War of Hearts(41)

Groaning, she bent down and picked up the handgun, releasing the magazine. Silver bullets winked in the light. Just as she’d suspected. These weren’t for her.

Hearing Conall moving across the barn toward her, she turned and showed him.

He stared fiercely at the bullets and when his eyes finally met hers, she saw confusion and something she didn’t quite understand burning in his pale gaze.

Feeling a bullet lodge itself a little deeper into her back, hot blood soaking her shirt, Thea dropped the gun. “Uh … we need to get to a bathroom.”

Conall reached for her, spinning her around. “Jesus fuck, Thea. How many?”

“Five, but one in my arm and another in my shoulder were through and through. There are three in my back.”

He reached for the hem of her top. “Let me—”

“No!” Panic suffused her at the thought of him tending to the wounds. “I can do it.”

Anger radiated out of the wolf and he gave her a clipped nod. “I need to bury the bodies in the woods. Can you wait?”

Waiting sounded a whole lot of not fun, but Thea knew they needed to cover their tracks. She nodded.

Conall was remarkably fast and efficient, though he wore a grim expression as he buried the wolves who had been sent to specifically kill him and capture her.

He came back, their rucksacks in hand, looking pissed and distracted at the same time. “Let’s go.”

Sweat trickled down Thea’s temples as she followed him out. As they walked into the yard, she could feel a bullet move deeper with every step. She wasn’t going to make it into town.

“We need to find an empty farmhouse or something.” She ignored the pinching pain all over her back.

“Aye, your back is soaked in blood.” He grimaced. “If someone sees you, we’re done for.”

“Well, it looks like it might be our lucky day,” she said with more glibness than she felt as they walked out of the farmyard to encounter a road. It appeared to lead straight into town and across it were two houses nestled among the trees.

Conall hurried them toward the houses and pushed her behind a tree. “Wait here while I check things out.”

As she waited, Thea reached a hand behind her neck, sliding it beneath her shirt where she felt a bullet in her shoulder. Tweezers would be good, but this bullet wasn’t lodged too deep. She dug her fingers in, wincing. Thea yanked it out just as Conall reappeared.

He eyed the squashed silver bullet in her blood-covered hand and shook his head.

“What?” she snapped, growing irritated by the pain in her back. Her irritation, however, fled at the expression in Conall’s usually icy eyes. There was something warm in them.

“You’re tough as leather, lass.”

Annoyed by the prickle of pleasure she felt at his words, she rolled her eyes. “Admire me later. Do we have an empty house?”

“Aye. This way. But we best be fast.”

“It would really not suck if you’d stop stating the obvious.” She hurried after him, up a gravel drive toward a quaint family house with a red-tiled roof.

He pushed open the front door, which he’d clearly broken during his reconnaissance of the property. “No alarm, if you can believe it.”

Thea studied the cream carpets as he strode right on in. “Well, some people aren’t expecting a werewolf and whatever the hell I am to break into their house.” She wrinkled her nose. “Where’s the bathroom?”

“Come in and see.”

“No. I need to whoosh there, so I don’t get blood on the carpet.”

Understanding, Conall strode farther into the house and returned seconds later. He handed her a small black cloth bag. It was his first aid kit. “Down the hall, last door on the right.”

Thea found what she needed in the kit. She used forceps scissors to dig all but one bullet out. Sweat coated her skin as she tried to bend her body to reach the bullet that had lodged deeper than the others right in the middle of her back. Realizing they were running out of time, she decided she’d have to leave it until they got to safety in a hotel somewhere.

The other bullet holes closed over and she cleaned them up as best she could. Bandaging over the hole made by the bullet she couldn’t get to, Thea then searched her rucksack for her last shirt. She pulled it on and stuffed the bloody one into the backpack. Once she’d dressed, Conall came into the bathroom to help her clean up any evidence of their presence.

Her heart rate kept up a fast pace as they hurried into the town. The Scot had to remind her to slow her steps. They had to appear casual. Thea thought it a shame they were venturing into the picturesque Saxon town of Wilsdruff under such circumstances. As they walked across the cobbled town square, she ignored the way people stared at them. Or Conall, to be specific. There was no way to make him inconspicuous.

“We need to get out of here,” he grumbled. “And I dinnae want to steal a car.”

“You may have to abandon your scruples on that one if they don’t have a bus station.” Thea winced as a sharp pain shot through her back. A sign for accommodation caught her eye. “We need to stop, anyway.”

“We cannae,” he said, matter-of-fact and annoyingly bossy. “We need to keep moving in case the girl gives our description to the authorities. I wouldnae blame her after what we did to her parents.”