Chapter 7
SEVEN
Claws sliced deep into the skin of my arm, tearing muscle and tendon. I screamed in agony and tried to tear myself away. A flash of horrified green eyes, the sound of flesh ripping away.
Another stab to my side, a gasp of pain, a shout of alarm.
“Help,” I said weakly. “Help me.”
Blood dripped everywhere. Into my eyes, my mouth, tasting of an icy river during winter.
“Shit!” barked one of the men. “Stop! Truce! Alric, goddammit! Stop!”
“I can’t!” came a crisp, cultured voice. “She’s impaled herself on my claws.” A click of the tongue. “Poor thing.”
Beckett skidded around the corner and stopped abruptly, eyes widening as he took in the scene.
“She’s going to bleed out,” the gruffer of the two males said.
A low, muffled curse came from one of them, the sounds all beginning to muddle together.
“Bastard,” that cultured voice hissed. “You are not supposed to be here. Report back to the Hive immediately to explain your absence.”
Beckett’s eyes turned poisonous green in response.
My eyes slowly drifted closed.
A pair of the hands holding me disappeared. My side ripped and tore. Warmth gushed over my ribs and hip.
I hurt too much to scream again. A low, despondent moan slipped past my lips.
I could only open my eyes in a squint. Images swam and blurred in my vision.
I blinked hot tears away, trying to focus on my surroundings, but the pain was making it hard to concentrate on anything other than the very real possibility of dying.
Strong, warm arms wrapped around me, and I sensed my head was now resting against a well-muscled chest.
“Alric! Fuck, man!” A large hand pressed against my side, the wound burning like fire.
My heart pounded as my eyes locked onto Beckett, his terrifying visage a looming presence in the dark alley. If he lunged for me, I was toast. I didn’t think for a second the two men I ran into would risk their lives to save me. Not since I was half-dead anyway.
Beckett took a step back, turned, and tore off like a rocket. A flash of pale skin and blond hair followed the other vampire, so fast he looked like a blur.
“I got you,” the man rumbled. “I’m sorry. I-I don’t have any healing packs. That asshole Alric accosted me. Arrogant bastard.” A heavy sigh. “We’ll get you help. I promise.”
This… whatever he was, rambled as I lay against him dying. I assumed I had to be dying. My body trembled, and I was freezing. My toes had gone numb, and my breath sounded like a bubbling rasp.
He brushed my hair from my face. “Why was that guy chasing you?”
I no longer had the energy to answer.
The sound of shuffling footsteps came. Alric had returned. “Is she alright?”
“Idiot,” the man growled. “No. She’s not alright. Do you have a healing pack?”
A long pause. “I’m a vampire, Silas.”
I felt Silas’s chest rise in a deep exhale. “Yes. The world does revolve around you, doesn’t it?”
Cool fingers touched my throat. “She’s dying. If we call an ambulance, we’ll have to answer some uncomfortable questions we aren’t prepared for.”
“You want to leave her in an alley?” The disgust in Silas’s voice rivaled the feeling burning in my chest.
“Of course not. But if we don’t, the entire peace conference will be upended. We’ll undo centuries of work.”
Silas’s chest rumbled with a growl.
“We both know this has to work. One human can’t undo all our efforts.”
“You and I were about to kill each other five minutes ago,” Silas snapped. “Do you really think this peace conference settlement will hold?”
“I was about to kill you because you’re an asshole, Silas. Not because you’re a wolf.”
“Fuck off,” Silas said unhappily.
The vampire’s tone softened. “Do not dismiss my apparent callousness as a lack of care. Every life matters—human, witch, vampire, wolf. We all matter. But this is one life, one that might put us all into a war none of us can afford. If things were different, if the world was a different place, I’d do everything I could to heal her. ”
I was so cold. Silas shifted, wrapping me in his warmth.
There was a long pause. “I’ll sit with her. Until it’s over.”
The shift of clothing and scrape of gravel sounded. “Then I’ll sit with you.”
“Who was chasing her?”
A long, pregnant pause. “No idea. I didn’t get a good look at him. The bastard must be with the conference.”
Liar, I thought to myself. Even through the haze of pain and fear, I knew Alric wasn’t being truthful—the tone of his voice changed, and he’d paused for too long, as if trying to come up with some way to deny knowledge of Beckett.
“They’re all yours,” the one holding me said.
“Not a local one, then.” A pause, and there came the sound of shifting fabric as he adjusted his position. “She’s quite pretty. Even under the circumstances.”
“Don’t be a dick,” Silas snapped.
The sound of low voices filtered through the air. Both went still.
“We need to get out of this alley,” Alric whispered. “Someone is coming.”
Silas swore under his breath.
“I’m serious. Get up now. Leave the girl behind. I’ll make sure someone collects her later and sends her back to her family. You and I are not supposed to be meeting outside of the conference. It will look like collusion.”
The male underneath me stiffened. “You’re a real shit, you know that?”
The vampire sighed. “You will not last long as king if you do not adopt some of my methods. Everything I do, I do for our survival. We can’t afford for our peoples to think we work against them for our own gain. If we cannot come to a peace agreement, the witches will have the upper hand.”
What did that mean? As far as I knew, the witches weren’t part of this conference.
“We aren’t colluding,” Silas growled. “I’d rather never see your face again.”
“I am aware, but perception ruins lives. Let the girl go.” His voice softened. “We both know it’s better if she dies. All knowledge of our unfortunate meeting here will die with her.”
Silas snarled and jerked, stopping when a breathy scream tore from me. Pain, there was so much pain everywhere. And I couldn’t escape. The vampire could kill me if he wanted to and I wouldn’t be able to stop him.
As my blood drained onto the cold concrete, my fear followed. A sense of resignation settled over me, mixed with sadness at what could have been.
The vampire continued. “I will find her family and make… amends. Anonymously, of course.”
Alric, such a philanthropist was he. He would find no one.
A warm hand swept over my hair, bringing tears to my eyes. Silas shifted, gently laying me on the ground. “I’m sorry, girl.” He gave a heavy sigh. “You’re a sonofabitch, Alric.”
“And yet, you know I’m right. Come, wolf. Let us leave her to her peace.”
Something heavy and warm landed on me, a warm and spicy scent wafting up—nutmeg and vanilla. Someone crouched beside me. Cool fingertips brushed over my cheek and rested against the side of my face.
“Rest,” Alric’s voice said quietly. “I can take your pain away for a little while. Until it’s over.” A soft sigh and a whisper. “For what it’s worth, I am sorry.”
Cool magic curled through my veins, and relief came almost immediately. A breath of relief bubbled from my lips. Tears seeped from the edges of my eyes and rolled down my cheeks.
His presence by my side disappeared as heavy footsteps faded into the distance.
Oblivion took over not long after.
Time passed in waves of agony. In and out of consciousness, I willed myself to move, an inch, a half inch, anything to help me get out of this filthy alley and get help.
For the first time in my life, I was well and truly alone, not even a snarky comment from Edmund advising me he told me so.
I managed to roll over onto my side, jostling the devastating wound the vampire had given me.
Warm blood spilled over my body, rolling down my hip to drip onto the dirty concrete underneath.
A broken sob bubbled from my throat.
“Help,” I wheezed.
But there was only silence, interrupted by the occasional skittering of rats and trash blowing in the wind. Blood slipped from between my lips and ran down my cheek.
I hadn’t brought any healing potions or packs with me. Even if I had, I’d lost my purse somewhere between the flight from Beckett and my unfortunate stumble into those two clawed men—a vampire and a shifter, from the sound of things.
An odd pain pulsed in my wrist, once, twice, a third time—a strange thing to notice since the rest of me felt like it was in pieces. Unfamiliar magic tingled over my skin, zipping toward the worst of my wounds.
Burning agony flared over my side. My wheezing scream turned into hoarse sobs, and I wished for death for the first time, true death. No one was coming to save me.
Why couldn’t the universe just let me die instead of leaving me in this agonizing state of being?
The pain in my side grew worse, that strange light flickering and moving over my body. Eventually, the pain was too much, and my eyes slipped closed once more.
“Where is she?” a hushed voice whispered, jarring me from that in-between space I kept slipping into when the pain became too much.
“Back there. That’s where the light’s coming from.”
“Could this be a trap?”
“I don’t think so. She told us if we ever saw this, we needed to drop what we’re doing and come.”
“Have you met her before?”
A soft feminine snort. “None of us were allowed around her.”
“Weird.”
The footsteps stopped abruptly.
“Help,” I wheezed.
One of them sucked in a shocked gasp. “Put up a lookaway spell. Now.”
My eyes cracked open as magic shimmered over the alleyway. Watery shadows rose above me. A slim woman, her face obscured by a headscarf, bent over me. She gently moved my arm and lifted my blood-soaked shirt away from my wounds.
“Oh, dear heart,” she breathed. A second later, she snapped her fingers. “Tiegan. Bring me the aloe, frankincense, and the calendula, along with the bandages. We’ll need to bind her before we can risk a move.”
A sheet of blonde hair swung into view. The woman was petite and elfin-faced with slender, almost frail features. Her eyes were kind and sympathetic. She dug in her bag and passed a few things over to the other woman before brushing her fingers over my cheek. “I’m so sorry, dear. This will hurt.”
A whimper was all I could muster in response. Cool fingers probed the skin around the worst of my wounds, every touch sending fire through my nerves.
“Huh,” the woman mused. “The edges have started closing, far too fast to happen on their own.”
“No time for curiosity,” Tiegan chided. “We need to get out of this alley.”
“I have to move you,” the woman said. She gently nudged my hip. I gagged with pain, hot tears streaming down my face.
“Sorry, sorry,” she breathed. “The bandage has to wrap all the way around. You’ve lost far too much blood for us to risk moving you as you are now.” The woman reached over, gently encouraging me to move, but I couldn’t.
“Tiegan. Help her.”
The moment Tiegan tried to lift me, I barked a rasping scream and lost consciousness once more.