A lump lodged in Sara’s throat. She always got a kick out of it when the readers got in the spirit of things and showed up in costume, but with Hailey, it struck something deeper. Growing up apart, they’d never had the chance to do the things sisters usually would; things like playing dress up.
“Oh, Hailey, yes, it is freaking awesome.” Sara folded her hands around Hailey’s and blinked back a tear. “More than awesome. Thank you.”
With a quick squeeze of her fingers, Hailey wiggled her hands loose. “Yeah, yeah, okay. No mushy stuff. The glue will melt and our eyelashes will end up on our chins.”
Sara didn’t miss the brighter sheen her sister’s eyes had too and smiled. “We could say they were our pet spiders.”
A new reader approached the table, a ghoul this time.
“Hello.”
The next twenty minutes flew by. At that point, they got a break in the action and Nicki slid over to Sara’s table flexing her fingers. “So, how’s it going over here?”
Sara did the same, hoping to work the cramp out of her signing hand. “Really well. At this rate, I’m going to have to restock my books, though I hate to leave my table.” They had another forty minutes to go and her copies were precariously low.
Hailey piped up. “I can do that. Where are they?”
“That’d be great, thanks.” Sara pointed to a stand of curtains on the right side of the room in front of the pool deck doors. “All our boxes are back there.”
“Okay, I’m on it…but not before you give us the dirt on your date yesterday, missy.”
Nicki perked up. “Oh right, you played hooky all afternoon, didn’t you?” She rubbed her hands together. “Don’t leave out anything, especially the dirty parts.”
Sara blushed. “Forget it, both of you.” She and Ryan had gone off to Stone Mountain together but ended up spending more time in his truck than they did exploring the park. “Unlike you people, I don’t kiss and tell.”
“Spoilsport.” Nicki nodded toward the next wave of readers heading their way. “Guess we have to let you off the hook…for now.”
Hailey bumped her shoulder against Sara’s. “What she said, but be warned, we have a vodka-baited trap set for you later.” Clapping her hands once, she spun on her heel. “Okay, super assistant is on the job. I’ll be back in a flash with a stack of books covered in scantily clad men.” Hailey darted off and was swallowed up in the river of supernatural creatures within seconds.
A wad of paper bounced off her arm and Nicki hissed, “Psst. Hey, speak of the devil.” Sara looked at her friend holding her hand up next her face to shield the other’s pointing index finger. “Wolf man alert at two o’clock.”
Sara’s head snapped in that direction, and she botched her current signature as a flight of bumblebees buzzed over her nerve endings. Ryan was cutting a path through the crowd without even trying, drawing stares from all angles. She’d seen him in various styles, from casual tees to dinner jackets, and he’d been attractive in all of them. He was nothing short of mouth-watering in the dark jeans, cowboy boots, and black button-down he wore now.
“Is he one of the models? ’Cause, damn, I want me a picture with some of that. Mmm, mmm.” The voice belonged to a plus-size African American woman three back in Sara’s line.
Nicki saved her from figuring out how to respond. “Sorry, girl, not that one.” Ryan was within striking distance when she pointed her thumb at Sara. “He’s hers.”
His face broke into a sexy lopsided grin, bringing the temperature of Sara’s cheeks up as he came around the table and kissed her temple. Damn, of course he’d heard that. “Hey there.”
Sara excused herself from the person in front of her and glanced sideways at him as she signed a replacement copy for the book she’d just ruined. “What are you doing here?”
“Thought I’d see if you wanted to go for a late bite to eat when you’re done here.”
Nicki answered. “Sure, she does.”
Sara rolled her eyes. “Excuse her.”
He grinned wider and winked. “I don’t think so, I like her answer.”
“Well, I did only manage a quick snack earlier and apparently I can’t take you both on, so fine. Yes, I’d like to have dinner after.”
“Good.” He handed her one of the last copies as another reader stepped up. “Anything I can do to help in the meantime?”
Sara glanced at the dangerously diminished pile then looked up to see if she could spot her sister. “Hailey went to get more books, but I don’t see her. Would you mind seeing if she needs a hand?” She waved toward the curtained-off area. “She’ll be back there somewhere.”
Ryan dipped his head and kissed her soundly, eliciting a bevy of sighs and whistles from all around. “My pleasure.”
*****
Ryan hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Sara all day. It didn’t matter if they were making love, talking, or traveling in his truck saying nothing at all. He wanted to be with her.
Zander was convinced that his Neanderthal reaction to the ass from the studio and his strong attraction to Sara were due to how close his dubious birthday celebration was. According to him, for a Wulver male, it was like going through puberty all over again, only this time it was on steroids. Ryan wasn’t so sure. If that were true, then any breathing female should garner the same reaction. But for him, there was only one bringing his most primal urges to the surface.
And it couldn’t last past this weekend.
No, but after their first night together, Ryan had decided he’d take every second with her he could until then.
He reached the curtained-off area and stiffened his resolve. It was going to hurt like hell to walk away but he’d have to anyway. As it stood now, the most he could hope for was that she’d cherish the memory of this time together as much as he would. For now, he was going live in the moment and deal with his emotional suicide later.
His wolf’s instincts picked up something his human side missed while lost in thought and Ryan froze. With his hand inches from lifting the cloth barrier, he strained to hear and understand what had raised his hackles.
Had it been his imagination or confusion due to sensory overload in the crowded room? Then he heard it again. It sounded like something toppled over. Ryan yanked the curtain out of his way and dashed behind it. “Hailey? Is everything okay back here?”
Crash.
“Let go of me, you bastard!”
What the hell. Ryan zeroed in on the sounds of a struggle and vaulted over a pile of cardboard containers between it and him. “Hailey!”
Two men were wrestling with Hailey who was fighting like a hellion to shake them off.
“Ahhh. Let go!”
His vision shifted to his wolf’s spectrum, bringing everything into sharper focus, and a menacing growl shoved past his lengthening canines.
Ryan dropped to a crouch and launched himself at the closest one, plowing into his lower back and sending them sailing past Hailey and the other attacker. They hit the floor and rolled into another stack of boxes, bringing the lot down on top of them.
“Ryan?”
He had no time to answer. The piece of shit he had hold of bucked his bulkier frame, dislodging Ryan who bashed his head up against one of the curtain’s steel support poles in the process.
His vision blurred on impact and the bastard escaped Ryan’s grip. “Come back here, you fucker.”
“Ryan, help!” Hailey’s shriek cut through the wolf’s need to bring down its prey and Ryan spun around. The second son-of-a-bitch was dragging Hailey, kicking and screaming, through the doors to the pool area. Ryan flew at the exit, snarling.
The creep glanced back as he burst through the door behind them, and Ryan’s wolf licked its lips at the fear rolling off its new target. Before he could leverage that advantage, the man grabbed Hailey by the hair and threw her to the ground behind a planter. The sickening thwack of her skull hitting the concrete tore a roar from Ryan’s chest. “No!”
A wh
ite-hot streak slashed his back and his one leg buckled under the blow of what felt like a battering ram.
Fuck, he hadn’t disabled the first one. Stupid. Not willing to give up any further ground, Ryan increased his forward momentum and rolled, somersault fashion, back onto his feet and spun to face his assailant, aiming to catch him off guard.
But it was Ryan who got the shock.
Instead of the street-fighting knife Ryan expected, the bastard was waving a relic out of Wulver legend. A Baneblade, which explained why the cut he’d taken burned like acid. The silver tipped dagger, clearly visible under the pool deck’s nighttime lighting, had a signature triple twist in the blade and had supposedly been wielded against his kind in the Overseer wars. Ryan had only ever seen drawings of one.
He knows what I am?
The bastard’s grin was full of yellow teeth and saliva dripped from one corner of his mouth. “Ha, recognize this, do you? That’s right, dog.” He tossed it from one fist to the other. “Here, boy. Come and get it.”
Before Ryan could process further, the doors behind the bastard blew open and two security guards charged through with a pale-faced Sara on their heels. “What’s going on out here?”
Startled, the creep turned his head, giving Ryan the opening he needed. Charging forward, he knocked the weapon loose, sending it flying, and tackled the guy. The two guards were on them before they hit the ground, and two more appeared out of nowhere pulling them apart.
Ryan stopped struggling and averted his face, working to get the wolf’s influence to recede.
“Ryan!” Sara’s panic-filled voice yanked his face her direction. He saw her eyes widen in confusion and cringed. Shit. He knew what she saw. His canines were still elongated and he was still seeing in the wolf’s spectrum, so his eyes were far from normal.
Ryan clenched his jaw. He couldn’t worry about that now. Sara’s sister had gone down hard. “Sara, it’s Hailey.” The security guard who had hold of Ryan wasn’t likely to let go without a long explanation and she needed help now. “Over there by the planter. Hurry.”
The anguish that ripped from Sara as she bolted toward her sister blew a hole in him. To hell with appearances. Ryan snarled past his fangs, yanked his arm free, and took off after her.
“Hey! Get back here.”
Ryan was out of patience, so he yelled back at the guard without slowing down. “We need an ambulance. Now.” He didn’t bother to look again; the guy was still on his heels, but he was also calling for help on his radio.
Sara crouched over Hailey’s crumpled form with tears streaming down her face. Her hands waved sporadically as though unsure where to touch her, and she was staring at the blood in her sister’s hair.
“I don’t know what to do.”
He couldn’t stand the helpless fear in her voice, and his wolf chomped to rip the jugular out of the one responsible for putting it there. If Sara didn’t need him right now, Ryan would’ve gladly let it.
Instead, he took her hands and poured as much reassurance into his gaze as he could. “Help is on the way, so you need to hang in there, okay? For Hailey.” He rubbed his thumbs over the backs of her hands, thankful she didn’t shove him away after what she’d seen. “Can you do that?”
Resolve slowly replaced the terror on her face, and Ryan once again marveled at her. He knew Hailey was all she had in this world. “Okay, yeah.” She pulled her hands back and wiped her face.
Ryan nodded. “I want to have a look at where she hit her head.” He leaned down, and with her wig lost in the struggle and the position she was in now, Ryan could see where the skin was broken and a nasty lump was already forming behind Hailey’s ear. But it wasn’t her injury that tossed his universe in a blender and rendered him speechless.
“Ryan, can you see anything?” Sara’s voice came to him through an endless tunnel, echoing in his ears.
The contusion wasn’t the only thing behind Hailey’s ear. A discolored patch most would write off as a birthmark stood out against her pale skin. A Sigil. Kidney-shaped and half the size of a dime with a single round mark above, it was as singular to her kind as stripes to a zebra.
Hailey was Wulverkynn, and as such, sacred in his world. Was Sara too? Ryan’s mouth went dry.
Fear and determination pushed his shock aside. This—being attacked with a weapon supposed to be extinct—along with the Druid secrets for making it, and the fact the fucker knew what he was, meant there was no time for it.
This changed everything.
Chapter Seven
“Ms. Gardener?”
Sara jumped up from her seat for the hundredth time since they’d brought Hailey into WellStar Atlanta Medical Center four hours earlier. “Yes, that’s me. How is she?”
The tired-looking doctor dredged up what he probably thought was an encouraging smile, failing miserably. “Her x-rays look fine, but she took a serious blow to the head that required stiches, so we’d like to keep her overnight for observation. I don’t think there’s anything to worry about. She’ll likely be released in the morning, but I’d rather err on the side of caution in case of concussion.”
Sara’s heart slowed down for the first time since finding Hailey on the concrete, and her response came out on a stutter of air. “Yes, of course, and thank you.”
The doctor waved at a nearby nurse. “She’s awake and asking for you. Jean will take you to her room.”
It was well after midnight and the short trip down the hall was punctuated by the nurse’s squeaky shoes and noise from all the monitoring equipment being used as they passed each room. How anyone ever got any rest in these places was beyond her. Two-thirds of the way down the passage, the nurse pushed open a door on the right.
“There you go.”
Sara only had eyes for her sister as she entered, and she dismissed the woman with a nod and a quiet thank-you as she dashed over to the bed. She carefully propped on the edge of the mattress and spoke softly. “Hailey? Hailey? Honey, I’m here.”
Her sister’s eyelids fluttered open then she scrunched up her face. “You’d think, in this day and age, they could come up with something better than these hideous hospital gowns.”
Sara carefully took her hand and snorted. “You bash your head hard enough to end up in a hospital and all you care about is what you’re wearing?”
“Hey, a girl has to keep up a certain standard if she’s assistant to a hot-shot author, you know.”
Sara’s heart swelled with pride. Her sister’s self-worth had taken a hit after her stint on the streets, but it also toughened her up in other ways. Sara hadn’t realized just how tough she was till now. She also knew Hailey wouldn’t appreciate her pointing it out, so she winked instead. “It’s not like I’m snapping shots for Instagram here.” She worked to lighten her voice more. “So how are you feeling?”
Hailey shrugged then winced. “Great, as long as I don’t move anything from the waist up.”
“Do you remember what happened?”
“Yeah, a pair of dick-wads jumped me, and I went banshee on their ass. For all the good that did, then Ryan—” Her gaze shot past Sara toward the door. “Hey, where is my knight in shining armor, anyway?”
Sara looked out the window only to be confronted by her own guilty expression. “I, uh…told him to go.”
She could feel Hailey glaring at her. “What the hell did you do that for, and go where?”
Eyes back on Hailey, she wasn’t sure which was worse, her own guilt, or Hailey’s suspicious look. But damn it, she’d needed some space. With all that had happened between the attack, and what she thought she saw… Thought you saw?
“Sara? What did you do? Your face is all pinched up and you’re gnawing on your lip.”
She couldn’t sit still, so she stood and straightened the wrinkle she’d left behind in the sheet before wandering over to the window. “The police said they needed him to give a statement as soon as possible, so I told him to go take care of it.”
Hailey processed
her excuse in a matter of seconds. “Bullshit. You’re pacing. You never pace. You ran him off for some other reason.”
Sara rubbed her arms, suddenly cold.
Yeah, because either I’m losing my mind or there’s something very wrong with him. Sara couldn’t talk about this, nor could she deal with the source of all this confusion. So, she’d told herself it was better to simply rip the Band-Aid off fast and be done. “It doesn’t matter, Ryan was a fling and that’s all. You’re my sister, and you’re hurt. Fling over. End of discussion.” As soon as the words fell from her mouth, the panic button in her brain activated. No!
“Sara Eileen Gardener, it’s a good thing your eyes are brown or I wouldn’t be the only one who could see how full of it you are.” Hailey wiggled up higher in the bed and winced again, bringing Sara back to her side. “Ryan saved my ass tonight, and I’ve never seen you all bent out of shape over anyone, let alone like you are around him. So, cut the crap.”
Sara attempted to distract her by fixing her pillow. “Stop wiggling around. You’ll pull your stitches.”
Hailey snarled and swatted her hand. “You are going to call him first thing in the morning and take him for breakfast or something to make up for being an ungrateful jerk.”
Sara planted her hands on her hips and snarled back. “I can’t do that. I have to pick you up in the morning.”
Hailey spoke through clenched teeth. “Hand me my phone.”
All the jostling around Hailey was doing couldn’t be good, so Sara acquiesced. “Why? Who are you calling at this time of night?”
She didn’t answer, just glared as she tapped the screen, scrolled then put it up to her ear. “Nicki? Yeah, I’m fine, hard head and all that. Thanks for asking. Listen, can you be on standby to come get me in the morning when they cut me loose?” She stuck her tongue out at Sara. “Awesome, thanks. You’re a peach.”
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