They entered the penthouse at a dead run. Jenna found herself weaving through a crowd of people, twenty or more, as Bas rushed Nic into the bedroom, where Elena had already set up her work area.
Elena ignored Bas and Jenna entirely, running her hands along Nic’s body while four very young women, each dressed in a flowing white muslin robe, moved in and began removing his ruined clothing.
Jenna lunged toward the bed, desperate to do something to help her lover, but found herself wrapped in a pair of warm, irresistible arms.
“Let me go,” she gritted out as Bas held her tight. “I promised not to leave him.”
“Shhh, pretty One.” She struggled for all she was worth, but Bas’s arms were like living steel, and there was no escape. “Let the Healer do her work.” His voice was meant to be soothing, but Jenna heard the tension and worry underneath.
Somehow his vulnerability broke through her frantic rage, and she shifted in his hold, wrapping her arms around his waist to comfort them both.
“She’ll save him, won’t she?” Jenna hated the doubt in her voice. Now wasn’t the time to lose faith. Nic needed her to be strong.
“If anyone can, it’s Elena,” Bas replied. “She saved you when I was sure it was a lost cause, and Nic is much stronger…” He trailed off as the girls attending Elena formed a circle around Nic, fingertips touching his body as they harmonized in a low, soothing chant. The healer skimmed her glowing hands down the length of Nic’s body. When she reached the two stakes, still embedded in his chest, sparks shot from her palms.
Without opening her eyes, the healer tilted her head toward Bas. “Have we enough donors? He will need much blood.”
“Twenty here,” he answered, “and more on call if they are needed.” The healer nodded. “Call them.”
* * * *
Though Bas still held her back from the bed, Jenna was grateful that he’d stopped trying to pull her from the room. Elena and her apprentices had labored over Nic for hours, their bell-like voices raised in healing songs as Elena passed burning sweet grass and other healing herbs over Nic’s still body. At long last Elena turned her peaceful gaze to Jenna.
“You have been very brave, child,” the healer began, but Jenna shook her head in denial.
“It’s not bravery. I simply will not allow him to die.” Elena smiled.
“Come, sit behind him.” The apprentices lifted Nic’s upper body gently, and Jenna slid behind him, wrapping his too-cool form in a supporting embrace. Elena met her eyes seriously. “We must transfuse him,” she explained. “Your father’s weapons have filled his body with silver, and it is like an acid, eating him from the inside out.” Jenna flinched at the description, imagining his pain.
“We will remove the polluted blood,” Elena continued, “and replace it with blood that is clean and wholesome.”
“Give him my blood,” Jenna whispered. “Let me help.” Elena laid one gentle hand over Jenna’s where it rested on Nic’s chest. “Oh, my dear, you will help. He cannot take your blood yet, his ability to metabolize it is compromised.” Jenna whimpered with the realization that her father had not only nearly murdered her lover, but had stolen her ability to heal him.
Elena sensed her distress, because she spoke firmly, demanding Jenna’s complete attention. “You cannot give him your blood, but you can give him your strength. You are his soul, his reason for living. Remind him of that, that he has something to fight for.” Elena nodded to Bas. “Bring in the first.”
Bas left the room, and the healer took a wicked looking athame and opened Nic’s wrists, laying them over two wooden bowls. The blood flowing from his veins was dark and black looking. An acrid odor filled the room.
Bas returned, bringing a massive Vampire with him. The Goliath knelt by Nic’s head and tore at his wrist with his teeth before one of the girls could offer him the athame.
Once his blood was flowing freely, he placed his wrist against Nic’s lips.
A shiver twitched over Nic’s cool body as the clean, healing blood hit his tongue.
Unconsciously he wrapped his lips around the wound, and Jenna took a ragged, relieved breath as she saw his throat begin to work.
All the while, Elena bled Nic, stepping in often to reopen the wounds on his wrists as they began to heal. After a time she stepped in and gently broke the seal of Nic’s mouth on the giant’s wrist. Nic didn’t wake, but his brow wrinkled, and his head turned as if to follow the source of nourishment.
Another donor entered. And another. Elena reopened Nic’s wrists. Coaxed his polluted blood into the wooden bowls. As the color and texture of Nic’s blood lightened, his skin began to heat. Soon he was feverish in Jenna’s arms, body moving restlessly in her embrace.
The ritual continued for hours as Elena and her apprentices fought to cleanse Nic’s system.
Finally Nic’s blood flowed fresh and red. Elena dismissed the donors and gently eased each stake from Nic’s chest as Jenna held him. There was a long, breath-stealing moment as bright blood bubbled from each puncture, and then Jenna let out a low moan of relief as they began to slowly seal, knitting his skin to together in thick red puckers.
Jenna held him anxiously, stroking his matted hair.
“It’s time to wake up now, Nico. Open those blue eyes and give me hell for worrying about you.”
Nic remained as still as death.
“The crisis has passed,” Elena comforted her. The healer deftly eased Jenna from the bed. “Your man is strong, and he has much to live for.” Her lips whispered over Jenna’s forehead, leaving a strange tingling in their wake. Slowly the tingles crept down her body, spreading warmth and well-being through her from head to toe.
When Jenna looked at her in wonder, the healer just smiled at her, looking for the entire world like a child with a delicious secret. She turned to Bas with a sharp snap of her fingers.
“Sebastian, take your sister to the kitchen and get her fed.” Jenna shook her head in protest. “Oh, no. I’m not going anywhere.” Elena tapped her chin and retorted, “You will do him no good if you fall over from hunger and exhaustion. Do as I say.”
Jenna looked to Bas, who simply shrugged.
“I haven’t found a way to deny her in almost six hundred years,” the Vampire told her helplessly.
* * * *
Bas put his hand at Jenna’s back to lead her through the crowd gathered in Nic’s living room. She was frighteningly pale, and streaks of blood stood out garishly on her creamy skin. She appeared alarmingly fragile, with her wide brown eyes slightly glassy, her slender hands shaking, but she still stopped with a word of thanks for each of Nic’s donors. Her warmth and genuine gratitude won over many of the more skeptical Vampires, and by the time he’d led her into the kitchen, Bas was satisfied that she was well on her way to making several strong alliances. Bas fixed her a sandwich, but Jenna just picked at it.
“Now, Jenna,” he began teasingly, “you’re going to make me think you don’t enjoy my cooking if you don’t eat something.”
She sent him a dry look. “I don’t think slapping turkey cold-cuts on slices of bread counts as cooking.” But, to his relief she took a bite.
He was about to respond when a shriek split the air.
“Where is he?” Chandra flew into the apartment like an avenging fury.
“Oh, fuck,” he muttered and darted out of the kitchen, catching the blonde Vampiress by the arm before she could barge into Nic’s room.
“Chandra,” Bas whispered, “he’s asleep. He’s going to recover, but not if we subject him to a bunch of hysterical scenes.”
Every eye in the room was glued to them as Chandra stood, bosom heaving like a tragic heroine. When a fat tear began to tremble on her lower lashes, Bas drew in a deep breath. Of course this wasn’t going to be easy.
She turned her beautiful blonde head toward the kitchen doorway, where Jenna had propped herself. Jenna, Bas was proud to notice, was watching Chandra with a bland expression as she munched on her sandwich.<
br />
“You, ” Chandra howled, breaking free of Bas’s grasp. “You stupid, fat, human cow.
This is all your fault. Nicky wouldn’t be almost dead if it wasn’t for you.” Her eyes were poisonous green flame and her fangs dropped menacingly as she hissed at Jenna. Her long red nails became razor-sharp talons as she lunged at Jenna. Bas wasn’t sure if she’d intended to bite her or claw her, but it became a moot point when Kane and Abel stepped in front of Jenna, creating a solid wall of Wolf.
Chandra stopped, looking at the brothers in disbelief. “What, is she fucking the Wolves now too?”
Bas’s anger at the Vampiress rose as Kane answered. “She doesn’t have to fuck us to hold our respect, unlike some people who can fuck you unconscious, and are still nothing but gutter trash.”
“You mangy son of a bitch,” Chandra launched herself at Kane, who easily caught her by the arms and held her off. The woman went crazy, snapping and clawing like a rabid animal. She tried to leap over the two Wolves, causing Jenna to take a wide-eyed step backwards. That was the last straw, as far as Bas was concerned. Stepping up behind the writhing woman, he grabbed a handful of blonde hair and flung her to the floor.
Before she could spring back to her feet, he was on her, fangs extended, ready to do some biting and clawing of his own.
“You dare,” he hissed against her cheek, “to enter Nic’s home, to attack his chosen mate, his One.” He pulled back, and from her sudden stillness, he knew Chandra saw lightning and destruction in his gaze. “You could die for this insult, foolish female.”
“No!” Chandra raged in his hold, and Bas clamped down on her wrists. “There’s no such thing as some fairy tale One. And if there was, it wouldn’t be her. Not some useless human being.” Her eyes shone with tears, and with madness. “Nicky isn’t hers. He can’t be. He’s mine. ”
*
Jenna stood, peering around the wall of Wolves in front of her and had the fleeting thought that this was as good as a night at the movies. If the blonde bitch hadn’t been calling her every filthy name she could think of, Jenna might even have been amused.
Somehow the Vampiress slipped one hand free, and Bas ducked as she tried to claw his face. Grabbing her wrists, he pinned her to the floor again and spoke in a low, vicious hiss.
“You are going to leave this place now, Chandra. You will never return. You will not speak to or about Jenna; you will no longer be welcome at Club Smoke.” He shifted both of her hands to one of his, and grasped her chin, digging in with his nails when she resisted. “Do you understand me, Chandra? If you so much as raise an eyebrow in Jenna’s direction, I’ll take you before the Council, and petition to have you exiled.” The Vampiress writhed and squealed her rage. Bas had one last thing to say to her.
“But it won’t matter if you’re exiled. The first dirty look you send his One, Nic’ll rip your heart out with his bare hands.”
“You bastard,” Chandra’s voice had gone shrill, her beautiful face an ugly mask of hatred and disbelief. “What is wrong with all of you? Has she cast some kind of fucking spell over your cocks?”
Jenna’d, had about enough. She feinted to the right, and when the Wolves shifted to block her, she darted around to the left until she stood over where Bas held Chandra pinned to the floor. She wanted to feel sorry for the other woman. God knows she wouldn’t react well to another woman staking a claim on Nic. But looking into that venomous face, all she could summon up was disgust.
“Look,” she said firmly. “I’m sorry you believe that I stole Nic from you. But the truth is, he was never yours in the first place. If he’d loved you, even a little, he’d never have come to me.” Jenna almost wondered how she was in one piece. Chandra’s eyes sliced over her like razor blades. “Now get over it, and go away before you make things even worse for yourself.”
“You stupid bitch,” Chandra breathed. “This is so not over. I will destroy you for this, if it takes until the end of my life.” She narrowed her eyes on Jenna’s face. “And I will live a very long time, human.”
“Enough.” All eyes flew to Nic’s doorway where the healer stood, her tiny body dwarfed by everyone else in the room, but still managing to radiate pure power.
“Sebastian, remove yourself from her.” Bas jumped off of her and stood between the Kane and Abel, who were attempting to reform their protective wall around Jenna. She was having none of that. Nothing was going to stop her from seeing Elena deal with Chandra.
The Vampiress had risen to her feet and was smoothing her hair back and tugging at her postage-stamp of a skirt.
“Thank you so much, Elena,” she gushed as the healer approached. She cast a hate-filled look at Jenna. “Perhaps you can free our men from this human’s spell.” The healer gave her a pitying look. “You will listen to what you have been told, female. For too long now your vile little spirit has corrupted this community. No more. I myself have already convened the Council to discuss your expulsion. You are poison, Chandra, and must be removed before you infect anyone else with your selfishness.” Chandra’s ingratiating smile faded with each calm word from the diminutive healer.
By the time Elena finished speaking, Chandra’s hands had once again knotted into claws.
Jenna gasped in horror as, hissing, she lurched at the healer, clearly intent on raking her nails down her gently lined face.
The healer said nothing, her expression never changed. She simply raised one hand, palm out toward the rabid Vampiress, freezing her mid-lunge.
“You silly, stupid girl. Better than you have tried to best me and failed.” With her raised hand, Elena held Chandra enthralled. “Now, I am less compassionate than Sebastian. You have one hour to gather what belongings you can, and then leave this town.” Chandra’s face contorted, but she still could not speak or move.
“If you choose to defy me, you will not have to worry about Nicolas or the Council.” Those calm eyes spun dreamily with more power than Jenna could comprehend. “There will be no place in this world or any other where you can hide from me.” Elena made a flicking gesture with her upraised hand, and Chandra staggered. “Now, be gone with you.”
“You are all insane,” Chandra spat, stumbling to the door. “You can burn in hell, every one of you.” As the elevator doors closed her out of the room, Jenna and the surrounding Vampires and Weres all turned astonished eyes on Elena, who calmly turned and walked back into Nic’s bedroom.
* * * *
Eventually Bas bullied Jenna into the shower, and when she came out the apartment was blessedly silent and empty, save for Bas who was lying on the leather couch, one arm draped over his eyes. He looked as tired as she felt. “I couldn’t get your doctor friend to come with us.” His usually mellow voice was dull with fatigue. Jenna sat on the floor by the couch, leaning her head on the cushion near his hip.
“There’s nothing you could have said to convince him,” she replied sadly. “He would never abandon Rowan, and even Erin, in that place.” She slanted him a curious look. “You seem more upset about leaving him behind than I’d expect. After all, you don’t know him. And he works for my father.”
Bas didn’t answer, and didn’t meet her eyes. After a moment he sighed and said,
“Aidan is missing; he never came out of your father’s house.” He ground the heels of his hands over his eyes, and Jenna could feel the misery he was trying to rub away.
Jenna swallowed back her own misery. There was simply no energy left for tears.
That damned Dragon. He’d tried like hell to get out of going on the rescue, but in the end he’d been there for his friends. For her. And his reward was to be trapped in the clutches of a man who would perform God-knows-what evil experiments on him.
“We’ll regroup and go after him. I called Remy while you were in the shower. The Dragon King,” he added at her puzzled frown. “Things are in motion.” He sighed again and dropped his hand to twine absently through her damp hair. “What a complete fuck up. I’m sorry we couldn’t find your siste
r.”
Jenna couldn’t stand the guilt in his voice. She thought that maybe Bas was the strongest of them all, but he was also the most sensitive. She recognized his weary expression, the hopeless guilt in his eyes, and leaned into his caress.
“Sebastian, you did all that could possibly be done.” She raised a hand to his jaw, compelling him to meet her eyes. “My father is an evil, corrupt son of a bitch. He doesn’t follow any rules but his own. There’s nothing for you to apologize for.” The hand in her hair lifted to cover hers. He gripped her hand hard, and she could practically feel him drawing strength from the clasp. “I’ll go back, Jenna. I swear to you I’ll go back, and I’ll bring them all out.”
“You absolutely will,” she agreed. “Just not tonight.” Jenna shifted to her knees beside the couch and folded back the sleeve of her robe. If she’d had any doubt about what she was about to do, the blind need in his eyes would have put it to a quick death.
“Tonight you need to rest, and to feed.” She offered him her wrist, and smiled when his eyes locked on the faint blue veins. “Take what you need, Sebastian.” Those stormy gray eyes snapped up to meet hers. “Not without Nic here,” he protested.
“Don’t be silly.” Honestly, for a man almost six hundred years old, he could certainly act dense. “What do you suppose Nic will say when he wakes up and discovers I didn’t take care of his Blood Brother?” When he still hesitated, she added, “Besides, who will drag the insane, jilted lovers off me if you’re faint with hunger?” Bas snorted, tried to choke it back, and then collapsed against the arm of the couch and let the laughter take him. Jenna sat back, grinning as some of the tension melted away from his face.
Bas sat up, Jenna’s cheek in one unsteady hand. “My brother is a lucky man. Thank you, Jenna.”
He took her hand in his and placed a tender kiss on her pulse point before sinking his teeth in. Jenna closed her eyes as Bas slowly drew nourishment from her. It wasn’t sexual, really, more nurturing. When he’d taken what he needed, he ran his tongue lightly over the punctures to start the healing process.
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