My chest still heaving, I walked over to the side of Nolan’s hospital bed and climbed up into it, trying to catch my breath. His huge frame filled the entire bed. I had to straddle him.
And I could feel, as our bodies came into contact with each other, how very close to death he was. His usually hot skin was cold to the touch. The bandages wrapped all around his chest were red-soaked, wet and tacky and getting darker every second. “Oh, Nolan,” I mumbled over and over. I placed my hands carefully on either side of his face, stroking the scruff on his cheeks. A tube was stuffed into his mouth and down his throat. It connected to one of the machines and was doing his breathing for him. I had to take it out. Nolan needed to drink my blood, and he wasn’t going to do it with that thing in his mouth. I went ahead and just grabbed the tube and wrenched it up and out from his throat before I could overthink what I was doing. A deep, gravelly gaspiYENAThe knocking on the door stopped but then the voices got louder and more frantic. They were panicking, listening to the machine that was telling them their patient had stopped breathing.I gulped in a huge inhale, covered Nolan’s mouth with mine again and blew every bit of breath I had into him. “Come on,” I begged when I came up for air. “Please wake up, Nolan.”And just when I started to seriously doubt that my prince would ever breathe on his own again, he did.His eyes opened first. And then he gasped. The sound was dry and frightening.“Nolan! Oh thank Goddess, you’re alive!”He coughed, gagging, as he tried to exhale. My hands were clasping his face. His next breath was a little better but still stertorous. His eyes flickered around my face, recognizing but not recognizing me, and he whispered hoarsely, “Yena. Is that really you?”The ecstatic relief that was washing over me allowed me to burst
Nolan swooped me back up into his arms and carried me into the shower. The hot water poured down over both of us, sending rivers of blood off our bodies and down into the drain. It felt wonderful, even healing, but it did make me even sleepier too.He set me down on a white marble bench and set about rinsing off his own face and hands first. Then he brought over a bar of soap and a bottle of shampoo and carefully knelt on the stone floor in front of me.“Can I wash you?” he asked politely. It seemed like a funny thing to be so courteous about, after the way he’d just thrown me around and broken furniture underneath me, but that was Nolan. A beast sometimes, and a perfect, charming gentleman the rest of the while.I smiled and nodded. Nolan wiped the blood away from my face first, planting sweet kisses on my skin after it was clean. Then he shampooed my hair, his long fingers massaging my scalp in a way that started putting me into a trance. He soaped up my
Nolan found Yena was awake when he went back into the bedroom. She was seated cross-legged in a chair at the dining table and devouring a piece of chocolate cake.“You’re up.” He smiled and made his way over to her, stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head. “I’m glad you’re eating. I just heard about how you ran all the way here from the airport.”Yena finished licking frosting off her fork and set it down. Took a sip of water, wiped her mouth, and smiled. “I was just thinking about that too. I can’t really believe I did that. It was just instinct, though. I didn’t even think about it.”Nolan sat beside Yena, absentmindedly stroking her back as she continued eating.“I’ll tell you this,” she continued, “food has never tasted this good in my life. I was so, so tired.”“I’ll bet. I drank a lot of your blood, Yena.” He frowned, looking pensive, and gently swept her hair back over her shoulder, inspecting the bite wound on her neck.&nb
ADANKerr descended the ladder into the bunker, grunting at every rung. “Clarice is on her way,” he said when he got to the bottom. “She has Soren with her. And three humans.”Adan had been using a very sharp knife to slice up some cured meats. He finished his task before he then took the knife and stabbed it hard into the wooden cutting board with a WHACK!“Three humans? That was all they could get between the two of them?”“I asked her about that.” Kerr put the sat phone back in its charger. “She said they had to get rolling before they caught a tail.”“Who was on her?” Adan arched an eyebrow at Kerr. “And is she sure she wasn’t followed?”“Asked that, too. She said yes, she’s sure she lost them. As far as who it was…”“Gamma warriors?”Kerr frowned. “No. She doesn’t know who, though. Said she didn’t see them.”Adan considered this for a moment. “What’s their ETA?”“Ten minutes out.
YENAI woke to the smells of breakfast and the distinct sound of TV news reporters talking.Nolan wasn’t in bed. I rubbed my eyes, sat up and looked around. He was over by the TV, standing right in front of it, his body tense and still.“What is it?” I asked, my voice raspy with sleep. “What happened?”He wheeled around and immediately headed over to the bed, meeting me at my side. He sat on the edge and gave me a quick, soft kiss.“I’m sorry to wake you up like this. But some humans went missing overnight. I’ve got to get dressed, meet my team and start dealing with this.”My brain was still waking up. “Missing? How many of them?”Nolan glanced back at the TV. “At least a dozen have been reported so far. I’d bet even more were taken, their absence just hasn’t been noticed yet.”“Taken? By whom? Adan?” I’d answered my own question while stuttering through it. Nolan nodded. “I know it’s him. I just hope
NOLANLuna drummed her fingers on the table as Nolan spoke.“Only the five of us will go up first, on foot.” Nolan stood at the head of a long mahogany table, gripping the back of a chair. His mother was at the other end, and seated along the sides were his top strategists. At the very back of the room, one of his mercenaries stood with his arms folded across his chest, leaning against the wall.They had been planning for hours, poring over maps, deciding positions and double checking that they had thought through all possible outcomes and how to prepare for each.There was no guarantee that Adan was still in this area they had pinpointed using Lucy’s phone. Adan’s phone had stopped updating its location several hours prior, probably having lost service or battery. But this was their only lead, and it seemed like a good one.“Adan will be able to hear vehicles coming from a long way out. We can’t tip him off, give him a chance to flee, or
ADANThe first thing Adan heard was a very faint sound, what could have been the patter of bipedal footfall overhead.That was when he knew they’d been discovered.He warned his comrades immediately but they hardly had any time to react before their fortress was breached.The air pressure changed when the hatch had been opened, letting in the cold night air and the smell of fresh pine. Then a thud told Adan someone had dropped from the surface all the way down the entrance passage. Then another. And another.A tall werewolf with a huge ugly scar down his face rounded the corner into the open center area of the bunker, and suddenly they were engaged in a firefight. Adan was first to fire, pulling the trigger of his pistol twice as he ran backward for the corridor. He aimed for center mass but hit the intruder in the shoulder instead.The man hardly reacted. He growled, jerked his shoulder back and sprayed the room with b
YENAIt had been hours of sitting in silence with no updates, no nothing, and I was edging into panic on the inside.Outwardly, I kept my cool. I reminded myself several times that Nolan was the one doing the truly difficult work right now. All I had to do was play the waiting game.It was just an awful, terribly long time to wait, and I was not in very pleasant company.I was inside a small tank that was idling at the base of the mountain. Six Gamma warriors were in there with me, including the driver.We were waiting for Nolan’s signal. He’d insisted on total radio silence until he called and said it was time for backup.The Gamma warriors sat tall with straight spines, their knees at ninety degree angles, their booted feet flat to the floor. They were still as statues and just as silent. I focused on breathing steadily, telling myself to be patient.The day grew dark as the hours passed. Storm clouds rolled in and cas