by Lauren Dawes
‘I didn’t see anyone in the alleyway with her,’ Indi replied holding his gaze. When he looked away, Indi looked back at his partner.
‘She’ll need stitches. It looks as if she was thrown pretty hard against something hard. She probably has a concussion too. We’ll take her to Buxton Gen. They’ll more than likely do a rape kit on her just to make sure.’
Indi nodded, but her eyes were fixed on Beth. She brushed some of her hair away from her face and Beth’s eyes squeezed tight and released before fluttering open.
‘Indi?’ she asked groggily.
‘Beth, I’m here. I’m here,’ she repeated, grasping her hand.
‘Where am I?’
‘My place. The paramedics are here. They’re going to take you to hospital.’
‘What happened?’ she groaned.
‘I’m not sure. I found you in an alleyway passed out.’
Her eyes widened almost on their own accord. ‘Was it the rapist?’
Indi swallowed down on the lump in her throat. ‘It may have been. I saw a guy running down the street before I found you. We’ll know more when we get you to the hospital, okay?’
‘Are you coming with me?’
Indi looked up into the woman’s freckled face. She nodded, but Indi couldn’t be in an enclosed space with all that blood yet. She was barely holding on by the skin of her teeth being in her apartment as it was. ‘I’ll meet you there, okay? I have to change first.’
‘Why?’
‘I’ve got your blood all over my clothes.’
Beth frowned. ‘Okay. Will you call my mother?’
‘Sure I can,’ she replied, although she knew exactly how that conversation was going to go.
‘Darryl, can you bring in the gurney?’ the EMT asked.
The two paramedics lifted Beth onto the gurney while Indi squeezed her hands into fists. Beth was wincing and moaning with every single jostle, and Indi wanted to hurt the people who were causing her the pain. They wheeled her from the room, walking towards the less-than-safe elevator down to the foyer. When they were safely aboard, Indi went back to her apartment.
As she passed James’ door though, she knocked. She still hadn’t figured out what had happened, but maybe James had a doppelganger he didn’t know about in town. When there was no answer, she returned to her apartment, sliding the dead bolt across after her like she always did.
‘Can I come out now?’ Rhett asked from behind the bathroom door.
‘Sure. Bring the first aid kit with you. It’s under the sink.’
Rhett came out of her bathroom shirtless. She’d given him a baggy pair of sweats from Jerry’s stash of clothes before the paramedics arrived. It was a band-aid job just until they could get him home to get some proper clothes.
‘So, what are you?’ Indi asked, dabbing hydrogen peroxide onto Rhett’s wound.
‘I’m a werewolf,’ he replied without taking his eyes from hers.
Indi nodded. She’d decided that she wouldn’t flip out yet. She’d get all the facts and make an informed decision. Rhett was a werewolf. The evidence certainly pointed to that, so she accepted it even though they were supposed to be things from fairytales. She swallowed down on the cold lump that had formed in her throat whenever she thought about what she had become. She wasn’t human anymore that was for damn sure. ‘And, what am I?’
He winced before saying, ‘You’re commonly known as a half blood, but to us, you’re a félvair.’
She stopped cleaning the wound. Nox had called her a half blood before when he fed from her. ‘And what is that?’ she asked, not taking her eyes off her work.
‘Half human, half vampire. You’re a hybrid of the species.’
She met his gaze. ‘What?’
‘Your mother was human, your father a full blood––a full-blooded vampire and an Incubus.’
‘What’s an Incubus?’
Rhett swallowed hard like he was thirsty, only reminding Indi that she was thirsty. ‘An Incubus is a very rare species of vampire. They are lust-feeders. They can influence humans and vampires sexually. They need sex to live, and occasionally, they impregnate human females who give birth to half bloods.’
She nodded although her thoughts about everything were a tangled snarl. A vampire? They weren’t real. But Nox had said he was one too. Was he a full-blooded vampire or a half blood like her? Like her? She laughed a little, but there was nothing happy about the sound.
‘What?’ Rhett asked gently.
She shook her head. ‘Is that why I could smell your blood; why I wanted to drink it?’
He dropped her gaze, breaking the spell of his body and his scent instantly. Eventually he nodded. ‘You transitioned tonight when you killed that man and drained his body. Your new body craves blood. Full bloods can drink from a human, but the blood is weak, and eventually it weakens them; kills them.’ Indi stared at him, feeling him in her blood, knowing that he wasn’t being completely honest with her, but she let it go.
‘What do they drink then?’
‘They usually have a mate—a female or male—they can drink from.’
‘What about me? Do I need to have a mate?’
‘No. Half bloods can drink from humans.’ The words or people pretending to be human were left unspoken, but she could see the longing in his eyes. His eyes slipped colour; morphing from sky-blue and pistachio to ice-blue and emerald and back again.
‘What happens if I don’t?’ she asked dabbing the wound, giving it more attention than it needed.
‘You die,’ he replied softly, looking at her from under his lashes. She watched as his eyes slipped colours again.
‘Why do your eyes keep changing colour? It happened in the café before too.’
Rhett gave her a sad smile. ‘That’s my wolf. His eyes are a different shade of green and blue to mine. We share a body and sometimes, when I’m angry or stressed, he comes out.’
She cocked her head to the side. ‘Are you angry or stressed now?’
He laughed softly. ‘No. It’s just curious.’
She switched the hydrogen peroxide for a strip of gauze and some medical tape. ‘You might need stitches,’ she said around tearing the tape with her teeth.
‘It’ll heal, just a little more slowly than normal. I’ll be fine.’
Securing the last strip of tape onto the square pad, she sat back on her haunches and studied his face.
‘What are you thinking?’ he asked gently.
‘I don’t know. Everything I thought was impossible—everything that I thought I knew—has been shattered.’
‘Surely you knew you were a little different. Before you transitioned, you were stronger than you looked, tougher than you looked—a fighter. Most half bloods know about their existence before they transition. When one is born, the full blood who fathered the child would assign a Guardian for them throughout their lives. I don’t know why your father didn’t assign one to you though.’
‘Who would my Guardian be?’
He reached his hand to her cheek, brushing the back of his fingers across her skin softly and dropped it. ‘A werewolf from the local pack is usually assigned.’
‘Do I have one now?’
‘Yes,’ he replied softly. ‘I’m your Guardian Indi.’
She sucked in her bottom lip, thinking. ‘Have you been following me when I’m out by myself?’
‘I’ve been trying to,’ he replied. ‘You weren’t supposed to realise that was what I was doing.’
Seconds lapsed into minutes. ‘Is that why I feel so comfortable with you?’ Indi looked up to find Rhett’s eyes hooded. Her body instantly responded to that. ‘Rhett?’ she asked again.
He shook his head, scrubbing a hand down his face. ‘I think so, yeah.’
Dropping her gaze back to the first aid kit, she started putting the bandages and creams away. ‘Did you know the vampire we killed in the alleyway tonight?’
Rhett didn’t answer for a long time. Eventually he said, ‘His name was Nox.
He was three hundred years old and the leader of a society called the Sicarii. They are like the law enforcers for the vampires. Creating a half blood was forbidden over five hundred years ago by the Vampire Queen Eirawen. They answer only to her since she created them. That tattoo of the viper you saw is the emblem of the queen.’
‘Like a branding?’ Indi interrupted.
‘Of sorts. Eirawen decreed that any full blood found fathering a half blood was to be killed. The Sicarri are assigned to different Vampire Kingdoms around the globe to patrol for rogue full bloods or pretrans half bloods.’
The silence pressed against Indi’s skin, forcing her to digest all that information. She knew she was different. She knew that she was stronger than other girls. She knew that the colour of her eyes were for a reason. Amethyst was not a human colour.
‘What are you thinking now?’
She didn’t want to tell him what she was really thinking, so she lied. ‘I’d better call Beth’s mother and get myself to the hospital.’ She stood up and started to collect the blood-stained swabs. She stopped suddenly.
‘Rhett?’
‘Hmm?’ he murmured. She looked over his shoulder instead of at that perfect body of his.
‘How long will you be with me?’
‘Forever Indi,’ he replied; his finger under her chin drew her face up to his. He stroked her cheek, that same look of longing back on his face. She wanted to ask him why he looked so sad, but before she could he slid his phone into her hand and curled her fingers over it. ‘Call Beth’s mother. I’m going to take a shower.’
*
It took all of Rhett’s self control not to turn back to her and kiss her again. He wanted to—Christ, how he wanted to. But that would have been such an epic mistake. He couldn’t afford to get any closer than he already was. She’d only just found out half the truth about who she was. She knew that she was a half blood, but she didn’t know that the pull she felt to him were the beginnings of her addiction to him. She also didn’t know that in exchange for the protection he was to offer her, she would have to donate her blood in order to make the females of the pack conceive female offspring.
If Marcus got his hands on her, she would be dead within the month. That fucker tended to not feed the félvair once within the confines of his house. Like a cow, he used them until they had nothing left to give. And then he killed them. His hand cranked down on the handle of the bathroom door, sending it twisting in his grip. He shoved inside her miniscule bathroom again and shut the door.
He inhaled deeply and went still. There was a scent in there that stirred his wolf. He’d noticed it when he’d first walked in there, but he was too worried about Indi losing control while she spoke with the EMTs. Looking around, he spotted a pile of clothes behind the door and crouched down. The smell of coffee and Indi’s shampoo and skin covered most of the clothes, but as he lifted more pieces off the pile, his wolf became more agitated. He kept rifling through the pile until he came to a pair of black work pants. Lifting them to his nose, he recognised the scent: blood. The pants were stiff from the knees down and a growl trickled out of his throat when he recognised the smell of the guy from the café—Wright, he thought his name was.
Vaile had told him about the prick coming into the station to make a complaint against her. They thought his version of events were a little sketchy, but when he was admitted to hospital with his hand removed later that evening, they thought he had a pretty strong case. A little further investigation revealed his hand in the dumpster behind her building, and these bloody pants were the piece of evidence that confirmed what Rhett had thought all along. He smiled remembering how she’d threatened to remove his hand if he touched her again. He guessed that the bastard just hadn’t listened.
Rhett’s blood was suddenly on fire. If she’d taken his hand that meant that he had touched her again. His chest vibrated again, his protective instincts flaring to life. He had touched her, touched the girl that belonged to him. Fuck that. He was going to kill the bastard, or at least make him have an unfortunate accident sometime in the near future.
‘Fuck that,’ he growled again, turning on the water in her miniature shower. How in the hell was he supposed to fit in this thing, he wondered. Stripping off the sweatpants she’d lent him, he put them on the closed lid of the toilet and got under the spray. It felt good to be washing away all the grime, sweat and blood from his body.
With the help of the water, he peeled the gauze Indi had taped to his side off his skin. She’d cleaned it well, helping along the healing process that had already started. He scratched his ribs and rinsed off, stepping out of the cubicle and grabbing a towel to wrap around his hips. Half of him wanted to go out there like he was now. He wanted to claim her with his body, with his blood. The other half of him—the self-restrained, human part—wanted to put the clothing she’d provided him with on and take his ass home after he’d taken her to the hospital. He looked into the mirror above her sink and stared at his reflection. He was her Guardian now. Compromising that position—that trust she had in him—would be shattering.
With a curse, he slid his legs back into the sweats and rubbed the towel through his wet hair before going out to see her again.
Chapter 32
Indi didn’t know how long she’d been staring at the phone in her hand for, but it felt like a lifetime.
‘Did you call her?’ Rhett asked. He was still shirtless, his hair damp from the shower he’d just taken. The gauze she’d taped to his side was gone, the wound just a pink, puffy line on his skin.
‘You’ve healed,’ she said, staring at his side.
‘Yeah. It’s a werewolf thing. Did you call her?’ he repeated his question.
‘No.’
‘Why not? Are you trying to work that thing with your mind? Technology’s not that advanced yet.’ Rhett said. ‘Do you want me to dial for you?’ She gave him an unfriendly look. He put his hands up defensively. ‘Fine, but if you want to get to the hospital, you have to call her before we can go.’ He jerked his chin in the direction of the bathroom.
‘Fine,’ she snapped, marching into the bathroom and slamming the door behind her. She sat down on the closed toilet lid and exhaled. What was Mrs White going to say? How in the hell was she supposed to tell her that her daughter, the girl Indi was supposed to protect from harm, was now in hospital.
With a knot in her stomach, she dialled the number and put the receiver to her ear.
‘Hello?’
‘Mrs White?’
After a long pause, she practically growled, ‘Indigo. Beth’s not here. She’s taken her father’s car without permission.’
‘I know,’ she replied hastily. ‘She was with me,’ she lied.
‘I knew you were the one leading my daughter astray.’ Indi bit her tongue. ‘So where is she?’
‘She’s in hospital.’
‘What?!’
‘She’s in hospital,’ Indi said, shifting off the toilet lid to pace a few steps. Guilt was squeezing the knot in her stomach. She was the one who was supposed to keep Beth safe, and she’d failed. Clearing the lump in her throat, she added, ‘She asked me to call you. She’s at Buxton Gen.’ Indi hung up the phone.
Rhett was helping himself to her fridge when she came back out again.
‘Help yourself,’ she muttered. Rhett grinned around a mouthful of leftover Mac and cheese. ‘I’m still healing.’ He swallowed the mouthful. ‘Are you ready to go?’
Indi cradled her head, suddenly feeling not so well. ‘I think I need to sleep first. Give me an hour?’
‘Sure.’
*
Indi woke up the next morning curled up on her bed. When she moved to get off the bed, an arm twisted around her waist and the heat of another body registered with her brain. When she looked behind her, she found Rhett resting peacefully.
‘Five more minutes Ind,’ he murmured, stretching his arm across her again and pulling her in closer to his hips.
She wanted to get up,
to go to the hospital—a place she should have gone about six hours ago, but laying there with Rhett felt too good. Then she remembered how terribly Beth must have been feeling and she pulled away from him. Half an hour later they rolled into Buxton Gen and found Beth’s room.
She had a concussion, bruises, contusions on her face and back and five broken ribs. The cherry on top of all of that was that her virginity had been stolen from her. Everything else would have healed. She would have been just the same as she had been in about six weeks, but her virginity was never coming back. Indi wanted so badly to kill the bastard who’d done that to her again, but that was the problem; death was final, except in her case.
‘Indi,’ Beth smiled.
‘How are you feeling?’
‘My ribs hurt.’
‘I’m not surprised.’
‘They want to do a rape kit on me,’ she all but whispered.
Indi’s heart sunk. ‘Standard procedure.’ She tried to keep the hurt and anger from her face.
‘I’m scared.’
‘Don’t be Beth. It’ll be fine. Has your mother come in yet?’
‘She stayed with me all last night. I told her to go home and get some rest. Did you come by last night? I’m sorry if I was asleep when you were here. They had to sedate me to reset some of my bones.’
Indi waved the apology away just as the door opened quietly, causing Indi to glance towards the sound. There was a nurse standing in the door, a giant looming shadow behind her. ‘Beth, the police are here.’
