisper in her head.
“I wouldn’t have done it anyway.” Drawing on all the magic she had within her, she began to heal the putrid flesh the bullet had left behind. Bringing new, healthy tissue to the surface, sealing the wound. When it was done, she placed a bandage over the area and let the animal magic flowing through the boy’s veins do the rest of the healing for her. Now that there was no contact with silver, he should be better within a few hours. Sooner, if he hadn’t lost so much blood. She hoped. The moon might still be full and in the sky when he was healed, which was a worry. “We’ll deal with it if you somehow manage to get up the energy to rampage, but I couldn’t risk your life by leaving silver inside you.”
He sagged against the seat, every muscle going limp. Tear tracks made clean furrows in the grime on his face. Pain s
till dug grooves beside his eyes and mouth, but the flesh no longer pulled taut across his cheekbones. He flinched and slammed his eyes closed when a moonbeam hit him in the face.
She smoothed his hair away from his forehead. “You won’t have to be like this forever, Alex. I will find a way to stop this.”
His pale eyes cracked open and met hers, his expression too serious and adult. “If these assholes don’t get there first. They’d have wolves on their knees trying to get some of the drug. Any of us would do anything to not have to fight full moon fever. I would give anything.”
“I know.” Leaning to the side, she dug into the rear of the SUV until she came up with a mylar space blanket. “Luca won’t let Smith win. We just have to stay alive long enough for me to finish my research.”
Alex snorted. “I’m good with that.”
She tucked the blanket around him to help him conserve as much body heat as possible. She hoped the allergic reaction to silver didn’t mean they’d be facing an infection. If it came to that, she was making Merek take them to a hospital with a Magickal ward. He’d do it, too. Merek always took care of them, even if it meant bullets and dark spells were flying.
She swung her leg off Alex so she could stand on the floor, but had to bend so she didn’t hit her head on the roof. She hung on to the back of Merek’s seat when they bounced over a pothole. “We’ll make it through this, Alex.”
“Okay.” There wasn’t a single ounce of conviction in the wolf’s voice, and he was clearly humoring her.
She sighed. He didn’t believe her, but what could she say to convince him? She didn’t know that everything would be all right. Squirming along the seat so she could sit with Alex’s head in her lap, she tried to ignore the drying blood all over her clothes.
“It might be better if you sat in the front seat. Away from me.” He closed his eyes, but the claws of one hand still sank deep into the backseat every time the moonlight touched him. His fangs clenched tight, his jaw flexing.