The Way You Bite(45)

She nodded. The adrenaline of the past hour fled, draining everything but the relief of being next to him. Even if this was all she ever had—these few moments together seeking comfort in each other in the aftermath of something crazy—it would be enough.

Okay, that was a lie.

It wouldn’t come even close to enough.

…

Lexan lay prone on a hospital table. Vee evaluated the sparse medical supplies surrounding her. He wasn’t going to like the plan she’d formulated, but she didn’t see this working any other way.

Vee injected Lexan with Benadryl and said, “Okay, so here’s how it’s going to go. I can’t do much for what may have already leached into your system. We’re just going to have to hope it wasn’t much and you can survive it. I’m going to lance the entry point, and since there is no way for me to x-ray and confirm the silver is all gone, I’m going to flush the daylights out of it. You’re going to transform to wolf. Then I’m going to clamp your femoral and put things back together—”

“Oh, hell no,” Eric interrupted, “If he transforms, any silver not in his blood will be permanent in his body.”

“I’d prefer to bleed out rather than silver death,” Lexan said.

“I can’t get to your femoral with you as a human. You’re just too…well, you’ve got too much muscle for me to dig through to find the artery before blood loss becomes critical. As a wolf, there’s not as much to get through, and I’m confident I can get to the vessel before you bleed out. I can also safely clamp off your femoral with you in wolf form, and you’d have enough collateral circulation not to lose your leg. As a human, if I toast your femoral, you run a huge risk of losing your leg. Based on that look, I assume losing your leg would be worse than death?” When all she got was a skeptical look, she added, “We lanced and flushed before, and it worked out all right.”

“It wasn’t liquid silver.” Eric crossed his arms and blocked her from Lexan.

“Does someone have a plan other than letting him die?” She looked around.

“Bloody hell,” Eric said.

Vee picked up the bottle of saline and stood poised above Lexan’s leg. She raised an eyebrow, waiting for approval. His guys acted like they’d already moved on to the grieving stage. “He is going to make it through this.”

“Lexan, you think she can do it?” asked Eric.

“I trust her, but swear on your life, Vee, that if you don’t get that silver out and you see me going into silver death you’ll let me just bleed out.”

“You aren’t going to die today.” She thought to him, “I will not watch you bleed out.”

Lexan signaled Eric close.

She shouldn’t eavesdrop. But she did.

Lexan said, “I couldn’t have asked for a better second. But, old friend, I’ve got two favors to ask, if I don’t make it.”

“You’ll make it,” Eric said. “I didn’t risk my ass in this backwoods country for you to stroke out now.”

“Please…”

“Of course.” Eric brought their joined hands to his chest and bowed his head.

“Get her out of this country. Help her through the change.” Lexan waited for Eric to nod. “Once you get her away from here, keep her safe.”

“And second.”

“Call Michael.”

“That wolf is psycho…uncontrollable.”

“Only call him if this doesn’t go well and I’m not around. He’s irritable because I forbade him from killing vamps in France. Now, let him kill. He’ll be a powerful ally now that we have outright war.”

…

Vee washed her hands in the sink across the room from Lexan. In the mirror, she noticed the blood spatters across her scrub top from the few good sprays Lexan’s femoral had shot after she ordered he transform to wolf and before she was able to clamp off the vessel. She picked at the dried blood on her arm.

Her fingers trembled. She fisted her hands to make them stop. They never shook. Not even when she’d nicked the vena cava accidentally while removing a Great Dane’s kidney. That had been a moment when she’d freaked out to the max.

The absolute terror of the past thirty minutes crashed through her. Watching Lexan’s lifeblood flow out of his body until she’d gotten the hemorrhage controlled…well, she’d done what she always did and put her emotions on hold to get the job done. Now, the crash of holy shit hit. Her knees threatened to buckle. She gripped the metal sink and hung her head, fighting nausea.

God, what was she going to do if she hadn’t gotten all the silver flushed out…if he didn’t make it?

“You did all you could,” Eric said softly. She flinched and caught his grateful gaze in the mirror. Eric hadn’t changed out of his tactical clothes—black muscle shirt, black camos, and tactical vest amply loaded with weapons.

“Did I? What if it wasn’t enough?”

“If you open that door, then it’s all you’ll think about.”

She tried to suck in deep breaths, fighting the urge to puke. Her vision hazed. “I can’t think otherwise.” A world without Lexan in it… She couldn’t imagine.

“He’s a tough sonuvabitch. Now that he found you he won’t be giving up life easily.”