Sarah McCarty (32 page)

Authors: Slade

Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #Paranormal

BOOK: Sarah McCarty

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Energy whipped at her from above. With a mental block she sent it sliding to the side. Dirt spewed in every direction under the impact. She jumped back. The ground exploded again where she’d just been standing. Son of a bitch, there was someone on the roof.

Pressing back against the building, she counted to four. Instinct said she had to cross the clearing. But if she left the shelter of the overhang, she’d be an easy target. Of course, staying here was no better. No doubt that person on the roof had one of those transceivers that Slade wouldn’t give her. And no doubt he was talking to all the other monster guys running around loose. While she could talk to only herself. So in about three minutes everybody was going to know where she was. And if everybody knew where she was and everybody came for a party, she was not going to escape. Which meant once again, she had to do something.

Please, Lord, let them see me for what I am, the wussy scientist about to pee her pants, and not some sort of badass that needs shooting. I could use the edge
.

Turning around, she pressed her elbows against the building.

Don’t see me. Don’t see me. Don’t see me.

On the count of three she backed up into the open, blindly aiming for her rooftop target. He was standing there looking around. She pulled the trigger. The same hole exploded in his torso. And just like the last monster, he dropped. Before she could lose her courage, she bolted for the woods. Slade was in there somewhere. She heard a shout. It sounded like Tobias. An order burst into her mind.

Get in the house.

She fired back along the mental channel,
Leave me alone.

To her surprise there was no response and no one came running toward her. She made it to the woods. As soon as she stepped under the sheltering branches, she realized her mistake. She couldn’t see anything beyond the next tree. Here the monsters had all the advantage. They could be above her, below her; they could be waiting on the other side of the next bush.

“Damn it.”

It sucked being a human in a world of paranormals. It wasn’t as if she could go back, though. Which left only one option. She had to find Slade. She headed deeper into the woods, letting her instinct guide her. Thirty feet in, she had an option. Up or down. Her gut said down. She followed the muddy streambed down the hill, every step taking her farther away from the house. Farther from the team. Hopefully, farther from the monsters. Her heart pounding in her chest, she resumed her mantra.

Don’t see me. Don’t see me. Don’t see me.

The couple minutes she walked felt like forever. Through the breaks in the underbrush she could see the house and the monsters that stalked it. She could hear the sounds of battle, but no one seemed to see her. No doubt they were too focused on killing Tobias and the others to notice a lone woman creeping down a streambed. Which was good. At the next curve of the stream, the path was blocked by a fallen log. From the hollow beneath the log poked ... a boot? She knew that boot.

“Slade!”

Pulling back the branches, she stepped over the log. It was Slade but he was all but unrecognizable. His hands and face were an ugly blackish red. Blisters bubbled under his skin. A gaping wound seeped a steady stream of blood from his side. She didn’t have to be a doctor to know it was bad. But she was a doctor and she knew what that wound meant. There was no way Slade hadn’t suffered massive internal damage. She didn’t know how much blood a vampire could lose and survive, but Slade had to be getting to the limit.

Don’t see us. Don’t see us. Don’t see us.

She couldn’t stop the chant even to scream for help. Reaching up, she moved a strand of hair off Slade’s face. His beloved handsome face. She wanted to stroke his cheek but as burned as he was, his skin would come off in her hand. She shuddered and pulled her hand back.

“Some badass vampire.”

Something stuck to her fingers. Looking down she saw they were stained with the same reddish black of his skin. He wasn’t burned. He was covered in sunblock. The relief was staggering. “Damn it, Slade, only you would have your sunblock mimic a burn.”

Resting her forehead against his, Jane let herself relax just for a second. She’d found him. And he was alive. But for how long? Sitting up, she cupped his face in her hand. “You hold on, Slade Johnson.”

Not even a flicker in his energy. She wanted nothing more than to lay down beside him and hold him until help came, but she also knew help wasn’t going to come. Not in the time Slade needed. And if the Sanctuary monsters overpowered the team, then not at all. She set the gun on his thigh and lifted his shirt away from his wound. Her gorge rose and clogged the scream in her throat. For a moment her litany stopped. From afar she heard a shout.

Oh God!
Had they been found?.

Don’t see us. Don’t see us. Don’t see us.

With a shaking hand, she rested her palm on his stomach. She could see his intestines through the hole.

“What were you doing so far from everyone else?”

He didn’t answer.

“It’s just your bad luck that I’m the one that found you. I don’t know what to do to help you.”

She tried probing his mind, but it was as if he’d already left his body. The anguish that struck her was unimaginable. She felt as if her soul were being shredded. Placing her palm over the gaping wound, she tried to hold him together. She wouldn’t lose him like this. Not like this.

Then you need to make another choice.

Creed’s words came back to haunt her. She’d been so confident in her decision, so focused on what she wouldn’t be she hadn’t realized what she would be without Slade. A woman without her soul.

Bracing her hands on either side of Slade’s chest, she angled up, placing her lips on his cold unresponsive ones. “You don’t get to be right at the expense of us.”

Focusing all her energy, she sent one thought into his mind.
Live.

His mouth felt foreign beneath hers. Like a stranger’s. With her sleeve she wiped the smear of sunscreen from her lips. Leaves rustled in the breeze. A crow cawed. There were no sounds of battle, but beyond the one that had woken her up, there really hadn’t been any. At any other time, she would have been impressed that so vicious a war could take place so far below human radar. But right now she was just panicked. And she needed help.

Slade needed blood. Vampires self-healed if they had enough blood. That’s what all the best movies decreed. She rubbed her neck and then her wrist as she considered her options. Her stomach heaved as she knelt beside his head. Fear raged right alongside hope. She really wasn’t GI Jane, and she really wasn’t good with pain. She hated it. “Don’t bite my hand off.”

Closing her eyes, she put her wrist against Slade’s mouth and raked his fang against her skin. Biting her free hand, she smothered her gasp. It didn’t just hurt, it burned like acid.

She kept her hand there, letting her blood drip on his tongue, horror and determination vying for dominance.

Slade didn’t take the bait.

“Goddamnit, Slade, drink.” There was no flux in his energy or his muscles. “I don’t know how long I can hold them off.”

Just saying it freaked her out. She wasn’t Wonder Woman. She didn’t have supernatural powers, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was the one making them invisible. It could be yet another residual delusion courtesy of whatever Slade had used to knock her out, but there was comfort in thinking she had some control, so she didn’t completely dismiss the notion.

Pressing her hand against his mouth, she tried again to get through to him. “I’m not an outside kind of girl, you know. I’m more the kind that sits back and asks someone else to fix things. But, seeing as there’s no one else around, you’re going to have to help out here, Slade, because I don’t know what I’m doing and you’re dying.” Tears clogged her throat. “And I can’t live with that.”

“But you expect him to go through forever without you.”

Tobias. Jane never thought she’d be so happy to see the enigmatic werewolf. Wiping her tears on her sleeve, she sat back. “He’s dying.”

“I know.”

Catching her arm, he lifted her away from Slade and turned her toward him, keeping her arm elevated so she couldn’t catch her balance. Men come out of the woods, forming a solid wall between her and Slade. Those strange eyes of his studied her from head to toe.

She yanked at her arm. “Don’t look at me like that.”

He cocked an eyebrow at her. “Like what?”

“Like I’m some strange species of bug you’ve just discovered.”

He let her go. “You definitely have hidden talents.”

Rubbing at her arm, she muttered, “That wouldn’t come as a surprise to you if you didn’t automatically assume you knew everything.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Try as she might Jane couldn’t see what the men were doing. She wanted to pick them up and hurl them aside. She wanted to scream at them to move. More than anything she wanted to see what they were doing.

“You don’t need to see.” Tobias had been reading her mind.

“You don’t know what I want.”

“You want him to live.”

Duh!
“Will he?”

Tobias shrugged. “He’s still alive.”

“How do you know?”

Instead of answering, he knelt beside Slade. Men moved aside, giving him room. It was a gesture of faith and trust. She wished Tobias didn’t irritate her so. She could use a bit of that confidence right now. Tobias ran his hands slowly over Slade’s torso and legs, searching for something. Whatever it was, she hoped he found it. The men fell back in around Slade, blocking her view. She needed them to move. Inside, the energy built.

“Don’t interfere if you want him to live,” Tobias ordered.

“I’m not doing anything.”

His head cocked to the side. “You don’t know, do you?”

She just shook her head.

“That means it’s new.”

“What’s new?”

The only response he gave was a cryptic. “Interesting.”

“I can’t even feel his energy,” she whispered.

“He’s got it blocked,” Tobias answered, his tone as even as always. Reaching into Slade’s pocket, he pulled out a small metal device with a green light on the tip.

“Brace yourself.”

Before she could ask “For what?” he pressed a button. The light died out. Energy blazed into her mind. Slade. She almost sobbed as the void filled with Slade’s pain, Slade’s confusion, Slade’s worry. She covered her mouth. Even stretched out within kissing distance of death, the man was worried about her. And he was alive.

Tobias passed the device to her. “Hold this.”

She took it. It felt oddly heavy.

“Now turn it on.”

“Why?”

“Humor me.”

She did. Her eyebrow cocked up.

“Interesting,” Tobias said again.

Jane shot him an angry look. “You need to be helping Slade, not irritating me.”

“Am I irritating you?”

“Yes. And enjoying it if your expression is anything to go by.”

“You don’t read people well, do you?”

“I do fine with people. It’s werewolves that give me trouble.”

As if on cue, Derek stepped into the little clearing. Like Tobias, he had presence. And like Tobias, he was intimidating, but unlike Tobias she knew he loved Slade. Tobias stood and made room for him. She watched as he knelt beside Slade. Sunlight gleamed off his blond hair. She reached for his energy. And found nothing. So either he had a device or he could block her, too.

“He’s lost a lot of blood,” she called.

“They can see that,” Tobias interrupted.

“I told you before, leave me alone.”

“You don’t have to worry. We won’t let him die.”

“Pardon me if I don’t take your word for it.”

Derek rolled up his sleeve. The men leaned in, Slade’s pack, Slade’s family all gathered around him. There was room for all of them at his side. But not for her.

She blew out a breath. “I hate this.”

To her surprise, Tobias took her hand. “I know.”

Comfort flowed over her, dampening her panic and replacing it with a sense of... calm. She left her hand in his.

“Are you sure he’s going to be all right?”

“We got here in time.”

“Good.”

Again he gave her that strange look. “What are you thinking?”

“That I don’t do Wonder Woman well.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that. I was just thinking you had potential.”

She pulled her hand from his. “Then you’d be wrong.”

Because, once again when it had mattered, she hadn’t been able to do a damned thing.