Chapter Eleven
“ N o, no, no, no, no.” Max pulled Rex into his arms and rocked him, tears pouring down his face. “Don’t leave me. Please. Please, don’t leave me.” He kept his hand pressed to the wounds, the blood still seeping through his fingers. Rex didn’t respond, but at least he was breathing. “Please, Rex. Please don’t leave me.”
He had to find a way to stop the bleeding. Rex was losing far too much blood and Max couldn’t stop it. He pressed harder, crying more, body shaking.
Rex’s phone ringing had Max crying more, but he found it and answered the call. “Please help us!” He saw Peter’s name on the screen. “Please. Help us!”
“Where’s Rex?”
“He’s been stabbed. I don’t know the hospital layout. I don’t know where to go. I need Minho to come and take him there! He’s bleeding. Please help us.”
Max heard shocked and angry voices then, “Where are you?” A voice he didn’t know asked.
Max gave the details. “We’re behind the cabin but I don’t know where. We ran to get away. There was four of them and I didn’t protect him. I failed him.” Max choked on his sobs. “Rex! Please wake up! Rex!”
“Who are you?”
“What?” Max ran his fingers through Rex’s hair, shedding more tears.
“What is your name?”
“Max.”
He heard the intake of breath. “Maxim’s son?”
“Yes. I’m Rex’s mate. Please. You need to get here. He’s dying.” Max cried again, bending over Rex’s body, holding him close. He could feel the warm blood on his own bare chest and cried out, “Help me!”
“Take a picture. Send it to me and I’ll come and get you.”
Max’s hand shook. He took several photos and sent them, but he wasn’t sure how good they were until a figure appeared beside him. “Minho,” he whispered.
Minho paused, surveying the scene. “Any others?”
“I killed them.” Max wept again. “You have to take him. I gave him my blood. I can feel him slipping away.”
“Have you mated?” Minho crouched next to him and examined Rex’s wounds.
“No. We couldn’t. Maxim…” Max’s voice broke, and he cried again. “Please take him.”
Minho placed one hand on Rex, the other on Max, and suddenly they were in the reception area of the vampire hospital. Max barely noticed anything. All his intention was focused on Rex. “Nurse! We need help now. Two stab wounds to the chest. One appears to have punctured the left lung. Breathing decreased on the left side and bluish tinge to the skin.”
“O positive,” Max mumbled. “His blood type is O positive.” The white tiled floor was cold against his skin, and Max slumped on it, ignoring the pain surging through his body.
“Human. Blood type O positive.”
“We have one bag available. We’ll need donors.”
Max stayed on the floor until he was physically picked up. Minho’s hazel eyes bored into his own. “I’m going to get Peter now and you need to be treated.”
“Rex…” Max swallowed.
“See to him.” The order sounded sharp and seconds later he was being put in a wheelchair. He barely paid attention to where they were going or when he was moved to a bed. A doctor came in and checked his body. Max remained silent as they gave him injections and cleaned and treated his wounds.
“Can you sit up, please?” Max moved, wincing as fresh pain lanced through his body.
“How is Rex?”
The doctor looked at him and shook his head. “You’re not family.”
“I’m his mate,” Max murmured. “Please. He’s all I have.” Max hiccupped and ignored the tears that fell. “Please.”
“He’s in surgery.” Max tried to follow the new voice then realized he couldn’t see properly. Reaching a hand up, he touched his left eye, feeling it swollen and shut. “Is he…Is he…”
“Alive for now. It was you who warned me about Maxim.”
Max nodded. “I have to go.” He tried to move but the doctor stood in front of him. “Maxim is planning an attack. I need to find out the details.”
“Look at you. You’re a mess.”
“I can cover my body, lie about my face.” Max pushed the doctor to one side, stood swaying. He planted a hand on the bed until he felt strong enough to let go, then staggered past Peter. Peter grabbed his arm, swinging him around, and Max shook him off.
“How long?” Peter demanded.
“What?”
“You and my son. How long have you been seeing each other?”
“You should ask him.”
Peter got in his face. “I’m asking you.”
“What does it matter?” he cried. “He’s in surgery because I couldn’t protect him.”
“How old are you?” Minho moved closer. “You look like a kid.”
Max raised his head. “I’m eighteen. I haven’t been a kid in a very long time. Maxim doesn’t tolerate failure even from those he lovingly donated his DNA to,” Max sneered.
“Your mother,” Minho asked softly. “Where is she?”
“Dead.”
Max pushed past Peter and staggered down the hallway. Minho followed. “If you want to do this then let me and security help you. You said Maxim is going to attack us. Let us help you put a stop to that.”
Max slowed till he stopped. Shoulders sagging, he briefly closed his eyes, breathing softly. “I just… I just want this over with.”
“We can help you, Max. We could have been helping you all along if you’d come to us.”
Max lifted his head and stared up at Minho. “I didn’t even know if I could trust you. Why would I come to you for help? It’s only since you’ve been mated to Peter that I’ve even considered speaking to you.” He laughed but there was no humor in the sounds. “We’d decided tomorrow I’d come and talk with you, but they came…”
“Take my hand. We’ll go to security.” Max’s phone rang. He jumped in surprise. He’d completely forgotten he had it on him. Pulling it out of his sweats he saw Maxim’s name on the screen. Minho pulled him into an empty room. “Answer him. Put it on speaker.”
“Maxim.”
“Where are you? I need you here. Meeting in twenty minutes.” The line went dead.
“That doesn’t give us much time. We need to get you to security, cleaned up, new clothing and put a tracker on you as well as a device so we can hear and see everything. Where is your base located?”
Max couldn’t breathe, his body shook, limbs tingling, the world disappearing around the edges. The next thing he knew, his head was between his legs. “Deep breaths. In through your nose and out through your mouth. Come on. You can do it.”
Max breathed deeply until he could lift his head. “Sorry.”
“You’ve been under a tremendous amount of pressure for a long time now. The events of tonight won’t have helped, either. Not long now and this will be over. You’re almost there.”
So calm. So collected. “How can you be so calm?”
“I’m older than you.” Minho stood and held his hand out, pulling Max up. Next thing he knew, he was standing in what appeared to be a meeting room. A man came bustling in and threw some wet wipes on the desk, along with some clothes. “Gray.”
“Key’s grabbing the tech now. Kelvin’s rounding up the teams. I need your location.” He placed a tablet on the table in front of Max. Max continued to stare at the table until Gray clicked his fingers in front of his face. “Tick tock. Time’s running out. Where are you based?” Gray snapped.
“How did you find out?” He’d just had the call from Maxim and then came here, so how?
Minho held his phone up. “I messaged while you took a minute.”
“Where are you based?” Gray asked again.
Max picked up the tablet, moving the map around, then pointed. “Coldfield.”
“That’s two hundred miles away.” Gray tapped the tablet a few times. “Get cleaned up and dressed. We need to fit you up. Eyes and ears, so we know what’s happening and when to jump in.”
Minho placed his hand on Max’s shoulder. “You can do this, and when it’s over we’ll go see Rex. No more hiding. You can be together as you’re meant to be.”
“Rex? Peter’s son?”
“And Max’s mate.”
Gray stared intently at Max. Long enough to make Max uncomfortable. “Get dressed.” The words were spoken softly this time.
Max cleaned up, ignoring the other vampires when they appeared. Once he’d finished, he quickly changed. “The jacket has a tracker in it. The button has a camera and microphone.” Gray fiddled with it as he watched the tablet. “That will do."
Minho watched Gray then said, "You’ll go to where the meeting is being held and we’ll be around a mile away. We need to know if all—”
“The inner echelon will be there.” Max pushed his phone into the jeans he now wore. “If I attend a meeting then they are always there.”
“How many?” Gray asked.
“Twelve. No. Ten.” He’d killed Chuck and Fletcher.
“Any others we should know about?”
“We don’t have time.” Minho put his hands on Max’s shoulders and turned him, so they stood face to face. “You’re not alone. We’ll be right outside.”
“We need a word in case we need to get you out.” Gray shot a look a at Minho.
“Rex,” Max murmured.
Gray pulled everyone together and updated them all. “This is Max.”
“As in Maxim’s Max.” Kelvin. Max had seen pictures of him. “You look like him.”
“What a lovely thing to say.” This was from Isaiah.
“They don’t know we’re coming. We have the element of surprise. We go in, hit them hard, take the inner echelon out.” Minho stared at them all. “We leave no one alive. Max. Do you have a problem with that?”
“No. If you leave one of them alive, they’ll regroup and come for you.” He knew they would. They were like Maxim. They hated any vampire that didn’t agree with them and any human who didn’t bow down to them. “They hate you all. They want you dead.”
“Well, that’s cheery and nothing we didn’t know already.” Gray tapped away on the tablet. “Five minutes.”
Everything was happening so fast. Less than an hour ago he’d been fighting to protect Rex, holding him as he bled out, and now he was planning to infiltrate a meeting and end what Maxim had started. He had to shove all his hurt and anguish to one side and focus on ending this once and for all so he could have the life he’d always dreamed of with his mate. Meeting Rex had changed the course of his life, and now it was time to live the one he wanted with the mate he loved.
“I’m ready.”
Minho gripped his shoulder. “We’re here. Use the safe word when you need to. It doesn’t matter if we don’t learn everything. Our priority is to end this. It’s gone on too long now. We should all be able to live in peace.”
“I’d like to have more days off.” Kelvin shrugged one shoulder. “Take Key out for a nice meal, maybe a weekend away somewhere. Iceland or Greenland. You know, dark.”
“I’m sure he’d love that.” Isaiah smiled.
“It’s better than being stuck in a hotel room alone, sweating my balls off while he tops up his tan.”
Max blinked. The inner echelon didn’t joke like this before going into a potentially dangerous situation. They didn’t joke at all. This felt strange to Max. Nice, but strange.
“Everyone ready?” Gray glanced around the room. “Good. Make sure you know your positions. Max? You go in ten.”
Max swallowed, taking several deep breaths. He could do this. “I’m ready.”