in this one.”
“You’re all just a barrel of laughs.” The movie references were entertaining, but not anywhere in the vicinity of helpful. “Let’s go. We’re wastin’ time.”
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How much longer did Zavion and his friends have? There really was no way to know for sure, but judging by the swiftness in which their symptoms had appeared, Cian guessed it wasn’t long. Zavion was positive that they were going in the right direction and felt they were getting closer. How much farther, though? How long would it take to get there?
Most importantly, would they make it in time?
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Chapter Nine
Riding on the back of a chestnut-colored Thoroughbred in the moonlight would have been weird enough. Doing it naked was just downright bizarre. Cian had made a good point, though. If Zavion needed to shift quickly, his clothes would only impede his movement.
All night and most of the day, they’d been walking. Well, Zavion hadn’t done much walking, but his thighs and butt were sore from riding atop Cian’s back. They’d stopped only once to eat and catch a few hours of sleep, but with each passing hour, Zavion was growing weaker. If they didn’t find The Hive soon, he didn’t know how much longer he’d make it.
Coughing fits were coming more frequently and with increasing violence. He hadn’t been able to eat much, but what he’d managed to
choke down only came right back up. His body felt overheated, his muscles cramped, and even his fucking hair hurt. To say he was miserable would be an understatement, but he was also determined to
reach their destination and remain alive.
“We’re getting closer,” he mumbled to the Thoroughbred. His senses were dulling as he became sicker, but he could detect scents that he hadn’t smelled in months. “It shouldn’t be much farther.”
Squinting into the moonlit night, he tried to remember which way they’d ran when they’d fled The Hive. It had been daytime during their escape, though, and everything looked different in the dark.
In the distance, he caught sight of a large boulder silhouetted against the horizon. It reminded him a little bit of a turtle stretching his head out of his shell to look up at the stars. More importantly, it
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was familiar. “That way,” he said through more coughs, extending his arm to point toward the south. “Just beyond that rock.”
Musical chimes and chirps cut through the silence of the night. Zavion sighed as he rested his temple against the back of Cian’s neck and wound his fingers in the thick mane. “Devlin, your butt is ringing.”
Stopping in the middle of the open field, Devlin shifted back to his two-legged form and dug around in the pouch that had been tied
around his waist but had fallen to the ground during his transition. “Devlin,” he answered. “Aye, the runt thinks we’re gettin’ closer. Another few miles, maybe.”
He was quiet for a long time, occasionally bobbing his head or grunting as he listened to whoever was on the other end of the line. “Got it. We’re about twelve miles inside the Tennessee border.”
Zavion giggled at the way the state name came out in Devlin’s accent, earning him a sharp glare from the Irishman. “Sorry,” he mouthed.
“Right. I can do that. We’ll keep movin’ southeast, and I’ll call
when we find something. Thanks, Blaise.”
“That was Blaise?”
“No, it was Santa Claus.”
“There’s no need to get snippy.” Zavion was far too tired to argue. “What did he say?”
Devlin tapped at the screen of his smartphone for a few moments before he answered. “Cicero started havin’ seizures, and they can’t
get Zuriel to wake up.”
“No,” Zavion moaned heartbrokenly before another bout of coughs wracked his body, and the coppery taste of blood filled his mouth. “We have to hurry,” he added in a hoarse whisper when the fit
had subsided.
“I know. Cole is trackin’ the GPS in my phone. Enforcers are
flyin’ in as we speak. They’re just waitin’ on the location of this lab.”
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“So, what do we do now?” They were so close. He couldn’t
fathom turning around when their destination was within reach.
“We keep followin’ your nose,” Devlin answered with a short dip
of his head. “Then we get you on a chopper back home.”
“All righty then.” A huge yawn rolled up from his diaphragm, and
Zavion snuggled closer to Cian’s neck. As long as he was able to find The Hive before they packed him off back to Wyoming, he could live with that plan. It wasn’t like he would be much use in a fight anyway.
“Maybe I should ride with ya.” Surveying him with clear concern, Devlin stepped forward, but he didn’t make it far. With a loud snort, Cian whipped his head around, shoving his nose into his brother’s midsection so that he was forced to retreat several steps. “I’ve got no designs on your mate,” Devlin assured Cian. “I do have concerns that he’s goin’ to fall and break his damn neck, though.”
Cian snorted again and shook his head so that his mane flapped in Zavion’s face. Then very carefully, he lowered himself to the ground and shifted so that Zavion found himself wrapped around his mate’s
very nude and very human back.
“Ya can keep all your private bits to yourself, Devlin Murphy.” The possessiveness was evident in his lover’s tone, and Zavion couldn’t stop himself from smiling against the dewy skin of Cian’s
shoulder. “And you’ll want to keep your eyes upward if you’re intendin’ to keep those bits and bobs.”
Considering Zavion and Devlin were both naked as they day they were born, he could understand Cian’s jealousy. He did think his
lover was overreacting just a little, though. Plus his head pounded like someone had nailed him between the eyes with a baseball bat, and he didn’t appreciate all the shouting.
“Can you please keep it down?” he asked with a pathetic moan. Even the sound of his own voice made him feel like his eardrums
were going to bleed.
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Pulling Zavion around to his lap, Cian gave him an odd look. “No one is yellin’, Zavion.” Cian gripped his chin and tilted his head up. “How bad is it?”
“Just a headache,” he lied. “We should get going if we’re going to
meet the others.”
“Stubborn fool,” Cian mumbled in clear frustration.
“It’s nothing major. I can keep going. Hopefully, we’re close, and then we can turn it over to the big guns.”
“I don’t like this.” It had become Cian’s mantra over the past week, but what he did and didn’t like wasn’t going to change anything. With a disgruntled huff, he turned to cup Zavion’s cheek and peck him on the lips. “Can ya hold on, then?”
“I’m not going to fall asleep or pass out. Don’t worry. Your brother’s oversized penis will come nowhere near me.”
Cian growled and pinched Zavion on the butt. “Just how would ya know what my brother’s cock looks like?”
“Because he’s ass naked?”
“Well, stop lookin’.”
Zavion laughed, though it was quiet and a little raspy. They’d
have to work on his mate’s jealousy, even if he did find it kind of
cute.
A sharp pain stabbed through his temple, causing him to grit his teeth together to keep from crying out. His vision dimmed, his muscles cramped, and another wave of nausea rolled through him.
They had better find their destination soon, because he didn’t know how much longer he was going to last.
* * * *
This was stupid, idiotic, foolhardy, unwise, and a slew of other
synonyms that described how much Cian detested dragging Zavion
through the woods in his condition.
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By the time they’d reached the other side of the turtle-shaped rock, Zavion was shivering from head to toe, his skin felt clammy, and each breath stuttered through his blue-tinted lips in a wheezing gurgle. His heartbeat was still steady, but it felt slower than it should have been, and every new coughing fit sprayed more blood into his pale hands.
Suggesting the man shift into his fox form to combat the cold had seemed like a good idea at the time. After listening to the agonizing moans as Zavion struggled through his transformation, though, Cian had internally berated himself for a half hour.
When the seizures began, he’d never felt more useless or helpless in his life. Shifting back to his human skin had slowed their progress, but with Zavion only half-conscious, he’d needed arms to carry his
mate.
Approximately a mile beyond the boulder, they encountered a dirt road that traveled north and south. Cian didn’t want to disturb his
lover, but needed to know which direction to go. “Where to, Zavion?”
Lifting his furry head, Zavion sniffed at the air, pointed his muzzle to the north, and whimpered. Continuing their trek, Cian rubbed his cheek over the top of the tiny fox’s head. “Hold on, a ghrá,” he whispered when Zavion went limp in his arms once again. “Stay with me.”
“You must be kiddin’ me,” Flynn grumbled twenty minutes later when the trees on either side of the road parted to reveal a large rustic-looking building, complete with a parking lot and welcome sign. “A park ranger station?”
Zavion shook violently as he whined and whimpered in obvious fear. His muscles tightened, his spine stiffened, and his body began to reshape right there in Cian’s arms until he was completely human again. The metamorphosis took an unusually long time, and the tortured sounds spilling from his mouth made Cian feel like someone had sliced open his heart and left it to bleed.
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“No,” Zavion gasped, grabbing at Cian’s shoulders and clinging to him as much as his waning strength would allow. “I can’t go back in there.” Cough. “I want to go home now.” Cough. “Please take me home.” The last plea was ended with a violent coughing fit that made Cian wince.
“A car is on the way to take us to the helicopter,” Devlin informed him as he shoved his phone back into his pocket. “Ya did good, Zavion.”
“Oh, gods.” With that bit of warning, Zavion jerked his head to the side and expelled a gush of crimson from his lips. His eyes rolled back in his head, his mouth went slack, and his body became heavy. Then with a last hissing puff of air, he stopped breathing altogether just as the flare of headlights rose over the hill.
“C’mon,” Flynn commanded, jogging toward the approaching vehicle. “That’ll be Xander and Logan.”
The SUV skidded to a stop, fishtailing through the dirt as it slid sideways in the road. Devlin hurried forward, practically ripping open the back hatch and shoving Cian and Zavion inside before he and Flynn dove into the backseat.
“Go,” Devlin urged, slapping at the seatback in front of him. Then he spun around with a worried look on his face. “Is he breathing?”
“No.”
“Pulse?”
“I don’t know!” Cian shouted as he spread his lover out as best he could in the cramped space. Kneeling over him as the SUV bumped and rocked, he pressed one hand atop the other, right in the center of Zavion’s chest, and sent up a silent prayer to whoever was listening.
Counting out thirty chest compressions inside his mind, Cian shifted to his mate’s head, pinched his nose closed, and covered Zavion’s mouth with his own to breathe air into his lungs. “C’mon, Zavion,” he urged as he began another round of compressions. “C’mon, damn it!”
82 Gabrielle Evans
“Give him blood,” Logan instructed from the front passenger seat while Xander drove at breakneck speeds along the dirt road. “It should act like a jolt to his heart, the same as a defibrillator.”
The suggestion hadn’t worked for Demitrius and Oscar, so Cian had no reason to believe it would be successful for him. That didn’t
stop him from accepting the pocketknife Logan passed to him, though. Slicing the blade across his palm, he forced the blood into Zavion’s mouth and caressed his throat in hopes that it would get him to swallow.
Then he returned to doing chest compressions, pausing after the next thirty to place his ear to his mate’s chest. “C’mon, Zavion, c’mon.”
“Fuck,” Xander growled as the vehicle accelerated to dangerous speeds. “We’ve got company, guys.”
Still pressing the heel of his hand against Zavion’s chest in a fast rhythm, Cian spared a glance out of the back window of the SUV. Two sets of headlights sped toward them, one vehicle behind the other, and both swerving dangerously on the narrow road. He estimated the distance to be half a mile at least, but their pursuers were gaining quickly.
“How far to the helicopter?”
“Three miles, maybe four,” Xander answered tightly as his eyes darted back and forth between the windshield and the rearview mirror.
At the speed they were traveling, it shouldn’t take more than five minutes to reach their destination. With their enemies closing in on them quickly and Zavion still unresponsive, five minutes suddenly felt like a lifetime.
“We’ll make it,” Devlin assured him, though his eyes didn’t stray from the lights behind them. “It’s when we stop that I’m worried about.”
Cian didn’t have anything left in him to care or worry about much else besides his mate. Nothing he was doing was working. Why couldn’t it be like it was in the movies? Why couldn’t he just shout at
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the heavens, profess to love Zavion, and scream that the man couldn’t leave him? Then Zavion would miraculously wake up, and all would
be fine.
With growing desperation, he retrieved the pocketknife from where he’d tossed it to the side, placed the blade over his wrist, and cut deep into the flesh with a grunt. The blood flowed freely, gushing from his veins, and he pressed his arm to Zavion’s lips, flooding his mouth with the life-giving crimson.
“What the hell?” Flynn gasped. “Have ya lost your damn mind?”
“Shut up,” Cian snarled. “I don’t care as long as it works.”
When the dark red blood began to seep from the corners of Zavion’s mouth, he pulled his arm away, lifted his lover’s head into his lap, and pinched his nose. Then he tilted Zavion’s head back and stuck two fingers into his mouth, depressing his tongue in an attempt to force the fluid down his throat.
“Almost there,” Xander informed them. “Be ready to run like hell. We’ll take care of the assholes following us.”
Cian barely heard him, though. He was positive that he’d felt movement in Zavion’s throat. “That’s it, a ghrá. Wake up. We’re
goin’ home. You won’t want to miss that.”
Zavion’s throat constricted again, a bit more forcefully, and he started to gag and choke as he sucked in a huge lungful of air. He never opened his eyes, didn’t move beyond that, but the steady rise and fall of his chest and the strong beat of his heart were enough for
Cian.
Slumping back against the window, he pulled Zavion into his arms and closed his eyes as he battled back tears of relief. They weren’t out of the woods yet, though, and there was no time for him to be an emotional wreck.
Only a moment later, the vehicle came to an abrupt stop, the wheels stuttering through the dirt and mud. The back hatch flew open instantly, and someone was screaming at him to move his ass.
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“Cian! Let’s go, man!” The vampire Enforcer, Raven, jerked on his elbow as he pulled him out of the SUV.
There was movement all around him as men, vampires, and animals clashed together in a battle of fists, feet, claws, and fangs. The dozen Drones from The Hive were easily distinguishable in their black attire, and they’d come in full force, complete with several
automatic weapons.
As much as it killed him, as much as it tore him apart inside, he couldn’t leave his brothers and friends to fight alone. Easing Zavion into Raven’s arms, he nodded curtly and pushed at the vampire’s shoulders. “Get him home, Raven, and take care of him.”
For once, the man didn’t offer a sarcastic response. He looked Cian right in the eyes and nodded seriously. “I’ll keep him safe.” Then he was gone in a blur of movement, leaping into the helicopter in a show of strength and agility that Cian could only envy. “There’s another chopper on the way,” he yelled as the bird lifted off the ground.
Cian hoped he’d live long enough to be on the next helicopter, but he didn’t have high hopes. Even with the added Enforcers who’d flown in with Raven, they were still outnumbered twelve to eight, and none of them had guns.
Shots rang through the grassy field, but strangely, none of them seemed to be hitting their marks. While Cian was all for fighting fair and totally against mindless killing, if it came down to him or his opponents, they were shit out of luck where his mercy was concerned.
The three vampires darted through the Drones, too fast to get a target on them. In mere seconds, they’d evened the odds, taking down four of their enemies. Xander and Logan prowled forward in their shifted forms, a huge Bengal tiger and a sleek snow leopard, hissing and snarling as they pounced on the backs of two Drones.
Devlin and Flynn had disarmed two other guards but weren’t having much success in bringing them down. Sprinting forward, Cian grabbed one of the men on top of Flynn by the hair and jerked his
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head back before delivering a vicious blow to the side of his neck. The Drones obviously weren’t there to play. They were there to kill without remorse. Well, if they wanted to dance, Cian would dance.
Devlin finally dislodged the asshole from his back, sending him flying through the air to land in a heap a few feet away where Logan pounced on him before he could even roll over. Two of the vampire Enforcers were down, but they weren’t out for the count yet. The Drones were dropping like flies, and though more reports rang out, each shot was more wildly off target than the last.
Evans, Gabrielle - From This Moment [The Moonlight Breed 7] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) Page 7