The Becoming (Book 4): Under Siege (19 page)

Dominic stepped into the room.

Light from a single lantern cast a pool on
one side of the room. The fading sunlight crept in between the
boards over the windows on the opposite end. The bed had been
stripped of its comforter, which was lying in a heap on the floor
by the footboard. And Remy was sprawled across the bed, lying on
top of the sheets in her bra and panties. Her skin glistened with
sweat, even as she shivered. Dominic approached the bed and pressed
a gentle hand against her cheek. She was burning up.

“How do you feel?” Dominic asked, grasping
her wrist to feel her pulse. It fluttered under his fingertips,
rapid and bounding.

“Like I have the flu,” Remy muttered. “I
ache all over. My head hurts. And I’m
freezing
.”

“Probably because you’re laying in your
underwear,” Dominic pointed out. He did his best to keep his eyes
on her face, but it was hard. The woman was just as attractive and
well proportioned as he’d imagined she’d be. He grabbed the flat
sheet bunched at the foot of the bed, shook it out, and gently
covered her with it. “Do you need anything?” he asked, taking a
polite step back from the bed.

“Maybe some water,” she said. She gave him a
smile that sent a surge of pleasure right through him.

He went downstairs to retrieve a bottle of
water for her, his mind still stirred by her and by Brandt’s visit.
He had a feeling that trouble would be coming soon, especially once
Brandt and the others put two and two together and realized what he
and Remy were up to. He contemplated going to Brandt and telling
him himself, heading off trouble at the pass. But no. If he did
that, Remy would kill him. It wasn’t his place to take the decision
out of her hands.

Dominic sighed again and headed back
upstairs to rejoin her. He found her sitting up this time, her long
legs hanging over the edge, the sheet he’d covered her with draped
over her shoulders like an oversized cape. He passed the bottle to
her, and she fumbled with the cap before twisting it off and taking
a deep swallow.

“So what’s going on outside anyway? What was
Brandt doing here?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Dominic admitted. “It’s
possible he was looking for you, which means it’s only a matter of
time before everyone else catches on that you’re here and that
we’re doing something we shouldn’t be doing.”

Remy scowled, pressed a hand to her
forehead, and closed her eyes.

Dominic pressed the back of his hand to her
cheek, testing her temperature, and then said quietly, “Maybe we
should think about going to Derek about this.”

“
No!
” Remy exploded, shaking her head
almost wildly. “No, we can’t!”

“Why not?” Dominic asked. He took a seat
beside her on the bed. “We need the help. You’re sick. He’s a
doctor. He’ll know how to help you
way
better than I
can.”

“We
can’t,
” Remy said again. Her
voice was more tired than the last time she spoke, and she wobbled,
looking like she was ready to slump over at any moment.

“Remy, please,” Dominic begged. “What’s done
is done. He can’t do anything about what we’ve already done. But if
something goes wrong, if this thing starts to kill you, then maybe
he’ll be able to stop it and save you from it. You get me?”

Remy wrinkled her nose, looking like she was
ready to object again. But instead, she asked, “Why do you even
care, Dominic? Why are you agreeing to do all of this? I mean,
you’re being oddly nice to me. What’s in it for you? What kind of
game are you playing?”

Dominic grimaced and stood up from the bed
abruptly. His head swam. He ignored the sensation and stalked
halfway across the room, clenching his fists at his sides. “I’m not
playing any
games
,” he snarled, more angrily than he
intended. “What the hell makes you think I’m doing that?”

“You’re being too nice to me,” Remy said
again. She’d sat up straighter and didn’t appear to be in imminent
danger of face-planting on the floor.

“And?” Dominic demanded. “I have to have a
motive
to be nice to you? To want to help you?”

“
Yes,
you do,” Remy said. Her brown
eyes were bright, fiery with anger, making her all the more
attractive to Dominic—God, but he loved a beautiful, feisty woman
that wouldn’t hesitate to go toe-to-toe with him. He was knocked
right out of his thoughts—which were starting to take a turn that
would get him into trouble sooner rather than later, at Remy’s next
declaration.

“You
hate
me!” Remy said. “Why would
you want to help me?”

Dominic’s eyes widened. “You think I hate
you?” he asked.

“Of course you hate me,” Remy said. Her
words were matter of fact, but there was an underlying hint of
confusion in her voice. “I shot you, remember?”

“Remy…” Dominic dropped into the chair at
the desk by the bed. He rubbed both hands over his face. “I don’t
hate you, okay?” he started.

“But I shot—”

“You shot me under circumstances that were,
frankly, warranted,” he interrupted. “We had broken into your safe
house and were armed. Clearly, we intended to do you harm. You had
every right to protect yourself, and that’s what you did. I
personally would have been a lot more surprised if you
hadn’t
. So no, I’m not and never have been pissed off at you
for shooting me.” He managed to give her a crooked smile. “Besides,
it’s not like I’ve never been shot before. Where you shot me was
more of an inconvenience than anything else.”

“An inconvenience?” Remy repeated. She
sounded disbelieving. “So why are you mad at me then?” she asked.
“If not for shooting you, then for what?”

Dominic shook his head. “Would you believe
me if I told you that I wasn’t pissed off at you at all?” he
asked.

“Nope, not a word,” she confirmed.

He squeezed his eyes shut. This wasn’t going
to go as planned, he knew. This was definitely
not
the way
he’d planned to tell her what he was about to say. “Remy,” he said.
“I’m pissed off, yes. But I’m not pissed off
at
you. I’m
pissed off
about
you.”

Remy sat back a little, as if he’d taken a
swing at her and she was trying to dodge it. “I’m not sure I
understand,” she murmured.

Dominic hadn’t really expected her to. “I
just…I like you, Remy. At lot,” he finally said. “Enough so that,
under any other circumstances, I’d go for it.”

“But?”

“
But
you’re infected, and I’m pissed
because fate has taken the option away from me before I even had
it,” he confessed. “It can never happen, not unless you’re cured
and you
survive
the cure. And that’s why I want—no, I
need
you to agree to let me take this to Derek. Before
something terrible happens that we can’t stop.”

Remy stared at him. He wasn’t looking at
her, but he felt it. He wondered what was going through her mind at
exactly that moment. He’d have put money on it that most of it was
less than complimentary. After her long hesitation, she cleared her
throat, and when he looked up at her, her expression seemed oddly
vacant, like her mind was elsewhere.

“I still don’t want him involved,” Remy said
quietly. “But…but if I take a turn for the worst, then you’ll go
get him for me?”

“If you want me to,” Derek agreed, sitting
up straighter. “I’ll do this however you want me to.” He pushed
himself from his chair and went to her, leaning to press a gentle
kiss to her forehead, one of the only safe places he knew where he
could
kiss her. His lips lingered against her soft skin for
a moment before he pulled away. “Why don’t I get you some food?” he
suggested. “We should do what we can to keep your strength up. You
might need it.”

Cade had been on edge ever since she’d heard the
whistle and the opening salvo of gunshots. She’d grabbed her rifle
and started for the stairs, every instinct screaming at her to get
out of there, to join in whatever fight was brewing outside. To
hell with the fact that she was pregnant; she was a warrior,
through and through, and no one could
seriously
expect her
to sit inside like a half-wilted, delicate flower. Besides, her
husband was somewhere out there, and if she knew him and his
penchant for getting into trouble, then he was going to need
bailing out.

Unfortunately, someone else had guessed at
her reaction to the noise, and she’d been intercepted. Derek had
stood in her path, arms folded over his chest, body blocking the
door.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked,
his voice level. He seemed to have taken in everything about her
and her intentions in one head-to-toe sweep.

She liked Derek; she really did. He was a
great doctor and a good man, and his heart seemed to be in the
right place. But damn if he didn’t have a way of getting on her
nerves sometimes.

“I’m going out to help with whatever’s going
on outside,” Cade said.

“No, you’re not,” Derek said. His facial
expression didn’t change, and he didn’t budge from his spot against
the door.

“Why not?” Cade demanded. It was a stupid
question, and she knew that before she’d asked. She didn’t need to
hear Derek’s response, either. She knew what he would say; she was
trying to buy some time to think of an alternative escape route out
of the house.

“Because you’re almost eight months
pregnant, Cade,” Derek said, his tone patient. “Because, while
you’re perfectly capable of shooting whatever you’d like from a
distance, your body isn’t equipped to handle running, jumping, or
anything resembling hand-to-hand combat right now.”

The sound of three sets of feet descending
the stairs brought her around. Isaac, Sadie, and Jude were coming
downstairs, all of them loaded down with assorted weaponry. The
twins had supplemented the weapons they’d brought in with them with
spare knives and sidearms from the bedroom upstairs that Cade
called “the armory,” complete with a bandolier of shotgun shells
slung across Sadie’s chest. Isaac looked ready to fight off a pack
of wolves singlehandedly. He’d donned the body armor he’d been
wearing when she’d met him in Atlanta; he’d looked large and
commanding in it then, and with the additional muscle he’d packed
on since, he looked even more imposing now.

“Derek, we’ve got to get by,” Isaac said,
sliding past Cade and reaching for the deadbolt. Derek moved aside
for him, and Cade saw red.

“Wait a minute!” she exclaimed. “Why the
hell do
they
get to go and not me?”

“Because you’re pregnant!” Derek said,
finally showing anger with her insistence on running into
danger.

“And?” Cade said. She jabbed a finger at
Sadie and Jude. “Those two are practically
kids!
”

“We are
not
kids!” Sadie started to
protest, but Derek put a hand on her arm and shook his head.

“Go ahead to where you’re needed,” he told
her. “I’ll deal with this.” Cade glared as they stepped onto the
porch, and Derek shut the door between them. Then he stood there,
his palm pressed flat against the door. “Cade, listen to me, okay?
You’re pregnant. And as your doctor, I feel it’s my responsibility
to not only keep you safe but to tell you when you’re being an
idiot. And Cade, you’re being an idiot.”

“But that’s my
husband
out there!”
Cade protested. She clenched her fists, ignoring how her broken
nails dug into her palms. “I can’t leave him out there!”

“Yes, you can, and you will,” Derek
corrected. “Believe me, I don’t like it any more than you do. He’s
important, very important, to everything we’ve got going on here,
and I don’t like seeing him throw himself into these situations.
But you’re just as important as he is, you
and
your
baby.”

Cade narrowed her eyes. “How so?”

“Because whatever genes make Brandt so
special may have been passed to the baby,” Derek explained. “And I
think that he might’ve passed that immunity to you through sexual
contact.”

Cade raised an eyebrow, momentarily
distracted by his theory. “What, like an STD?”

“If it’s an STD, it’s the world’s best STD
to have,” Derek said. “Granted, there’s no guarantee I’m right, in
which case, we have to do what we can to keep you from getting
bitten.”

“That’s fine, Doc, but I’m not going to get
bitten,” Cade said. “I’ll be fine, I swear. I’m just going to step
out—”

“No, Cade.”

“—and find a place to set up and shoot.”

“
I said no, Cade!
”

His shout—a loud sound for a man so little
used to raising his voice—felt like a slap across Cade’s face. She
stared at him, wide-eyed and startled, as her objections died on
her lips. She’d never seen Derek so angry, had never heard him have
cross words with anyone, and here he was, yelling at
her
.

She didn’t know what to make of that. But in
the face of his anger, she was shocked and speechless, and she
remained so, rooted to the spot in the foyer, until the others
began to return to the house.

Sadie and Jude were the first to arrive
back, covered in blood, dirt, and grass stains. They smelled of rot
and decay. Cade wrinkled her nose, and her stomach heaved at the
scent.

“Any injuries?” Derek asked, his eyes
scanning each of them in turn as he ushered them into the room.
After Sadie answered in the negative for the both of them, he
nodded toward the stairs. “Head upstairs and clean up, both of you.
Be sure to scrub off every bit of blood you find on
yourselves.”

The twins were halfway up the stairs before
Cade found her voice. “Wait,” she choked out, and the two bloodied
figures stopped and turned to look at her. “Brandt,” Cade said,
watching the two teenagers with anxious eyes. “Is he…?” She
couldn’t get the last word out. She wasn’t even sure what the last
word
was
: “okay” or “dead” came to mind, but neither made it
past her lips.