Addict (Hunter #2)(59)

When I came to, it was to the sound of gunfire. I couldn’t figure out what was going on. I was in a car. It was the car Casey had stolen, but it wasn’t moving. The window had shattered and I could feel blood on my cheek. There was glass everywhere, though it was in tiny bits. I tried to sit up.

Casey had my Browning in his hand. He was firing out the sunroof, trying his damnedest to keep the bastards off of us. There was blood on his coat. Lots of it. He’d been hit more than once.

I groaned as I pushed myself up, which wasn’t easy because only one arm worked. I looked into the back, desperate to make sure I hadn’t managed to kill my best friend. Liv was still huddled in the seat, but she had one hand out of the ruined back window. She fired randomly. Her head was down, so she couldn’t see a thing. I guess she had to try something.

That’s the thing about being desperate. You’re willing to do anything.

“Can you get us moving?” I had to yell to be heard over the loud pop of guns firing.

Casey grunted as his body took another bullet, slamming him against the back edge of the sunroof. If he hadn’t been a vampire, that impact would have likely damaged his spine.

As he was, he groaned and took another shot. “No way. Car’s dead.”

“We have to run.” I couldn’t see any other way out. We were sitting ducks. Sitting, bleeding, one-armed ducks. At least I was.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Casey shot back. “They’re closing in.”

And then I knew he was here. I felt him like a calm wave pushing against the adrenaline and panic. Marcus brushed his mind across mine and he was calm, sure. He was certain he was going to save me.

Outside the car, the gunfire picked up. Someone was shooting, but this wasn’t a handgun. This was bigger. I heard the lovely sound of a Remington twelve gauge being primed. I know my guns like most women know shoes or lip-gloss.

Casey slumped down into the cab, and I could see where all that blood had come from. His chest was riddled with bullets. Luckily, it looked like the day shift didn’t use silver bullets.

“Someone else is here.” His voice shook. I noticed a fine tremble in his hands as well. “There’s some big dude with a shotgun. He’s walking down the street shooting them down. When did we land in the middle of a Western?”

I forced my body to move. I managed to turn and look out the ruined window. Grayson Sloane. I couldn’t help but smile because Gray was doing exactly what Casey said. He was walking down the snowy street, his big chest covered in body armor. He wore a Stetson on his head and his favorite boots. He looked like he’d walked straight out of a John Ford film. I couldn’t take my eyes off him as he tore through the security force the clinic had sent after us. They weren’t so tough without a huge vehicle behind them.

Definitely not as tough as my Texas Ranger.

Already, the white snow around us was turning a stark, brutal red. A scream sounded through the air, and I saw two of the men walk out of the van and draw their weapons. They aimed and shot each other in the head. Their bodies slumped to the ground. Marcus would never get his hands dirty when he could persuade his enemies to kill themselves.

“We’re good now.” I slumped over, quietly waiting.

I wasn’t worried about the backup squad taking out my men. They were dead the moment Marcus and Gray caught up to them.

“I can’t get the door open.” Casey pushed against the driver’s side door, but it was lodged shut. He turned his blue eyes to me, his face a stark white. He was as white as the snow falling through the sunroof. “I need to feed, Kelsey. I hurt real bad.”

Luckily, the bullets he’d taken didn’t look to be silver. They were already coming out of his body. He winced as one fell from his shoulder. It was probably the first time he’d been shot. I doubted combat had been in his training schedule. I reached out and took his hand.

“It’s all right. You did good, Casey.” I held out my left hand, showing him my wrist. He’d kept us alive, and I knew that had cost him. I owed him blood.

His eyes widened and his fangs were out, but he backed away from the offered appendage. He moved as far as he could before his back hit the door. “Not on your life, sister. I want to heal, not have Marcus take me apart.”

Liv sat up, her disheveled hair all around her face. “He’s right. That’s not such a great idea. I can’t imagine Marcus is going to be in a great mood after this.”

There was the horrible sound of the door being pulled off the car. One minute it was there and the next it was being tossed aside like a toy.

“You alive in there, Kelsey?” Sloane asked, his voice tight.

I let his deep Texas accent wash over me before nodding. Now that we were safe, my body shook as I came down from the high of trying to survive. Now I was faced with the consequences. I was bleeding from several places, my head hurt, and I probably had a concussion. I couldn’t feel my arm. I couldn’t feel it at all. I was covered in blood, much of it mine.

Gray pulled the vampire out of the car, and suddenly Marcus was there. He reached in and gathered me into his arms, lifting me free from the wreckage.

“Oh, bella, what have they done to you?” he asked as he held me close. His beautiful face was stoically calm as he ran a hand over my face, my hair.

In the distance, I heard the whir of a siren.