More Than Life (Arcane Crossbreeds)

by Vyne, Amanda

  Bloodstains darkened his black shirt and BDUs. The dark material was ripped away from his chest, and she could see the mating scratches. She felt her face heat up at the sight of them. They almost felt intimate, as though a part of her were on display too. It made her feel vulnerable.

  His golden eyes blazed, his gaze roving over her, before moving on to the others. His frown darkened as he stared at each person in the room, and she knew he couldn’t possibly miss the tension.

  “What the fuck is going on here?”

  Chapter Eighteen

  The last hellish hour had been the worst in Raife’s entire life.

  Gideon had called in the cleanup crew. Gideon had updated Forestor. Gideon had set up a place to rendezvous with the helo. For Raife, just keeping his dragon from going into total rage had taken most of his concentration. Luckily, Gideon was still of sane mind, because Raife had been out of his. When Kel disappeared with Katya, she hadn’t been breathing. Every time he attempted to reach for her, there was only blackness, and that scared the hell out him, despite Tag’s assurances she was alive.

  As it was, even being in the same room with her, he still felt a chasm between them, barely able to sense more than a trickle of her emotions. There was a faint suspicion and guilt tainting her but otherwise…nothing. She hadn’t been so closed down since he’d first rescued her.

  The doc just looked as irritated and coldly clinical as she usually did. Is that what put Katya on alert? He hadn’t wanted to subject his mate to the doctor until she was more at ease, considering what she’d gone through in that research facility he’d pulled her out of. The doc meant well, but she still put him on edge with those eyes and the way she had of looking at you as if you were smeared on a slide under her microscope.

  The rapid beeping of the heart monitor drew Raife’s attention, and he frowned at the cords that led from the thing and disappeared into Katya’s hospital gown where she lay back against the raised head of a gurney. He’d known she’d been in a bad way, but the sight of those wires jarred him. Raife helped her up when she struggled to sit and maneuver her legs over the edge. He could see the effort cost her by the way she leaned forward, short of breath. She didn’t attempt to stand up. He frowned down at the top of her head. Dried bits of…Guardian clung to her hair, and he sighed. She was alive. He could work with that.

  “Doc, fill me in on what’s going here?”

  Doc folded her arms over her chest. “Several things, actually. First of all, your mate seems intent on fighting her nature.”

  Raife looked back at Katya when he felt a faint swell of fear come off her. She lifted her head, but she avoided his gaze as she began pulling the wires from beneath her shirt with impatient tugs that sent the heart monitor into ear-piercing shrieks.

  With a sigh of exasperation, the doc stomped forward and pressed buttons to silence the squawking machine before turning back to him. “Secondly, you and this Neanderthal here”—she motioned to Tag”—are keeping dangerous secrets. Ms. Schaffer is the first Drachon crossbreed I’ve encountered and I cannot adequately treat her if I’m not given full disclosure on what constitutes a Drachon pairing.”

  Obviously the doc suspected something, but how much did she know? Raife directed the thought at Tag.

  Tag crossed his arms over his chest. “The doc figured out Katya was pregnant, but Katya only suspects we’re keeping something from her. I don’t think she knows what yet.” His lips thinned as he watched Katya struggle to breathe. “I don’t like this. Your mate is unstable right now, and I’m damned uncomfortable with her so close to the doc. You know the doc is as close to human as an Arcane can get.”

  “She doesn’t pose a danger to anyone in this room.” He shot a pointed glare at Tag, who met it with a hard stare. “And you damn well know it.”

  “All I know is that your mate went into a rage. I heard the reports coming in, Merrick. What she did…what she’s capable of…” Tag cast a glance at the doc, and his jaw tightened. “She’s dangerous.”

  “I know you guys are talking about me,” Katya snapped a little too breathlessly as she slid to her feet. Raife braced her with an arm around her waist, but she shrugged him off. “You don’t have a right to keep secrets about my life.”

  Katya was inhaling slowly with her head bowed, her frailty palpable. Less than two hours ago, she’d neatly and efficiently dispatched seven fully trained Guardians. Okay, maybe not neatly, he admitted after remembering the amount of body matter that littered the Defoes’ once homey kitchen. She was definitely dangerous. Lethal. She had the instincts of a female Drachon protecting her family but with a hell of a lot more firepower, and that probably scared her shitless.

  Seeing it had terrified him, but now that she was safe at Incog, he was willing to admit—if only to himself—the memory of it gave him a wicked sense of satisfaction. Drachon liked their women a little vicious, and he was no different.

  “I’m sorry, man,” Tag said and turned to face Katya. “You’re unstable, and you pose a risk to all of us. I’m recommending to Forestor to have you confined until you’re…better.”

  “Tag, you fucking dick…”

  Raife barely registered Kel’s vulgar defense of his mate; the fury flooding through him roared as loud as his thundering heart. Above all else, Katya feared being locked up and experimented on, losing her ability to choose. He’d never allow her to go through that again. He’d take her back to the Drachon stronghold he’d been raised in first.

  Tag met him across the lab, overturning a metal tray with a jarring clatter before slamming into one another. They circled each other. “You know damn well how a female Drachon responds when her family is threatened.”

  “We both know she’s a little more than that. Drachon females don’t have claws or shoot fireballs from their hands.” Tag shook his head, his voice softening. “What they did to her in there…I couldn’t begin to imagine, but you can’t ignore she’s not normal.”

  “I know what the fuck she is,” Raife snarled and circled the other man. “She’s my mate. Mine by right to defend.”

  Tag’s shoulders dropped a little, and his gaze flicked to the doc. Raife didn’t want to feel sympathy for the asshole after he’d insulted his mate, but Tag had been his friend for a long time. The other Drachon was possessive of the doc, but he’d never be able to claim the right to defend her, never be able to claim her, period.

  Raife dropped back with a resigned sigh. “Katya would never be a threat to the doc.”

  “Fuck, Raife, we can’t be sure of that. You know damn well the doc feels threatening to just about everyone who has to be treated by her.”

  Dr. Mahoney wrenched upright, her mouth opening and then snapping shut. She muttered in Gaelic, and he heard Kel snort in totally misplaced humor.

  “She would know the difference,” Raife snapped.

  “She…is in this room.” Katya raised her head. Her face was pale, and she sounded as though she was fighting for every breath, but her beautiful blue eyes were steady. “And they’re right. I can’t guarantee anyone’s safety.”

  Her vulnerability only made him that much more pissed.

  “What happened at Defoes’ had nothing to do with what they did to you back in that shithole.”

  Dark shadows ringed her eyes, making the blue seem backlit. “And you know this how?”

  “I know you.”

  She was shaking her head, her breath coming in short spurts. “You used to know me. Before. Now…hell, I don’t even know me now.” She turned to look at the doc. “You want to know what happened? I ripped apart Guardians with my bare hands, set them on fire. I had no control over it.”

  “That doesn’t make you dangerous to everyone.” Raife advanced a step when she swayed on her feet, but she waved him back. “Damn it, Kat.”

  Katya’s voice was clipped and polite as she continued on when all he wanted to do was roar. “I know I gave Raife my blood. I know there is…something terribly wrong with me. And now he’s ch
anging too. I’ve…contaminated him somehow.”

  Raife ground his teeth together until he thought a couple should have snapped off. “There is nothing wrong.” Granted, he didn’t know exactly what was going on, but he did know their bodies were changing to accommodate each other. He was willing to accept it if it meant she was his.

  Katya turned and stepped forward to face him. “There is.” Pain flashed behind her eyes, but she quickly buried it and cast a glance at Tag where he stood several steps behind the doctor. “Everyone here can see it.” She pressed a small bloodstained hand over her mouth but waved Raife back again when he tried to touch her. She shook her head, and her slim throat worked as she swallowed twice. “I spent an entire year in a damn lab. I’m not a fool. They altered me somehow. I’m showing signs of blood dementia. I can’t control it. I’m a danger to everyone here.”

  Those assholes had definitely made some changes to her, but she wasn’t going into blood dementia. He’d seen plenty of crazy bloodsuckers suffering from blood dementia. Katya wasn’t crazy. What she was…was breathing too fast. Too hard. And she was too damn pale. He didn’t like it.

  When she swayed on her feet again, Raife was already moving in on her even as she tried to turn away from him. Her knees buckled, and she crashed into a tray next to the gurney, knocking it to the ground with a loud clatter. He managed to wrap one arm around her waist from behind before she followed it down.

  “Doc!” Raife shouted over his shoulder, and he could feel Katya’s small body tightening. She started making retching noises that had his own stomach clenching. He held Katya close to him and swept her hair back with his free hand as Kel held a metal pan in front of her. Dark red, nearly black liquid filled the pan. Fear shot through him again as he looked back at the doc. “Fuck, she’s puking blood.”

  “It’s fine; I suspected it might happen,” Dr. Mahoney said calmly but with a resigned sigh. “Bring her back to the gurney. I want to get these leads back on. I need to monitor her heart rate.”

  Raife laid Katya’s limp body back on the gurney but didn’t step away as the doc ripped open the snaps on the medical shirt Katya was wearing. Dark angry bruising stained the smooth flesh between her breasts. Several white circular pads were stuck over her torso, and the doc was reattaching the wires to them. When she turned back to poke at the buttons on the heart monitor, he pulled the shirt back up over Katya’s exposed chest and frowned down at his shaking hands. The sound of the rapid beeps filling the room was a relief, if a small one. She was still too damn pale.

  “You’re scaring the shit out of me, kitten. Tell me what I can do for you.”

  Her eyes fluttered open, and he was caught in the blue depths.

  “I just want to go…” She trailed off, and the word went unspoken, but he felt it settle heavily between them. Home. It represented safety and security. Being committed to that research facility had taken those things. Her despair was dark and oily as it leaked from her, staining her in a way that made him furious. She had a damn home. He was her home.

  When her eyelids slid closed, he darted a quick look at the heart monitor. Several lines shimmied across the screen, and the beeping continued. The doc was taking her blood pressure with a deep frown creasing her brow, her gaze shifting to the heart monitor as well. Only, her frown deepened further. He didn’t like this.

  “I want to know what the hell is going on here. What you did to her.” A growl erupted from him.

  “Raife,” Tag warned.

  “No. She’s vomiting blood, and it’s fine?” The metallic scent of blood and bile filled his nostrils, and he glanced down at the bloody mess in the pan Kel had set to the side. He frowned and drew another draught of air into his lungs. The blood she’d vomited wasn’t even hers. It smelled familiar, but he knew it wasn’t hers.

  “This isn’t even her fucking blood.” Sanguen females bonded by taking the blood of their mate. What would happen if she drank from another source? The dragon flared inside him, filling him. It knew their mate bond was being threatened, and it didn’t like it any more than he did. The reds and blues of heat signatures colored his vision for one brief moment as the rage slid too close to the surface. Fighting it back was difficult, especially when Tag suddenly appeared between him and the doctor. Raife felt a rumble move through his chest at the proximity of the other male near his mate, and he felt Tag’s aggressive surge when they locked eyes.

  Tag’s eyes flickered, his pupils elongating. A low growl emanated from him as well.

  Kel moved cautiously forward, hand out. Gabe angled his body in closer to her, hands on his blades. She elbowed him back. “Whoa! Down, dragons.” She cast a glance around the lab. “I’m willing to bet there’s all kinds of flammables up in here, including myself. Besides, I, for one, don’t want to be in the crossfire when the doc kicks your asses for destroying her shit.”

  Tag snorted and backed up a step, his pupils returning to normal as he cut a glance to the doc.

  Dr. Mahoney was pumping the blood-pressure cuff full of air again, hands moving fast and efficient. A strand of dark red hair fell over her forehead, and she glanced at the bright puddle of blood in the pan. “The blood is yours, Agent Merrick. I’m not fool enough to give a mated Sanguen the blood of another male.”

  “Mine?” Raife frowned down at the mess. He rubbed at his forehead. It was pounding.

  How could she have vomited his blood? “She hasn’t taken my blood in days. She refuses.”

  “I gave it to her,” Dr. Mahoney murmured with a shake of her head. Her eyes were closed, and a deep look of concentration creased her face as she held a stethoscope to the bend of Katya’s arm.

  “And she vomited it up?” He knew he was seriously fucked when a bloodsucker puking up his blood felt like a rejection. Not only that, but Katya was pregnant, and Sanguen needed the blood of their mate to maintain a pregnancy. If she couldn’t keep his down, how would she ever maintain the pregnancy? She hadn’t done it after the other times she’d bled him. Had she?

  He glanced at her face. It was nearly translucent and gaunt. Her eyes were sunken, her lips nearly bloodless. The steady beep of the monitor hiccupped, and the doc cursed clearly. In English.

  “I can’t get a diastolic pressure. She needs blood now!” The doc moved quickly across the room and yanked open a drawer. When she returned, she was ripping some blue plastic off a scalpel. She flicked off the safety cover but paused when her clinical gaze zeroed in on his face. Her lips thinned. “Give me your arm. Quickly.”

  Blood rushed from the small incision she made, and Raife pulled Katya up against his chest to press his wrist to her pale lips. His blood slid over her tongue, the crimson standing out in vivid contrast against her skin as rivulets ran over her cheek. It was only a moment before her body shuddered, and her fangs slid smoothly into his wrist. When her lips latched on to his flesh, his body immediately reacted, his cock hardening and pulsing in near pain. He murmured softly to her and pressed his forehead to hers as he angled his body over her to give them the semblance of privacy.

  He heard the sounds of her stomach gurgling loudly in the silence of the room. The heart monitor was beating too rapidly, but at least it was steady. It matched the frantic slam of his against his ribs. She fed for several long moments, each pull of her lips on his wrist resonating through his body until his headache eased and other parts farther south pulsed painfully. When she finally relaxed against him, he lifted his head to look down at her face. A drop of blood splashed against her forehead, and he frowned at it in confusion.

  The doc handed him a white cloth and motioned for him to wipe his nose. It came away stained with blood, and he cast a questioning glance to the doc. “What the hell is going on here, Doc?”

  Dr. Mahoney checked Katya’s blood pressure again before reaching out to seize his arm and turn it over, exposing the underside of his wrist. The laceration she’d made had already knitted shut, and the fang marks were raised pink tissue. “The best I have is a guess. If you h
ad let me assess her before today, I would have a more definitive answer. ”

  Raife felt a nearly imperceptible shudder work through Katya’s body, but her eyelids never so much as fluttered. He pulled her closer as something fierce and protective welled up hard in his chest.

  “Make a damn guess, then,” Raife snapped at the doc and accepted the damp cloth Kel offered him.

  “Raife.” Tag’s voice was a growled warning.

  He forced a deep breath into his constricted chest and gently wiped the blood from Katya’s face. She sure as hell would not be real stoked to see it there when she woke. It wasn’t much of a big mental leap to expect she was going to be hard enough to handle once she did wake up. The coming battle with her would be an important one, one he had no intention of losing. He needed some information for his arsenal first. That meant he needed the doc, so he couldn’t exactly alienate her, despite his need to rip into someone.

  He cast a hooded glance at Tag. The ass was getting worse than a dog with a bone over the doc. As he carefully laid Katya down on the gurney, he acknowledged that he might not be much better with Katya.

  “I’m going to take a wee bit o’ blood now that we’ve no issue with blood levels.” The doc rolled a tray to the opposite side of the gurney, eyes shifting slightly up at him speculatively as she worked. “I assume she’s pregnant.”

  “Oh-kay,” Kel suddenly chimed in with no little amusement sparking in her voice. “Maybe the kids should leave the room so the big people can talk.” She cast a look at her bloodmate. “I’ll meet you at home.” Gabe nodded and shimmered. Kel advanced on Tag. “C’mon, Taggart.” Kel mimicked the doc’s lilting English as she reached out and wrapped a hand around Tag’s arm. He tried to jerk free.

  “Kel, damn it, don’t you –” Tag’s voice broke off as Kel shimmered them out of the lab.