The Viper, page 22
“The robbers,” the dad said. “Did this.”
Even though V didn’t want to go in and mess around any more with either one of their minds, he knew he had to clear them out before Butch got here. Tapping into the son first, and then the father, he sent them off to that sheriff-mobile, their memories of two vampires checking out the pharmacy’s burglary hidden from their consciousness as if they had never come here.
As they exited and the SUV drove away, he looked down at his sister. Payne’s eyes were starting to blink. Thank fuck.
“Hey,” he said. “You’re back.”
“Kind of.” She tried to sit up and didn’t get far with that. “Where is—”
“They just left. And before you ask, yes, Dad was looking like he was back from wherever he had been.”
“I don’t want any bitching from you.” She cleared her throat, but still spoke weakly. “I don’t regret anything, even if I need an evac. That’s torture, to have someone right in front of you even though they’re all but dead and gone. I had to help because I could. Sometimes… you have to do what you can to ease suffering. It’s the way I live with the gift our mahmen gave me.”
It was right on the tip of his tongue to tell her she was so much more important than those two humans and whatever fate had in store for them. But then he remembered the father coming out of the back of the pharmacy, and how the two had hugged it out.
“It’s okay,” he heard himself say. “You should have seen the way that sire looked at his son.”
He thought of their own pops, the Bloodletter. And the war camp V had been left in.
“I would have given anything for a father like that.” Goddamn, he needed another cigarette. “So, yeah, kind of makes it all worth it as long as I get you back to the clinic safely.”
“Do we have to tell Manny?”
V smiled. “Yes, and you’re going to have to feed as soon as we’re back.”
“I’m fine.”
“Oh, okay, good. So how about you stand right up now and dematerialize back to Caldwell.” He put his hands out to the sides, all go ’head. “Just do you, hard-ass.”
There was a heartbeat of silence. “I hate you right now.”
He chuckled. “I love you, too, Sis. And whatever, you did the right thing.”
“Oh, my God. Did you just say that?”
“No, you’re delusional. Now, close your damn eyes and rest up so you can deal with your male.”
V’s phone started ringing and he checked the screen. “Oh, look. Manny’s calling right now. I’ll put him on speakerphone, unless you’d like to keep this private?”
“No,” she said with a wince. “He’s likely to be less hysterical if he knows you’re listening to him…”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
In spite of the cold rush falling on them both, Kane could feel the waves of heat coming off of Nadya’s body. The blasts were so strong that the rhythm of them was apparent, the surge and fade like a heartbeat.
“Hang on,” he said for what surely was the hundredth time.
He had her directly under the showerhead, the faucet handle set on C, the water pressure mercifully strong. But he wasn’t sure it was making any difference at all. She felt just as volcanic as she had when he’d brought her in here at a dead run.
No, at a fast run.
There was no using the “d” word. Not now.
The fact that he didn’t know who to call or where to go for help was truly terrifying. He didn’t mind being on his own when his life was the only one he had to worry about. But she was clearly in a medical crisis of some kind, and he had no fucking clue what to—
The sense that they were no longer alone cranked Kane’s head around and he bared his fangs over his shoulder, prepared to attack if he had to.
The white-haired wolven in the open doorway to the bathroom was staring into the shower with a look of horror on his face. And as his nostrils flared like he was testing the air to judge a scent, he had to grip the jamb to keep his balance.
“You fed her. Jesus Christ… you fed her.”
“Will you shut the fucking door! She’s unclothed!”
“Her naked is the least of our problems.”
The door slammed shut and Kane had a brief impulse to punch a wall. That faded quickly, though.
“Nadya, I’m going to put you down, dearest one.”
Bending over, he set her on the clean tile floor, right over the drain, and when she couldn’t keep herself upright, he laid her down on her side. She looked desperately ill, her body with its stiff joints and thin limbs the kind of thing that surely did not have much more life left in it.
In spite of the heat inside of her, she was horrifically pale.
“I’m just outside,” he told her. “I won’t be gone long.”
He took one lingering look at her, and then he snapped into action, prowling out of the bathroom and closing the door behind himself. On the far side, he leaned back against the panels to keep her protected, even though neither of the males now in the living quarters made like they wanted inside.
The wolven was pacing up and back, as if in his mind, he was doing some calculations that spelled out the doom of the earth’s population.
In contrast, Apex was standing at the base of the stairs in total stillness.
His eyes were alive, however, and they were locked on Kane as if he couldn’t believe something or another.
“Of course I fed her.” Kane looked down the narrow space at the back of the wolven’s head. “It’s how vampires work—”
The male spun around and jabbed a finger. “Not you, and not anymore.”
“What the hell are you talking about—”
“You killed her, you asshole. You fucking killed her!”
“She hasn’t fed in decades!” Kane didn’t bother to keep his voice down. “The seizures are because her body has had an influx of nutrients, and we need to get medical help—”
“No! She can’t handle what’s in your veins!”
“It’s just blood—”
“Not anymore!” The wolven marched up and went nose-to-nose. “You’re not who you once were. You are not you anymore!”
All at once, an image came back: Kane was in the hut… with the female with the long gray hair. She was telling him that he could be saved, but that he…
Kane looked back at the bathroom door he was guarding with his life. With quiet intensity, like he could force reality to meet his standards if he just willed it enough, he repeated, “She just hasn’t fed in a long time.”
“No, she drank poison.”
A sudden suffocation stole all of the breath out of his lungs. Maybe all the air out of the quarters.
Glancing down at his wrist, he saw that he was still bleeding from the puncture wounds she had made. With a sense of utter unreality, he brought the wounds up to his mouth and braced himself.
Closing a seal around the leaks, he ran his tongue over his flesh. Then he tasted for himself what she had taken into her body—
A terrible sense of dislocation took him over, transporting him outside of his body, taking him far away even as he stayed exactly where he was.
Lowering his arm, he swallowed the unfamiliar taste, the foreign… utterly different… taste of his own blood.
He thought of biting those guards, and what had happened to them.
“What the fuck did that old female do to me?” he said numbly.
“What you asked for.”
“I didn’t ask for this.”
“You agreed to it.” The wolven pulled his hands through his hair. “Jesus.”
With a combination of panic and dread, Kane turned his head again, and as his ear came up against the door, he listened to the fall of the water; what did he need to—
“I have to take her to the gray-haired old woman.” He looked at the wolven. “You need to help me get her to that female.”
“She’s not going to help you—”
“Yes, she will. This is her fault.”
The laughter that came out of the other male was the nastiest thing he had ever heard. “Sure, I’ll bring you back to the mountain. And you can tell her the blame’s all hers. Let’s just see how that goes—”
When the male abruptly stopped speaking, Kane looked toward the stairs. Apex had palmed a gun and was pointing it at the wolven.
“You’re taking him to that old female. Right now.”
Kane glanced back at the wolven. Instead of looking scared or even defiant, he assumed a bored expression.
“That’s a helluva way to ask nicely,” the male said in a dry voice.
* * *
As Apex trained his gun on the male who had given him the best blow job of his life about twelve hours before, he really wanted to shoot the wolven. He was praying—praying—that the motherfucker would do something stupid. Which was saying something for an atheist.
If only the guy’d say something like Fuck you, I’m not taking you anywhere. Or maybe he could attack Kane.
Or play a terminal game of hard to get by rushing for the exit.
The idea that that male knew both Apex’s secret and his past was creating a cognitive dissonance that couldn’t be reconciled. Why the hell had he gotten to talking? It was no one’s fucking business what he saw or where, and it certainly wasn’t a good idea for him to be blabbering about anything that had to do with his mahmen or why he’d ended up in the prison camp.
And yet all that had come out.
But that wasn’t the worst part. That dead guy? The one with the brown belt around his throat?
Apex had really wanted to know about that male. He’d been hungry for the details—in a way that made no goddamn sense. What did it matter to him and his life who had hung himself where and why.
“Let’s go.” He motioned with the gun. “You said you have a car hidden on this property. Do you have a stretcher, too?”
Kane spoke up. “I’ll take her in my arms. For however long I have to, I’ll carry her.”
The wolven lowered his head like he was hoping there was another way, any other way. Then he shrugged. “This is not going to go well.”
“What makes you think we’re having fun now,” Apex muttered.
Callum seemed to snap to attention. “Excellent point. Let’s head out.”
With a nod, Kane disappeared into the bathroom and closed the door. A moment later, the water was cut off, and Apex looked back down at the other male.
“Is the nurse going to live?” he asked.
“No.”
“What’s in his veins?”
“Death.” The wolven paced around, his long, lean body churning under his camouflage clothes. “It was supposed to be an old maiden’s tale, something that was blown out of proportion to scare the young—a deal made with the dark forces, a resurrection with a price… a curse hiding behind a gift.”
Apex marched down to the male. “You were the one who took him to that fucking hut.” He punched the guy with two fingers, right in the pec. “You fucking did this.”
The wolven bared a set of fangs that were long as stakes. “He made the choice.”
“Without knowing what he was getting into, right? That’s how it works—it’s a false decision because the landscape is a fucking lie.”
“You wanted him to live.” The wolven punched back with the same fore- and middle finger combo. “You asked me where to take him, and it was the only hope you had for your lover.”
Don’t say it, Apex thought. Don’t—
“Too bad you didn’t take yours to her.”
As his words dropped, the face in front of his own went sickly white. “You fucking asshole—”
The door to the bathroom opened and Kane came out carrying a small bundle wrapped up in a towel.
“Can we hurry?” he said.
The wolven put both palms up in the air, sure as if he had a weapon against his back. “Sure. Fucking fine. Let’s go.”
With a choppy march, the guy went to the staircase and ascended out of the private quarters, and Kane was right on his heels, skipping every other step.
Apex glanced around at the private quarters, and had an odd thought: They were really cozy.
He wasn’t used to thinking about comfort.
Tossing that idiot thought aside, he followed along and became aware that Kane wasn’t the only one who had gone through some kind of metamorphosis. He didn’t feel anything like himself either as he emerged into the hunting cabin.
Just as he cleared the entry, the panels of the floor moved back into place, sealing the way down. For a split second, he glanced at the hole in the roof and imagined the deadly sunlight pouring in.
“Are you coming or not.”
Feeling like he was in slow motion, he turned to the wolven who was in the doorway of the cabin. The male was looking down at the rough planks of the floors, his boot tapping, his impatience sparking the air.
As Apex approached the exit, he could see outside to where Kane stood with his precious cargo. But he didn’t put his focus there: He only had eyes for the wolven who was right in front of him.
And that was a huge change, wasn’t it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The trip back up to the wolven clan’s mountainside territory took forever, but as Kane rounded one of the last turns in the trail with Nadya in his arms, two familiar faces were coming down toward him: Lucan and Mayhem were side by side in a patch of moonlight, the icy blue illumination making them seem like specters.
But they were alive.
As they rushed forward to greet him, he felt a surge of joyful reunification, and his steps quickened. Except then they stopped and just stared at him.
“And greetings to you as well,” he said as he had to keep on going.
He knew there were things they wanted to ask him, but now was not the time—and even if it was, he didn’t think he could answer the questions they had. He couldn’t even answer his own.
On that note, he couldn’t really think straight at all. His mind was churning over the implications of what he had done under the guise of helping his female. That he hadn’t known feeding her was dangerous was bullshit.
But really, he should have guessed. He had seen anatomy disintegrate as the result of his bite. He just hadn’t been thinking properly—
No, he thought as that final turn in the trail presented itself. His problem was that he’d been thinking too much about other things.
Like a fantasy future that could not be.
As he entered the clearing with the crackling fire pit and its circle of log benches, he looked off to the side. The hut was right where it had been, and he felt a surge of relief. This was going to be okay, he told himself—the old female was going to fix this. She was going to take care of everything.
On the approach, he started to jog, but when Nadya moaned, he slowed down. The hut had its flap down, and he tried to visualize the old female in there, by the fire, by the stream—
His feet faltered. The stream.
Just as the thought entered his mind, the heavy bolt of cloth covering the shelter’s entrance was swept aside and the one person in the world he wanted to see emerged.
The white-haired female stepped out. Tonight, she was in sunflower yellow, her hair braided into a thick rope that lay down the front of her.
Her eyes did not go to Nadya. She just stared into Kane’s face.
When he opened his mouth, she shook her head. “I’m sorry, but I can’t help her.”
“Wh-what—you have to.” He held his arms out in desperation, and then captured the edge of the towel he’d wrapped his female in to keep it in place. “I need your help.”
“There is nothing I can do—”
“Please—she’s dying!”
“I cannot—”
“You can save her, like you saved me!”
The old female shook her head. “There is only one of the energy, and you were chosen to be asked. After which you chose to accept.”
Kane opened his mouth to argue, but then the heat emanating off of Nadya’s fragile body refocused him.
“Please,” he begged. “Help her.”
The old female reached out and moved part of the towel back. When she saw what was under the covering, she went still.
“Who hurt this child?” the mystical female whispered.
“He’s dead.”
“Good.”
The old female softly stroked Nadya’s cheek. “Bring her inside.”
“Thank you,” he said as he ducked down.
Inside the hut, he went to the pallet he’d been on—
No, it had been a coffin. He’d been lying in a coffin.
Shaking his head to clear it, he knelt and laid Nadya out on the blankets. “Here you go. You’re safe and we have aid now.”
Then he fell back on his ass and tried not to lose it.
The old female put her hand on his shoulder. “You care for her very much.”
“She helped me.”
“She is your healer.”
He nodded and brushed his fingertips over the patches of soft hair on Nadya’s head. “She’s the reason I’m alive, and when she was looking so weak, I gave her my vein—”
“You did what?”
Glaring at the old female, he said, “Okay, so everybody else seems to know this. Great. You’d think it would have come up in conversation last night.”
“You fed her.”
Kane rubbed his aching eyes. “Here’s an idea. Next time you do what you did to me? Lead with a helpful tip like that.”
“Poor, sweet child.” The old woman touched Nadya’s scarred face. “And she’s so hot.”
“I put her in the shower. You know, under the cold water, to try to cool her down.”
“You did the right thing with that.”
He caught the female’s arm. “Please, help her. You owe me this and you know it.”
* * *
With a sense of awe, Callum stood off to the side with the vampires as their friend disappeared into the Gray Wolf’s hut with the female. And while the other males spoke in hushed voices, he wanted to yell at them to shut up and pay attention. Pay some respect.
