by Tina Folsom
“Okay,” Manus said.
“You wanna lock her up in the meantime, given that she’s a bit volatile right now?” Aiden asked, pointing at Kim while he helped Manus up.
When Manus caught Kim’s frightened look, he shook his head. “We’ll take her to the infirmary with us. Leila can check her out, make sure she didn’t get hurt in the fight.”
“Infirmary?” Kim asked, uttering her first word since Aiden had launched his dagger at her. Having escaped certain death had obviously stunned her into silence. She stood up stiffly, apprehensive about what would come next.
“You have nothing to worry about. Nobody here is going to hurt you, even if you don’t want to believe that right now,” Manus said. “But you will.”
Once he had figured out how to tell her what she’d gotten herself into, and who he and his compound mates were. Because now that she’d traveled through one of their portals and was in their compound, he had no choice but to tell her the truth. How his brethren would take that news was an entirely different story.
By the sound of more men rushing toward them, it appeared he’d find out very shortly.
19
Believe him? Yeah, maybe Kim believed Manus that he wasn’t going to physically harm her. After all, he’d just thrown himself in front of a dagger meant for her. But did that mean she would also believe whatever explanations he was going to serve up for the things that had happened?
Kim had no time to think on that any further because two men raced toward them just as she’d taken a few steps to join Manus and Aiden. Already on edge, she stared at the two young men. Her heart stopped, and the small hairs on the back of her neck stood up. The two men carried sharp daggers, the same kind Aiden had tried to kill her with.
Fight or flight? That was the question. Flight it was because the two looked bloodthirsty. Their eyes glared red, and their lips had peeled back from their teeth, revealing long, pointy canines: fangs.
“Where’re the demons?” one of them yelled, still charging toward them.
“Did you leave us any?” the other added.
“No demons,” Aiden answered rather calmly.
Heart still pounding, Kim shrank back, taking a couple of steps, when Manus’s hand on her arm stopped her from retreating any farther.
He glanced at her. “They’re with us.”
She shook her head. No, this wasn’t real. Nothing of this was real. She’d probably hit her head in that secret passageway when she’d been tossed around.
“But Pearce said you were fighting with an intruder,” one of the bloodthirsty men said.
The two stopped in front of them, their eyes normal now, but their sharp teeth still protruded from their mouths. There was no denying it. “Vampires,” Kim murmured to herself, trying to shake herself out of this nightmare.
“Put your fucking fangs away, guys. You’re scaring our guest,” she heard Manus order in an authoritative tone.
And just like that, the fangs of the two bloodthirsty monsters turned into normal teeth, making them look entirely human again. She blinked. No, she must still be dreaming.
“Hybrids, actually,” Manus said in a more soothing tone. “They are half vampire, half human.” Then he stared at one of them. “Grayson, I need you to go with Aiden and teleport to the strip club’s portal and find out if any demon followed us there.”
“Sure thing,” the half vampire, half human Grayson said with a rather charming grin.
“We’ll be back soon,” Aiden promised. “Ryder, bring Manus to Leila and make sure she takes care of his wound.” He turned halfway, then stopped and pointed at Kim. “Oh, and watch this one. She’s got a habit of shooting people.”
“I don’t—”
His get real look was meant to shut her up.
“It’s not a habit,” Kim called after him, incensed. “It was one time. One fucking time!”
Manus tugged at her arm. “Let’s make this time the last time.”
To her surprise, the beginnings of a smile curved his lips upward. For the fact that she’d just shot him and that his arm had to hurt like hell, he was surprisingly conciliatory.
As they walked along the corridor, Kim stayed as far away as possible from the vampire Aiden had called Ryder. He seemed to have noticed her apprehension because he cast her a sideways look and smiled.
“I don’t bite,” Ryder said.
“Ryder!” Manus ground out. “Bad joke, really bad joke.”
Ryder dropped his head. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it the way it came out.” Then he shrugged and looked at Manus. “You could’ve prepared her. I mean, why bring Kim here and not warn her about us? Kind of a dick move.”
At the sound of her name, Kim stared at Ryder. “You know who I am?”
“Yeah, sure, you’re Nancy Britton’s daughter. I was there when you met Manus at that café. But you probably didn’t see me.”
“Excuse me?”
“Yeah, when he was using his charm to make you think your mother’s death wasn’t related to anything super—”
“Shut up!” Manus cut him off, his voice sounding hoarse now.
Too late. She’d already heard enough. She stopped walking and glared at Manus, who looked rather pale now. “So, it was all a lie! You killed her, and you tried to make me believe that crap about the air conditioning system.”
Manus opened his mouth. “I didn’t k… The demons…” His voice died. Suddenly, his knees buckled, and he collapsed.
If not for the super-fast reaction of the hybrid vampire, Manus would have crashed to the floor. But Ryder caught him, then stared at her, stunned. “What’s wrong with him? This shouldn’t happen.”
“He must have lost more blood than we thought,” Kim said, feeling a little guilty for what she’d done.
Ryder looked at the back of Manus’s arm. “No exit wound. The bullet is still inside.”
With Manus in his arms, Ryder started running down the corridor. “Follow me!” he ordered without looking over his shoulder.
She could try to escape now, but something held her back. Instead, she looked at Ryder’s disappearing form. “Ah, fuck it! In for a penny, in for a pound.”
Kim charged after Ryder, worried she might lose him in the maze of corridors he was navigating, carrying Manus’s two hundred pounds of muscle like he was a feather. Maybe he was really a vampire like they’d all claimed, like she’d seen evidence of, because no human had that kind of strength.
Finally, Ryder stopped and kicked a set of double doors open. Kim followed him into the large room. What she saw wasn’t what she’d expected. The room was a mini state-of-the-art operating theatre any hospital worth its salt would have licked its chops for.
A woman in her late thirties, wearing a white doctor’s coat, was waiting for them. Had somebody already notified her that they were coming? “He’s out? What the hell?”
Ryder was already placing the unconscious Manus onto the steel table, the overhead lights glaring down at him, emphasizing the paleness of his skin.
“Something’s wrong. Bullet’s still in his arm. But he shouldn’t have collapsed. It’s just a flesh wound,” Ryder claimed.
“I agree,” the woman said, then briefly looked at Kim. “I’m Leila. I’m his doctor. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of him.”
Kim nodded, her heart tying itself into a knot. Damn it, what had she done? Suddenly, her suspicions about Manus, about him being the one who’d broken into the storage facility, and about him being behind her mother’s murder, weren’t quite as strong anymore. What if he wasn’t the bad guy here? What if he’d just been trying to help her like he’d promised?
A tear suddenly stole itself down her cheek. She wiped it away quickly but caught Ryder’s look on her. He didn’t make a comment, and she appreciated it. Suddenly, he didn’t look that menacing anymore. He looked kind and full of concern for his friend.
Kim stepped closer and watched Leila work quickly and efficiently on Manus’s bicep. “So much damage. Must
have been a large caliber,” Leila murmured.
“Just a nine-millimeter,” Kim said.
“How would you know?”
“Because I shot him.”
Leila lifted her head for a moment, meeting Kim’s gaze. Then she shrugged. “Well, Manus can be a bit of a jerk sometimes.” She took a pair of metal pliers from the tray next to her and dug into the wound. “Got it.”
The sound of the bullet dropping into a metal bowl felt like a ton of weight dropping off Kim’s shoulders. But her relief didn’t last long.
“Oh shit, do you see this?” Leila asked, turning her face toward Ryder while pointing at the bullet.
Ryder perused the bloody bullet. “That can’t be. That’s impossible. We’ve gotta get one of the guys in here to confirm.”
Leila shook her head. “There’s no time. This isn’t a commercial bullet. It’s been hand-cast. If that bullet was made from metal from a weapon from the Dark Days, he’s gonna die.”
Die? Kim felt her throat constrict, her heart pounding as if it was trying to escape the confines of her ribcage.
“Ryder, you’ve gotta save him. There’s no time to lose.” She pointed to Manus’s wound. “If we let this fester, it will infect his blood and spread through his body. It will poison him from within just like silver would poison you.”
“Fuck!” Ryder hissed and extended his fangs.
Shocked and frightened, Kim shrank back when she saw the transformation from human-looking to vampire. “Oh God!”
Ryder didn’t even look at her, too intent on his task. With his fangs, he pierced his wrist, then held the bleeding wound over Manus’s wound.
“No!” Kim screamed. “You can’t just turn him into a vampire!” Because by now she had accepted what Ryder was, even though she had no explanation for it. But if the common lore was true, then a vampire’s blood could turn a human into one.
She reached for Ryder’s arm, but the first drops were already dripping into Manus’s open wound. It was Leila who stopped her from interrupting Ryder by snatching her wrist.
“It won’t turn him. He’s not at the brink of death yet. But if we wait too long, if his heartbeat drops too low, he will turn. It has to be done now.”
Kim let out a shaky breath. “He’ll stay human? You promise?”
Leila’s eyes widened. “You don’t know? He hasn’t told you?”
Fear choked off her air supply. “Told me what?”
“Manus isn’t human. He’s an immortal Stealth Guardian.”
“Not human?” Kim shook her head. “But—” She pointed to him lying on the gurney, his chest barely moving. How could he be immortal when just a moment ago Leila had said that he could die?
Leila seemed to guess her next question without Kim having to voice it. “There are few weapons that can kill a Stealth Guardian,” Leila explained. “I believe that bullet is one of them. Where did you get it?”
“It was my mother’s,” Kim said automatically. “She kept the gun to protect herself. I took it when I…” Oh God, did it even matter now what she’d suspected Manus of? What were a few lies? Did whatever deception he’d used on her really matter now when his life hung in the balance? “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
Leila squeezed her shoulder, then looked back to Ryder and Manus. Kim followed her gaze. Ryder had stopped dripping blood into the wound and was now prying Manus’s mouth open to make him drink directly from his wrist.
When Kim saw Manus swallow, Ryder finally looked at her and Leila. “We need to wait now.”
20
Manus felt as if he’d been drawn and quartered and then slowly been sewn together again. At least the lingering pain meant he was alive. And the reason for it appeared to be the metallic taste in his mouth. He recognized it: vampire blood.
He opened his eyes. Glaring hospital lights shining down on him blinded him for a second. Quickly, he turned his face to the side and sat up.
“Look who’s awake.”
He turned his head toward the female voice. Leila rose from her chair and placed her book upside down on the table.
“I feel like shit. How long have I been out?”
“Couple of hours.”
That surprised him. “Did somebody knock me out while I wasn’t looking?”
Leila chuckled. “You could say that. Your girlfriend shot you.”
“I know she shot me. And she’s not my girlfriend,” he added quickly, not wanting any misunderstandings to crop up.
“Sure.” Leila shrugged.
“Well, go on. What else happened? I wouldn’t have passed out from a mere gunshot wound. It’s ridiculous. I’m made of sturdier stuff than that.” And passing out in front of Kim was embarrassing as hell. There had to be a good reason for it.
“Of course, you are. But the bullet wasn’t an ordinary one. Somebody must have melted down a dagger from the Dark Days and forged bullets from it. Hence that bullet almost killed you.”
Manus’s heart raced. “Fuck!” He ran a suddenly trembling hand through his hair. “Did Ryder…?”
She nodded. “He drenched your wound in vampire blood and then made you drink some more. It worked.”
“Guess I owe the kid big time.”
“Yes, you do,” Ryder said from the door, strolling into the room as if he owned the place. A confident smile on his face, he approached. “Good to see you’re up.”
Manus shook his hand. “Thanks, bro.” It was the first time he’d called him what he called his Stealth Guardian compound mates. Ryder was like a brother to him now, somebody he could depend on with his life.
Ryder’s smile widened. He understood. He was truly part of the gang now. “Anytime, bro.”
“Where’s Kim?” Manus asked.
Ryder tilted his head toward the double doors. “Pearce and Aiden are interrogating her.”
Manus jumped off the gurney. “Interrogating? What the fuck?”
“Well, they said it’s warranted under these circumstances.”
“What fucking circumstances?” Manus growled.
“Let me see,” Ryder said and lifted one hand, raising his thumb. “First and foremost, she shot you and you nearly died.” He now added his index finger, counting off. “Secondly, from the video footage Pearce pulled when you guys exited the portal, it didn’t exactly look like you brought her with you voluntarily. And thirdly, she clearly had no clue that you’re not human.”
“Who told her that?” He should have been the one telling her the truth and not somebody else. He owed her that much.
“I did,” Leila said firmly.
Manus opened his mouth to let her have it, but she cut him off instantly.
“And before you shoot your mouth off: she needed to know. She was worried about you. She thought Ryder’s blood would turn you into a vampire.”
That stopped him in his tracks. He stared at Leila. “She was worried about me?”
Leila nodded. “And very sorry that she shot you.”
Manus tried not to be too obvious that this was a relief to him though it was. Kim regretting her actions meant there was hope. Hope that she would listen to him now, and that she would forgive the lies he’d dished up.
“Where are they holding her?”
Ryder motioned to the door. “Aiden and Pearce are in one of the offices with her. I’ll bring you to them.”
~ ~ ~
Kim huffed in frustration. Pearce and Aiden had told her shit about what was going on. Instead, they’d been interrogating her for over an hour. As if she were a criminal! Asking her the same questions over and over again. Why she’d followed Manus. Whether she’d told anybody that she would be following him. Truth be told, right now she wished she’d called her friend Jennifer and told her about her plan of following Manus, at least then somebody would be looking for her.
Question after question Aiden and Pearce bombarded her with. They were particularly interested in the gun she’d used to shoot Manus. The gun she’d taken from h
er mother’s bedroom. She answered truthfully; still, they didn’t appear to be satisfied.
And whenever she asked questions of her own, they were stonewalling her.
They told her nothing about the two vampires she’d encountered, the demons she’d heard them talk about, or about Leila’s claim that Manus wasn’t human. Their answers were always the same.
“We’ll get to that later.”
“When?” she asked.
“When we can confirm your story with Manus. Once he wakes,” Aiden said.
She shivered at the words. Did he mean if? “But Manus already told you who I am.”
“Your identity is not in question,” Pearce interrupted and tapped on a manila file folder in front of him. “We know who you are. What we don’t know is if you’re compromised.”
“Compromised?” She furrowed her forehead, not understanding. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Pearce leaned closer. “Don’t you think it’s a little odd that a woman like you managed to follow Manus without him noticing and jumped into a portal right after him? As if you knew what to expect. We find that a little suspicious, don’t we, Aiden?”
Aiden nodded. “Pretty fearless of somebody who claims she suspected Manus of being the bad guy.”
Kim pounded her fist on the table. “I’ve been an investigative journalist for several years. That’s what I do. I follow bad guys. I investigate shit!”
“Well, not here, you don’t,” Pearce said.
“Yeah, and exactly where is here?” she snapped.
“That’s not for you to know,” Aiden said.
Kim scooted back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest. “Well, if you don’t tell me anything, then I’m done talking too. I want to see Manus.”
“We decide when you’re gonna see him,” Aiden said, sounding very protective of his friend.
“Actually, I’m the one to decide that.”
Kim whirled around in her chair to look at the person who’d spoken: Manus. He stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. A bandage covered his bicep, but he looked better. Color was back in his face, and his eyes appeared clear and alert.
