“Yes.”
“So you did that to her?”
Despite Niko’s quiet tone, Alexander could hear his rage. He was looking for someone to blame, and someone to hurt in revenge.
“No. The challenge was endurance. The witches tested themselves on us.”
“What happened to you?” Niko demanded belligerently.
He was really asking why Alexander was not the one lying in a pool of his own blood, a half step from death. And the truth was, the reason was Max.
“Selange sent her Shadowblades after us.”
“You mean your Shadowblades.”
“Not mine, not anymore,” Alexander said firmly. How fast they had turned on him. One moment he was their Prime, the next their prey. It said something about him, and nothing good.
The silence was thick. Alexander knew what Niko was thinking. Had he fought hard against his former brethren? Had he let them do this to Max? But Alexander bore the wounds and Niko could not refute them. And he had kept watch over Max until help arrived. He grimaced. He had done little but watch while her blood leaked out onto the floorboards.
“It should have been me,” he said quietly. “It was my fault they came after us.”
“You’re damned right,” Niko said harshly. “If she dies, I’ll kill you myself.”
“I know.”
They drove on through San Diego. Alexander slipped in and out of unconsciousness. Fever rose in him. He began to shiver and sweat. He was hardly aware when they pulled to a stop and Niko leaped from the El Camino. Alexander sat in a stupor, unable to do anything else. The sun was coming. He shuddered from head to foot. He needed to get under cover.
Suddenly the door opened. Hands grabbed him roughly, yanking him upright. The gun was twisted from his hand. They hauled him over the ground and up a ribbed-metal ramp. Walls closed around him and a blessed roof. There was a clanking as doors slammed and a bolt shot home.
Alexander was carried to a metal operating table. He blinked in the bright overhead light and struggled to sit up. An implacable hand on his shoulder held him still.
“Stay put,” Niko ordered.
Alexander stopped fighting and twisted onto his side instead. They were in a semitruck trailer. Four stainless-steel hospital beds were lined up in a diagonal row down the middle, and the sides and front were lined with medical equipment and storage lockers. Max was laid out two tables down. Giselle and three others in blue scrubs crowded about her, all of them speaking quickly and urgently as they cut away her clothing and jammed needles into both arms. They hung two IV bags on each of the poles poking up from the top of the table. On the left the bags were full of clear liquid; on the right they were red. Machines were attached to Max and began to beep alarms. The witch and the medical team worked furiously on Max, hunching over her limp body so that Alexander could only glimpse what was happening.
A curly-headed, dark-haired nurse fetched supplies as the doctor ratcheted out orders. Hanging back out of the way of the frantically working medical team were the Asian woman and a grim-faced Tyler. The stench of blood began to overwhelm the antiseptic smell of the trailer, and Alexander swallowed, queasiness making him dizzy.
“Dammit!”
“Pressure’hurry!”
Brynna’s knife clanked to the floor, casting a crimson arc of blood into the air.
“Gotta be fast now.”
“Suction it. There’s too fucking much blood.”
“It isn’t closing ...why the hell isn’t it closing?”
“She’s resisting me. Half-dead and still too damned stubborn,” Giselle said with a harsh laugh that sounded like it tore her throat. She bent down close to Max’s ear. “Max! I know you can hear me. Let me help you. You’re going to die, do you hear? Let me help!” She straightened, twisting to look around. Her hair was matted and stained red as if she had pushed bloody fingers through it. More blood smeared her cheeks and forehead. “Tyler, Niko, and Akemi, talk to her. Tell her to come back.”
The three Shadowblades stared a split second in surprise, then surged forward.
“Tell her you’re here,” Giselle urged. “Put your hands on her. Talk to her. She won’t be able to leave you; don’t let her go.”
Alexander watched as the three Shadowblades stretched out hands to touch her. Their voices hammered against each other, fervent and demanding.
Tense minutes ticked past. The cacophony surrounding Max rose in a crescendo. Wads of red-drenched surgical gauze fell to the floor. Giselle held Max’s head between her palms, her fingers curving like talons beneath the unconscious woman’s jaw. She chanted, her eyes closed, her lips tight as wire. Alexander gasped, realizing he had been holding his breath. His stomach spasmed, sending tremors through his body. Chills ran over his skin and sank down deep inside. He shivered, his teeth chattering. His body clenched.
“Don’t stop’it’s working!”
It was the last thing he remembered.
HE CAME AWAKE INSTANTLY, SITTING UP IN THE SAME MOment. Someone had a hold on his shoulders. Alexander did not think. He flipped over into a crouch, gripping the hands and twisting in the same instant. He yanked his attacker up onto the table and ground a knee into her back, thrusting an arm around her neck, his other hand on her jaw. At that moment, his mind caught up with feral instinct.
He looked down, fear curling like burnt paper in his stomach. He held Giselle pinned. All around him he felt predatory silence. His glance flitted from side to side. Niko, Tyler, and Akemi stood ready, bodies taut, faces snarling. They did not dare move in case he broke her neck. But if he did, he would not get out in one piece, or even twenty.
Slowly he released his fingers and pushed himself off her, holding his hands up. Instantly he was grabbed and slammed to the floor, his arms bent up behind his back.
“Let him go.”
Her voice was raspy and weak, but it was Max. She was alive.
The others got off him. Alexander started to push himself off the floor when he was grabbed under each arm and hauled erect. They held him like a wishbone they dearly wanted to snap in half.
Giselle had gained her feet again. She rubbed her lower back with a wince. She had changed into scrubs, and blood still matted her hair in places, though the rest of her was clean. “I hope you don’t wake up that way with your girlfriends.”
Alexander could only stare bemusedly at her, waiting for the punch line. Bruises were already rising on her neck where his arm had pressed, and no doubt more would appear on her back and jaw. She ought to be punishing him. Severely. Max had said the witch was a good torturer, and he knew firsthand how very true that was. So why was she not disciplining him as he deserved? Alexander’s eyes narrowed. Maybe she was simply waiting until she had more energy.
She yawned. “The healing help I gave you will have to be enough. I’ve got to rest. I’ll have food sent in for all of you, and then we’ll get on the road. We’ve been here too long already.”
With that she withdrew through a panel near the front of the truck. It opened on a light-sealed space. She slid it shut behind her, and the green light above turned to red and a low-pitched chime sounded. A moment later the light turned green again.
“Let him go,” Max said again, and the two men holding Alexander slowly released him.
Still reeling from Giselle’s gentle reaction, he turned around to examine Max. She was lying flat on her back, her eyes closed. The IVs continued to pour blood and clear sustenance into her veins. He could see no evidence of any injuries. The floor had been cleaned and the sharp stench of antiseptic clogged his nose and made his eyes water. Fans whirred, stirring the air.
He started toward Max’s supine body, stopping when Tyler thrust an arm out to block his way.
“Peace, Junior. Keep your distance.”
Junior? Alexander could not help his dry chuckle, though he knew there was nothing funny about the situation. Then he started to cough raggedly. Akemi handed him a bottle of apple juice and he drank it gratefully. He eye
d the too still Max again, then looked at Tyler.
“She will be all right?”
“She can talk for herself,” Max said acidly without opening her eyes.
“And?”
“I’m hungry and tired. Can you people not shut up?”
“What about him?” Niko asked.
Max’s head tipped to the side and she looked at Alexander. “What about him?”
“What do you want us to do with him?”
“Feed him. Watch him. Put a bullet in his head if he starts any trouble.” She closed her eyes again, rolling her head back up to face the ceiling. “Whatever you do, keep it quiet.”
As promised, Giselle sent in food. The chime on the door sounded and the light turned from green to red to green. Akemi opened the door, picking up a stack of pizza boxes, followed by a gallon of milk and a six-pack of beer. Last came a stack of paper plates and a roll of paper towels.
She set the food on the nearest gurney and piled several slices of deep-dish pizza on a plate. She carried it to Max, along with a cup of milk. Max groaned and sat up slowly, swinging her legs over the edge of the table. She eyed the milk and then the beer, then grabbed the cup and drank it in one gulp. Next she started devouring the pizza.
“Damn, that’s good,” she said.
Alexander waited until the others had begun eating and served himself, pouring milk into a paper cup. All of them ate steadily without speaking. Before they had emptied the boxes, the door chimed again. This time the offering was Chinese food. They all piled their plates with lo mein, fried rice, General Tso’s, cashew chicken, egg rolls, and barbecued pork.
A half hour later, Alexander was beginning to feel comfortably full. He felt his healing spells drawing on the energy of the food, and though exhaustion still weighted him, he felt no worse than if he had been in a fistfight. The pain in his stomach was completely gone. For the first time he became aware of two bandages pulling at the skin on his chest’one low on his left side, the other higher on his right. His gaze drifted lower. He was still wearing his bloodstained jeans. They were all he had left to call his own.
His food churned uneasily in his gut. He had been alive for more than a hundred years, and it was like he had been born again. He did not like it. He felt too new, too vulnerable, and entirely alone.
He set aside his plate. He had no place in Giselle’s coven. He could challenge Max for Prime, but after tonight, he was not sure he could win. And even if he should happen to defeat her, her Shadowblades were clearly too loyal to suffer him to live. That left serving under her, if she could learn to trust him. He dragged his hands through his hair, then shoved them into the front pockets of his jeans. It was impossible. She would be stupid to. She was anything but stupid. And yet’I don’t leave any of mine behind.
The door chimed yet again, and now Niko fished out two grocery sacks stuffed with pints of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. He pawed through them, grabbing a carton and taking it to Max, along with a spoon. She pulled off the lid and scooped out a spoonful, her eyes closing as she savored it.
“Food of the gods,” she murmured, a look of heavenly satisfaction on her face.
“Want some?” Niko asked Alexander, surprising him.
He shook his head, his hunger gone. Tiredness netted him. Without another word, he climbed onto his gurney. He lay on his back, feeling entirely too exposed. His stomach clenched rock hard. He was entirely at their mercy. Even if he escaped, he doubted he could go back to Selange. Did he want to? He thought about it. His initial knee-jerk reaction was yes. But when he considered ...He realized he felt free in a way he could never remember feeling. It was as if everything he was and had been had burned up in a fire, and he had walked out nameless and without any shackles tying him down. He was free.
He recoiled from the thought. He did not want his freedom. He was a Shadowblade and he needed a coven and a witch to serve. He neither knew any other life nor wanted to. All he could do was wait to see what Giselle would do with him and hope Max had meant what she said.
Mine.
9
MAX HAD NEVER BEFORE IN HER LIFE BEEN QUITE so close to death. Surprisingly’no, shockingly’she found that she did not want to die. Even when the velvet darkness had beckoned so closely, even when it seemed she did not have the strength to climb back up from the abyss, still she couldn’t give in to the ease of rest. She felt compelled to return. No, it was more than that. She wanted life. She wanted to tease Niko and Oz, drink beer with Tyler, needle Akemi and Lise, walk through the forests at Horngate and swim in the high mountain lakes ...so many things.
She ate her ice cream slowly, reveling in the sweet richness, her nose wrinkling at the smell of antiseptic cleaner and, beneath it, the tang of blood, sweat, and old fear. She felt shaky, but the food and IVs would fix that soon enough. In another twenty-four hours she’d be completely healed. She glanced at Alexander, lying two tables down. He appeared to be sleeping, though she would be surprised if he was. She frowned. Just what the hell was she going to do with him? What was Giselle planning to do with him?
“What happened?” Niko asked, coming to sit beside her and digging into his own ice cream.
Max gave him a sidelong glance, raising her brows quizzically.
Niko’s jaw jutted. “What?
“Getting a little pushy, aren’t you?”
He shrugged. “But now I’ve seen you naked. That makes all the difference, doesn’t it?” He paused, humor draining from his face. “Of course, you were almost dead.”
“Don’t tell me you’d miss me,” Max said wryly, digging another spoonful of ice cream from the carton.
His reaction stunned her. “Fuck you,” Niko said, throwing his carton. It dented a cabinet and clanged loud in the truck trailer. He jumped to his feet, spinning to face her. “Just fuck you. I don’t deserve that. None of us do.”
Max looked at him, taken aback. He was quivering with fury. The muscles in his arms and neck corded as if it was taking all his control to hold himself back from hitting her. She set her ice cream down and held up her hands.
“Down, boy. It was a joke. What crawled up your ass and died?”
He sneered, “If it wasn’t for us calling you back, you’d have died on the table. Wouldn’t she?” he demanded, looking at Tyler and Akemi.
They nodded slowly, faces tight and cold, sharing Niko’s anger.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean you were as good as dead. Giselle said you were keeping her from fixing you. She told us to talk to you, call you back. So we did. You want to know why? I’ll tell you. All three of us are still alive because of you’because of your training and because you’re not a stupid Prime. You always watch out for us. We can trust you. We like you a lot, when you aren’t acting like an asshole.” Niko’s gaze slid to Alexander, who had sat up when the ice cream had hit the cabinet. “We don’t fucking want any other Prime. We want you. We belong to you. Get it?”
Max couldn’t find any words. She’d never really thought of what her Blades might think of her. If anything, she’d imagined that they looked at her with a mixture of resentment for beating survival skills into them, flavored with a bizarre gratitude for keeping their skins intact. She’d always thought of herself as infinitely replaceable and preferred it that way. That way she didn’t have to worry about them if she got killed.
“Okay. Got it,” she said finally.
“And?”
“And what?”
“And turnabout is fair play. If we belong to you, then you belong to us and you’ve got to start acting like it.”
“Okay,” she said slowly. “What does that mean?”
“It means we’ve got a right to watch out for you, too,” Tyler said suddenly.
“That’s not your job. You exist to protect Giselle.”
“We’re calling it our job,” Akemi said in a quiet, ironhard voice. “Protecting Giselle means keeping you around. All of our compulsion spells know it. I don’t know why you don’t.”<
br />
That floored Max. She looked at each of them, her mouth gaping. “What do you mean?” Then her stomach clenched and she felt sick. Had Giselle woven an extra compulsion into their spells? “No. You are not responsible for me. I won’t be the reason you guys get killed.”
“You’re the reason we have stayed alive this long,” Niko countered. “Get this straight. We want to be responsible for you and we mean to be. The hell with whether you agree or not.”
He went and picked up his ice cream, then came and sat back beside her. “So what happened?” he asked conversationally.
Max sat a moment, then shook her head, giving in. For now. “The usual sort of thing. Selange wanted retribution for me being in Julian. I deserved it. I shouldn’t have got caught.” She did not look at Alexander. “Anyhow, she chose endurance for the challenge, with the loser Blade forfeit to the winning witch. She wanted to know why Giselle sent me to Julian and probably figured she’d be able to torture it out of me.”
Bitter Night Page 14
