Half Blood (16 page)

He wasn’t ready to accept that she was gone. He sat down next to her head, ignoring how the broken glass on the ground bit into his bare skin, and lifted her head onto his leg. He stroked her hair slowly, willing her heart to start beating again. He looked up to find Vaile glaring at him.

‘Don’t even think about it, kid. You’re already in enough trouble as it is. You did your job. There was nothing more you could do. We were just too late getting here.’

‘I can save her,’ Rhett breathed. ‘The pack needs her.’
I need her,
he added silently.

Vaile growled, low and fast. ‘You know it’s forbidden to use your blood. You’ve got a crazy-ass look on your face right now and I don’t like it. She’s gone. Deal with it,’ he spat. His head jerked up suddenly. ‘We’ve got company. Get your ass back to the house now so you can make a report to Antain.’

Vaile’s skin began to ripple and writhe as he called on The Change. Rhett looked away when the sucking wetness of bones breaking and resetting echoed around the alleyway. When he turned back around, Vaile was a snow-white wolf bigger than any other wolf in the pack besides the alpha. Vaile bared his long canines at him in warning.

‘I’m coming. I just need to say goodbye,’ he lied. Vaile growled again before loping out of the alleyway.

Rhett looked down at Indi, feeling hollow inside like his heart had been scooped out of his chest with a spoon. Tucking a bloody strand of hair behind her ear, he whispered, ‘Indi? Can you hear me? I’m going to give you what you need to survive this, okay?’ He shifted his canines to bite into his wrist and put it to Indi’s mouth. Deep down in his soul Rhett knew that she was too far gone, but he had to try. Pressing his wrist harder against her teeth, he stroked her neck where her carotid should have been pumping with life, willing her throat to start working his blood down. ‘Please, Indi. Please. We can’t lose you yet.’

I can’t lose you yet.

Jerry was sitting opposite Mark at a Formica table that was new in the seventies, his hand wrapped around a Styrofoam cup full of terrible coffee from the machine in the hospital’s cafeteria. Mark’s legs were stretched out under Jerry’s chair, forcing his own legs to straddle Mark’s ankles.

Mark’s mouth opened again, then shut, then opened and finally shut once more. Jerry studied his expression, deciding that it looked as if Mark wanted to say something for a long time, but couldn’t find the words. Jerry cleared his throat. ‘What is it Mark?’

His chestnut eyes met his. ‘I’ve missed you,’ he replied candidly. Jerry squeezed his eyes shut and pretended that he hadn’t just heard that. He didn’t need to hear that. He’d been working hard on forgetting all about him, and those four words just set him back to the beginning. Do not pass Go. Do not collect two hundred dollars. ‘Did you hear me, Jer? I’ve missed you.’

Jerry opened his eyes slowly, breathing out a steady breath and focussing on Mark. ‘Why did you have to say that?’

Mark looked confused. ‘I wanted you to know that I still—’

Jerry stopped him by holding up his hand. He didn’t want to hear those words again. Twice was more than enough. ‘Don’t say it again. Please. I heard you the first time.’

Mark crossed his arms and leaned forward on the table. ‘Were you ever going to say something?’

Jerry looked at him from under his lashes. ‘What would you have me say?’ he asked, his voice rough with feelings and emotions he thought were long dealt with. Panic, hopelessness, emptiness, guilt. They were all back and all because he was sitting in the same room as Mark.

He shrugged. ‘I don’t know. That you miss me too?’

Jerry sighed and took a sip of coffee. ‘You know that I do,’ he replied softly, hating how true those words were. He missed Mark like he was missing a limb; he could still feel him even when he was gone. The truth hit him. Gone. Mark was gone and he was sitting there like a god in Armani demanding to know just how much Jerry missed him. Disgusted with himself, he stood up to pace around the empty space. He shouldn’t be just sitting there. He should be out looking for Indi, but the doctor said that his mother could wake up at any moment and he wanted to be there for that. He was going to give them fifteen more minutes and then he would leave.

‘Jerry, say something to me please. Tell me how you’re feeling?’

He took a few more steps before he turned on Mark. ‘You want to know how I
feel
? I feel like you walked away with my heart Mark. You still haven’t given me a reason why.’

‘Why what?’

‘Why you left me. Why I came home to our apartment one day to find all your things gone and the ring I gave you on the nightstand like it meant nothing to you at all.’

‘Christ,’ he cursed under his breath. ‘I met someone else, alright.’

Jerry swallowed past the lump in his throat. ‘Who?’ He didn’t know what he’d do with that information, but he wanted to know anyway. Better the devil you know, right?

‘Christ, Jer. Do we have to do this now?’ Mark asked, running a hand roughly through his hair and looking around the empty room.

‘Yeah, we do. I thought that you would have had enough respect for me to tell me who you left me for.’ Mark’s lips sealed shut, so Jerry nudged him a little harder. ‘At least tell me how long I was making a fool of myself for.’

His hand took another trip through his blond hair. ‘We’ve been dating for about six months now.’

‘
Six months
?’ Jerry repeated. ‘We only broke up four months ago!’

‘I
know
. I couldn’t lie to you anymore. It was better if I just made it a clean break.’

‘Better? Better for whom? I certainly didn’t benefit from the wardrobe-and-drawers- cleaned-out situation. The only person it was better for was you.’

‘Jer, please don’t be upset with me.’

‘You’re a selfish bastard, you know that right?’ Jerry spat, pacing in a tight line behind his chair again. Mark watched him pace. ‘You owe it to me to tell me who it is,’ he said, stopping in front of Mark again. He hadn’t answered, which meant he was caving. ‘Do I know this person?’ he asked through gritted teeth.

Mark sighed. ‘Yeah,’ he mumbled, slumping down further in his chair.

‘Is it someone from the gym?’ Mark shook his head. ‘Is it someone from your office?’ He shook his head again. ‘Is it a mutual friend of ours?’

‘You could call them that, but you’ve known her longer than I have.’

‘
Her
?’ he asked, not bothering to hide his shock. ‘You left me for a woman?’

Rhett approached the late-model Camry he was about to boost. Grand theft auto wasn’t high on his to-do list today, but he had to get Indi to a hospital. Besides, he was still buck-naked and hurting from the rapid change and the liquid donation. He glanced around the street, looking for humans. When he couldn’t smell or hear any close by, he punched his fist through the passenger side window. The tempered glass crumbled, falling into the seat and giving Rhett all the access he needed.

He swayed suddenly, clutching the top of the car to stay upright. He realised where the weakness was coming from. Indi had taken a lot of his blood; more than he’d really been able to give, but he gave it willingly knowing that it would drag her back from the precipice of death she’d been flirting with. And although he’d pay for what he’d done, he didn’t give a damn.

Popping the locks, he scrambled to get Indi into the back seat; snagging the blanket on the parcel shelf and spreading it over her. Her chest was rising and falling shallowly, but the colour had come back to her cheeks. He brushed a few stray cubes of glass off the driver’s seat and hopped in the car; hot-wiring it to get it going.

Cranking up the heat to
inferno
to compensate for the accidental window, he tore off in the direction of St. Mary’s hospital in Reynard. It was in the next town over, but still within the Helheim territorial boundary. A wolf named Laithe worked in the ER as a nurse. He figured that if Nox was going to make another attempt at ending her life, she might as well have someone fighting on her side while she was there.

Laithe was having a cigarette when he pulled into the ambulance bay which was goddamn lucky. When he saw Rhett was behind the wheel, he scrubbed out the end of his cancer stick on the heel of one of his Crocs and approached the car.

Laithe looked up quickly, his wolf peering out of his eyes for a long time. He could sense the longing in its acid-green gaze. The pack hadn’t had one in a long, long time—a good hundred years or so. Laithe had given up on waiting and married the human woman he was with now, knowing that they could never have children, knowing that she would die long before he would. Trans-species breeding didn’t work. Only a female werewolf could give birth to a werewolf child. Any human/werewolf combination resulted in a miscarriage.

Rhett felt light-headed again, his body trying to play catch-up on the blood reproduction. He rubbed his temples as he said, ‘She was attacked by a Sicarii. Drained, but I got her heart going again. Can you help her?’

‘Sure I can,’ he replied in a low, gravelly voice. He disappeared for a moment, returning with a wheelchair and a set of clothes. Laithe shoved the clothes at Rhett, and while he was getting changed, Laithe lifted Indi gently out of the back of the car.

‘Yeah, you do,’ he replied in that same gruff tone. Rhett crouched in front of Indi and pushed some hair out of her face, liking how warm her skin felt now. He kissed her gently on the forehead and stood up.

‘Take good care of her,’ he said, his voice sounding a little choked.

‘You got it,’ he replied. He turned and rushed Indi into the sliding doors where a dozen doctors and nurses were milling around.

When Rhett got back into the car, he tore out of the hospital driveway and started making his way home. He had to stop three times to vomit on the side of the road, which did nothing to ease the pounding in his head that accompanied the dizziness. He just hoped that he would make it back without blacking out. Before he knew it, he was parking the car behind the house. For good measure, he puked one more time before heading inside.

He stepped inside the house, his head spinning so violently that he had to prop a shoulder against the closest wall to fight the newest round of nausea. He was in such bad condition that he wasn’t even sure how he’d managed to get back to the house without killing anybody with his erratic oh-shit-I-just-stole-a-car driving.

A door hinge creaked and his uncle’s mate, Eaton, came from the direction of the kitchen; her apron telling him
“Once you go pack, you never go back
.
”
She smiled kindly at him—her wolf acknowledging his with the briefest of flashes—before she walked into the dining room to join the other wolves that lived on the farm permanently.

‘I know you’re there Rhett,’ his uncle’s voice boomed. ‘Come in here please.’ Rhett didn’t want to go, but what the alpha says, goes. He dragged a hand through his hair and staggered through to the dining room, clutching his stomach tightly.

Antain was sitting at the head of the table; Vaile sitting on his right, but there was no sign of Sabel.

‘Yes Uncle?’ Rhett asked, keeping his eyes on the ground as a mark of respect.

‘Vaile’s just told me that our félvair died today.’ Rhett lifted his gaze to his alpha’s dark brown eyes, seeing the compassion and understanding for the gravity of the loss. Antain thought Indi was dead, which meant that he didn’t know what he’d done. ‘He also said that you tried to engage the vampire who killed her on your own.’

His eyes darted to Vaile’s before he answered. ‘Yes, I did.’

‘You could have been killed,’ Antain replied in his booming voice although Rhett heard how it had softened from the last time he spoke. Even if he hated how he was treated in the pack, he couldn’t deny that having his uncle and aunt in his life was still a blessing. Without them, he would have been dead.

‘I wish he had been killed,’ an enforcer named Colton sneered from the end of the table. Rhett pinned him with a dangerous look, waiting until he dropped his eyes. Rhett had had to fight his way up the ranks. He was about fourth in line at the moment, having seriously injured all the other wolves he had challenged. Colton was the last one he’d fought, and yeah, he was still a little bitter about the beating he’d received from Rhett.

‘Enough!’ Antain snapped before rubbing his chin in thought. ‘Rhett, let me speak to you without the audience. Come into my office.’ Antain pushed out from behind the table and walked past him. Rhett dropped his eyes as he passed and followed him out.