Then a pair of slim legs crossed at the ankles came into sharp focus. She looked up to find Selina reading a file beside the bed. Chloe frowned, even more confused, and questions tumbled out. “Where am I? How did I get here? What are you doing here?”
“The Magickal ward of Harborview. I imagine Caval i and Kingston carted your battered carcass here.
And Kingston asked me and your aunt Mil ie to handle things for him, look in on you and the two wolves, take care of your familiar.” The elf’s eyebrows arched, then she reached out to press a button that lifted Chloe into a sitting position. “Any other questions?”
“Two wolves?” Chloe’s dream col ided with reality, spinning her deeper into uncertainty. Hazy images formed. Ophelia, the angel, Luca’s wretched sobbing, Tess bitten by a wolf, Merek. The odd sensation of wind rushing over her, soaring over the city, wings beating. She shook her head and got to the most pressing point. “They’re alive?”
“Alex Nemov and Tess Jones are both alive, yes.” Something flickered in the detective’s eyes. “For the moment. It’s been three days, and Dr. Jones is stil in critical condition and under constant watch. Nemov is conscious and responsive, but . . .” She shrugged one shoulder. “The doctors are doing everything they can.”
“Good. That’s good.” Chloe’s voice sounded fuzzy to her own ears. She had to see them. Twists of guilt and sorrow wrenched at her insides. If she hadn’t insisted on going to Bainbridge Island, they might not be in this mess. She closed her eyes for a moment and swal owed. “Luca and Merek are both alive?”
A hint of a smile twitched up the sides of Selina’s mouth. “Again, for the moment. They’re tracking down Smith and what’s left of his operation.”
“Smith’s alive?” Chloe blinked. She’d started thinking her dream wasn’t a dream at al . The angel was obviously Luca in a vampiric half-shift, so pieces had started fal ing into place. “How could even a werewolf survive a hundred-story drop and walk— run—away?”
Selina spread her hands in an eloquent gesture. “He’s an older werewolf, so I guess he was powerful enough to manage to heal and get out of there before the authorities arrived on the scene. Plus, it was ful moon. Who knows what wolves can real y do on those nights?”
“What about the other wolves that Smith had?” The awful memory of those poor souls trapped in cages would remain with her for the rest of her life. “What happened to them?”
“Al of Smith’s men are being hunted down.” Selina spoke slowly, as if she thought Chloe was too out of it to have heard her the first time. But it told her the detective didn’t know about those wolves. Were they dead? Alive? Had the FBI or the Al -Magickal Council covered it up? She’d have to cal Mil ie and ask.
Chloe nodded, tried to keep her expression vague. “Right. Of course.” She pul ed in a deep breath, a knot within her unwinding. “And when they’re done, Merek wil be back to work in Seattle.”
Alive, whole, and within reach. She wanted to be in his arms again so badly, to hear the steady beat of his heart under her ear, just to talk to him and make sure he was okay. She didn’t know what form their relationship would take when things returned to normal, but if he was alive and things could go back to normal, that was more than she could have wished for a few days before. It was enough.
“Actual y, no.” The detective bent down to tuck her file into a leather satchel. “Since you mention it, Kingston doesn’t work for the Seattle PD anymore.”
Chloe sat in stunned silence for several seconds before she choked out, “He quit?”
“Caval i offered him a spot on his team, and he took it.” Selina straightened and crossed her legs the other way.
“What about you?” Chloe was stil trying to wrap her mind around Merek quitting. He was a cop. His job was his life. It defined him. “You’re his partner. He loves working with you.”
The detective shoved an impatient hand through her hair, revealing an elfin ear. “I told him if he didn’t make this jump he was a damn fool. No one passes up the chance to work with Luca Caval i. The bloodsucker’s been dancing around it for a couple of years now, yanking Kingston in for a case here and there, but it looks like the FBI managed to pry its head out of its col ective ass.”
“Why would you encourage him to leave?”
Selina stared at her for a long, long time before she answered. “He’s the best partner I’ve ever had, so I’m not thril ed to see him go, but . . .” A resigned smile twisted her lips. “We both know I’m going to bite it soon, so there’s no reason for him to hold himself back for me. Or to stick around and watch.”
It was eerie how accepting the woman was, and considering how Alex, Tess, and Chloe had fought so hard to live, it was almost offensive to her. “You’re pretty calm about the thought of dying.”
The elf sighed, her narrow shoulders dipping in a shrug, the gesture weary. “I’m old, and I’m tired. It’s time.
Even if I didn’t go as soon as I think I’m going to, I’d only have another fifty to sixty years, max, before age got me. After several centuries, I’ve seen enough to know fifty years won’t make much difference one way or another.”
“I see.” What she said made sense, but Chloe guessed she was just too young to truly understand. Even in her darkest moment, Chloe had never welcomed death. She couldn’t imagine assuming that attitude. It just wasn’t her, but she had less than a century under her belt, so she was wil ing to concede the view would be different from where Selina was sitting.
“No, you don’t.” Selina snorted and rose to her feet, leaning down to snag her satchel. She gestured to a blue duffel bag beside the bed. “Your aunt left you some clothes before she went to visit Alex.”
“I want to see him.” The words were out of Chloe’s mouth before she realized she might not be up to moving around much. She’d been ignoring it as much as possible, but she hurt. Al over. Every inch of her throbbed, and it was obvious the IV in her arm was feeding her painkil ers, so she didn’t want to know what shape she would be in without them. “I want to see Tess, too. Now.”
“I’l get a nurse on my way out.” Selina looped her bag over her shoulder. “I’l stop by and check on you again tomorrow.”
“Thanks.” Chloe pushed herself higher against the pil ows, ignoring the ache in her knee. “And thanks for coming.”
“Not a problem.”
It took almost an hour before she was showered, swathed in a fluffy robe, and transferred to a wheelchair.
The process was humiliatingly slow and arduous. It didn’t help that halfway through, a doctor came in to poke and prod at her injuries. He assured her she’d make a ful recovery and that the healing spel s were being administered over an extended time period to ensure that she wouldn’t scar and that she’d retain ful mobility. She’d be just dandy in a few days. By the time he was done with his examination, she wanted to snarl at him to get the hel out of her way or she’d wheel her own self down to Alex and Tess’s rooms.
When she final y got to see Tess, she found herself sitting alone in a viewing room. Her friend was incoherent and obviously on some serious painkil ers of her own. She was strapped to her hospital bed, multiple IVs and sensors attached to her. Her body twitched constantly, and she sweated, moaned, and mumbled under her breath. Incipient Change made her bones break over and over again, though she was not quite shifting forms.
Chloe’s breath caught when her friend arched against her restraints, fangs punching through her gums.
Tess’s eyes went feral, her skin and hair darkened, and she snarled, twisting into a half-shift before slamming back against the mattress and regressing to human form.
The lycanthropic disease was slowly morphing every cel in her body, until she would be a ful werewolf. If she survived. What Alex was simply born with, Tess would suffer through for nearly a week before the pain stopped and she regained some control of her faculties. Even then, they wouldn’t know if she was successful y Changed until she made it through her first ful moon shift. Chloe could picture every step of the Change, the way it affected every molecule. Her research spared her no details.