“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 still 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.
It wasn't that he was worried about turning her into a werewolf. None of the Magickal races could combine, and she was already a witch. Even if an elf married a wolf, they could have a wolf child or an elf child, or some of each, but a hybrid was a Magickal impossibility. If Alex's rampage made him bite Chloe, it could kill her the way any traumatic injury could, but she wouldn't turn wolf.
She stroked her hand down his sweat-soaked hair. “You would never hurt me, Alex. No matter how bad it got. Not even the full moon could change that.”
His green eyes fixed on her face, as if he was trying to absorb some of her certainty, and her heart broke at the expression on his face. He let go of the front seat, reaching up for her hand. She grabbed his hand, squeezed it tight, and ignored the sharp talons that tipped each finger. His throat moved as he swallowed. “I love you, Chloe.”
“I love you, too, kiddo.” She let go of his hand, set it on his chest, and tucked the blanket tighter around him. “Try to sleep.”
“Thanks. For everything.” His voice slurred, and his thick lashes made dark crescents on his cheeks. “You too, Merek.”
She had no idea how he heard, but it almost sounded like Merek was speaking softly in their ears. “No problem. That's my job.”
Leaning back in her seat, she suddenly realized she was exhausted. Sweat and other people's blood made her clothes sticky, and her muscles began shaking with reaction. She rubbed her hands up and down her arms to stop from shivering. Her heavy use of unfamiliar magic had drained what was left of her energy.
Even the cold didn't seem to be slapping her awake. She met Merek's gaze in the rearview mirror, her heart turning over at the concern in his gaze. She offered a tired smile. “We need to get Alex cleaned up.”
“We all need to clean up.” His deep voice was as steady and sure as always, still a comforting murmur in her ear. What spell he was using to do that, she didn't know, but she liked it. She let her chin drop to her chest and her eyelids droop. “Don't worry, sweetheart. I'll handle it. Get some rest.”
As if that was all the permission she needed, she fell headlong into oblivion.
9
C
hloe blinked blurry eyes, unsure exactly what was wrong, but knowing something had changed. It took her a moment to realize the car had stopped moving. A rush of air and squeak of hinges announced the opening of the door across from her. Ophelia stirred from where she'd curled herself around Alex's head, half her body draped across his neck and shoulder and the other half on Chloe's leg.
She turned her head to watch Merek wrap the space blanket tightly around Alex before he hoisted the teen up and over his shoulder. Alex did little more than groan, but the confirmation that he was still breathing was oddly reassuring. The weight of his head lifting from her leg made her limb tingle, and she flexed her toes to get her circulation going.
Picking up her familiar, she opened the other door and slid down to let her feet touch the cracked cement of a parking lot behind a cheap-looking motel. Except for a few feeble lights, the lot was shadowed and dark. Probably best considering the shape the SUV was in. Still, standing around in the gloom made chills run through her. She tried not to look at the bullet holes gouged into the side of the SUV, tried not to think about how endless the night seemed with only a few overhead lights to guide her way.
The muscles in her legs protested when she hobbled around the end of the car, one of her calves cramping so hard she hissed out a breath. Merek glanced at her sharply. “You okay?”
“Fine,” she lied. “Where are we?”
“A few hours over the border into Idaho.”
Hugging Ophelia tighter, she tried not to limp. “Which room are we in?”
“Numbers seven and eight. They have an adjoining door.” He dangled two sets of keys from his index finger. She snagged them and led the way to the nearest room, unlocking the heavy door and pushing her way in with one shoulder.
Feeling along the wall by the door for the light switch, she relaxed a little when the room flooded with brightness. She held the door open for Merek and watched him bypass the two double beds to deposit Alex in the bathroom. The pipes rattled in the wall as he turned on the water. Out of habit that Merek had drilled into her, she shut and bolted the door and then closed the curtains as tight as possible so no one could see in.
Then she went around and turned on every single lamp in the room and opened the adjoining door to do the same in the second room. This one had only a king-sized bed. “I'll stay in there with Alex, and you can have the big bed in here. Then your legs won't hang off the end.”
“Thanks,” he said as he appeared in the doorway. “I'm going to bring in what I can salvage from the car. Why don't youâ”
“Get Alex hosed down so when you come back you can carry him to bed?” She slid past him to do just that.
“Yeah.” He'd never sounded so weary, and her heart clenched. He was as covered in gore as she was, and she stared at the gruesome sight he made for three full seconds before she shook herself and kept moving. He glanced down at himself. “Don't worry. The clerk won't remember me or anything about us.”
“Those memory spells sure do come in handy sometimes, don't they?” She had to force herself away from the desire to cling to Merek and make sure he was all right. To hover over him, grab him, and hold on tight. If something happened to Alex or Merek and she was left alone . . . Her belly jolted at the punch of pain and panic that thought caused. No. She could notâ
would
notâlose either of them. She refused to even consider the possibility, despite what had happened tonight.
As if he understood her need to hold him, Merek caught her around the waist and pulled her close. She shouldn't let herself lean on him, should pull back instead of letting him draw her in. It would only make it worse if she cared too much, but he ignored the filth coating both them and pressed her to his side. She caved in to her need and rested her head on his shoulder. Reaching up, she cupped his jaw in her palm, stroking her thumb over the rough stubble there.
He tilted her head back and kissed her. The heat that always bloomed between them filled her body, and it was the first time she'd felt warm in what seemed like forever. She suckled his bottom lip, and he groaned, burying his hand in her hair. He nipped at her lips before sweeping his tongue into her mouth.
Her body liquefied at the deeper intimacy, her sex clenching, nipples tightening, skin sensitizing until the rasp of his beard against her face was pure eroticism. His fingers cradled her head, his big body a welcoming fire that tempted her. It was so sweet, tears stung her eyes, and she felt that weakness try to overtake her, the need to desperately hold on, and forced herself to stumble back, away from the solid warmth he provided.
“I'm going to check on Alex before the tub overflows,” she gasped and fled.
Skittering into the bathroom, she snatched up a thin washcloth from the pile on the vanity, and knelt beside the bathtub Alex was sprawled in. His long legs were bent awkwardly, and the water had already turned bright pink from the blood on his skin. Gingerly, she peeled the soaked bandage away from his side and tossed it in the garbage can. She wet down the cloth and wiped away as many of the rusty blotches from his skin as possible. Then she drained the tub and refilled it before she grabbed another washrag.
She noted his skin tone looked better, not as deathly pale. His breathing was deep and even in true sleep, and the area around the wound looked pink and healthy, not enflamed or hot to the touch. Good. He was healing nicely. If things continued along this course, he would be back to normal by morning, without even a scar to remind him of the shooting. A physical scar, anyway. The kid had far too many internal scars, and she feared this would add one more. She sighed and scooped water up to rinse the shampoo provided by the motel out of his hair.
“Everything's in the room, and I fed the cat.” Merek came in and set the first aid kit on the counter as she pulled the plug on the drain again. “Just in case he needs another bandage.”
“Thanks. I don't think he does, actually. Toss me a few towels and help me dry him off.” A sheet of thin white terry cloth draped over her shoulder a second later, and then Merek wedged himself in next to her to lift Alex up and towel him down. When he was relatively dry, Merek picked the teen up as gently as he would a newborn and carried him into the room to tuck into bed.
The front of her shirt was soaked, and pink droplets hit the carpet in a steady stream. She winced. “Man, I wouldn't want to be the maids who get to clean this room in the morning.”
Merek left her standing beside the bed, picked up his duffel bag, and went into his room to change clothes. When he came back he nodded to her smallest suitcase. “This is the only one that survived. Go into the bathroom, strip down, and hand me your clothes. I'm going to take the towels and our bloody laundry with me when I torch the SUV.”
“T-torch the SUV?” she echoed blankly. She knew what he was saying should make sense to her, but it didn't.
Merek reached out and caught her chin in his hand. “Sweetheart, Alex told me Luca said vampires can track the scent of our blood. We were leaking a hell of a lot of it, so depending on how sensitive they are, they might find the SUV pretty easily.”
“It's soaked with Alex's blood.”
“Yeah. We're ditching the car. I'm going to take it outside of town, burn it, dump it in the river we passed, and hope that throws them off a bit. I'll do what I can to mask my scent on the way back.” He returned to his room for a moment and came back with a revolver. “I'm leaving this with you. Anyone but me tries to come into either room, and I want you to use it. Understood?”
A jerky nod was the best she could do as she accepted the heavy weapon. “I ran over a man today. If that's not proof I'm capable of hurting people before they hurt me, I don't know what is.”
“Good girl, and thank you for saving my ass, too.” He ran a hand down her hair, which had been a windblown, tangled mess
before
he'd kissed her.
She gestured to the sleeping Alex. “You saved ours first.”
“That's what I'm here for.” He flashed a brief grin. “Go take a quick shower. Then I want your clothes and all the dirty towels.”
Picking up her suitcase, she shuffled into the bathroom, and obediently scrubbed herself clean in the fastest shower of all time. She'd have liked to linger and pamper herself under the hot stream of water, but instead winced as the soap insinuated itself into all the little scrapes and bruises on her skin. Drying off used the last of the thin towels, and she was in a pair of yoga pants and a shirt under a minute later.
“Be careful,” she whispered and handed Merek everything from the bathroom, including the bloody bandage she'd fished out of the garbage.
“I will.” And then he was gone.
Not letting herself peek out the curtain as he drove away, she set the revolver on the nightstand and pulled up the one chair in the room next to Alex's bed. He looked better, but he was bound to now that he wasn't covered in his own blood. She didn't know how long she sat there in tense silence, watching over Alex, feeling grit burn her eyes, listening for any noise outside. An eternity.
She jolted when the doorknob rattled, snatched up the gun, and held it at the ready. Relief made her wilt back into her chair when Merek's voice came through. “It's me.”
He was even filthier than he had been, dirt and sweat making streaks down his face. His gray eyes stood out in pale contrast. Exhausted strain made brackets around his mouth. “I'm going to clean up, get a few hours sleep. We'll take a cab to the small airport here, which opens at seven in the morning. We're going to be on the first flight out. I don't care where it's headed.”
“Okay.” She stared at Merek for a long moment, drinking in the sight of him. Some of the tension inside her eased at having him back with her. She knew that was dangerous, but they'd gone so far over the line tonight, she didn't know if they'd ever get back to safe emotional ground.
His stride wavered a little as he walked into his room. Frowning, she hurried after him, shut the adjoining door so their conversation wouldn't disturb the sleeping wolf, and followed Merek into his bathroom. He was gingerly tugging his shirt away from his arm, and it was then that she realized he was injured.
A long gouge ran up the length of one bicep and came to a ragged stop just above his elbow. It was ugly, swollen, caked with clotted blood. A trickle of red ran down his arm. “It broke open again on the way back.”
“Oh, gods,” she choked. “How bad are you hurt? Why didn't you
tell
me you were hurt?” This, after everything with Alex, was too much for her. It piled on top of her until she felt moisture welling up in her eyes. The pain, the gut-wrenching terror, the exhaustion.
“Sweetheartâ”
“Gods.” A tear slipped down her cheek, something deep inside her crumpling under the force of her fear. “How the hell did
this
happen? This can't be real. I'm just a
scientist.
I don't . . . I don't hurt people, I don't . . . Alex was
shot,
for gods' sake. I had to pull a bullet out of my godson's gut.”
“
Look at me,
” Merek ordered, cupping her face in his hands. “Take a deep breath.”
She sucked in a breath, and her chest hitched on a sob, but she locked her gaze on his dirt and blood-streaked face. The dried crimson stains did little to calm her, but she swallowed and forced herself to get a stranglehold on her control. Blinking away the tears still clinging to her lashes, she let the air ease out of her lungs. “Okay. Okay, I'm calm.”
“Good.” He stroked his fingers down her cheek, and she leaned into the comforting touch. “I know this is nuts, honey, and nothing I can say will make it less so.”
“I know.” She sighed. “It just . . . hit me all of a sudden.”
“That happens.” His smile was crooked. He dropped his hands and yanked his T-shirt over his head. Even the blood crusted on his skin didn't stop her mouth from watering at the sight of all that naked flesh. He unsnapped his fly, the hiss of his zipper loud in the small bathroom, and then he was deliciously nude. “Once our flight takes off from here, we'll take a bunch of connections and bounce around different cities before we get off. I don't know how or if they can track us from one plane to the next, but I doubt it.”
She thought about what she knew of vampiric hypersenses and tried hard not to stare at Merek's sculpted ass. “It doesn't seem feasible, no.”
To give herself something else to do, she leaned to the side and plucked up one of the threadbare hand towels provided by the motel, hosed it down in the sink, and started dabbing at his arm.
“Good. We're not risking it though. We'll keep moving.” He flinched, but angled himself to the side to give her a better look so she could clean him up.
Pressing her palm over the wound, she closed her eyes and pulled up the dredges of her magic to disinfect and heal the ugly gash. She felt the flesh close under her fingers, but the effort sucked away the few reserves of strength she had. When she opened her eyes, she saw the skin was still swollen and pink, but it was as healed as she could get it. Wolves and vampires had magical healing abilities that left no scars, but unlike Alex, Merek would be physically marked by this night forever.