Chapter 13 Rosemary #2
Thunder’s heavy breathing came from somewhere at our feet.
Daniel started to tremble as he moved slowly backward. His heart was pounding.
“Stay here,” Beau called out calmly. “You have to stay where we can help her.”
“I’m fine,” I replied, blinking. I laid my head on Daniel’s shoulder. I let the blood in my mouth drain out of my lips, too tired to spit.
“She’s losing consciousness,” Chance spat. “We’ve been standing here for fifteen minutes already.”
Had it been fifteen minutes? That didn’t seem right.
“What do we do?”
“Stand ready,” Erik replied quietly. He raised his voice. “Arne, you need to put her down.”
“If he doesn’t snap out of it, we’ll have to take her,” Beau said.
Daniel took another step back, a low growl rumbling in his chest.
“Fight it, son,” Erik ordered, his voice deepening.
My mate began to shake.
I slid my hand under his shirt, pressing my palm against the warm skin of his back. Yes, that’s what I needed. The feeling of his skin against mine. Everything inside me seemed to settle.
It was the opposite for Daniel. As soon as our skin met, he jolted like he’d been shocked and began lowering me to the forest floor.
“Rosie,” he called as he gently pushed my hair out of my face.
“You made it,” I whispered, watching as his eyes slowly lost the blank look.
“Where are you hit?” he asked, his voice vibrating with terror.
“Hip,” I replied, his face going in and out of focus. “Shoulder.”
“Daniel?” Erik called.
“Help her,” Daniel choked out.
Then there were Bouchers all around me. The pain was constant, excruciating, but I held Daniel’s gaze with my own as they pressed against my wounds.
“I’m going to have a scar,” I informed him.
“You’re going to have a few.”
“On my face,” I grimaced and then winced.
“It’s not so bad,” he soothed, his hands shaking as he rubbed his thumb over my temple.
“It’s bad,” Chance argued. “Think I can see your teeth.”
I let out a shocked huff of laughter.
“Gods, Chance,” Beau barked. “Shut the fuck up.”
“You got this?” Ambrose asked, falling back on his heels. “I’ll go get Lucy and Reese.”
“Take Beau,” Erik ordered as he gently wrapped something around my shoulder. “No one goes anywhere alone.”
I gasped and dug my fingers into the dirt, pressing upward. “My pop,” I wheezed as Daniel tried to push me back down without hurting me.
“He’s fine,” Erik assured me, though there was no way he could’ve known. My pop was out there somewhere in the dark without Thunder to watch his back.
“We need to go get him,” I argued, shoving weakly against their gentle hands.
“I’m here,” Pop called, breathless.
A few moments later, he stumbled into the clearing, his face so pale that it practically glowed in the dark.
“How is she?”
“She’s fine,” I replied, coughing as I choked on blood.
“Yeah, looks like it,” he said, barely making it to my side before dropping. He landed awkwardly, like his legs had simply gone out from under him.
Thunder scooted closer, nudging Pop’s arm.
“Good boy,” Pop praised, his eyes still on me as he scratched Thunder’s bloody fur.
“We need to get her home,” Erik said as the sound of the brothers and their mates filtered through the trees.
“I can walk,” I said in protest as Daniel gathered me into his arms.
“Let me hold you,” he murmured in my ear.
The rest of the Bouchers reached us just as I realized that my pop wasn’t rising to his feet.
“I’ll meet you,” he said, his voice reed thin. “You go.”
“Pop,” I whispered.
I’d thought that seeing Seamus with a gunshot wound in his belly had broken me, but I’d been wrong. Seeing my pop on the ground, unable to rise, was the final hit that shattered everything inside me into thousands of sharp pieces.
“Unacceptable,” Erik replied. He didn’t wait for permission. He just took two steps, crouched, grabbed my pop’s arm, and yanked him over his broad shoulders.
“All set?” Chance asked, for once, not making any snide comments.
“Careful,” Ambrose ordered as we hurried through the trees toward the house. “Beau?”
“Nothing,” Beau replied.
“Clear here,” Chance added.
They were spread out around us as we moved through the trees, security for those of us unable to fight.
“Good back here too,” Lucy said from somewhere behind us.
“Stay close,” Erik ordered.
“Nah, I thought I’d hang back a little bit,” she mumbled to herself.
The driveway and yard were littered with bodies, but the Vampires around me didn’t hesitate as they walked past the men on the ground.
We converged on a large SUV, and Daniel waited as Beau and Chance tossed everything out of the trunk before climbing in, holding me in his lap. Pop crawled in beside us. Then Thunder.
“I didn’t know he could move like that,” Daniel said as his family piled into the front.
“He’s got hidden depths,” I replied groggily as Thunder laid his head tiredly on Pop’s hip.
“Never see him comin’,” Pop added proudly. He twined his fingers with mine and squeezed, holding them tightly.
“You know, they can slow down,” I mumbled. Daniel’s body swayed, and me with it, as we flew around a corner. “This shit may hurt, but it’s not like it’ll kill me.”
I closed my eyes, pressing my forehead against the pulse beating in my mate’s neck. “I’ll be fine. I can handle anything for a while.”
“Let’s not take any chances,” Daniel replied gruffly.
I shrugged and was surprised to find that my shoulder didn’t hurt nearly as much as it had. That had to be a good thing. Maybe my body was already healing itself. I’d heard of Vampires and their mates healing faster than humans.
I drifted in and out of consciousness as we raced toward the Boucher property.
“How bad is it?” Daniel asked my pop when they thought I was passed out.
“Not good,” Pop breathed, his thumb smoothing over the back of my palm. “Do you think someone would go get my chair from the house?”
“Of course,” Daniel replied sympathetically.
Then the road changed, and I lifted my head a little as we pulled onto gravel.
“Almost there, baby,” Daniel said.
I hadn’t realized that he’d been tenderly bracing my bad arm until he shifted, and white-hot pain shot down from my shoulder.
The Bouchers swarmed out of the SUV the moment it stopped. The inside lit up as the liftgate in the back opened to reveal Chance standing there.
“Let’s not make this weird,” he said briskly, reaching for Pop.
“Fuck,” Pop groaned as Chance lifted him out of the SUV.
Thunder followed them.
“Now, us,” Daniel said, scooting forward until he could drop his feet to the ground. When he stood, Beau and Reese were there, waiting to see if we needed any help.
“Dalton made it,” Beau announced as we moved toward the front door. “Alice is working on the boy now.”
“She needs to hurry,” Daniel replied as we entered the house.
He was limping. I opened my mouth to ask what was wrong with his leg but got distracted by the view.
The house was beautiful inside. Large and open, it even smelled good.
I looked everywhere I could without lifting my head.
There was a large stairway off to the side, an antique hutch, and fancy wallpaper with little birds on it.
I’d been letting the blood drain out of my mouth, but I sucked it back as we moved over the hardwood floors, trying not to stain them.
“Danny,” a sweet voice called out as we entered a brightly lit room. “How can I help?”
I squinted against the light.
“We need to get her clothes off,” Daniel replied as he gently placed me on an uncomfortable bed with a railing on one side.
It took me a moment to realize it was a hospital bed.
What the fuck?
I glanced around the room. Six feet away, a small woman was wrapped from head to toe in a green cap and scrubs, ordering the person next to her quietly.
Her hands flashed in and out of view. At the head of the bed, my Uncle Dalton stood with his hands on Seamus’s head.
My cousin’s face was covered with an oxygen mask. His skin looked gray.
Beyond them, Ian, Grant, and Aunt Halle stood along the wall. Grant’s head was tipped down, staring at the floor. Aunt Halle’s eyes were squeezed shut, Ian’s arm wrapped tightly around her shoulders.
I met Ian’s devastated gaze and held it until he looked away.
Shelves and cupboards lined the room. There was a sink in the corner. A backboard rested against the wall opposite my family. Chance and Erik stood next to it.
“What are you doing?” I gasped as cool air blew over my thighs. I slapped at the hands pulling my trousers down.
“We have to see your wounds,” Daniel said, catching my hand.
“Wait.”
My cousins were right there. So were Daniel’s father and brother.
“We can’t wait,” the sweet voice replied. She lifted her head to look at me, and my mate’s brown eyes stared back from a stranger’s face.
“Your mom,” I whispered, letting my head fall back.
“Yes,” Daniel replied, messing with my shirt.
I closed my eyes as cool air hit my chest and then my arms.
“Danny,” his mom called, her voice rising an octave. “Erik, come help me.”
“Great,” I mumbled. “Invite everyone over.”
No one paid any attention to me as multiple pairs of hands touched me, pressing and pulling. I could barely feel it anymore. Gauze pressed against my cheek, and then my pop’s voice was in my ear.
“Hold on, Flower.”
I tried to answer him, but my mouth didn’t seem to be working anymore.
Sometime later, it was Daniel in my ear. “Bite, baby.”
The scent of his blood filled my nostrils, and I clenched my teeth around his skin.
“It’s coming out her cheek,” someone murmured.
“She’s still getting some,” another voice replied.
“Let her take as much as she can.”
“I know,” Daniel said, his voice still near my ear.
Then there was nothing but a bitchy voice barking orders.
I faded in and out, never once opening my eyes, even when I felt someone’s hands on my face, another set holding my head in place.
Somewhere in the darkness, I stared into Seamus’s wide, scared eyes. When I opened my mouth, no sound came out. We just looked at each other, both of us terrified.