Chapter 33
I came to as someone tried to lift me, and I flailed.
“Stop, Jude. It’s me, Ivan. Not them. Let me get you in the car,” Ivan said.
I shuddered. The hot, sticky warmth of blood was on my face, and my hands were still cuffed.
I couldn’t do much to help him. He took the brunt of my weight, my ribs and shoulder pulsing with sharp waves of pain.
Not the first beating I’d taken from cops, though the first time I’d had one threaten rape.
That’s what I got for hooking up with a guy like Cassidy.
Ivan paused, breathing heavily as he clung to me, and I wobbled.
“Breathe, Jude. You’re safe. We’re both safe.
” It sounded like he was trying to convince us both, but I nodded and relaxed into him.
Finally, he moved again, got me to the car, and tugged me into the back seat.
There, I collapsed, gasping for air and fighting to keep conscious, as everything hurt.
My shoulder pulsed with a white-hot sharpness that worsened with every breath.
Ivan closed the door and rounded the car to the driver’s side.
“You’re not supposed to drive,” I gasped.
“Doesn’t mean I don’t know how,” Ivan said as the keys jingled and he turned on the car. “Should I take you to the hospital?”
“No,” I said. “Please.” Would they let me go if they got ahold of me again?
I must have blacked out for another few minutes, as when I roused again, we were in the parking garage of my building.
The car stopped. I closed my eyes and might have passed out again, except that the slamming of the door woke me as he jumped out.
I couldn’t move. Just breathing took effort.
The back door opened, and I flinched to see Xavier standing there, Ivan behind him.
“I should take him to the hospital,” Ivan said, sniffling.
“How far out is Angel?” Xavier asked as he reached for me. He had his energy locked down hard, but I couldn’t help but shudder when he touched me and my magic snapped at him. “Peace, Jude. I need to get you out of the car and those cuffs off. What hurts the most?”
“Shoulder dislocated,” I said through clenched teeth.
“Angel just turned in to the garage,” someone said from behind Ivan. One of the twins, I was sure, but since I was focusing on not passing out, I couldn’t look.
“If he sees you doing anything to cause Jude pain, he’ll attack,” another voice said.
I guess both the twins were there.
“Protect Ivan,” Xavier said. “I can handle Angel.” He leaned over me. “Which shoulder, Jude?”
“Left.” The one I was trying to keep my weight off of. But my wrist ached too. Was that broken from the fall? I could barely think past the excruciating pain in my shoulder.
“Sorry about this,” Xavier said as he put one hand on my shoulder and the other on my arm. Pain flared red hot, and I passed out as he popped my shoulder back into place.
I roused again to shouting, and Ivan wrapped around me, the two of us sitting on the ground of the parking garage beside my car, my arms free of the cuffs. My shoulder still hurt, but it was more of a dull ache than the blinding pain it had been.
“It’s okay,” Ivan whispered. “It’ll be okay.”
Was he trying to comfort me, or himself?
There were people arguing. Was that— “Angel?”
The voices stopped.
“He’s here, but sort of grumpy,” Ivan whispered, keeping himself between me and everyone else, as if my tiny little brother could somehow protect me from a bunch of crazy, supernatural assholes.
“I’m the grumpy one in this relationship,” I muttered. “Fuck, my shoulder still hurts.”
“Wrist is fucked up, too,” Ivan added. “Nose isn’t broken, but bled a lot.”
“Cracked rib, too. Might be more than one,” I said, recalling the kick to my back. “Bruised, but I’ll live. Probably.”
“Can you send someone back to that lot?” Ivan asked.
“Why?” someone asked.
“Um, Jude raised the dead.”
I sputtered and nearly made myself pass out again as the pain brought a wave of darkness to supersede the dim garage lighting. “What? Another lame superpower, raising a zombie neighborhood watch. Go me.”
“Sorry, Jude,” Ivan said, holding me carefully. “They ran when something came out of the ground. Whatever they were looked people-shaped but didn’t attack, not even when I got to your side, but they were still standing when I put you in the car.”
“Fuck,” Xavier cursed.
“Jude?” Angel called, as if pleading. Where was he? I tried to look for him, but one eye wouldn’t open and the other was caked with enough blood to make my lashes and hair obscure my vision, making everything shadowy and blurry.
“I’m okay,” I said.
“He’s a shitty liar,” one of the twins said.
“If you attack Ivan, I’ll end you,” Xavier said.
Who was attacking Ivan?
“V? You okay?” I asked my little brother. Was he hurt?
“I’m fine. I did what you said. Shifted and hid under the seat. I called Xavier when you passed out in the car. Who were those guys? Were they real cops?”
“Cops? Cops did this?” Angel demanded.
“A bag of dicks,” I said.
Angel cursed, and I heard another slew of shouting but tuned them out.
They could fight over who was the most alpha male on their own time.
I desperately wanted to curl up in my bed with Peanut Butter’s purr to lull me to sleep.
And if I didn’t wake up… well, I had a good life insurance plan that would hopefully take care of Ivan and Grandpa.
“Can you help me to the elevator?” I asked Ivan. “I need to wash up.” And maybe pass out again. Had I hit my head? “Fuck, I need to feed you dinner. Did you say I raised zombies? Holy fuck.”
“How about we get you upstairs and worry about food and everything else later?” Ivan asked.
“You’re talking to me more. That’s something, right?”
He grumbled something I didn’t understand as he lifted me.
“You’re strong.”
“Shifter, remember? Just ‘cause my cat is small doesn’t mean I’m weak,” Ivan said.
“Good to know,” I responded, leaning on him as he used the car to help me up. My right hip locked up. “Fuck. My body is giving me a ‘fuck you very much’ signal from every nerve.”
“This is why I said you should go to the hospital.”
“Last time I went there, they locked me up for two weeks in the psych ward and told me I was variant. They even cuffed me in the morgue for over twelve hours. Bodies on the table, not in bags. No one talked to me, but still they say I talk to dead people. I thought I was going insane. I never even thought of morgues as creepy until then. I’d rather curl up in my bed and die on my own terms, thanks. ”
Silence fell over everything again. As much as I wanted to twist around and find out what all the noise was about, or the lack of it now, I had to focus on keeping my feet. I clung to Ivan like a life raft.
“Please let me help,” Angel said.
“However you touch him is going to hurt,” Xavier said. “Can you remain in control if he cries out or passes out again?”
“Yes.”
“He’s a shitty liar, too,” one of the twins said.
“You two go find the lot and whatever Jude pulled from the dead.”
“I didn’t,” I wheezed.
“Not intentionally,” Xavier said. “But it may have saved your life. How about we worry about your abilities after we know you aren’t going to heave up a kidney?”
Ivan paused our slow movement toward the elevator, again putting himself between me and—this time—Angel. I knew it was Angel because his magic reached for me, a warm hug of power that almost made my resolve crumble.
“Hi,” I said, knowing he was there, but only able to see a shadow of him.
“Can I carry you?”
“I’ll probably pass out.”
“Okay.”
“Don’t hurt Ivan.”
“Never,” Angel promised. “I just need to hold you, okay? Let’s get you upstairs and cleaned up.”
“I think my wrist is fucked up.”
“I’ll be careful.”
“Xavier popped my shoulder back in, but it still aches.”
“Yeah, that takes a little while to heal.”
“Did I really pull something out of the ground? Like a zombie?”
“Maybe. I’ll send a message to the team to check.”
“Holy fuck,” I muttered.
Ivan finally moved, and Angel’s arms slid around me, carefully. I swallowed back any cries of pain as he lifted me into a bridal carry and tucked my face into his neck, settling into his warmth and the soothing touch of his magic as he carried me toward the elevator.
“V?”
“Right here, Jude,” Ivan said, sounding close.
I breathed out a sigh of relief, which made my ribs hurt more.
Fuck. This had been a bad one. I’d been unprepared.
Gone too long without the wariness of hazing, as I’d grown comfortable with Joe.
I should have expected it after the encounter in the elevator and turning down Cassidy’s offer.
He had never been that guy. Not out, no, but never condoned the hazing or joined in the teasing.
The world tilted for a few minutes and I woke to find myself in the bathroom, Angel stripping off my clothes. “Hi,” I said again, feeling too shitty to enjoy being naked with him.
“Is it okay if I get you cleaned up? Look at the wounds?” Angel asked as he used a warm, wet cloth to wipe the gunk from one eye.
“Hmm,” I said, sad that we couldn’t do more. I’d like to kiss him. But maybe when I didn’t feel like my gut would upchuck my liver if I moved too much.
The bathroom door opened and Angel growled. An actual full, cat growl, though I knew he was in his human form.
“You don’t get to decide for him, Angel,” Xavier said. “Ivan can help if he’s not ready.”
Ready for what?
“What?” I asked Angel.
“I want to help you.”
“Okay,” I agreed.
“That’s not enough,” Xavier said. “You know better. I taught you better.”
Angel sucked in a deep breath; his forehead pressed to mine. “I can help you heal, Jude. Is that okay?”
“Hmm? Like, your variant magic?”
“Yes.”
I could hear Xavier make a disapproving noise and wondered what they were going on about. “Okay?”
“It will create a permanent bond between us,” Angel said.
“Huh?” My brain churned slowly through his words, trying to make sense of them. “Like you have with Victor, where he can hear you when you’re a cat?”
“Sort of…” Angel hedged. “Victor and I were never a thing.”
“Good, ‘cause I don’t want to have to make a fool of myself trying to beat up a vampire.”
“He’s talking about a mate bond, Jude,” Xavier said with frustration.
Angel cursed at him. “I was getting to that.”
“You’re not thinking clearly.”
Mate bond. “Like in a romance novel?”
“More binding,” Xavier said. “Fiction makes it sound like a fantasy, but it’s unbreakable. Mostly. You’ll always be tied to him, drawn to him.”
“What if you don’t like me anymore?” I wondered.
“That’s not gonna happen,” Angel said. “The bond lets me share my ability to heal with you. Please let me help.”
“For as long as you both live, you’ll never desire another,” Xavier added.
What? My head hurt, but the idea of making him bind himself to me—and then he could grow to hate being bound to me—made me sick. “You don’t want me like that. No one does.”
“I do,” Angel said.
I grunted, trying to wriggle out of his grasp. It would hurt less if we ended things now instead of someday down the road after we were magically tied together. “No one hates you more than someone who was supposed to love you.”
“Jude,” Angel said, his arms holding me up but refusing to let me move away.
“Please.” He pressed his lips to the only side of my face that didn’t feel like it had been hit by a mallet.
“I promise, if you let me heal you, we’ll continue as we have been, getting to know each other, dating.
I will show you I am the perfect mate for you. ”
“I don’t want you to hate me.” I liked him way too much for that.
“Never happen.”
I sighed. That sounded nice, but I’d lived long enough to lose faith in most everyone. “Why me? You could have anyone.”
“Jude,” Angel breathed, his face tucked against my cheek, “You’re mine. The bond wouldn’t work at all if you weren’t meant to be mine. I’ve known since you first stumbled in the locker room and I caught you. I was trying to give you time, but I knew we were meant to be mates.”
“Huh? We’re not in a romance novel.”
“No. Life would probably be less dramatic if we were. One look and we’d have magically fallen into each other’s arms,” Angel said. “But it doesn’t make it any less true. Everyone around us senses it. The shifters at least. That’s why Xavier is being an asshole.”
“Whatever,” Xavier said.
“Shifters have fated mates,” Angel said. “Your magic meshing with mine, welcoming me, feeling like home, all of that means we are mates. There’s more, but I’d rather you not smell like you’re bleeding internally when we run through it all.”
“Probably just a bruised kidney,” I mumbled. It didn’t hurt as much as the shoulder, but not much did.
“Baby, please. Let me heal you,” Angel begged.
“He’ll need to go to the hospital if he says no to your bond,” Xavier said. “I thought the overwhelming smell of blood was from his nose, but you’re right, it’s internal. Deeper.”
“What do we have to do?” I asked. “Not up for horizontal gymnastics.” Especially not with Xavier refusing to leave us alone. I was grateful he kept all his crazy psychic energy away.
“You take a little of my blood. No big deal,” Angel said.
“Like a vampire?” I’d never been grossed out by blood like a lot of people. That was part of what made me a good homicide detective. But I’d also never thought about drinking it.
“No, honey, just a tiny bit in a kiss is enough.”
“Oh, that doesn’t sound so bad.” Though, my jaw ached. I must have taken at least one punch to the face, or maybe it was a kick after I passed out.
“Is that yes?” Angel asked.
“Yes, okay. You’ll still date me, right?”
“Yes, Jude. Even after we bond, if you ever need to get away from me, you only need to call Xavier. But I’d like to continue as we were, getting to know each other, building trust and our relationship.”
Xavier sighed. “I hate breaking mate bonds, but I’ll accept his agreement.” His shadow vanished from the doorway to the bathroom and the door closed behind him.
Angel pressed a kiss to my lips and I sank into him, thinking the next one would bind us, but his tongue slid into my mouth with a copper bite of blood and I swallowed instinctively, searching for the flavor of him around the blood.
The kiss hurt a little, even though I knew Angel was being super gentle.
I couldn’t help but sigh into his lips, too tired to focus anymore as the pain tugged at me.
But in his arms, with his magic swirling around me like a giant, fuzzy blanket, I let go and dropped into the dark of unconsciousness.