The Way You Bite(46)

She smiled at Eric but wasn’t relieved. Her gut told her the silver scare wasn’t over. That medical instinct was never wrong.

Eric ran a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry about earlier when I found you and Lexan. He’s my first priority. I didn’t know you and he…you know.”

“I get that.”

“Without Lexan, we’d all be lost. We’re a bunch of messed-up soldiers he salvaged from near death. We’re cast-offs and criminals no one else wanted or trusted. Someone like him shouldn’t have trusted beings like us, but he can see deep. Damn scary deep, and knows your soul better than you. He gave each of us a chance at redemption. For that, our debt to him is great. Him dying because we failed to do our job would be unbearable.”

She reached out and touched Eric’s arm for a moment. “You’re as vital to him as he is to you, but not just for protection. He trusts you in particular more than any other in this world.” She watched Lexan through reflection in the mirror. Lexan breathed deeply, sleeping.

“How would you know?” Eric asked.

“I’ve caught this impression from him a lot.” She touched her head in meaning.

“Yeah, I forgot you’re Blay’s kid.”

“Did you know Blay? I have a hard time imaging him, well any wolf, as my father.”

“Not well, but we crossed paths a few times. I heard he was a great fighter in the War, not that I was alive back then. Many breathed a sigh of relief when Blay died. The guy could flicker in and out of your mind and pull funny tricks. Damned scary stuff.”

Dead? She’d wanted to meet her bio-dad and try to understand what happened between him and her mother. Lexan hadn’t spoken about Blay in the past tense.

TC appeared, scratching wildly at his arms and cursing. His whole body came to a startling halt. A sneeze detonated, raining a shower of spittle down the front of his shirt.

Vee examined TC from afar. “What’s wrong with you?”

TC looked desperate. “Fucking Vanderburgs keep cats.”

“What?” She stared at his arms.

He held out his arms, which were rashed up to his T-shirt sleeve. Lines from his scratching welted up in horizontal streaks up his forearms.

“You’re kidding. You’re allergic to cats?” Vee bit back a laugh, but it broke free. All three of them laughed, the humor shattering their tension.

“Got any Benadryl left over, Doc?”





Chapter Eighteen


Lexan dragged a hand through his hair and pulled on a clean T-shirt. He yelled across the medical room to Eric, “You find any clothes for Vee?”

Eric held up a sweater and pair of jeans. “Donated by Vanderburg’s wife.”

For a frozen moment, she stared at Lexan. Everything she wanted to ask him about the two of them crowded into her brain, along with a demand he tell her about his condition. She couldn’t vocalize the words. Hearing he wasn’t 100 percent clear of silver would devastate her. Despite her diligence, his battle wasn’t over.

She accepted the clothes, mumbled “thanks,” and left to change in the half bath down the hall.

When she returned, dressed in the ill-fitting sweater and jeans, she looked around, baffled. “Where’d everyone go?”

Lexan said, “To the cars. I have a meeting we’re going to be late for, but attendance is a non-negotiable for me, not you.”

“You’re feeling…?” She didn’t want to know. Everything felt cold. Sure, the air-conditioning blasted air on high to combat the eighty-something outside, but the cool air froze her much deeper than an arm-hugging chill.

“Alive.” His unreadable expression scared her.

Trembling started in her arms and spread.

He took her hand. “Come.” He pulled her into the room across the hall from the hospital room and kicked shut the door. “You’re shaking like a leaf.”

“I’m f-f-fine.”

“Yeah, okay.” He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight to his chest. Her cheek fit into the nook beneath his chin as if they were made for each other.

Ah, sweet warmth. Wonderful warmth.

“You’re shocky, Vee. It’s going to be okay.”

“You don’t know that. None of us knows that. Ambrose… He would’ve killed me before your guys showed up. If he took me to Dominic after he did his mind-meld thing, I’d definitely be dead. You almost died. The war is going worldwide. All of it because of me.”

“The war isn’t your fault. It’s been active underground worldwide for at least ten years. We’ve been teetering on an edge of it being open warfare for decades.” He smoothed her hair from the crown of her head to her back. “You’re safe. I’m getting you out of the country tonight.”

Every defiant neuron in her brain fired at once. She struggled to get out of his grip without success.

“Shhh,” he said, hugging her tighter against him.

“I can’t go with you.” I won’t. But she wanted to. Good Lord, she wanted to stay right here with her head against Lexan’s hard chest forever. The girl who’d fought Dominic her entire life reared her independent head. She wouldn’t trade being under the thumb of one ancient being for another.

“Let me get through this meeting and then we’ll figure things out,” he suggested.