Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 113936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 570(@200wpm)___ 456(@250wpm)___ 380(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 570(@200wpm)___ 456(@250wpm)___ 380(@300wpm)
Down on the floor, his sister’s boots were sprawled out on the far side of the counter, and he shot around to her. “Goddamn it.”
Payne was faceup and out cold with her eyes open, her skin as pale gray as the linoleum under her.
Kneeling down, he lifted her head and settled it in his lap. “Payne, how we doing.”
But like he didn’t know the answer to that?
When there was no reply, he took out his phone and started texting with one hand. At least Butch was already on his way in something they could transport her back to the training center with—but Manny was going to be hysterical.
“Oh, my God, is she okay?”
V glanced up. Ernie Jr. had come in, and his dad was right behind him, the latter looking around his store as if he hadn’t seen it recently, and remembered nothing about the burglary.
“My sister’s fine. Just a little fainting spell.” ’Cuz she regenerated your pop’s gray matter. “We’ll be out of here soon.”
“The robbers,” the dad said. “Did this.”
Even though V didn’t want to go in and mess around any more with either one of their minds, he knew he had to clear them out before Butch got here. Tapping into the son first, and then the father, he sent them off to that sheriff-mobile, their memories of two vampires checking out the pharmacy’s burglary hidden from their consciousness as if they had never come here.
As they exited and the SUV drove away, he looked down at his sister. Payne’s eyes were starting to blink. Thank fuck.
“Hey,” he said. “You’re back.”
“Kind of.” She tried to sit up and didn’t get far with that. “Where is—”
“They just left. And before you ask, yes, Dad was looking like he was back from wherever he had been.”
“I don’t want any bitching from you.” She cleared her throat, but still spoke weakly. “I don’t regret anything, even if I need an evac. That’s torture, to have someone right in front of you even though they’re all but dead and gone. I had to help because I could. Sometimes… you have to do what you can to ease suffering. It’s the way I live with the gift our mahmen gave me.”
It was right on the tip of his tongue to tell her she was so much more important than those two humans and whatever fate had in store for them. But then he remembered the father coming out of the back of the pharmacy, and how the two had hugged it out.
“It’s okay,” he heard himself say. “You should have seen the way that sire looked at his son.”
He thought of their own pops, the Bloodletter. And the war camp V had been left in.
“I would have given anything for a father like that.” Goddamn, he needed another cigarette. “So, yeah, kind of makes it all worth it as long as I get you back to the clinic safely.”
“Do we have to tell Manny?”
V smiled. “Yes, and you’re going to have to feed as soon as we’re back.”
“I’m fine.”
“Oh, okay, good. So how about you stand right up now and dematerialize back to Caldwell.” He put his hands out to the sides, all go ’head. “Just do you, hard-ass.”
There was a heartbeat of silence. “I hate you right now.”
He chuckled. “I love you, too, Sis. And whatever, you did the right thing.”
“Oh, my God. Did you just say that?”
“No, you’re delusional. Now, close your damn eyes and rest up so you can deal with your male.”
V’s phone started ringing and he checked the screen. “Oh, look. Manny’s calling right now. I’ll put him on speakerphone, unless you’d like to keep this private?”
“No,” she said with a wince. “He’s likely to be less hysterical if he knows you’re listening to him…”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
In spite of the cold rush falling on them both, Kane could feel the waves of heat coming off of Nadya’s body. The blasts were so strong that the rhythm of them was apparent, the surge and fade like a heartbeat.
“Hang on,” he said for what surely was the hundredth time.
He had her directly under the showerhead, the faucet handle set on C, the water pressure mercifully strong. But he wasn’t sure it was making any difference at all. She felt just as volcanic as she had when he’d brought her in here at a dead run.
No, at a fast run.
There was no using the “d” word. Not now.
The fact that he didn’t know who to call or where to go for help was truly terrifying. He didn’t mind being on his own when his life was the only one he had to worry about. But she was clearly in a medical crisis of some kind, and he had no fucking clue what to—
The sense that they were no longer alone cranked Kane’s head around and he bared his fangs over his shoulder, prepared to attack if he had to.