by Moira Rogers
The kid’s world was likely tilted sideways. Even if he didn’t know or understand it, the steadying presence of an alpha would settle anxieties he’d never had before. «Did he also tell you that he’s been getting cozy with Kat?»
«He did. Does it bother you?»
Alec sighed and closed his eyes. «It’s a messy situation. Your brother’s a new wolf, going through a lot of shit, and Kat’s… Well, she’s pretty determined to take care of him. But I’m worried maybe it’s not for the right reasons.»
Carmen kissed the corner of his mouth. «No getting involved in other people’s relationships. It’ll just make them mad and you crazy.»
Alec curled his fingers around the back of her neck, holding her steady so he could meet her gaze. «He’s one of mine now, Carmen. It’s not because I want to be involved, or I like being involved. New wolves and relationships can be trouble. Knowing that, worrying about that — it’s always going to be who I am.»
That gave her pause. «Are you worried about his safety? Hers?»
«I’m worried…» He struggled to put the indefinable into words. «Shapeshifter mating is about bodies, and bodies are the least important thing to us. They heal. Maybe that makes broken hearts hurt that much more. We forget we’re not indestructible.» With the fragile curve of her neck under his hand, his chest ached. «We forget that a human woman can still destroy us.»
Her sympathy flowed over him. «Because we’re not indestructible either?»
«That’s part of it,» he acknowledged, but for once he hadn’t been thinking of his wife. He was thinking about Miguel, awash in the well-meaning concern that Kat had never been allowed to heap on Andrew. Then again, maybe a telepath wasn’t in danger of misunderstanding. Maybe the swelling anxiety had more to do with the woman he held in his arms.
Losing Carmen would hurt. She didn’t need to die to break something inside him. All she had to do was walk away.
«Alec.» She mirrored his gesture, sliding her hand under the back of his neck. «Trusting someone, sharing yourself… It’s a risk, not one anyone has to take, but the alternative is a terribly lonely one.»
«I know.» With her lips so close to his, it was easy to kiss her. Slow, deep. He stopped fighting for words that would never come out right, that would never be articulate enough to give voice to things that weren’t very human. Instead he felt it all, and knew she’d understand.
Carmen made a soft noise and smiled against his lips. «Me too.»
There was a crazy sort of peace in a woman who knew his heart, even the dark places, and still wanted to kiss him.
Chapter Sixteen
Julio protested as he coasted to a stop in an empty parking spot along the curb. «We’re already late, Car.»
«This’ll just take a second,» she promised, already unbuckling her seat belt. «I promised Franklin I’d drop these papers off yesterday, but I didn’t get a chance.» She’d been too busy trying to figure out how to approach the situation when she confronted her father and her uncle.
«You know Cesar. Any excuse to say you’re disrespecting him.»
Carmen wished she could deny it outright, but part of her relished the opportunity to make him wait, wanted to seize it. «He deserves a little inconvenience, especially on the clinic’s behalf.»
Julio drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. «You want me to come in with you?» She flashed him a forbidding look, and he laughed. «Fine, I’ll stay here.»
«Thank you. I don’t need someone holding my hand every second of every day.»
«Is Franklin even still here?»
«His office light’s on.» It glowed through the frosted window at the back of the building. «His car’s still here too.»
«Lily must have stopped by after work to keep him company.» He nodded through the windshield to the dark-gray BMW parked around the corner.
«Don’t worry, I won’t get stuck talking.» Though it wouldn’t hurt to let Lily know that Alec had invited her over, so she didn’t plan on being home for the weekend.
«You’re blushing.» Her brother’s eyes narrowed. «Why are you—? Oh God, I don’t want to know, do I?»
«Shut up.» She climbed out of the car and bent inside for her bag. «I’ll be right back.»
The street was quiet even for the late hour, but there never was much traffic on the nights when the clinic closed early. Even Franklin should have been home already, but Cesar’s complaints and harassment had lengthened his already considerable workdays.
Carmen’s heels clicked on the sidewalk, and she smoothed her palm over the lightweight fabric of her pantsuit. She’d wanted to attend the meeting in her grungiest jeans, but she had to be reasonable. More than reasonable, because she and Julio had to pick up the slack left over from their uncle’s irrational behavior. It left no room for pettiness, justified or no.
She stumbled and barely caught her balance. At first, she thought she must have tripped over jagged concrete or broken a heel, but a wave of emotion crashed over her a second later, nothing short of mind-numbing, inescapable terror.
She stood there under the streetlight, trying to make sense of the fear holding her riveted to the spot, knees shaking. The metallic taste of blood filled her mouth, though she couldn’t tell if she’d bitten her tongue or if something more sinister was happening, if her body was ripping apart from the inside.
A car horn blared, familiar. Her own. Then Julio’s voice, barely cutting through her petrified haze. «Carmen! Carmen, get dow—»
The glass doors of the clinic exploded with a roar that drowned out her own heartbeat. Time stopped, seconds stretching into a strangely frozen moment where everything was silence, the concussed hush of eardrums under so much pressure they can’t even conduct noise. Her mind catalogued it and marveled even as broken shards rained down, cutting through the stillness.
A weight jerked her to the ground. Julio. He grabbed at her, and she realized she was flailing, trying to crawl across the glass-strewn walk.
«You can’t go in,» he yelled. «There could be structural damage. We have to wait for the fire department—»
If he’d survived the explosion without life-threatening injury, Franklin might be fine. But Lily… «She won’t make it. I have to, Julio.»
«No.» He dug his phone out of his pocket and put it in her hand, folding her numb fingers around it. «Call 911. I’ll find them.»
«Julio—»
«I’m trained, Carmen.» His voice was steady, even. «I’ll find them, and I’ll come get you.»
She swallowed her protest and nodded. «Be careful.»
It took her two tries to dial the numbers, and she answered the dispatcher’s questions in a fog, her gaze fixed on the dark hole that used to be the clinic’s entrance.
An eternity passed before Julio reappeared, dusty and coughing. «I found Franklin.»
She was on her feet already, the phone forgotten in the grass. «Is he—?»
«He’s hurt, bad. Come on.» He led her through the clinic, a path already picked out among the glass and debris. «There’s no fire, but I’m not sure how stable the building is. I’d have brought him out, but shit.»
Franklin was on his back, eyes open and feverishly clear in spite of the bloody mess of his body. «Lily. Where is she?»
«I’m going to find her,» Julio promised, already moving down the hallway. «If you need me, yell.»
Carmen ripped at Franklin’s shirt. «What hurts? Your legs?»
«Eight-seven-zero—» He coughed, air rattling in his chest. «Write this…Sera’s number. No one else knows.»
You call her. The words wouldn’t come. There wasn’t always a chance, and insisting there was didn’t help. «I’ll remember it. Eight-seven-zero,» she prompted.
He delivered the rest of the phone number in a relieved whisper. «I’ve never called her. I was afraid — afraid he’d move them if he knew I’d found her.»
Franklin lay in a rapidly spreading pool of blood. His best chance — his only chance — was for he
r to stop it. Carmen repeated Sera’s phone number like a mantra as she shoved a filing cabinet out of the way and dragged open the supply closet. Pressure bandages and an IV, and the rest—
The rest would have to wait.
She dropped the supplies beside Franklin and began to cut open the legs of his jeans. «Tell me about Sera.»
«Her mother left when she five.» One of Franklin’s hands curled into a fist. «I was no good at raising a little girl.»
«You were there.» The superficial wounds on his legs had already begun to heal, but the bones beneath them were misshapen. They’d heal badly and have to be broken again, reset, but she couldn’t help that. «Where does Sera live?»
«Arkansas.» He hissed in a pained breath and started to lift his shoulders. «Lily — I need to find her.»
Altered mental status. Carmen pushed him back down, firm but easy. «My brother’s looking for her, remember? Julio. Did I tell you he’s a firefighter?»
Franklin’s brow furrowed, but he relented. «Sera’s in Arkansas,» he whispered. «The bastard she married took her there when she was seventeen. Getting the law involved was too dangerous.»
Too dangerous because they asked too many questions — and she’d just called 911. «Shit.» She hadn’t dealt with an emergency in New Orleans that hadn’t been funneled through Franklin first. As far as she knew, he was the one everyone called when they needed a doctor.
So what happens when the EMTs show up and load him up? What happens when they watch him heal under their hands like he is yours?
She fumbled in Franklin’s pocket for his phone. The screen was cracked, with inky black blobs stretching across it, but the keypad worked.
She dialed and, halfway through the first ring, Alec’s voice filtered through the crackly speaker. «Franklin? What the fuck is going on? McNeely just called.»
At least someone had alerted him. «It’s Carmen. I’m here at the clinic. Franklin’s injured, and we’re still looking for Lily.»
«Carmen? Christ, you’re breaking up. Where are you?»
«At the clinic,» she repeated. «I’m with Franklin, and Julio’s searching for Lily.»
«Already on my way. There’s…» The speaker crackled, distorting his voice. «…going to take Franklin somewhere safe.»
Relief steadied her hands as she tucked the phone against her shoulder and began to dress the still-bleeding wound on Franklin’s side. «I called 911.»
A horn blared on the other end. Alec swore. «I’m five minutes away. Madden might get there first. You can» Another crackle, longer this time, and when Alec’s voice came back it was fuzzier. «Carmen?»
«I’m here. We’re» A crash from the back of the building cut off her words, and fear flared anew. «We have to get out of here.»
«You’re in the clinic? Get the fuck out, Carmen, right now—»
The phone beeped as it dropped the call, but another crash drew her attention. There was no way Franklin could walk, even if he could stand, and a wheelchair would never make it through the busted block, fallen light fixtures and sheetrock that littered the hall.
A clatter and a shout echoed around the corner, and Julio came into view, Lily cradled in his arms. «She’s unconscious. Go outside with me and check on her, and I’ll come back in for Franklin.»
«I can’t leave him.»
Franklin’s hand shot out and curled around Carmen’s wrist, hard enough to bruise. «Go. Call Sera,» he rasped, a command in no way tempered by the weakness of his voice. «Tell her I need her. Go.»
Not a command at all. A plea. «Okay.»
Carmen followed close behind Julio, moving as quickly as she could. The sooner they got out, the sooner he could bring Franklin, and then they’d be safe, and nothing else would matter.
Sirens wailed in the distance, and Julio hurried across the street with Lily. «Stay over here,» he instructed. «No matter what happens, don’t come any closer.»
Carmen dropped and reached to help him lay Lily out on the sidewalk. «I’ll stay put.» Help was coming and, even if something went wrong, going back inside would do no good.
He nodded and took off again, running across the street with more speed than he should have possessed.
Lily stirred, her eyes fluttering open only to close again, and a quick check revealed a nasty bump on her head and a gash on her cheek.
An ambulance arrived first, a tall, bulky man hopping out of the back as it coasted to a stop. His gaze fell on her, then dropped to Lily. «You Mendoza? Alec Jacobson said you were here.»
Alec had said something— «Madden?»
A short nod. «One of the dispatchers recognized the address and pulled some strings, but we don’t have a lot of time. Need to get anyone who’s supernatural and injured out of here. The first cops on the scene will probably be ours, but we can’t control something this big.»
She looked down at Lily. «She’s human, but Franklin Sinclaire is inside. My brother went back in to get him.»
Madden crouched next to Lily. «If she’s his girlfriend, we need to bring her with us. Won’t be able to settle him if we don’t.»
Carmen squeezed her eyes shut. «Of course. I don’t know what I was thinking.» Except that she wasn’t thinking, not with her brain pulling her in three different directions. «I’ll help you.»
The driver’s door of the ambulance clicked open, and boots hit the ground lightly before a vaguely familiar feminine voice cut through the night. «I got this, Madden. Go get Franklin.»
A strong hand landed on Carmen’s shoulder for just a moment. «There’s a secondary location waiting. Franklin had it set up a few weeks ago. Maybe he’s got a little precog in him, huh?»
Or Wesley Dade had instructed him to do so. «Someone does.»
Madden squeezed her shoulder, then rose and bolted across the street, moving so fast his form was a blur. The woman who’d spoken before appeared at Lily’s side, a sturdy blonde Carmen had seen at the clinic from time to time. «Hey, Doc. Help me get her loaded up, would ya? Madden’ll get the others out.»
Together, they eased Lily onto the backboard, and Carmen stabilized her neck while the blonde — Diane, maybe — made room in the back of the ambulance. They lifted her into the vehicle, and Diane climbed in after her.
Tires screeched behind them. Brakes squealed. The stench of burning rubber preceded a slamming door, then Alec appeared at the back of the ambulance, eyes as wild as the dizzying press of his emotions.
Relief sent Carmen tumbling into his arms, relief and a need she hadn’t known existed until just then. «They’re still inside. Julio and Franklin and—»
«Shh, it’s okay.» Warm hands smoothed over her hair. «What happened? Tell me what happened.»
«I don’t know. An explosion. Julio told me to get down, and it just — it blew up.»
«Franklin?»
«He’s hurt. They’re going to take him to another clinic.»
Alec frowned and glanced at Diane, who shrugged one shoulder without looking up. «Don’t ask me. I didn’t know Franklin had a backup facility until Madden told me.»
«Madden’s inside?»
Tension and fear spiked inside Diane, strong emotions that went wild at the mention of her partner’s name. «It’s only been a few minutes. Maybe—»
A loud noise that sounded like a pop shot through the night, and the building groaned as part of it folded, collapsing in on itself with a shudder. Carmen lunged, a scream caught in her throat, and Alec’s arms locked around her body, unyielding as steel. «Carmen, no.»
Either Julio had lied about the threat of fire or something else had happened, because orange fingers of flame began to lick out of the clinic’s ruined facade. «Alec.»
«Stay here.» He released her, only to strip off his jacket and shove his keys and phone into her hands. «I can try to find a way in.»
Fear melted into terror, but she didn’t have time to voice her protest before Diane stepped in front of them both. «There they are.»
The EMT led the way out of the smoke with Julio just behind him, Franklin balanced on his shoulder. Madden carried an IV bag, and Diane rushed to meet them with a collapsible gurney as more sirens pierced the night.
Julio’s shirt was ripped, and the blood soaking the fabric didn’t all belong to Franklin. «What happened?» Carmen asked.
«The ceiling fell.» He winced as she pulled his shirt away to reveal a gash across his back. «A beam almost caught us.»
Alec eyed the ambulance, then his truck. «We need to get the fuck out of here. Where’s this second clinic?»
«Outskirts of town, near the airport.» Madden spoke from where he sat, hunched over Franklin. «You three follow behind us.»
Alec was already urging Carmen toward his truck. Normally, she would have fought to ride along — she was board-certified in emergency medicine, for Christ’s sake — but this wasn’t a normal situation. Her boss and her best friend lay in the back of the ambulance, and she couldn’t treat them with the same necessary detachment as the EMTs. «Okay, we’ll follow.»
She ended up in the front of the truck, wedged between Alec and Julio. Pain, fear and tension made the front of the cab nearly unlivable as he gunned the engine and followed Diane. One cop car careened around the corner toward them, but Alec’s stream of curses cut off abruptly when a dark arm thrust out of the window and waved them on. «McNeely. He’ll cover as long as he can.»
Julio peeled off his shirt, and Carmen helped him tie it into a makeshift bandage around his wound. «What will he tell the others?» she asked.
«He’ll figure something out. McNeely’s quick on his feet.» The truck swerved as Alec took a corner too fast. «There are a few like him scattered across the city. Your brother probably knows.»
«Like hell,» Julio said. «If there was some sort of underground supernatural cover-up system in Charleston, no one ever clued me in.»
Ahead of them, Diane flipped on the ambulance’s siren, clearing a path. Alec frowned as he took the next corner. «Maybe Reed takes care of it.»
«No idea.»
It could be a measure of how far out of the supernatural loop Julio stayed — or an example of just how much Alec did in New Orleans in the absence of any official leadership. «I can’t even worry about any investigation right now,» Carmen whispered. «I only need them both to be okay.»
