“It’ll just take a moment,” the taller one said, brushing her off.
She’d already known they weren’t hospital employees before that, but that was the final nail in the coffin. No one from engineering was going to tempt uncontrollable diarrhea for any amount of money.
They were at a standoff. They were going to have to go through her, and Andi had a sinking feeling they would try. Her hand reached for the red button on the call light; at least she could attract attention before they released something unholy out of Julian.
“I believe the nurse told you to go,” Damian said as he pushed through the curtain. He was in jeans and a soaking wet T-shirt that showed every curve of his muscles, and he looked entirely capable of violence.
The two men turned in surprise, and whatever was in one of their hands started clicking and wouldn’t stop.
“We…uh,” said the shorter one, trying to back up, only Damian was blocking his exit. Damian stepped aside, closer to Andi, letting him retreat. The taller one practically chased after him, the instrument they held clicking all the while.
Andi relaxed incrementally. They’d been about to do something to Julian. And as far as she was concerned, Julian was like a bomb, about to go off, for as long as he had that silver inside of him. She took Damian in—both her savior and the reason there was fucking weird shit inside of Julian in the first place. “So, did you give me your only coat?” she asked him. He smelled like rain and sweat.
Damian whipped his black hair out of his face with a hand. “No,” he answered, with no sense of humor. “I just came here the second I heard your message.” He stared at her, his expression cold, and his eyes dark. Andi swallowed, steeling herself to weather the brunt of his disappointment from the coffee shop.
“Those were the guys I saw the other night that I called you about.”
“I had a feeling. I’ll have Austin scoop them up. But, you called before that, right?”
She nodded. “I did. Because of this.” She stepped away from the bed, revealing Julian, waiting to read Damian’s expression.
His eyes went incrementally wider. “Who is this jackass to you?” he asked. “And what the fuck happened to him?”
“This jackass is my absentee brother’s best friend. As for what happened to him, I thought you had.”
Damian looked at her sharply. “What?”
“He said, and I quote, that my ‘ex-boyfriend fucking sucks.’ Seeing as my last man was a techbro who couldn’t have slapped a mosquito out of the air successfully, I’m guessing this was you,” she whispered. “What’s wrong with you?”
“We did have an interaction earlier tonight,” Damian admitted, frowning. “But I am in no way responsible for him being in this condition now.” He took a step back. “Is that why you called? Just to yell at me?”
Andi clenched her jaw. She wanted to believe him, but…. “No,” she said, moving to the head of Julian’s bed. She carefully twisted his neck, and…nothing happened. No silver came out. “Goddammit. It was right there. It was why I called.”
“What was?” Damian asked, his frown deepening.
“When he got here, I was watching him, and when he moved, some silver came out.” She traced the path it’d taken on her own face with a finger. “I watched it come out of his nose, Damian, and then I watched it crawl back in. It was fucked up. I can’t have everything here get blown up again. These people are my friends,” she said, gesturing wide to the hospital floor hidden behind his curtain. “That’s why I needed your help. I can solve all the shit wrong with his body, but I cannot fix that silver shit. Not again, and not in a human.”
Damian grunted, considering. “We’ve got to get him out of here.”
“Yes,” she wholeheartedly agreed. “But how? Did you bring the creepy pale guy with the lanterns?”
“No, but I can get him here,” Damian said curtly.
“Good,” Andi said, as her in-hospital phone buzzed again. It was CT; they were ready for Julian. “And even better,” she said, looking at her phone. “They want to scan him now. I can take him down there; it’s in the basement. You can do your mind-wiping thing, and then we can detour and you all can load him up.”
“And take him where?”
“I don’t fucking care, but he cannot release another one of those monster things here.”
“Are you going to come and care for him?” Damian asked, eyes narrowing.
Andi considered things quickly. “I would if I could, but I can’t. I’ve got another patient here, one who isn’t a ticking bomb. You just make everyone up here forget this admission ever happened, and I’ll go back to doing my job.” And then at the end of the rest of her hopefully very boring night, she’d get some answers from her uncle.
Damian took out his phone and texted the lantern-man, presumably, before glancing back at her. “So, why should we care about this one human’s life?”
Andi leaned forward, becoming pissed off. “Are. You. Kidding. Me?”
“Not in the least. He is…” Damian said, and she could watch him choosing his words carefully, “not a good person.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” Andi said, her voice rising. “Julian was the worst thing to ever happen to my brother! He’s a shitbird! But I’m a fucking nurse. You may not be able to keep him alive if something explodes out of him Alien-movie-style, but promise me that you are at least going to fucking try.” It’d never occurred to her that Damian might take one look at Julian and just give up. “What the fuck, Damian? I knew you were cold-blooded, but I didn’t think you were heartless.”
His eyes scanned over her, and she could see memories flickering across his face. “I tried to warn you about that when we were together last weekend.”
“Yes, well, I guess I didn’t want to believe you. But don’t worry, I do now.” She crossed her arms and hugged herself. He was so brooding right now, like some kind of dark god. It was hard to remember the man he’d been when he’d been with her, the man who’d laughed at her jokes—the man she’d felt move inside her.
His jaw clenched, and her phone rang again. She could see the call was coming from CT. “I’ve got to head down, are you ready?”
He glanced at his own phone. “Yes. Everyone’s in place.”
“Okay, then,” she said, then paused. “Wait, how did you even get in here? Did you use those sphere-things again?” She’d seen the way no one noticed the couch-sized wolves leaving, the last time he was here.
Damian snorted. “No. I may not be able to bribe security, but you can definitely bribe other visitors in the parking lot to add you to their visitation list.”
Andi closed her eyes and shook her head. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear you say that.” She pulled her badge off of her scrubs and handed it to him. “I’ll say I forgot mine and borrow someone else’s. Use this to get to the basement.” She moved to the back of Julian’s bed and grabbed the IV pole. “See you down there in five.”
* * *
Damian watched Andi go and moved slowly after her, giving her a head start. Her work uniform couldn’t hide her body from him, and she still smelled like the apple-caramel-saltwater girl of his dreams, but it was mixed with the spicy vetiver scent of the stranger from earlier in the evening. He stood in the doorway and contemplated chasing her down, either to kiss her or shake answers out of her—he wasn’t sure which.
Damian couldn’t believe he’d come all this way, and he still hadn’t asked Andi about aftershave-man—and here he was, helping her. With that asshole, no less. Damian’s mind flickered back to when he’d seen the man outside of Rax’s, wearing his coat. What the fuck had happened to the man—Julian, she’d called him—after that, and why? At the least, he was a liar. And at the worst…Damian shook his head strongly; he couldn’t let himself think about that.
He wound out of the room and went for the exit to the stairwell, using Andi’s badge to let himself in and took the stairs down to the basement quickly. He hadn’t seen any silver le
aking out of the man, but she wouldn’t have called him otherwise. No matter what he’d seen at the coffee shop or in the Tesla or was told secondhand, when he was with her, he wanted to believe the best of her.
And what was more, he wanted her to see the best in him.
It was when he was away from her that all his fears started crawling out. Between his history with the Realms and his temper, it was so easy to assume the worst and hurt her.
But here she was, acknowledging that someone was a total “shitbird” and she still wanted to save them. If she could want to save someone like the man who was on that gurney, how could he not believe in her as well? Because, if she had a choice in things, he knew she’d choose to save him too.
It…wasn’t the same as feelings. And definitely not love.
But she was someone he could be safe with. She’d seen him, truly, and she hadn’t been afraid. And he’d known it from the first moment he’d met her at the bus stop. She hadn’t been wearing a sign saying, “Here, trust me with your heart.” But somehow, his heart had known.
He’d told her he couldn’t afford to have one and tried to make himself sound gruff. Ever since then, he should’ve been trying to figure out a way to walk it back. He reached the last landing and paused in front of the last door.
He did have a heart. And no one else knew it.
And it wanted to be with her.
He swiped Andi’s badge and let himself back inside the building.
* * *
Damian met the rest of his crew and Andi in the next hallway, where Andi was explaining the plan to a disbelieving Austin.
“And so, we’re taking this man, why?” he was asking her just outside the corridor for CT. Max walked past him, the way he’d come, lantern swinging.
“Because!” Andi almost shouted, exasperated. “Seriously, are all of you assholes?”
“We’re not. And I get it,” Damian said as he arrived, handing her badge back over. “And,” to Austin, he said, “we’re taking him. We’ve imposed on Andi and this hospital enough.”
“Thank you,” Andi said vehemently. She took her badge back and finally looked relieved. Damian fought the urge to pull her to him and smooth a thumb across her worried brow. “What about those other two?”
“Zach's got them in the van. I'm sure otherwise he’d send his regards.”
“Are you putting them all in the van together?” she asked. “Is that safe? Considering what happened last time?”
“Probably not, but if something bad happens, we’ll make sure it’s away from here,” Damian said, gesturing to the pole beside her. “Does he need any of this?”
“No, it’s just fluids,” she said, disconnecting his IVs. “They said he may have a small bleed, and his lungs suck, but I know you’ve got a crash cart back home. If he dies on the way for some reason….” she said, looking grim again, “I think that’s just a risk we’ll have to take.”
“Fair enough,” Austin said, beginning to push the bed down the hall.
Andi watched him go and looked to Damian. “So, you’re going to tell me how things turn out, right?” Her voice echoed with concern in the small hallway.
“You really do care what happens to him, don’t you?” Damian mused aloud, and then considered the transitive properties of her caring. “You don’t even like him…but you still care.”
Andi looked up at him and crossed her arms again. “Don’t think I don’t see where you’re going with this.”
“I’m just assuming I rank a little higher than a ‘shitbird’ is all.” He narrowed his eyes.
Andi groaned and rubbed her face with both hands. “Damian, I’m the kind of girl who rescues spiders instead of stepping on them, so don’t go feeling too special on me.”
But, in this slightly enclosed space, it was easy for him to breathe her in, and he knew—for all her anger, for all her questions, and underneath the scent of some other man—she still wanted him. Wanted what they’d had together. Her pulse picked up at her throat as he took a step toward her.
She instantly backed up, wheeling the IV pole in between them. “You are still not safe.”
“Is safe really all it’s cracked up to be, princess?” The irony of her not feeling safe around him when she was the only person who made him feel that way was not lost on him. He licked his lips thoughtfully. “I can be safe for you, Andi. Truly.”
She bit her lips and didn’t answer, only her eyes searched his own, and then she shook her head and moved back down the hall. “I’ve got another patient; I need to get back. Just text me or something, will you?”
“Andi,” he called after her, but before he could say anything else, she’d turned the corner and was gone.
Chapter 15
Damian reluctantly jogged down the hall the way Austin had gone, cursing every bad decision he’d ever made inside. His dragon didn’t even bother to emerge to yell at him about leaving her—he was apparently doing a good enough job of yelling at himself already.
He reached the van just as Zach and Austin were finished loading Julian on the floor. The Hunters were already bound and gagged and buckled into seats. The taller one’s eyes were wide with fear, whereas the shorter one appeared more calculating.
“I took the liberty of searching them after I disabled them and put their phones into faraday bags so Jamison can scan them later at his leisure,” Zach said, gesturing to the Hunters as he got into the driver’s seat. “Not much on them, except for a couple of vials of stunning venom and this thing they were found with.” Zach tossed a contraption over to Damian, who caught it. It had a compass-like dial and made a soft clicking sound as he pointed it at Zach.
“Is it dangerous?” he asked.
“Not sure. I assume it can’t be if they let these two yahoos walk around with it, but who can say?”
Damian watched the needle in the dial swing from pointing to Zach to very strongly pointing to him. He moved it from side to side, but apparently, after finding him, the apparatus thought that he was true north. “We’ll have Jamison look at it then,” he said, as he latched himself in across from the Hunters. Julian and Austin were on the floor, between their feet.
“Ready?” Zach asked.
“Let’s ride,” Austin said, rapping his knuckles on the metal floor beside Julian’s head.
Damian watched the Hunters with a steely expression as the van took off. He didn’t enjoy torturing people, but it was one of the many things he’d had a tutor for, back in the Realms—his father had considered it a necessary part of his education. Now, though, he had Mills, and usually, her magic could suss things out…but no one else needed to know that. He leaned forward and pulled the tall one’s gag free.
“How many deaths have you been responsible for?”
Sweat broke out on the tall one’s forehead. “What do you mean? Me? No…you…you’ve killed people too. How many people have you killed?”
Damian’s lips puckered into a cruel smile that promised darkness. “You first.”
The tall hunter swallowed dry. “Not…not that many.”
Damian leaned forward, putting his hands on his knees, ignoring the way Austin worked on Julian, pulling his hospital gown aside to feel for broken ribs. “What would you say if I told you I could scent their deaths on you? Every single shifter or distant relative of an Unearthly creature that you killed.”
The shorter one shifted, clearly trying to say, “He’s lying!” around his gag. Damian glanced his direction.
“Am I? Try me,” Damian said, undoing his gag as well.
“Fuck you,” the shorter one spat, the second he was able.
“So, they send you through the hospital, eh? And you seek out the weak and the vulnerable, and then you mark them to part out later? Is that how this scam works?” Damian asked, shaking the thing they’d brought with them lightly. “You disgust me,” Damian said, letting some of his dragon’s power growl through.
“Don’t change here, man!” Austin said, sounding panicked—bef
ore winking at him where neither Hunter could see.
“Does this thing tell you what you’re dealing with?” Damian gestured with the contraption. “Or just the relative strength of what’s in front of you?” he asked, holding it out so that they could see its dial point at him and hear the clicking sound it made. Now even the shorter one seemed worried.
And then they hit a bump, and something sloshed. “Whoa,” Austin said, this time entirely earnestly, as everyone in the back of the tour bus looked at Julian on the floor. His appearance was changing. He was beginning to swell up—pregnant almost—like he was going to give birth to a monster.
“Zach, get us to an open space! Floor it!” Damian shouted. Zach glanced back in the rearview and then did as he was told, lurching the SUV forward so quickly everyone inside shifted back.
“Upgrading ammo,” Austin announced, moving to sit beside Damian, and reach behind him into one of their gearboxes to pull out a different clip—and a silencer. “We don’t have to try to save his life anymore, do we?”
“I think we’re off the hook,” Damian grunted. Would another lurker emerge—or something worse?
The Hunters looked between themselves and then eyeballed what was happening to Julian on the ground, his stomach still stretching as his ribcage started to snap. “You’re not fooling me!” the shorter Hunter shouted. “You’re just trying to scare us!” he howled, as Julian’s limbs started flailing as though he were possessed.
“That is simply not good,” Austin announced, switching the munitions in his gun out and screwing the silencer on.
Zach took a turn at speed and then another, and then they bounced over a curb and crossed rough terrain before he pulled on the brake and sent them rocking the other direction. “We’re here,” he announced.
“Where?” Damian demanded.
“Morcom Park. It was the closest open place I could think of.”
Dragon Destined: Billionaire Dragon Shifter Romance (Prince of the Other Worlds) Page 16
