by HELEN HARDT
Then—
“What the fuck?”
Chapter Five
Erin
Exhaustion weighed on me as I washed up after my last case. One hour left. Logan was still working, though Dr. Thomas had told him to go home hours ago, after the rush. I rubbed at the beginning of a headache on my forehead.
Dante.
Had he found his father’s body?
Or had he been arrested for trespassing?
The latter probably wouldn’t happen. River or Dante’s father could glamour anyone who crossed their path.
Correction—any human who crossed their path.
God, I so couldn’t go there right now.
Before I could find a couple of ibuprofen to pop—
“Erin! We need you!”
Renee’s voice. Another emergency. This was the ER, after all.
I raced back out to the ER, and—
“Dante!”
River was next to him, holding a bundle wrapped in black leather. “Thank God,” he said when he saw me. “Help her. Please.”
An orderly came running with a stretcher. “Get her on here. The doctor is coming.”
A lump lodged in my throat when I saw the patient’s face.
Lucy.
“What happened?” I said to River.
“She’s been stabbed. I don’t know how or why. Just help her. Please!”
“But you were—”
Dante grabbed my arm. “Shh,” he said under his breath.
Right. I couldn’t announce that they’d been in St. Louis Cemetery at night. But they had been, and apparently, so had Lucy.
Lucy was naked under River’s leather coat. I didn’t have time to ask the questions that burned in my mind.
Dr. Thomas ran toward us. “Erin?”
“Female, late twenties. Stab wound to the abdomen. Possible concussion. Doctor…it’s Lucy.”
“Get her into trauma one and page the on-call surgeon,” Dr. Thomas said. “Erin, you’re with me.”
River tried to follow us, but I pushed him back. “I’m sorry. I’ll let you know as soon as I know anything.”
“Please, Erin…”
I looked to Dante, pleading with my eyes.
“Come on, Riv,” he said.
I rushed into trauma one. Lucy was unconscious. I got two IVs started.
“Definitely concussed. She’s lost a lot of blood. I need two units of O neg stat. They’ll go with her to the OR.”
An orderly nodded and ran out while I took a little more of her precious blood for a typing and complete blood count.
“She’s B positive,” I said. “She told me.”
“You know we can’t administer anything other than the universal donor before typing.” Dr. Thomas examined the wound and began applying pressure. “We’re out of B positive anyway.”
Of course we were.
While another nurse sponged the wound and applied pressure, Dr. Thomas examined Lucy. “Looks good. No bile. No vital organs have been damaged that I can see.”
Though we wouldn’t know for sure until a surgeon had explored, a weight lifted off my shoulders.
Still, she wasn’t out of the woods quite yet. She’d lost a ton of blood.
The orderly came back with the blood, and I gave him Lucy’s sample to take to the lab.
Was it ethical to be working on my best friend?
No time to ponder that. Right now, Lucy needed me.
Dr. Thomas applied a dressing to Lucy’s wound, which was off to the right side. She was lucky the weapon hadn’t punctured her liver.
Who had done this to her? She’d been in the middle of a family emergency. I’d seen her at the beginning of my shift. Where in the world had she been where she could have gotten stabbed? And why was she naked?
“Doctor…” I said, gulping.
“Yes?”
“We should do a rape kit. She was naked when she came in.”
“Do it quickly. The trauma surgeon on call will be here in minutes.”
“Yes, Doctor. But she’s my…”
Dr. Thomas nodded. “I understand. I’ve got her bleeding stabilized. Get the kit and I’ll do it myself.”
I sighed in relief. I’d done no less than a hundred rape exams in my career, but looking into my best friend’s privates? I couldn’t do it. Well, I could, and I would have, if no one else had been available.
Dr. Bonneville would have no doubt made me do it, thinking it beneath her to do such a menial task.
Again, I was thankful for her three-week vacation.
I grabbed a rape kit quickly from the row of white boxes. This wasn’t unusual in the ER. We saw a lot of sexual assault. But this white box was for my best friend. I delivered the kit to Dr. Thomas and found Steve and Renee in with her.
“Go,” Steve said to me. “We’ve got this covered.”
I shot him a look of gratitude and mouthed, “I owe you one.”
I walked out in a daze, removing my mask and gloves and throwing them away. I hurriedly washed my hands, and then walked out to the waiting area to talk to Dante and River.
River stood as soon as he saw me. “Lucy?”
I nodded. “It looks like she’s going to be okay. We don’t think any vital organs were damaged, and she’ll probably be getting some blood. The trauma surgeon is on his way. He’s likely here by now, and she’s headed into the operating room. They’ll get her patched up.” I purposely didn’t mention the rape kit.
“Thank God,” River said.
“I’m sorry, but I have to ask, because these questions are going to come up. Where did you find her?”
“Where do you think?”
I sighed.
“You know where we were, Erin.”
“What was Lucy doing there?”
“We have no idea,” River said.
“You’re going to have to tell the cops something,” I said. “This is, at the very least, an assault and battery. At worst, it’s attempted murder.”
“The cops have already talked to us,” River said. “I took care of it.”
I sighed again. He’d glamoured them, of course.
“Look,” I said. “I get that you have to protect yourself, but you also have to think of Lucy. Whoever attacked her left her in the cemetery. If you guys are going to find out who did this to her, you need to know where to look.”
“It’s covered,” River said. “I’ll be investigating this myself.”
“What about Jay?”
“I’ll take care of Jay.”
“You will not—”
A warm hand covered mine.
Dante.
“No, Erin. He won’t glamour Jay. We’ve had words about it already.”
“The truth is…” River began.
“What?”
He let out a breathy sigh. “I’ve been thinking about telling Jay about Dante and me.”
“You can’t.” I clenched my hands into fists. “Not now.”
Dante rubbed my shoulders. “Maybe you should tell him. He might take it better coming from you.”
“I’ve only just come to grips with it myself,” I said. “I can’t.”
“But—” River began.
“It can wait a little while longer,” Dante said soothingly.
River sat down with a plunk. “Whatever, man. But you know he has to be told at some point.”
Chapter Six
Dante
I shot River a look that I hoped said “shut the fuck up.”
I hated keeping the secret that my sister was carrying Jay’s child, but that was Emilia’s story to tell. Not mine. Erin was a woman, and she would understand that.
I hoped, anyway.
“Why?” she asked.
“It’s okay, love. We won’t keep you. Do you need to get back to work?” My fangs had already descended. It wasn’t quite time to feed, but this night had taken a lot of my willpower. And here stood Erin, her scent permeating every part of me.
I needed her. Now.
She looked toward the large clock on the wall of the waiting area. “I’m off duty as of now, but I want to go check on Lucy. Though she’s probably in surgery.”
“I can meet you back home,” I said.
She smiled. “I kind of like that.”
“What?”
“You said ‘back home.’ As in our home.”
“You said I could move in.”
“Wait,” River said. “What?”
“I’m moving in with Erin. It just makes sense, you know?”
“Yeah, I suppose so.”
“All right. You want to wait and ride with me?” Erin turned to River. “I assume you want to stay here and see Lucy after surgery.”
“Yeah. I do.”
She nodded. “I need to change. I’ll be right back.”
Need.
Want.
Ache.
Yearning. A pounding yearning that had me grasping at the last shreds of control.
I’d had to look straight ahead as Erin drove us home. If I had glanced her way—
But I didn’t.
And now we were home, unlocking her door—
I pushed her against the wall as soon as we were inside, slamming my lips onto hers.
She opened, our tongues danced, and my fangs nicked the inside of her mouth, giving me the slightest taste of her.
I ripped my mouth away and sank my sharp teeth into the creamy flesh of her neck.
Red nectar. The essence of life.
It flowed into me from her jugular, nourishing me, sustaining me.
Completing me.
She moaned as I sucked, letting me take what I needed from her.
I slid one hand down the contours of her sleek body and under her sweat pants, fingering her folds. She was already wet, so ready for me, and as I sucked her blood, I rubbed her clit.
Her moans lengthened, and when she began her climax, I inserted two fingers into her as I sucked the last drop of sustenance I could take from her. I released her, licking the puncture wounds.
Then, with one hand, I unsnapped my jeans and freed my aching cock. I brushed her sweats and underwear over her hips and pushed into her. The angle was weird as she couldn’t spread her legs, but still the suction was sweet against me as I thrust.
But I needed more.
I pulled out and turned her around, placing her hands against the wall.
Her red pussy glistened from behind, and before I plunged back in, I fell to my knees and buried my face between her ass cheeks, inhaling her luscious fragrance. I slid my tongue into her folds and tasted her fruity nectar, so slick and sweet.
“God, Dante. Please.”
“I’m coming, baby. I just wanted to taste you.” I stood and shoved my cock back into her heat.
She gloved me in warmth, in love.
The angle was perfect, and as I pushed into her again and again, my only regret was that I couldn’t kiss her perfect full lips.
Later.
Later I would make love to her slowly, with reverence.
Now? I’d fuck her until she couldn’t stand.
I fucked her.
And I fucked her.
And when she began to contract around me, I shoved myself as deeply inside her as I could, flattening both our bodies against her wall.
My balls seized, and I filled her, gasping as I gave her everything I could.
Everything she’d already given me.
When our orgasms subsided, both of us panting, I stepped backward, holding on to her when she lost her footing a bit.
She turned to me, her eyes wide, her cheeks flushed. “Wow.”
I smiled. “I wanted to fuck you until you couldn’t stand.”
“I’d say you met your goal. My legs are kind of like jelly.”
“I’m sorry. I had to have you. Couldn’t wait.”
“It’s okay. I understand.”
“Last night. It got to me.”
“Did you find your dad? His body, I mean.”
Reality hit me like a lead pipe. We hadn’t. We hadn’t accomplished our goal.
Which meant we had to go back.
“No. But we did find Lucy. If we hadn’t been there…”
She nodded. “I know. I can’t go there.”
“I can’t figure out what she was doing—” I held back a gasp.
The white wolf.
Erin had been worried that—
I shoved my fingers through my hair.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Nothing. It’s crazy, really.”
Erin cleared her throat. “I didn’t want to say this in front of River, but we did a rape kit on Lucy. Just in case.”
“But she wasn’t—” I stopped. A rape kit was a good call, of course. And Lucy and the wolf were not one and the same. They couldn’t have been.
Could they?
“You need to tell me, Dante. Where did you find her? And how?”
I wasn’t about to lie to Erin. She already had questions about Lucy, and I’d basically told her she was making things up. Now I was thinking she might be right.
“We heard a—” He rubbed at his temples. “It’s crazy, Erin. It was a wolf. She was sitting in the cemetery.”
“A wolf? At St. Louis Cemetery?”
“I know. It’s nuts. She was sitting on top of a grassy area, and then her ears perked up and she ran away. We heard a…dog fight. Or a wolf fight. Whatever. There was definitely a person involved. Then a yelp and whimper in the cemetery. We followed it, and we found Lucy. She was naked, and she’d been stabbed.”
She clamped her hand onto her mouth.
“She was unconscious. Did you check for a concussion?”
She nodded. “What could she have been doing in there?”
“Erin, baby, I think you were right.”
“Oh my God…”
“I think Lucy might be a wolf shifter.” I got Erin a glass of wine and sat down with her on her sofa, and then told her what River and I had experienced at the cemetery.
“A wolf. In the cemetery. And your mother. Another ghost.”
“Yeah. I know how surreal it all sounds.”
“This goes so far beyond surreal.” She took a gulp of wine.
“I know.”
“What about your dad? Where was he while this was going on?”
“He was guarding the perimeter. Making sure everyone was glamoured. And we haven’t seen him since we found Lucy.”
“You don’t think he—”
“No, baby. He’s a ghost. He’s not corporeal. He can’t stab anything. And my father wouldn’t do that.”
She nodded. “I know. I’m sorry. But who?”
“I wish I knew. Someone who couldn’t be glamoured. That’s all we know.”
She dropped her mouth open.
“What?”
“The vampires. You can’t glamour other vampires, can you?”
“No. Of course not.”
“You can’t smell each other, but can you smell the humans other vampires have been around?”
“Yeah. But only in an amorphous sense. The scent isn’t exact.” Except during pregnancy. No vamp could mistake the smell of Jay all over Emilia.
“What if it’s a really compelling scent?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. Probably.”
“It’s those vampires. The ones Abe said were after me. They smelled me on you.”
Chapter Seven
Erin
This was all my fault. Lucy had been there, trying to protect River and Dante. And those vamps had come after Dante because of me.
“Erin…”
“You’ve been drinking my blood, Dante. My smell must be all over you.” I stood and paced around the room, taking another gulp of wine. “Lucy left work as soon as I told her where you two were going tonight. She claimed she got a text, but I didn’t hear her phone buzz.”
“She could have had it on silent.”
“It’s never on silent. She made it up. She l
eft because she was scared for you. She went to protect you. I can’t believe I’m even saying all of this. But it makes perfect sense. No, it makes no sense at all. Yet it does.”
“Baby, it’s okay. You’ve learned to deal with what I am. You can deal with Lucy as well.”
“The werewolf baby…” I rubbed my temples to ease the hot thrumming between them.
“What?”
“She gave me some instructions in case the baby came back to the ER.” I searched for my purse and found it on the floor by the door. I’d dropped it as soon as we got inside and Dante attacked me.
I opened it, turned it upside down, and let its contents fall on the floor.
The envelope sat among them, staring at me, its stark whiteness nearly blinding me and pulsing as if it had a heartbeat.
“She told me not to open it. Not unless the baby came back.”
“What are you talking about, Erin?”
I picked up the envelope. It burned my skin. I held it for a moment and then walked back over to the sofa and sat beside Dante. “Lucy gave me this. Said to open it if the baby came back to the ER.”
“You don’t have to open it.”
“I do. How else can we be sure that Lucy…” It had taken me so long to apply the word vampire to Dante. How long would it take to accept Lucy as…
I shook my head. “I can’t.”
“Then don’t.”
But I ripped open the envelope anyway and pulled out the piece of white paper inside. I unfolded it slowly.
Erin,
I can’t tell you how I know this, but please take care of Bianca if she comes back in. Her fever is normal for who she is, but it does need to be brought down if it continues. Use an herbal tonic made of feverfew and borage leaves. You can find these herbs dried in any voodoo or magick shop. Take one ounce (no more!) of each and infuse in three cups of water that has been boiled but allowed to cool for five minutes. Give two fluid ounces of this herbal infusion with each bottle. It can be mixed with her formula. If the taste bothers her, add just a touch of sugar or stevia.
Please, Erin. Bianca needs this remedy if the fevers continue.
