Angel finally moved and picked up the piece of crumpled paper. It was a note. All it said was, “your mates are next.”
Once Leigh had a better grip on her stomach she picked up Rebel’s phone and dialed Jessica’s number. While she listened to it ring, she got madder and madder. How dare Merrick take her friend from her! How dare he hurt her family! The more times it rang the more pissed off she got. She felt Rebel’s hand at the small of her back and thought he was saying something to her, but she shook her head. Whatever it was he was trying to say wasn’t getting through and honestly, she didn’t care.
When someone finally answered, Leigh was prepared to unleash hell on Merrick, only it wasn’t Merrick’s voice that answered. “Hello,” Jessica’s soft voice said. Leigh could hear the tremble in her voice and her anger immediately dropped a couple hundred degrees.
“Jessica!” she said, relieved. “Are you ok?”
Sebastian’s ears perked up and he immediately demanded the phone with a silent outreach of his hand. Leigh shook her head but put the phone on speaker so that everyone could hear. “He killed her,” Jessica said between sobs. “He killed her and we couldn’t stop him.”
“We know,” Leigh answered.
“Jess,” Sebastian said as he moved closer to the phone.
“Sebastian,” Jessica whispered. “Don’t do it. Don’t give him what he wants. We are willing to die. We know what’s at stake here and we are not…” The call was interrupted by the distinct sound of flesh hitting flesh. Then Merrick’s voice came on.
“I told her to tell you to bring me Rebel. I guess you don’t have your mate trained very well after all,” he said. Sebastian’s furious roar shook the house.
“I will kill you!” he shouted.
“Not again,” Merrick chuckled. “Not today anyway.” There was the sound of something being shuffled around and then he came back on the line. “I will choose another sometime today.” The line went dead.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Leigh warned everyone in the room. There was fire in her eyes. “Don’t think that I will just stand by and let you murder my husband. I can’t. I love you guys, but I will toast anyone who comes near him.”
“Leigh,” was all Rebel said. He didn’t know what else to say. He knew there was no way she would stand by and allow him to sacrifice himself. She and the unborn child would die with him.
From the look on Angel’s face, he knew it too.
“No fucking way Cowboy!” Leigh shouted at him. The smell of sulfur was getting stronger in the air, a sure fire sign that her temper was brewing along the danger line. “I won’t be able to stop myself. I will kill anyone who means you harm. We can do this, someone can try to kill you, and I will stop them. We can all die or we can stop arguing about it and find another way.”
They remained in the sitting room, waiting for an idea to come. When someone finally broke the silence, it was Brea. “Hey Cody,” she said to the werewolf who hadn’t yet left the room. “How’s that husband of yours?”
A sad smile lit his face. His blonde hair and steel blue eyes reminded her so much of her lost friend, Keelie, that had died several years earlier, that it was almost painful to look at him, but at the same time she was grateful to have him in her life.
“He’s doing good,” Cody replied. “Keeps telling me that he’s gonna kidnap you for a girls’ night out.”
“Yeah that would be great,” Brea said, knowing full well that there would be no nights out without heavy guards for a long time, assuming they survived this ordeal at all. She made note of the mating mark on Cody’s neck. Her heart swelled with so much love that she thought it would break. She was so happy her friend had finally found someone who could handle his antics and made him happy. “Congratulations,” Brea told him.
He touched the mark on his neck lightly and blushed a little. “Thanks. Seems wrong to be happy right now, though. I mean, what if it was my mate that bastard had? I don’t know what I would do.”
It seemed odd to have such a seemingly normal conversation when Macy was dead and the other two were likely next, but she had to have something to hold on to. She needed some form of anchor to the real world to keep her from losing her mind completely. Her sisters were in grave danger, but her best friend was safe and she could at least take a small amount of comfort in that fact. Brea stood up and walked right over to their head day guard. “Thank you for loving him,” she said as she wrapped her arms around him. He returned the embrace and said into her hair, “It isn’t hard.”
When they broke the embrace, Cody announced that he should get back to work. “I will call if anything happens that seems out of the ordinary.”
He left the house and went back to his post at the front gate. No one spoke after that for a good while, everyone sick with worry and no one knowing what the hell to do next.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
The daylight hours dragged on, slow as country molasses for Sebastian. He had eventually left the main room and went to his own bedroom to think. There was nothing he wanted to do more than to leave the house and find Jessica, but the sun was up and it was a damned bright day. It wouldn’t help Jessica if he were dead, which completely ruled out the possibility of trading Rebel’s life for hers. He had seriously contemplated it, but shot the idea down in the end. He loved Rebel. The man had become his brother, if not in blood then in heart. But the bond with his mate was stronger and Sebastian knew he would sacrifice anyone to save her.
But at the same time, he knew that Leigh’s bond with Rebel was just as strong. She meant it when she said if anyone tried they would all die. That wasn’t going to bring Jessica and Frankie home any better than running out into the sun naked and without a plan.
Samuel had come by around ten that morning to offer whatever services he could. He offered to take Macy’s body back to her family, but it wasn’t happening. At least, not yet. They had entered Antonio’s room to find him curled around her lifeless body on his bed. He was holding her close and crying softly. Ultimately, they had decided to let Antonio grieve in his own way before trying to move her.
Sebastian could only imagine his pain. Already, he felt an enormous hole in his chest where Jessica was supposed to be. He subconsciously rubbed his chest as if it would alleviate some of the pain. It didn’t of course, and he was stuck inside his own head with all the possibilities of things that Merrick could be doing to his mate swimming around in there and driving him insane.
It was about two in the afternoon when Sebastian heard a commotion downstairs that finally got the better of his curiosity and he went down to check it out.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“That son of a bitch!” Jacque shouted. “It’s Frankie! He hurt her! And I am leaving. I’m going to get her back!”
“No you’re not.” It wasn’t a negotiable term. Angel tried to hold Jacque by the arm, but he pulled away and let out a stream of curse words that made Leigh kind of proud. When English wasn’t enough, he reverted to his native French to let out some more.
“I’ll go,” Rebel said. “I can be in the sun.”
“Oh and just give him exactly what he wants?” Leigh countered. “Let’s just let Rebel outside alone and vulnerable. No fucking way Cowboy. It ain’t happening.”
Sebastian watched the drama unfold and instead of asking out loud, he shot Angel a mental what the fuck?
Samuel called. A woman showed up at the ER matching Frankie’s description so he went to check it out. It’s her. The doctor told him she had been beaten and literally dropped out of the sky and left for dead. She is alive, but barely and they don’t think she will recover.
Sebastian’s heart sank down into his stomach. If Frankie was still breathing, then there was hope. And no wonder Jacque was a mess. He would be too. What are we going to do? He asked Angel in his head.
I do not know, Mon Ami.
“Excuse me,” a sing-song voice interrupted the drama.
All heads turned to Se
rena. She had remained by Gage’s side silently for most of the day and they had all but forgotten she was even there. “I have no aversion to the sun,” she continued. “I am a powerful Fae, if you remember. I can go to her and I will be safe. I can say a spell for protection and get her back here safely.”
“What if she is too injured to move?” Jacque asked. “I am going with you.”
Serena shook her head. “It’s too dangerous. I won’t be able to protect us all.”
“You need some muscle to go with you,” Gage told her. “Take someone. Whomever you think is best.”
Serena thought it over for a second, then said, “I will take the wolf that was here before. He is strong and dedicated to your family. He will be an asset.”
Jacque wasted no time calling Cody back to the house. When he arrived only a few short minutes later, he was met with four desperate vampires, a Fae woman, a still crying human, and one pissed off dragon.
“You are going to go get her,” Jacque told him as he strapped weapons to the wolf. “Bring her back to me so I can heal her. There is no time to waste and no room for mistakes.”
Angel joined Jacque by asking, “Are you up for this task my friend? It is dangerous and will likely cost your life if you are not careful.”
Cody didn’t hesitate. “I’ll bring her back.”
“Serena will cast a spell to help you stay hidden and safe, but be aware, Merrick has Fae friends too. We don’t know what you might be walking into.”
“I got this,” Cody said and took Serena by the hand. When he heard a low growl behind him, he smiled and let her hand go. Instead he asked her, “Ready?”
She nodded and the pair left for the hospital, taking Jacque’s heart with them.
They made the drive in silence, having taken one of the Escalades for added protection. Angel had all of the vehicles reinforced with bullet proof glass, super dark tinted windows, and the engines were cranked up bad asses that could out run a sports car on any day of the week.
“Do you have a plan?” Serena asked finally.
Cody looked over at her. She was pretty, but didn’t hold a candle to the man he loved. “Not really,” he answered. “I figure we will know what to when we get there and see what’s up. What kind of spell you thinking about?”
“I was thinking I would use a cloaking spell to keep us hidden from Merrick or any other Fae. Other than that, I am afraid I have nothing.”
“What if we can’t move her?” Cody asked, pulling into the hospital parking lot.
“We will find a way to move her to safety. I doubt Merrick left her alive on purpose. If he finds out that she lives, I fear he will return to finish what he started. I can cast a healing spell to help her mend faster. I did that for Gage the last time they met with him. I don’t know how much it will help though because she is human.” Serena tied her long hair behind her neck. “I only hope that we can save at least one of their mates.”
“Well, it’s time to find out,” Cody said, parking the truck and unbuckling his seatbelt.
They walked right up to the nurse’s station and asked for her.
“Are you immediate family?” the nurse behind the desk asked.
“I am her sister,” Serena announced with the appropriate amount of emotion in her voice. “And this is her brother, Cody. Can we see her?”
The nurse tapped on her computer for a minute before answering. “The cop who was here earlier said he didn’t think she had family.”
“Well he was wrong!” Serena wailed. “I want to know what happened to my sister and I want to see her now!”
A man in blue scrubs approached them then. He was tall for a human with short dark hair and blue eyes. “I’m Dr. Miles,” he said to her. When Serena turned to him he was awestruck by her, as was every other human. It took him a moment to collect himself before continuing. “I admitted your sister. Come with me please.”
They followed him into the intensive care unit quietly. Cody kept his mouth shut for fear of saying something that would betray the lie Serena had so carefully constructed. He hated hospitals. The smell alone was an assault on his senses. The most obvious smell was that of disinfectant, but underneath he could smell blood and the undeniable scent of decaying and dying flesh.
The doctor stopped in front of one of the units that had a curtain pulled over the doorway. “Your sister has sustained some significant injuries. She was beaten badly and witnesses say she just fell from the sky. She has multiple fractures and when she came in she was hemorrhaging internally.” He ran his hand over his head. The pained look in his eyes told them everything they wanted to know. It was bad. Very bad. “We took her immediately to surgery and fixed as many bleeders as we could, but she isn’t strong enough to set the broken bones. Her heart stopped twice on the operating table and she is breathing only because we have her on a ventilator. I have to be honest with you; it doesn’t look good for her. If you have other family, I suggest calling them so that they can say their goodbyes.”
“Thank you,” Serena said to him sincerely. “Can we go in now?”
He pulled the curtain back and stepped aside so that they could enter. “I’ll just leave you alone for a while,” he told them as he walked away.
Frankie didn’t look like herself at all. She was connected to every manner of machine possible with wires and tubes coming and going in all directions. Her face was swollen and bruised, her nose was obviously broken. One eye was swelled so badly that if she woke up, she wouldn’t be able to open it.
Serena placed her hands on Frankie’s temples and began to chant the spell to help her heal herself. She didn’t really notice when Cody left the room, instead she concentrated on protecting Frankie and keeping her alive.
She had no idea how much time had passed when Cody returned. “It’s time to go,” he said.
“I don’t believe she will make the trip,” Serena said sadly.
“I got us better transportation,” Cody replied with a smile. “Now, if you could just do that make us invisible thing, we can get her out and on our way. Jacque can heal her with his blood, but we gotta get her to him.”
Serena wanted to know more about his plan, but one look at Frankie’s broken body told her there was no more time. She began chanting the spell to make them invisible. They wouldn’t really be invisible, but no one would notice anything they did until they were already gone.
Cody got to work unhooking as much of the wires as he could and kicked off the brakes on her bed. They ran as fast as the bed would allow through the hospital and out the loading doors. There, Cody had an ambulance waiting for them.
Together they pushed the gurney into the ambulance and strapped Frankie down. “Here,” Cody said to
Serena, shoving a respirator bag at her. “Keep her breathing and hold on tight.”
Serena connected the bag to the tube in Frankie’s mouth and gave it a squeeze. She kept on squeezing even when the ambulance jerked into motion and peeled out of the parking lot. She heard Cody on the phone telling Angel that they were on the way and to prepare for the worst.
“You better fucking pray Jessica makes it back alive!” Sebastian growled furiously at Rebel. “I want her back.”
Rebel didn’t try to argue with his brother as he got right up in his face. He would gladly lay down his life for any of his brothers and their mates, but Leigh wasn’t having it. She wasn’t going to let anyone hurt him and she would kill anyone who tried. Rebel’s family was powerful, but they knew they were no match for a hormonal dragon.
“I know and we will get her back.” Rebel tried to calm him but it wasn’t working. Hell, he was trying to convince Sebastian of something he wasn’t sure of himself.
“Heads up!” Jacque yelled as he sprinted by. “They’re coming.” He was moving at lightning speeds to gather any and everything he might need to help Frankie.
“What can we do?” Rebel asked.
“Nothing,” Jacque snapped at him. “You’ve done enough.”
&
nbsp; The sharp remark hit Rebel like a knife in the chest, but he knew inside he deserved it. Because of his mating with Leigh, they had lost Antonio, Macy, and now they were likely to lose Frankie as well. Since Macy’s body had been delivered, Antonio had not come out of his room. He likely never would. Macy was his only one, and without her he wouldn’t survive.
For the first time since he laid eyes on Leigh, Rebel began to doubt his decisions.
There wasn’t much time for him to wallow in self-pity, though, because the stolen ambulance rolled right up to the front door. “Make a space!” Serena yelled as Cody pulled the gurney out of the back and rolled it into the foyer. Serena was literally sitting on Frankie, squeezing the bag that was delivering air into her lungs and using her other hand to deliver compressions to her heart.
Jacque watched their arrival in horror. His woman was dying. He could hear it in the false heartbeats and he could see it in Cody’s eyes. His heart fell out of his chest and landed at his feet and the whole thing moved in slow motion. As soon as they were close enough for him to see Frankie, and he saw the damage Merrick had inflicted on her first hand, something inside him snapped.
He let out a vicious roar and shoved Cody out of the way. He wanted to shove Serena away as well, but logic prevailed, knowing she was the only thing keeping his precious woman alive. He could hear that Frankie’s heart was not working on its own, and it would be plain stupid to sever her lifeline.
When he got them to his make-shift emergency room, Jacque wasted no time scoring his wrist and holding it above Frankie’s mouth. The tube in her throat was making it impossible for her to swallow and even if it weren’t there, she was too far gone to swallow on her own.
Desperation mixed with sheer determination took over and Jacque grabbed the end of her IV tubing. He yanked it off the bag of fluids and connected it to another IV tube. This one had a needle at the other end. He poised the needle over a vein in the crook of his arm when Angel stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.
Forbidden Love Series Book 4: From The Ashes Page 15