CHAPTER EIGHT
Pax looked up and down Summer Street as he and Diesel made their last lap for the night. They crossed the Summer Street Bridge on the way to Southie, looped back around by the Welcome to South Boston sign, and headed back toward downtown.
Diesel raised his arms toward the sign. “Yuppies! Southie welcomes you! Did you know they’re getting a Whole Foods?”
“No. But if you say so, I don’t doubt it. I never question your knowledge of food, Dies.”
“Wise move. Man, it’s been quiet tonight. Gives me the creeps.”
“Same here.” Pax checked his watch. “It’s just as well. I need to head in soon anyway.”
“James?”
“Yeah.”
Diesel popped a fresh piece of gum into his mouth. “What’s up?”
“It’s this thing with Seth. It has its teeth in him and just won’t let go. He hates being alone. Days aren’t too bad, but nights are… I’m kind of hoping his birthday gift will help with that.”
Diesel put a hand on Pax’s shoulder. “Jesus, Pax. I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”
Pax looked out on the water as they walked. “I should have just done it. I should have killed Seth.”
“And what, have the brother resent you the rest of your lives?”
“It’d be better than this. Better for him. Right now that’s all I give a shit about.”
Diesel shook his head. Son of a bitch. Sometimes it was so easy to forget his partner was only twenty-two. He stopped for a moment and looked twenty feet down the bridge. “See that guy right up there? The one we passed on our way over?”
“Yeah?”
“I just saw him put a camera in his bag.”
“I’m sure it’s just some tourist, Dies.”
Out of nowhere, Pax picked up on some crazy happening behind him and turned around. A Tolie and his hellion were trying to escort a young shifter couple into the dark archway of a brick building at the Southie end of the bridge. “Let’s go.”
“Right behind ya.”
They ran across all four traffic lanes. Fortunately, it was late. Most Bostonians were in for the night.
“I’ll take the hellion,” Pax called. He gleamed out, but the mutant must have seen him because it turned and wrapped its arms around him as soon as he materialized.
“Fuck!” He managed to free one arm, but that wasn’t going to do him much good. He needed leverage. He looked behind him and grabbed the bridge’s safety rail. Unfortunately, the metal railing wasn’t very tall. The frankenfucker lurched forward, trying to make Pax let go of it. He felt the thing pitch forward, then they were tumbling backward toward the water. In its panic, the hellion let go of him. Pax gleamed out in mid-air and appeared back on the bridge. He could take him in the water easy. If there was one thing you learned growing up on an island, it was how to swim. And to take your leather jacket off first. He drew his pistol and leapt back over the railing. He hit the frigid water and immediately made for the surface.
Air rushed into his lungs as he came up. Now if he could only find the fucker. Damn it. This had to be quick. He couldn’t afford to draw a crowd and the water was freezing. He looked around. Nothing. Maybe mutants couldn’t—a hand grabbed his foot and pulled. He took a deep breath and let it take him under. His pistol had next to no reliability under water, but the mutant was going to need air before he would. The enemy pushed Pax down by the shoulders and then made for air. He had only a fraction of a second to act. Pax kicked hard, surfaced, and dunked the hellions’s head back under water. As it popped back up, he put his pistol to the base of its neck and fired. He caught his breath for a moment before gleaming back up to the dark of the archway.
“That was fucking awesome.” His partner gave him a couple of play punches to the gut. “Stuff of legends.”
He chuckled. “Gee, thanks, Dies. Next time you can join me, bro.”
“Sorry, man. Too gimpy.”
“A likely story.” His teeth started to chatter. “Fuck. I’m freezing. Let’s call it a night.”
Pax picked up his leather jacket and sneezed. Fuck. My. Life. Did New Breeds get colds? It would be just like him to squeak by on the HIV only to die of pneumonia. They gleamed out and materialized in the mansion’s foyer. He immediately sneezed again.
“You hungry?”
Pax nodded. “Starving, actually. Sea water. I’m going down to the compound to change first.”
“Now that you mention it, I should probably check on Helen real quick. She’s so close on the first half of the formula, her hair is practically on fire.”
They headed into the pool room and Pax pulled the fake shelving back. “She is some package. How did you end up with her again?”
“No idea. But if I ever figure it out, I promise I’ll let you know. You sure you want to chance the elevator? I’d hate to see you fall asleep in those wet clothes.”
He rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t sleeping.”
“Then what exactly were you doing?”
“Funny, Dies. Funny.”
The brother barked a laugh. “What can I say? It’s a curse.”
They split off when the elevator door opened and Pax walked toward his room.
“You sure you’re coming up to eat?”
Pax could already sense James down the hall. “Nope.”
He went into his room and closed the door. “You will never believe what happened to me.”
That was odd. The bed hadn’t even been touched. No TV. The bathroom door was slightly ajar and the light was on. He knocked and poked his head in. “James?”
Pax felt sea water lurch back up into his throat. The scene looked like something out of a slasher flick. James was lying on the floor in just his jeans. He was covered in blood and some kind of shiny—the mirror. “Oh, my God!”
Pax fell to his knees and checked his pulse. It was so weak he could barely find it.
He slapped the male’s cheek once. “James!” Twice. “James!”
Panic seized Pax’s insides as he looked up and down the male’s body. Why wasn’t he responding? “Come on, baby. Help me out here.”
That’s when he saw it. There was a shard of mirror wedged into the male’s right wrist and a rapidly growing pool of blood on the floor. Fuck. He ran out and opened the door to the hallway. “Diesel! Diesel!”
A moment or two later, the bathroom door opened and X poked his head in. “Hey, what’s all the—fuck.”
X pulled out his phone and Pax heard Helen’s beeper go off somewhere down the hall. The brother kneeled down and looked at James’s wrist without touching it, then checked out the floor. “He’s lost a lot of blood.”
“Why isn’t he healing?” The panic in his own voice startled him. His heart thundered in his chest, his breath coming in short spurts.
“His body is trying, but it can’t with that glass still in there. He’s gonna need blood. Do you know his type?”
“O negative.”
X picked up James’s good wrist and started to take his pulse. “Shit, we’re always low on O neg. I hope we have enough.”
Wait. “I’m O neg. Helen took quite a bit of blood from me when my test came back negative.”
X looked up at him and gave him a firm nod. “You may have just saved his life.”
Just then Helen rushed into the room. She quickly appraised the situation and pulled together a plan. “X, I need you carry him down the hall. Pax, you have to walk alongside him and make sure that glass in his wrist doesn’t move a millimeter. It’s the only thing keeping him from bleeding out. Diesel and I will meet you down there.”
When X moved to pick up James, Pax growled and seized the big male’s arm with a death grip. Clearly shocked, X looked from Pax to his arm and back again.
“You go on and take him now. I’ll watch his wrist.”
Pax took James carefully into his arms and slowly maneuvered down the corridor. He held him as close to his chest as he could. There was no way this was going to happen. Th
ey hadn’t come all this way just so James could—he couldn’t even think the word, but his adrenal glands sure as hell knew what was up. His legs picked up the pace as he continued to battle the panic rising inside him.
When they got to the ward, Helen and Diesel were ready and waiting, sterile garb and all.
“Okay,” Helen said, “let him down nice and easy. Perfect. Let’s get rolling. Pax, I’m going to need you to wait outside.”
Something on Pax’s face must have said that rule didn’t apply to him, because Diesel added, “You can stay, partner, but I’d take a seat. We have a lot of glass to deal with.”
Pax picked up a visitor’s chair and moved it as close to the surgery as he was allowed, but he wasn’t in it very long before he stood up and began to pace.
“Is there anyone in the mansion you’d like me to notify?” X asked just before he left.
Pax shook his head. “No, let’s keep this on the DL for now.”
“Understood. Helen, just text if you need another set of hands.”
He had no idea how much time passed, but it felt like an eternity. When they had finally removed the glass through careful efforts to keep the bleeding under control, Diesel came over and gave him a report.
“He’s going to be fine, Pax. It’s still going to be awhile, though, because we need to check all the remaining lacerations for glass to make sure the healing process goes as smoothly as possible. But in a day or so, he’ll be as good as new.”
Pax knew that even though the brother didn’t say physically, they were both thinking it. “Dies, he didn’t—”
The male shook his head. “No. It wasn’t on purpose. The glass was in just one wrist and there are cuts all over his knuckles on the same hand. He clearly punched the mirror.”
Pax exhaled and wiped his forehead. “Thanks.”
Diesel pulled his brows together. “You okay?”
“I guess. I just feel so, I don’t know, off.”
“Kinda queasy? Suffocated? Panicky, like you want to lock him in a room and guard it for the rest of your life?”
“Yeah, that’s it exactly.”
His partner clapped his back. “Welcome to the shiny happy protective instinct, my friend.”
“Fuck. No wonder you guys are always losing your minds.”
Diesel nodded. “Yep. Total son of a bitch.”
It wasn’t much longer before Pax was at James’s side. They’d had to buzz his hair to get at the glass in his scalp. Pax rubbed his hand gently over the new softness before sitting down and taking James’s uninjured hand.
Jesus, life could be bizarre. After James had been shot a few weeks earlier he’d wanted so much to be there for him—to take his hand, so the male would know how much he cared for him. But he couldn’t even manage to do that, much less make a second visit. Now, as he sat and watched the blood, his blood, move through the IV and into the male’s body, he realized that everything he’d been so hung up on was finally over. He was sharing his life, literally, with the male in front of him. As the last of the blood entered his body, Pax knew all he wanted to do was make James happy. That was going to be a pretty tall order with everything James was going through, but he would find a way. Pax leaned down, put his head on the mattress, and tucked it against the male’s side. He sighed, closed his eyes, and drifted off.
CHAPTER NINE
Adriana looked at her mate in complete disbelief. Twenty years they’d been together and, instead of recalling it fondly, she was going to remember it as the day her male totally lost his mind. Otherwise, he would never suggest such a ridiculous, irresponsible—
“Come on, Adri. You have to practice and it’s perfectly safe.”
She shook her head. No way. Nope. This was their daughter, not a scavenger hunt.
“I’ll be able to sense her the whole time.” Richard took her hands and smiled the sexy smile that made little crinkles around his eyes. Right now, she’d have given anything to hate those crinkles. “I would never do anything to endanger her. You know that. Look, I know you’re nervous. I would be, too. But I really think this will work.”
“Okay, fine. But if anything happens.”
He smiled again. “Into the bedroom, mama.”
Richard leaned into the playpen and picked up the lion Ana and Maya played with most often. He whispered, “Maya, where’s Ana? Find Ana.”
In the blink of an eye, the offspring was gone and seconds later he knew where she was. Right down the hall with Ana and SE. He couldn’t suppress a grin. Their offspring was one smart cookie. He opened the bedroom door. “Okay. I can feel her.”
Adriana exhaled as Richard took her face in his hands and touched his forehead to hers. “Now I’m going to help you find her.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
“The first thing I want to try is memory retrieval. Think of a memory, Adri. A powerful one carrying a lot of emotion.”
Richard focused his mind on his mate’s thoughts. He could see Maya being handed to Adri just after she gave birth.
That was strange. He stopped picking up on Adri’s thoughts and started seeing—holy shit. He was looking at Ana and SE’s room.
“Wait. Richard, why am I seeing this? Why is this happening so easily? Did I figure it out? It almost feels like it’s doing it all by itself.”
“Oh, my God. Adri, you’re not doing it. It’s Maya. She’s showing you where she is.”
Adriana’s big brown eyes lit up. “Telepathy?”
He nodded. He was sure he was grinning like an idiot, but couldn’t give a shit. His offspring had inherited his gift. His female jumped into his arms and he held her close.
“I love you so much,” she said between kisses.
“I love you, too. Always.”
There were a few it’s almost our anniversary kisses before his female’s instincts kicked in. “We should probably go get her.”
“Actually. If we can see her, I wonder…”
Adri took his hand and started for the door to their suite. “Ooh, no. It’s lunchtime, my male. Unless you want a cranky baby, you two can play mind games later.”
When something touched Pax’s hair, he opened his eyes and immediately recognized where he was. He kicked his chair back out of the way and took James’s hand. The male looked groggy, but awake. Pax smoothed what little was left of the front of his hair. “Hey.”
The male tried to clear his throat. “Hey.”
Pax raised the head of the bed, before picking up the pitcher and pouring him a cup of water. “Here.”
James downed it and put the cup out for a refill. They went through this twice more before he really started to come around.
The brother held up his bandaged wrist. “I guess I got into a fight with the mirror.”
Pax smiled. “I think it won.”
James gave him a small smile back. “Fucking dick.”
Pax leaned down so they were cheek to cheek and sighed a warm breath of relief across James’s ear.
“I’m so sorry. I’m such an asshole. I don’t know what happened. One minute I was fine, and the next…I was just so angry.”
Pax sat back down and looked into James’s eyes. “At yourself? About Seth?”
“I don’t know. I guess.”
Pax took James’s hand and rubbed his thumb along the rough edges of the brother’s nails. “Pax, do you think I did the right thing?”
He nodded. “Yes, I do. Not just for the Order, but for Seth. The thing is, what really matters is what you think.”
The male gave a little nod and looked down at his hands.
“I have a couple of errands to run this afternoon. I can do them another time if you want me to stay. They can wait.”
“Nah. I’m probably just gonna watch TV or something. Did Helen say when I might be ready to leave?”
Right on cue, Helen poked her head out of her office and smiled. “Pax can move you to his room to sleep tonight if you two want. You’ll only be two doors away from Diesel and me.”
Pax nodded. Oh, he wanted. “Okay, great.”
“I’d like to have you here until about nine tonight, James. Then I’ll need to see you again in the morning.” She looked at Pax. “No rush. Whatever time you guys get up tomorrow is fine. His wrist should be almost completely healed by then.”
“Thanks so much, Helen. I’ll be with Dies if you need me.”
“Ah, the errand. Right. No worries. We’ll be fine.”
James looked at him with one eye closed. Yep, questions were coming. He needed to get out of there. “Can I get you anything while I’m out?”
“Taco Bell, please.”
“Consider it done.”
SE walked past Richard and Adriana’s suite, rounding the corner at the back of the house. Carefully, he climbed the narrow staircase to the third floor. You could barely tell the old servant’s quarters were once there. The members of the Order had used up most of the attic and moved on to other rooms to store everything they’d brought from their pre-New Breed lives. There were a lot of memories. And a lotta crap. He could sense his female, but he’d be lucky if he could actually find her up there.
“Ihkweea? Are you back there somewhere?”
“I’m way down at the end, my male,” she called. “There’s just enough room to gleam.”
SE gleamed to the other side of the attic. He actually materialized with his foot on a box. “Jesus. This place is a nightmare. We’ll be lucky to see our stuff again.”
Ana looked up. “Oh, no. It’s all in that corner.”
He squatted down next to her. “You moved it? When?”
“Right after our mating ceremony. I figured it just made sense to have it all together in one place. Not that I had much.”
He kissed her temple. “You’re a genius. What is it you’re looking for?”
“Adriana’s old ritual supplies. The ritual is tonight and we’re still missing the black pillar candle. Where the hell are we going to get one? It’s Sunday for fuck’s sake.”
Desperate Call (New Breed Novels Book 5) Page 6
