Midnight Moonrising (Moonrising #2)(118)

He stared at it for a moment, astonished by the single drop of liquid. He couldn't remember a time in his life when he'd cried about anything, but he'd never experienced this much emotion about any one thing, either. Mena was going to be the death of him. The amount of pain and suffering he was enduring could surely kill even an immortal at some point. Mena didn't have to go through this forever, though, and he knew she would if he didn't do as Ace had requested.

Two more tears hit the paper as he made up his mind about what he needed to do.





Chapter 59



Mena





There was a loud commotion coming from the front of the house as I was strapping the last of the weapons to my body. My head jerked over to see that Ace's eyes were focused intently on me, as they had been since I'd returned to him from seeing Phoenix.

"Is that your pride?" I said. "What are they shouting about?"

He shrugged as he walked to me, then helped me sheathe the last dagger, being careful not to touch the silver. "Who knows? Maybe they're just excited they get to go kill a few *s. We don't have quite the drama in Las Vegas that you seem to have here."

I frowned at his mention of Las Vegas. I knew that was where he lived, but I was sort of hoping I could change that. His eyes focused on mine, waiting for me to say something. Panic started to rise in me at what his answer might be if I asked him to stay. I couldn't leave, and he couldn't leave without me. What were our options?

"Mena!" Roel's voice thundered from the hall, and I ran toward the door just as it burst open. He was near hysterics as I touched his arm, and then I quickly jerked it back and looked down at my red-stained fingers.

"Roel, what happened to—?"

"It's not me," he said, breathless. "Someone beat the hell out of Rhodes."

"What?" I shouted, and then flew by him and ran up the hall to the living room.

"He's not immortal until he accepts the moon in three nights. They ran him off the road. He managed to call me before he passed out, but he couldn't say anything except where he was. I found him thirty feet from his Jeep…" One of his hands shot out and he pointed down at a very beaten and bloodied Alex Rhodes. Well, at least I thought it was Alex. "…like this," Roel finished.

I knelt by Alex's side as Lea brought over some hot water and a cloth to clean him up. His face was barely recognizable it had been beaten so badly. Both his eyes were swollen shut, his nose was broken and his lips were split and bleeding in three places. An arm and one of his legs were mangled so aggressively that I was afraid to touch him. "Alex, can you hear me?"

He moaned a little. That was a good sign. I hoped.

"Move!" I heard Phoenix bark from the crowd of people behind me. He dropped to one knee beside me as he rolled his shirt sleeve above his wrist then his fangs elongated and he pierced the skin.

Just as he held his wrist to Alex's lips, I knocked his arm out of the way. "What are you doing? He's lycan. You'll kill him!"

"It won't kill him, Mena," Phoenix said, and positioned the dripping blood over Alex's lips again. "The venom kills. The blood heals," he said after Alex swallowed then licked his lips.

"It's true," Ace said. "Our blood will heal a vampire bitten by a shifter, too. I've seen it done."

Phoenix's body tensed for a moment then he turned his head to look at Ace. "What did you say?"

"Shifter blood will cure a vampire if it's bitten by one of us. The venom kills. The blood heals."

Phoenix shot to his feet and grabbed Ace's arm, pulling him with him toward the basement door.

I looked to Lea. "Stay with Alex, and let me know if anything changes," I said, and then ran to catch up with the crowd who had followed after Phoenix and Ace. Shoving my way to the front, I reached out and took Ace's other hand, instantly feeling our angst reside. "Where are you taking him, Phoenix?"

"I have a very sick vampire who should have been dead weeks ago from a bite by one of your rogues. For some reason, April is still holding on." He pushed through a door I had never seen and we all walked into a room that smelled of death and decay.


A petite ginger-haired girl with red-rimmed, green eyes looked up from where she was seated. In the bed beside her lay a girl with white hair and pale gray skin. The girl appeared too young to have that color hair. I supposed the lycan venom had pulled all the pigmentation out of it. She looked dead. If it wasn't for the shallow rise and fall of her chest, I would have bet money that she already was.

The girl beside the bed looked alarmed and concerned that twenty shifters had walked into the room with her master. She actually looked like she was about to bare her fangs and take on the whole room. She flew around to the other side of the bed, placing herself in between the shifters and her friend.

Phoenix held out his hands. "Relax, Alhana. They are here to help April. Hopefully."

"What are they going to do? Nobody is killing her! They will have to kill me first!"

"I swear nobody will hurt her, Alhana. You have my word. Please… step back."

"Tell me what they are going to do!" she screamed.

"Shifter blood heals a vampire bitten by a shifter. The longer you keep them from her, the longer it will be before you can hug her again."