Chapter Twenty #2
“Then what the hell are you wasting our time with, lady?” Malik tried to push past Hill, but the agent held him back. “Answer me!” His voiced cracked.
Hill holstered his gun to place both of his hands on Malik’s shoulders as the hunter’s chin dropped to his chest.
“A different approach to transference.” Li’s cadence remained unaffected by our looks of confusion.
“A hunter’s mark does more than pull power to the surface.
It’s a veil protecting its owner from misfortune, like oil to water.
It’s why scars heal quickly, why broken bones mend in a fraction of the time…
why the Essence may be susceptible to settling on a different host.”
My wolf snarled, my eyes glowing bright. “You said we can’t remove the Essence from a vessel.” I jumped to my feet. “Now you’re saying we can?”
Li did not shy away from the irritation burning in my eyes. “Not remove. Transfer.”
“Fuck this shit,” Malik mumbled.
“Let her finish, asshole,” Latoya pleaded.
“In the past, it was only about the blood, never about the aura. It needs to be both. The Bite is not a disseminating disease; it’s supernatural absorption.”
Joanna blew out a heavy breath. “Director… I know you mean well, and I appreciate it… but only the fucking government thought it was a disease. Because if it was so easily transferrable… you could weaponize it.”
Li pinched the bridge of her nose. “What I’m trying to say is, if we found someone else with a veil, Joanna, during a blood transfusion, my magic could form the bridge necessary to—”
“Transfer.” Joanna hadn’t meant it as a question, but the look of disbelief on her face told a different story. Any angrier, and the sweat on her brow would have sizzled to mist. “You’re telling me not only can you save me… but that to do it… a hunter has to die?”
“They could survive, Joey,” Hill said lowly. “Right now, the odds are a lot slimmer for your child.”
Hill’s words were blunt. And distasteful. And I lunged for him with my claws extended, ready to tear through his face for his offense.
I paid no mind to Li’s hand as it shot out for my arm, and that was a mistake.
When her cold palm made contact with my skin, my muscles turned rigid, and I froze. I sank into the ground, like osmium had fused to the souls of my feet. My claws retracted without the fluidity I’d known all my life. I felt every painstaking inch as they forced themselves back into my fingers.
“I’ll do it,” Malik declared.
It was then I realized the hunter had a knack for disruption. He’d open his mouth and leave us all irritated and furious… or in awe and gratitude.
“No.” Joanna pushed herself to her feet, shoving me away but letting Grace support her.
“Sit the fuck down, Little Red.”
“Malik, I will break your other arm. Don’t play with me.”
Malik shook locs from his face, turning to Li with newfound energy. “I’m a hunter. I’m O-negative. What else do I need?”
“A few more years, son.”
The last time I saw James Cooper, he looked like a ghost. Now, he marched toward us with his head held high.
In the corner of my eye, Joanna’s face paled, and I realized I couldn’t discern if it were because of the Bite or the man.
“Detective Cooper,” Li greeted him with a nod. “Do you volunteer?”
Malik stomped his foot. “I’m a universal donor!”
“And Joey’s a universal recipient, Malik.
” James took off his shirt and signaled for Malik to lower his head so he could help him into it.
His hunter’s mark was a dark red tattoo on the left side of his chest. “You’re one of the best hunters I know.
” James pulled Malik’s locs free from the shirt. “And even a better man.”
A few grunts later, James had used his shirt to make Malik a DIY sling.
I don’t think I’d even seen James smile before. But he was smiling now.
He turned to Joanna, who’d been shaking her head in disapproval from the time Li said the old hunter’s name.
He walked up to her and cupped her face in his hands. “I’ve made many mistakes in my life, Joanna. But nothing compares to how badly I’ve let you down.” He brushed her cheeks with his thumbs. “And I’m terrified that I might do it again.”
Grace’s tail stiffened.
I shook my head, assuring her there was no immediate threat.
James kissed Joanna’s forehead. “I can give you a million apologies, but none of them will feel as worthy as this. None of them can give you what I’ve attempted to take from you.” His gaze shifted to me. “A chance.”
We waited for ten minutes until a woman with a snake tattoo on her neck parked beside us in her black Chevy. Director Li stepped up into the front passenger seat while Agent Hill and James helped Joanna into the rear.
They were hesitant about letting me accompany them, but by either four wheels or four paws, I was going. Through a quiver of pain, Joanna spoke on my behalf, and James advised the agents to submit to our demands.
Hill’s one requirement was for me to wear pants.
And a black hood that my wolf wanted to shred to pieces after a second of it on my head.
The only reason I complied was because Joanna’s fingers were interlaced with mine—the way they had been since I’d sat down next to her, and she’d reached over for my hand.
But I’d pulled off the damn hood the moment Joanna’s fingers fell from mine.
The lights burned, as if I’d stared directly at the sun. Sweat, sex, death all violated my nose at once, making me gag. Even the pencil being sharpened nearby clawed at my ear drums.
I’d lost Joanna during the onslaught of my senses.
The agents made me wait in a small room with stark white walls. Next to the wooden chair was a white nightstand with a lamp and a box of tissues atop it. The room had only one window: thin and rectangular like in a county jail cell, and it didn’t face the Moon.
I would need an escort to go to the bathroom and was told the door would be locked from the outside overnight.
I was given a roll of bandages and a basin with some warm water to wash my wounds.
I chuckled in the darkness. I’d forgotten to be in pain.
My wolf was restless. We needed to be outside. We needed the Goddess’s warmth on our face…
We needed our mate.
So, when they rolled her in on a hospital bed the next morning, I dashed forward, not caring that the aides gasped and recoiled when they noticed my glowing eyes. They put the carafe of water down on the table and ran.
The Bureau agents wrapped all of Joanna’s large wounds and placed small adhesive bandages on the superficial ones.
Silas’s saliva had sealed his bite, but the agents had taped a bandage to her neck anyway.
They’d placed another one over the pit of her elbow, where a spot of blood had bloomed and dried in the gauze.
It smelled of James.
Agent Hill visited once to check on Joanna.
He revealed Silas’s list had over three hundred names on it and that the Bureau was working diligently to round them all up for questioning.
Rogues who’d escaped the compound were now prisoners of the US government, and I was sure they’d soon be only a figment of someone’s imagination.
Joanna slept most of the day, and that was fine. Because I heard her labored breaths get stronger by the hour. I saw the color return to her beautiful face.
I dozed off in the chair I’d moved to be near her, and when I awoke with a start, my mate smiled at me from the bed.
Her eyes were puffy and red. “Your snoring was so loud.” Her jeering voice was raw and thick, carrying the weight of sleep.
I’d jumped up from the chair and pulled her into a tight embrace before she could say another word.
I lost myself in her human scent and paid no attention to the passing time.
Only when she squirmed did I release my hold around her back, but I took her head in my hands and kissed the top of her head.
One kiss for every hour she’d been away from me.
Eventually, I propped her up against the pillow and poured her a glass of water.
“You look… horrible, Blackwood,” she said before I put the glass to her lips.
“Not all of us can make bandages look couture, Miss Sullivan.”
Her cheeks puffed, and she pushed the glass from her lips as she suppressed a laugh.
It’d been a callback to one of the happiest and equally terrifying nights of my life… the night my pack accepted Joanna for the first time. The blood pact ceremony.
She swallowed the water. “When I said those words to you, I barely liked you, you know?”
I allowed one corner of my mouth to rise. “And now?” I teased.
Joanna’s smile fell. “Now…” She placed both hands over her stomach. “I really… really like…” She trailed off, drawing a steading breath. “Marcus,” she whispered. “Is the baby—”
“He’s fine, Joanna.”
The glass left my hand and water splashed onto the nightstand.
I dropped onto the edge of the bed in time to catch Joanna as her body slumped forward in relief. “He’s fine,” I said again. “The baby’s okay, I promise.”
The low thrums of our baby’s developing heart had been what lulled me to sleep.
“He?” Joanna tittered.
“Or she,” I replied with a smile, smoothing down her braids. “It’s not much of anything right now, to be honest.” I kissed the top of her head.
Joanna and I rocked for a while, complacent in the silence.
It wasn’t until the lamp’s shadow appeared on the nightstand that Joanna lifted her head from my chest. “What happened to my sister?” she whispered.
I helped her settle back down onto the pillow. “She’s somewhere here, I’d imagine. I told Hill that she helped stop Silas.”
Joanna gasped.
“He seemed to agree that stood for something. But don’t misunderstand—she’s still a prisoner. Just… treated as more human than werewolf.”
She closed her gaped mouth. “You helped Latoya?”
I shrugged. I wanted to tell Joanna that I only did it for her sake, but I knew in my heart that it wasn’t true; I did it for me. Latoya wasn’t the only one who’d betrayed Joanna’s trust, and if I could vouch for her atonement… then maybe there was hope for me.
“And… James?”
I stroked the back of Joanna’s hand with my thumb. “I’m so sorry.”
Joanna attempted to give me a reassuring smile as tears pooled in her eyes. Her gaze dropped to a random spot on my chest, and she squeezed my hand.
Her lips rolled inward. She sniffled once before closing her eyes and taking a breath. “Was he alone?” Her voice was shaky.
“He allowed Malik to stay by his side when…”
When the shift failed.
I pulled a tissue from the box by the bed and dabbed the corners of Joanna’s eyes.
She squeezed them tighter, trying to quell the tears seeping through her lids.
“It’s okay,” I whispered. “Let it out.”
But she resisted. The air surrounding her was so thick, I could practically slice it with my claws and still not reach her.
I leaned forward, resting my forehead against hers, feeling her shuddering breaths on my face. “Malik is standing outside the door.” I kept my voice low in case Joanna didn’t want visitors. “Should I let him in?”
Malik’s scent had settled since he’d arrived five minutes prior, his natural essence mixed with rum and the spicy fragrance of oriental lilies.
Joanna hesitated but nodded once, releasing my hand.
When I opened the door, Malik stopped pacing the hallway, his arm in a cast and sling. Before I left the compound, I offered him the help of my healer and he’d refused, so although his hunter’s mark would work wonders for his recovery, he still needed time.
Hill put in a good word for him with the NBSA, and for the next couple of weeks, Malik would teach the Bureau agents everything they thought they knew about my kind.
The agent posted outside our room frowned, and her hand hovered over the gun at her waist.
Malik outstretched his palm, ordering her to stand down. He shook a loc from his face and stared at me through his dark shades. “Leaving so soon, Your Majesty? Afraid they’ll decide to put you in a vest and teach you how to balance on a ball?”
His taunt didn’t pack the same energy that his banter usually possessed. Even his smirk looked painted on.
“I’m sorry for your loss, Malik.”
Malik fidgeted, a tic appearing along his jawline.
“Joanna… I think… she needs you.” The words I whispered were heavy and saying them out loud lifted an enormous weight from my chest.
Malik wasted no time. He squeezed by me through the door, protecting his arm while ensuring we didn’t touch one another.
He looked down at Joanna and chuckled. “You look like shit.” He opened his leather jacket and sat down on the bed, Joanna’s watery eyes following his every move.
I watched her scrunch up her face at something he mouthed to her. I watched him slowly remove his shades from his red eyes and carefully place them over hers.
And as I stepped into the hallway and closed the door to give them privacy, I heard the love of my life cry like her heart was breaking.