“Chère?”
“Jesse?” Erin gasped, surging up, but afraid to move when she couldn’t see her hand in front of her face. In a moment she felt the warmth of his nearness.
“We have to go. The men are back from the assault on the compound.”
“We can’t get out! The cave entrance is completely under water … and the dingy floated away.”
Jesse was silent for several moments. She felt him move slightly away from her, heard the splash and clank as he dropped the bag onto the ledge and poured the contents out. “Give him to me.”
“You can’t put him in the bag!” Erin exclaimed, horrified at the very idea.
“It’ll protect him while we swim out.”
“It’ll leak.”
Uttering a sound of impatience, Jesse disappeared for a moment. A light came on and Erin saw that he’d settled a flashlight on an outcropping of rock to illuminate the area. Bending down, he filled the bag with water and lifted it. Erin stared at the bag blankly, but she realized after a moment that the water wasn’t pouring out of it. If it would hold water, it would hold the water out.
She didn’t like the idea of putting Joshua in a wet bag, but she hardly had a choice.
After pouring the water out and shaking as much moisture from it as he could, Jesse set the bag on the rocky ledge again and dove into the water. His head surfaced a moment later. At the far side of the cavern, he caught the loose dingy and towed it back.
When he reached the ledge again, he met the gaze of the Lycans, who were waiting for orders, and jerked his head in the direction of the cave entrance. Almost as one, they dove in and headed for the mouth of the cave, disappearing when they neared it.
“We’re not going to be able to get the dingy out,” Erin said, placing the baby in the bag and leaning down to set the bag carefully in the bottom of the dingy.
“Let me worry about that.”
Erin slid into the water, gasping sharply in surprise to discover that it was colder than she’d expected. Together, she and Jesse guided the dingy across the small pool.
“How well do you swim?”
“Well enough,” Erin said grimly.
“Well enough to carry the baby?”
She nodded jerkily, trying to fight down the terror that was threatening to consume her. Jesse lifted the bag from the dingy, closed the zipper tightly and handed it to her. “I’ll meet you on the other side.”
Erin clutched the handle of the bag in a death grip, summoning the courage to dive with her baby inside of it. Finally, feeling vaguely nauseated from her fear, she pulled the bag close, sucked in several deep breaths and dove. The bag, filled with air, was very nearly ripped from her grasp. Erin found herself fighting the current and the bag as she struggled blindly through the opening. It seemed to take forever. Her lungs felt like they were on fire by the time she managed to surface on the other side.
The moon was nearing the far horizon, but there was still enough light for her to see well enough to move away from the entrance. That, too, was a struggle, for the current was flowing strongly into the cave, as if the cave was sucking the water inside.
Her teeth were chattering by the time the dingy popped through the opening. Relieved, Erin rushed to catch it before it could be dashed against the rocks. When Jesse surfaced, he had to pry the bag from her fingers and lift it into the boat. Grabbing her as soon as he’d settled the bag, Jesse lifted her up until she could slip into the dingy behind the baby. With shaking fingers, she jerked at the zipper, struggling and finally managing to open the bag wide enough to see Joshua. An indignant threat of a cry greeted her and Erin felt like melting with relief.
She discovered when she’d scooped him from the bag that he was wet all over and shivering, whether because he was cold or frightened she wasn’t certain, but she pulled him close, trying to convey her own warmth when she had little to give.
He was very unhappy about his situation. Small wonder when he’d been sleeping peacefully and then found himself jostled awake and thoroughly drenched. Erin bounced him a little frantically, stroking his back and uttering soothing noises to try to quiet him, but he continued to fret.
She glanced at Jesse a little helplessly as he surged upward and rolled into the dingy with them. “Lay down in the bottom of the boat,” Jesse whispered harshly.
It was filled with water by now, but Erin didn’t argue, knowing Jesse wouldn’t have ordered her to do it if he hadn’t had good reason to do so. She’d scarcely landed when she heard the report of a gun across the water. Something hit the water within a yard of the boat.
“Fuck!” Jesse growled, diving forward and nearly crushing Erin and the baby beneath him. She heard a meaty thud. Jesse grunted, his body jerking. Two more thuds followed in rapid succession and then seemed to move past them, slapping into the water around them.
It dawned on Erin after moments of shocked disbelief that Jesse had shielded her and the baby with his own body. After a moment, he levered himself up and looked around. Apparently deciding they were out of range, he rolled out of the boat and began towing it.
Panic set her heart to racing harder than ever before. “Jesse! Get out the water! You’re bleeding.”
“If I don’t put some distance between us and the island, I’ll have more holes in me,” he growled.
“The blood will draw sharks!” Erin cried.
“Quiet!”
Erin bit her lip, but as fearful as she was for Jesse, she didn’t want to draw the Feds to them. Noticing the baby had grown quiet, she peered down at him. Apparently, he didn’t mind being in the water, he just didn’t like being wet and exposed to the wind. Shifting to the edge of the raft, she began stroking the water with one arm, steadying the baby with her other hand.
The shooting stopped. She could hear shouts wafting across the water.
The sound of a motor, and then two different motors filled the air and grew louder. Erin glanced behind them. She saw nothing, but she heard the boat. The Feds were after them and it wasn’t going to take them long to catch up.
She paddled faster, trying to ignore the sense of hopelessness that gnawed at her.
Abruptly, gunfire erupted again. She dove into the bottom of the boat, covering Joshua with her body. The sounds grew louder, revving engines and splashing water vying with the report of gunfire.
They were sitting ducks in the dingy. Erin was just contemplating whether they would be better off in the water when she realized the gunfire and the sound of engines were coming from two different directions. Lifting up slightly, she saw the Juliette heading straight for them.
Joy and relief filled her until she looked behind them and saw the Federal boat closing in on them.
It was hard to say which was closer, but she began to wonder if they were going to be run down by both boats.
Abruptly, an explosion rent the air and a ball of fire and smoke flashed, lighting the sea around them like daylight.
* * * *
The moment Erin’s feet settled on the deck of the Juliette, she clutched the squalling baby tightly and headed for the stairs. He’d been screaming almost nonstop since the Lycans had blown the Federal boat out the water and she was terrified that he’d somehow been hit by a piece of flying debris. When she reached the cabin she shared with Jesse, she settled the baby on the bed and quickly stripped his wet clothing off.
She collapsed, weak with relief when she saw no sign of an injury.
The explosion had simply terrified the baby. As far as that went, it had terrified her. She’d been certain, at first, that it was the Juliette that had gone up, their last hope of rescue. She could hardly believe they’d managed to pull it off.
Erin soothed the baby. His crying began to subside almost as soon as she’d removed the wet clothing.
Standing shakily, she struggled out of her own wet clothes and left the baby long enough to grab something to dry off with. She’d just tucked the towel around her when the door to the cabin was flung open with a fo
rce that cracked the wall behind it when it slammed into it.
Jesse stood in the doorway, swaying slightly. He’d shifted into his man form for the first time since they’d fled the panther clan’s compound and didn’t have so much as a stitch of clothing to cover him. Blood coated him liberally, dripping from the fingers of one hand and running down one thigh.
“Is he alright?”
“I think the explosion scared him.”
Jesse nodded and shame filled Erin as she stared at him. He was bleeding all over from the bullets he’d taken to protect her and Joshua and she’d scarcely given him a thought as she raced down with the baby.
Even now it was hard to ignore the call of motherhood and leave the baby crying to see after Jesse, but she resolutely dismissed the baby and surged toward Jesse, wrapping her arms around his waist. “Let me see to your wounds.”
He shook his head. “They’ll close. I just need to rest.”
His words were slurring and he leaned more heavily against her with each step. She barely managed to stagger across the room with him before he collapsed like a felled tree face down on the bed.
Joshua let out a yelp when the impact bounced him, his little arms flailing frantically. Erin made a dive for him as he came down again, gathering him close, but the incident had scared him all over again. She walked the floor with him until she’d calmed him and then settled him carefully on the bed beside Jesse.
He was still far from happy, but she thought he would be alright while she examined Jesse. Regardless, Joshua’s distress wore on her as she examined Jesse’s wounds, distracting her. Gritting her teeth, she tried to block out the fussing and ignore the urge to coddle him, knowing Jesse had lost so much blood he needed her attention far more at the moment.
If he’d been human, she doubted he would ever have made it as far as he had without collapsing. She found two deep wounds and three superficial wounds that were nevertheless bleeding profusely.
Leaping to her feet, she rushed from the room to search for medicine and bandages. The cabinet in the bathroom was well stocked with just about everything. Grabbing a cloth and some disinfectant, she headed back into the bedroom to bathe Jesse’s wounds so that she could see them better.
He was Lycan, she reminded herself, trying to dismiss the anxiety eating at her. His body healed itself rapidly--unless the bullets they’d used had been silver and she doubted that had been regular issue even considering the purpose of the island facility.
They’d gone to assault what they’d expected to be a Lycan stronghold though.
She gnawed her lip worriedly, but she knew she couldn’t take the chance that the bullets were silver and would slowly poison him, draining the strength he needed to heal himself.
Leaving the bed again, Erin pulled a drawer out of the chest across the room, grabbed a pillow off of the bed to use as a mattress and finally settled the baby in the makeshift crib.
When he seemed quieted, she left him and went back into the bathroom to search for something she could use to dig the bullets out. Unfortunately, Juliette hadn’t left a tray of medical instruments. She had to make do with tweezers.
After sterilizing them the best she could, she bent to her task, focusing on the glint of metal she could see imbedded in his flesh rather the flesh itself. She was shaking all over and sick to her stomach by the time she’d dug the slugs out, but a sense of relief filled her, too. The bullets had been silver.
Almost as soon as she removed the slugs the blood began to slow and finally stopped oozing altogether.
She discovered when she looked at his face that his eyes were open and he was watching her. “You should see about the baby.”
She shook her head, smiling wryly. “Poor little fellow gave up on getting fed again and fell asleep.”
Almost before the words were out of her mouth, the baby made a liar out of her, letting out a cry so filled with hurt Erin rushed to see if he’d somehow injured himself. He hadn’t, she saw, relieved, but it was obvious his feelings were hurt that he’d been abandoned. Lifting him from his makeshift crib, she looked around the cabin and finally moved to sit on the edge of the bed, loosening the towel and settling him to her breast.
Snuffling like a baby puppy, he found her nipple and latched onto it, suckling hungrily, his tiny hands balled into fists under his chin.
Jesse chuckled and Erin glanced around to discover he had levered himself up on one elbow to look over her shoulder. Shaking her head at him, she shifted so that she could lie down, holding the baby beside her.
From out of nowhere the urge to cry settled over her as she watched him. She’d missed so much. He hardly looked like the baby she remembered. “He’s changed so much since I saw him last,” she murmured unhappily, fighting the fear that it wasn’t Joshua at all.
As if he sensed the fear that had arisen in her mind, Jesse spoke. “He’s mine,” he said quietly, stroking one hand soothingly along her arm.
Erin glanced at him, but she realized immediately that he was in touch with senses that had long since failed humans. He would know his young by his scent. That was how he’d found Joshua so easily. She should have realized that before.
Relief flooded her.
It was short lived. It sank into her as she studied Jesse that he hadn’t said ‘ours’ and new fears immediately raised their ugly heads, but she didn’t want to think about that now. Joshua needed her. Jesse must realize that or he wouldn’t have brought her. “Thank you,” she said shakily. “Thank you so much for helping me find him.”
He stared at her hard for several moments and finally sank back against the pillows, staring up at the ceiling. “My son needs his mother.”
A hard knot of misery tightened in her throat and uneasiness formed a taut coil in the pit of her stomach, but she pushed the thoughts away. She didn’t want to think about her tenuous situation now. She would think about it later, when she had to.
Nodding, she transferred her attention to the baby, stroking his soft cheek. He opened his eyes at her touch, looking up at her. A frown drew his brows together and she smiled at his expression--so like his father’s--feeling relief that she saw the resemblance that assured her he was hers.
The first weeks of his life had been stolen from her. They hadn’t really had a chance to form more than a tenuous bond before they were separated. Now, she thought she had some chance of it. For at least as long as Jesse felt his son needed her, she had that much security to cling to. He would guard them from the others, and he would not harm her.
A sense of peace settled inside of her despite the doubts that still teased at the fringes of her consciousness. She had Joshua safe from those demented scientists. That was all that really mattered at the moment.
As she had known would almost inevitably be the case, the baby so consumed her time on the trip back home that she had little opportunity to explore what had seemed to be a promising beginning between her and Jesse. As delighted as she was to have Joshua again, and as much as she enjoyed the time she spent getting to know her son, the adjustment wasn’t easy for either one of them and tending him was so exhausting that she hardly knew where she was half the time.
Jesse seemed distant. It took her a while to notice it though, and even when she did she wasn’t certain what, if anything, she could or should try to do about it. She wasn’t even certain why he seemed to have withdrawn.
Maybe motherhood was a turn off to him? Or maybe he was just having trouble coming to grips with the new responsibility?
Struggling to unravel the puzzle, it occurred to her after a while that he seemed to have been very withdrawn after they’d returned from the island, more specifically after she’d removed the bullets.
Had it bothered him that he’d needed her help? Was he embarrassed, maybe, because he thought he’d seemed weak?
That sounded like something a man would worry about, but somehow she didn’t think that was it. He’d actually seemed fine until she’d thanked him for rescuing the baby.
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Wondering how that could’ve angered him, she turned it over and over in her mind until abruptly it made sense. He’d felt distanced by the way she’d said it, as if she was thanking a stranger for a favor.
She hadn’t meant it that way, but maybe, since she’d been so wrapped up in the baby that she’d been reluctant to spare the time to patch him up, he wasn’t being overly sensitive to have taken it that way.
The certainty grew in her that she’d royally screwed up, and that that was exactly why Jesse had grown so distant, but she couldn’t think of any way to retrieve her mistake. Trying to explain at this late date would only be awkward for both of them and not at all convincing.
She put it from her mind. She couldn’t deal with more than Joshua at the moment. When she’d learned how to cope with tending an infant, she would find some way to smooth things over between her and Jesse.
Chapter Fifteen
Within a week, Erin found herself ensconced in a penthouse apartment at the top of one of the tallest buildings in the city. It took several more weeks, though, before Erin and Joshua had acclimated to each other and Erin was actually able to think of life beyond diaper changes, feeding time, baths and bed.
Joshua, to her delight, blossomed under her attention, rounding out very nicely in the ensuing weeks until he merely looked thin, not emaciated, and his head ceased to look abnormally large compared to the rest of him. He was, in fact, beautiful--just like his father.
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