by Amanda Vyne
Gabe gently cradled her limp form against the length of his body, intently listening for the rhythmic pump of her heart. It was slow but steady. What the hell had he been thinking? He’d mishandled Kel from the first instant he saw her, binding them with blood without her consent and now blooding her when she obviously had lost enough from the slash in her side.
He glanced around him at the bodies that littered the concrete as the fury burst through him. He wanted to kill them all over again. Pressing his shirt against her side, he brushed his lips over her forehead and into her hair. Her skin felt cool and clammy. He needed to get her to her apartment. She needed fluids.
Tires squealed and he jerked his head up to watch two vans screech to a halt. Several people in gray overalls jumped out and froze, eyes scanning the scattered bodies before coming to rest on him and Kel’s pale limp body in his arms.
Two men stepped forward and Gabe darted his seething eyes from one man to the other, frowning darkly. The thick smell of the blood was disorienting, nearly overwhelming him, but he could easily discern the two distinct smells of each man’s aftershave. He could also smell the light, natural scent of females beneath their perfume.
Gabe’s eyes darted to the other figures in gray. Two women carefully stayed back as the men advanced another step.
What the hell was going on?
Shaking his head, he gave a short barking cough to clear the scents from his nose. The onslaught on his senses was overwhelming. Nauseating.
“Just lay the woman down and step back,” one of the men said in a calm voice, taking another slow step forward.
Gabe felt something dark and cold rush up into his chest, roaring through him. Making a low threatening noise, he bared his fangs at the man, who immediately stopped where he was.
No other man would touch her. Only him.
Cradling her closer he easily delved into her mind, their bond much stronger from the amount of blood he’d taken from her. The slow beat of her heart thudded in his ears, urging him to get her to safety. He’d need the image of her apartment from her mind to be able to shimmer them there.
Gabe was merged so deeply with her, he could feel her – her strengths and weaknesses, her fears and joys. It was a breach of trust, but he felt only a vague twinge of guilt as he quickly worked his way through her until he found what he was looking for. Concentrating, he clutched her close to his chest as they disappeared.
Chapter Eight
Kel came awake with a start, jerking straight up into a sitting position. The room spun around her, and she pressed a hand to her head. What the hell?
“Be easy.” The voice was low and rough.
Snapping her head to the side she saw a tall, lean figure bent over the sink in the kitchenette. She could hear the sound of running water. “Gabe?”
She was lying on the oversized sofa in her apartment. The room was cool and dark around her.
How long had she been out?
Kel struggled to remember what happened. They’d been ambushed by some Sanguen. Her hand lowered to her side and she could feel the bulk of the bandage beneath the cotton shirt. She’d been sliced up by a stinky bloodsucker. The only reason they’d been able to even get that close was because she’d been drugged.
Cowardly bloodsuckers.
Suddenly her hand whipped up to cover the side of her neck, and her eyes darted to the figure in the kitchenette. He’d shut the water off and stood, head bowed, powerful arms braced against the counter. She could see the wide expanse of his shoulders and back, the bare flesh rippled with his tension.
“How do you feel?”
His head was angled toward her, dark blond hair falling over his face to mask his eyes, but she could feel their weight bearing down on her. Her mouth felt like it was stuffed full of cotton balls, and her head seemed to just barely float above her neck. She was in no condition to have a physical reaction to him. Obviously someone needed to tell that to her body.
“Used and abused,” Kel shot out glibly as she struggled with the memory of why. He’d blooded her and brought her to one of the most intense orgasms she’d ever had in her life. She threw her legs over the edge and rose slowly to her feet, wincing and pressing a hand to her ribs. She could smell the faint scent of blood and frowned.
Was she still bleeding?
Damn, she felt as weak as a baby. She staggered forward and stopped to gain her bearing and then slowly closed the distance between her and the refrigerator. The cotton balls had to go. She swung open the door and pulled out a container of juice. Not bothering to locate a glass, she drank straight from the container. From the corner of her eye she saw Gabe raise an eyebrow.
He had turned around and was standing there all hot without a shirt on, his thick arms crossed over his chest. She appraised him over the length of the container, gulping down several swallows before taking a breath. He reached up, plucked a glass from a nearby cabinet, and extended it to her.
Kel snatched it out of his hand and filled the glass before replacing the juice in the refrigerator. She drained half of it before she finally spoke.
“If this is how you get girls to fall at your feet you need to work on a backup plan because quite frankly I’m too wasted for you to move on to second base.”
His gaze heated up and slowly descended over her before coming back to meet her eyes. He reeked of male arrogance.
Kel narrowed a look and pointed her finger at him. “You lose your smug privileges when the girl passes out from blood loss, buddy.”
Something hard and edged passed quickly through his eyes and the sleek muscles slid restlessly beneath the golden flesh of his shoulders and chest. She almost laughed. Well, wasn’t that interesting. The big bad Sanguen felt guilty.
“I apologize for that. I lost control. The fight weakened me and the smell of your blood…” He trailed off with a shrug.
Taking a small sip of her juice she raised both dark brows. “Oh, you mean the smell of the blood that was draining away from the gaping hole in my side? That blood?” Kel shook her head and lifted the glass to her lips again. “Your timing was for shit.”
Gabe pushed himself away from the counter and advanced a single step on her. The kitchenette was a tiny U shape that left very little maneuvering room. The heat from his body invaded her space and she had to swallow hard to get the juice to pass through the constriction in her throat as his spicy heat once again seeped in and over her.
“Perhaps, but the memory even now makes you wet.”
Kel choked and sputtered. He was right. Her body practically throbbed with the remembered sensation of his cock pushing against her pussy and his fangs buried in her neck. But she was certainly not going to give him the satisfaction of acknowledging any such thing.
“Dream on,” Kel scoffed but both of them knew the truth.
A slow, ultra male smile dragged at one corner of those lovely lips and backlit his green eyes with a carnal glow. He advanced another step on her, and she could feel the intense heat of him. “I can smell you.”
“Whatever.” Kel laughed, but his eyes were so intense she wasn’t so sure. Sanguen didn’t have that acute of a sense of smell, not enough to detect something so intimate. She could, but she was only half Sanguen.
Kel jerked as a sudden realization dawned on her. Bridging the last of the distance, she splayed one of her hands on his chest. He was hot. Her body immediately reacted to the feel of him beneath her palm. Well, he was hot but he was also burning up.
A Sanguen’s body temperature was normally low. They averaged a good ten to fifteen degrees below that of a human and twice that much lower than a Guardian. Gabe’s temperature was nowhere near what was normal.
His eyes calmly appraised her as she searched his face. He’d blooded her. Was her half Guardian blood having an adverse reaction on him? Would it burn him up like it had his partner? But his partner had taken from a full-blood Guardian. It was obvious that Gabe was having some kind of reaction.
“Are you okay
? You know, from my blood?”
GABE WAS MORE than okay. He could hear clear, concise conversations occurring in the apartment below them and down on the street. He knew the people in the apartment next to them had a cat and that, despite her worry, Kel’s arousal had intensified when she’d touched him. He could smell them both distinctly. He could also smell the sharp and sweet scent of Kel’s blood that still sluggishly wet the bandage over her ribs.
He reached out and gently feathered his thumb down the column of her neck and over the raised puncture marks where his fangs had slid into her. She’d been so fucking receptive. Her body flowing over his, the soft heat of her core melting over his fingers as her blood burned a path through him, over his tongue, satisfying the beast in him like nothing else. The memory caused a tightening in his groin but he ignored the sensation with a frown. She wasn’t healing. And her heart was still beating too slowly.
“I feel fine. Why aren’t you healing?” He knew she was a crossbreed. Half Guardian. Guardians healed at an incredible rate, almost within moments depending on the severity of the injury. Why wasn’t she?
Cupping her face between his hands, he felt a small tremor of fear course through him. She looked pale. Too pale. And cool to the touch. He realized he didn’t know nearly enough about Guardians.
They’d been almost like slaves for hundreds of years, treated like guard dogs by the Arcane. Guardians had been a reclusive race for thousands of years, choosing to retreat from civilization into the wild places of the world. Then the Triumvirate had started enslaving them, using them as bodyguards. They’d multiplied like mad, not suffering from any of the natural breeding limitations that the other Arcane did. Most crossbreeds were, in fact, half Guardian.
The Guardians established their own culture, collecting into organized clans. He knew they were very aggressive in certain situations, almost irrationally so. They were also incredibly cunning. But what of their physical limitations? He’d always assumed they didn’t have any but Kel was obviously weakened by something. What had they shot her full of back in the parking garage? Was that in some way keeping her from healing?
“Gabe, you don’t feel fine to me.” Her voice penetrated his concern and he blinked, focusing on the dark liquid depths of her chocolate eyes. He was more than a little surprised to see the blatant worry there and she’d used his given name instead of the sneering use of his last name as she usually did. The pleasure from that discovery eased his fear somewhat. Somewhat. But he was going to need answers before he was able to completely relax.
“Why are you not healing?”
“Forget my little scratch. Have you ever blooded a crossbreed before?”
He lifted her and set her on a stool. The fact she didn’t argue only increased his worry. She just sagged down onto the seat with a wince. “No,” he bit off distractedly as he lifted her shirt to check the bandage. It was just starting to bleed through. “Your little scratch still bleeds.”
“Never?” Her eyes sparked, ignoring his obsessing over her wound. “Are you crazy? We don’t know what that much Guardian blood will do to you. We need to get you to Dr. Mahoney.”
“Dr. Mahoney?” Gabe peeled the bandage back to look at the wound and his frown darkened. It didn’t look any better.
“Yeah. I think she needs to take a look at you.”
“She is a physician?” Gabe asked, his eyes catching hers. Perhaps this Dr. Mahoney could look at Kel and tell him why she was not healing. Assuring her safety was this irrepressible drive in him. His could hardly get past the need.
“Didn’t I just say that? I think she needs to see what kind of damage my blood is doing to you.”
Damage? Finally, Gabe caught up to what was causing her so much concern. She thought he was having an adverse reaction from blooding her? Her blood was certainly not doing any damage to him. They could not have been bonded if drinking from her would cause him harm. No, quite the contrary. Her blood streamed through him with a dizzying ferocity, strengthening his senses to an unprecedented height.
She, on the other hand, was weakening.
“Yes, we should visit this Dr. Mahoney.”
“Shimmer us to Incog. I know you’ve been there.” Her eyes narrowed on him as the truth dawned on her. “But you’ve never been in my apartment before. How’d you get us up here?”
He yanked his bloodied shirt on over his head, then turned and pulled her off the stool, using her request to shimmer them back to Incog as an excuse to wrap her up in his arms. She didn’t resist but did level one of those very dark looks he was growing to like. His answer was bound to anger her, and he couldn’t restrain the small half smile.
“I used your connection.”
KEL PUSHED AWAY from him when they materialized at Incog.
“You burglarized my brain?” She sputtered, glancing around to determine what part of the building he’d landed them in. She reached out and snagged his hand and led him down a corridor. “Don’t your people have laws against that or something? They have laws against everything else.”
She didn’t turn around to gauge his reaction to that comment. Making two turns, she came to an elevator. There was a pad next to the doors, and Kel keyed in her personal sequence of numbers and pressed her hand against the pad to be scanned. The doors slid open.
“‘Burglarize your brain’?”
“Hmmm,” Kel murmured as she punched the floor she wanted and leaned against the gleaming mahogany wall in the elevator. She felt completely wasted. After Dr. Mahoney was done with Gabe, she might have her infuse a couple units of blood. Somebody obviously wanted him dead, and since she had no intention of allowing him to be killed by a damn sicko who preyed on defenseless little girls, she needed to be in top shape.
She pressed her hand over the wound on her side.
That meant she needed to be able to heal herself.
When the steel doors slid open, she pushed herself away from the wall and started forward. They’d wanted to know what happened when a male Sanguen drank from a source that was just half Guardian. She glanced back at Gabe. His eyes were bright and alert, fixed on her with an unreadable expression. He hovered closely behind her as though he were afraid she’d fall over without him near. It seemed they were going to find out. She just wished the possibilities didn’t make her so nervous.
She could feel the excessive heat of his body. Was her blood burning through him like the Guardian blood had burned through his partner? Dr. Mahoney had described the bonding process as some kind of evolutionary measure nature employed to make the next generation badass. Surely it defeated the purpose to forge a bond between two people who were lethal to one another. What kind of black widow bullshit would that be?
The lab doors slid open and Dr. Mahoney glanced up from a microscope. The Irish woman was inexhaustible. She practically lived in the lab, sleeping very little. It seemed her clever little brain never quit.
“Sheridan, just the person I wanted to see. I just received the autopsy report on the girl you found in the park.” Her luminescent blue eyes quickly darted over Gabe before coming back to Kel with a frown. She ripped her gloves off as she approached Kel, gripped her wrist with two fingers and a glance at her watch. “What happened?”
Kel sighed in resignation as the doctor took her pulse and lifted her top lip to peer intently at her gums. It was a waste of time to argue with her.
“She is not healing. We were attacked, and they injected her with some kind of drug,” Gabe supplied and Kel shot him a dirty look.
Dr. Mahoney waved that away. “No drugs will be effective on a Guardian. They metabolize too rapidly.” Her quick hands lifted Kel’s shirt to peel back a corner of the blood-soaked bandage. Her eyes darted up to Kel.
She knew what Dr. Mahoney was seeing. She wasn’t healing at all and her wound still bled. For a Guardian, that was a death sentence.
Kel pressed the bandage against her ribs and held her hand there. “Forget this for now. Gabe took my blood and his body is reac
ting. He’s burning up and is showing signs of Guardian strengths.”
Dr. Mahoney swiveled her pale eyes on Gabe, and if Kel hadn’t been so seriously concerned about the medical effects of his blooding her, she might have laughed. Gabe shifted his body to a more defensive pose under the microscopic scrutiny of Dr. Mahoney’s eyes. She could definitely sympathize with him. The doc could make the fiercest men squirm with the slice-you-up-to-see-how-you-tick look that sometimes crossed her face.
Pulling a penlight from the breast pocket of her white lab jacket she advanced on Gabe, reached up to flash the light in his eyes. Gabe jerked his head back but didn’t move. “We’ll need a blood sample. A muscle biopsy would more clearly identify your metabolic response to the introduction of Sanguen-Guardian blood.”
This time Gabe stepped back and darted a glance to Kel. She nearly did laugh that time. “I think a blood sample would be a good start, Doc. Won’t it take a while before it shows up in his muscles? We need to know now if it’s going to burn him out.”
Dr. Mahoney blinked. “Yes, of course.” She turned her frown back on Kel, her acute eyes assessing her. “But I think we need to address you first. How much blood loss has there been? You know the ramification of rapid blood loss, Agent Sheridan.” The doctor’s pale eyes appraised the fresh bite mark on Kel’s neck before fixing her eyes on Gabe as she continued. “Too much blood loss too quickly can cause death.”
Kel glanced back at Gabe to see his lips thin and a muscle tick in his firm jaw. Dr. Mahoney was making a not so subtle point. Excessive blood loss too quickly was a dangerous situation for any being, not just Guardians. Besides, she was also Sanguen, and female Sanguen produced blood at a rapid rate. She felt like death warmed over, but she wasn’t going to die in the time it took for the doctor to examine Gabe.
