“What was it? What happened?”
“Gunfire,” Jody said.
“Who—” Becca trailed off as the horrible scene came into focus.
A few feet away, the wolf Alpha knelt in a spreading scarlet pool, one of the black-uniformed Weres cradled in her arms. The Were guards had formed a physical barricade between Sylvan and the damaged front door. Blood bubbled from a hole in the Alpha’s shoulder and soaked her shirt, but she didn’t seem to notice it. Her eyes, fierce gold daggers in a face gone feral, were fixed on the female in her arms.
Drake was awakened from her post-procedure doze by a sharp pain in her chest. She jerked upright in the recliner. “Something’s wrong.”
“What is it?” Sophia quickly rose from the desk where she’d been running a computer search and hurried to Drake’s side. “Are you having pain?”
“No.” Drake grimaced. “Yes. I don’t know.” Sophia drew the sheet aside and examined the small incisions in Drake’s lower abdomen where her mother had inserted the instruments to do the biopsies. “These are nearly healed. There’s no evidence of bleeding. Where’s the pain?”
“Not there—my upper abdomen. And my chest.” Drake gritted her teeth as another stabbing pain shot through her chest. She checked the monitor on a stand next to her chair. Her EKG was steady, her pulse and blood pressure normal. “Everything looks normal. It’s not me. It’s not me.”
“Then what—”
Drake groaned with another wave of twisting pain, this one spearing down her right side. Her claws tore through the ends of her fingertips. Her canines burst out, flooding her mouth with hot blood.
She bolted to her feet. “Sylvan. Something’s happened.”
“Lara,” Sylvan said gently, “I have to get the bullets out. The bleeding won’t stop until I do.”
Blood streamed from the corner of Lara’s mouth and gushed from a crater in the center of her chest. Her whiskey eyes held Sylvan’s, calm and unafraid. She nodded, her voice barely a whisper. “Yes, Alpha.” Sylvan’s chest burned with every breath, but the pain was nothing compared to her rage. Lara had jumped in front of her, had taken most of the bullets meant for her. Now her wolf, her centuri, was hurt, suffering, and she would not let her die. Her arm shifted and her claws, three inches long and razor sharp, glinted. “Don’t be afraid. I’m here.”
“I know.”
Lara screamed when Sylvan plunged her claws into the wound, her eyes rolling back, her body contorting into a rigid arch. A crimson river rushed out around Sylvan’s limb, adding to the midnight lake around them. Sylvan jerked out a silver bullet and flung it aside, then drove her hand back into the wound three more times.
“They hit the heart,” Sylvan growled, gripping the shredded organ to stem the flow. “There’s too much damage. She’ll bleed to death before she can heal.”
Jody dropped down beside Sylvan. “My blood can keep her alive until she heals.”
“She is nearly empty.”
“Then we have to hurry. Decide, Wolf.”
Sylvan met Jody’s eyes. “Will she turn?”
“I don’t know. Possibly.”
“Do it.”
Jody tore off her jacket and shirt, then sliced open the large artery in the bend of her right elbow. Blood spurted out in a scarlet fountain.
Jody slid her hand behind Lara’s neck and turned Lara’s face into the bend of her arm. Holding her, she crooned, “Drink, Lara. Drink.” Lara shuddered, her throat working convulsively as she swallowed.
Becca bit her lip, wondering how everyone else could be so calm—so deadly calm. Perhaps death held a different place in the natural order for these predators, who seemed so human, but were not.
The foyer looked and smelled like a charnel house. The priceless linen wallpaper was covered with great swaths of red, as if someone had flung a paintbrush dipped in blood at them. The marble floor was awash in Lara’s and the Alpha’s blood.
Becca didn’t remember moving over to Jody, didn’t remember touching her, but now she knelt in a congealing pool a few inches from Jody with her hand on Jody’s back. Jody’s eyes were closed and her body trembled under Becca’s fingers. Her midnight hair lay in damp tendrils on her neck. Her flawless skin had gone from purest white to ashen. And still Lara drank. The only sounds were Lara’s desperate swallows and Jody’s rapid breathing.
“Is she healing?” Becca asked at last.
“Yes, slowly,” Sylvan said, her forearm still deep in Lara’s chest.
“Her heart is trying to beat. Just a little more.” Jody moaned, more agony than pleasure. Becca slid her arm around Jody’s shoulders and murmured in her ear, “Are you all right?” Wordlessly, Jody nodded.
Seconds passed. A minute. Another.
“She’s almost there.” Sylvan withdrew her hand and pressed her palm over the wound in Lara’s chest. Lara curled around Jody’s arm, her mouth working feverishly on Jody’s flesh.
Jody sagged and Becca barely caught her before she collapsed completely. “We have to stop this. It’s too much—Jody can’t give any more.”
“No,” Jody whispered, her head lolling on Becca’s shoulder, her arm still outstretched. “I’m all right.”
“You’re not,” Becca cried. “You’re so weak. I can feel it.” She shot Sylvan an imploring glance. “Please. This is killing her!” Jody laughed weakly, her lips ice cold against Becca’s neck.
“You’re not afraid of the dead, remember.”
“Vampire,” Sylvan snapped, “are you blood-bonded?” Jody was silent. Sylvan cursed and bent over her feeding centuri.
“Lara.” Sylvan gently cupped Lara’s chin and drew her face away from Jody’s arm. “You have to stop.”
Lara didn’t struggle, but almost instantly stopped breathing and went limp.
“Alpha!” Niki cried. “Let her drink. We can’t let her—”
“Wait.” Sylvan gripped Lara’s shoulders and called Lara’s wolf.
Deep inside, her own wolf rose. Her wounds flared and burned, but her wolf was strong. She let her power flow to Lara, calling to the part of Lara that was hers and would always be hers.
Lara’s body jerked and her eyes shot open, blank and unseeing.
She sucked in a breath as if she were drowning. Then she shimmered and shifted. The sleek brown wolf immediately collapsed, but her chest rose and fell and her heart beat. Sylvan sighed, weak and nearly drained. Her centuri would live.
“Jody! God, Jody!” Becca clutched Jody tightly. “She’s unconscious. What’s happening?”
Sylvan passed Lara to Andrew. “Get her to the Rover.”
“Yes, Alpha.” Andrew gently lifted the wolf and held her against his chest.
“Max—go with him. Secure the street. Make sure the shooter is gone.”
“Yes, Alpha,” Max barked out, shielding both Andrew and Lara as he led the way.
“Jody’s not breathing.” Becca choked, panic squeezing her throat closed. “She’s dying. ”
“She’ll rise,” Niki said. “She’s a Vampire.”
“No, not without a blood bond,” Sylvan said. “If she dies now, she won’t animate. She needs blood now before she dies. She needs to feed.”
“I’ll do it,” Becca said quickly. “Tell me—”
“You’re not strong enough,” Sylvan said. “Give her to me. Hurry.”
“Alpha,” Niki exclaimed, “what are you doing? You’re wounded. You can’t—”
“I won’t let her die,” Sylvan snarled. “She saved my wolf.”
“Then I’ll feed her!” Niki shouldered her way between Sylvan and Jody. Kneeling, she tore off her shirt, grasped Jody’s limp body, and pulled Jody into her lap. She opened her jugular with a quick slice of her claw and pressed Jody’s mouth to the wound. With surprising gentleness, she whispered, “Feed, Vampire. Don’t die.” Jody shuddered, her lids fluttering. The lure of potent Were blood drew her back from the edge of a gaping abyss. With a snarl, she lifted her head, her eyes on fire, and sank her incisors into Niki’s neck.