When Jasmine stopped screaming, Dante turned to discover Kyle tearing the heart from the chest of the last Savage. He tossed the organ aside and wiped his hands on his jeans as casually as if it were water.
Dante let go of Jasmine’s body and sat back as blood oozed from him. His broken wrist was healing enough that pinpricks of feeling had returned to his fingers.
“Are you okay?” Cassidy asked as she knelt before him.
Despite the pain, Dante grinned as he rested the palm of his good hand against the side of her beautiful face. “Yes, are you?”
“Yes,” she said as she clasped his face and kissed him.
He frowned at the strange color staining her flesh and grasped her hand. “What happened?”
“It’s okay. It will fade. It happens to purebreds when we’re pissed off, and thatbitchpissed me off.”
Dante’s chuckle faded when her fingers brushed against the tears in his shirt. His raw flesh beneath made her itch to kill Jasmine all over again, but his bleeding was easing.
“I told you to stay away,” he said.
“You’d be dead if we had.”
His laughter was cut short by the pain it caused to emanate through him. “I’m glad you’re the most stubborn creature I’ve ever met.”
Cassidy chuckled, but she couldn’t disguise her concern for him.
“I’m going to be okay,” he assured her.
“We have to get you out of here.”
“Where’s Preston?”
The crashing of boards accompanied his question, and they turned to look as Kyle pulled away more of the boards from the hole Preston and Jasmine created when they went through the wall. Julie crept cautiously toward him as Kyle removed another board and peered into the hole.
Gripping the sides of the wall, Kyle climbed into the hole and vanished. He reemerged a minute later. “He’s unconscious, but he’s alive. I’ll carry him out.”
Chapter Forty-Six
Kyle calledJulian to help them with the removal of the bodies. He arrived half an hour later with Aida and a white construction van. “Where did you get the van?” Dante asked.
“A couple of guys who were out for a night of fun lent it to me,” Julian replied.
Cassidy didn’t ask for further details, especially since Julian had been scowling at her and Kyle since he arrived and heard the whole story. To say he was pissed they’d come here without him was an understatement.
Cassidy kept her gaze averted from Julian as they worked to remove the bodies from the warehouse. Paint splashes stained the black mat in the back of the van, and the tarps tucked behind the two front seats. A step ladder was mounted to the wall opposite the sliding door. There was plenty of room to stack the bodies, but Cassidy dreaded crawling inside with them.
They carried Preston out last and laid him down away from the bodies. Julie hovered at his side as her gaze went from the Savages to them and back to her brother so fast Cassidy thought they might spin out of her head.
The girl was going to require some serious trauma counseling after all this; unfortunately, she wouldn’t get it. If Julie ever shared this story, she’d end up locked away or dead because some vamp would kill her.
Feeling sorry for the girl, Cassidy rested her hand on Julie’s shoulder as she introduced herself. Julie stared at her from unblinking eyes, but she told her the names of the others too.
“Those are my brothers, Kyle and Julian,” she said as she pointed out Kyle and Julian. They both waved at her. “That’s my sister-in-law, Aida.”
“Hi,” Aida said with a smile that Julie tremulously returned.
Cassidy didn’t release her as she pointed to Dante. Unsure of what to tell her his name was, she said, “And that’s my mate.”
Julie glanced at him, and when the girl shuddered, Cassidy squeezed her shoulder. “It’s okay; you’re safe with us, I promise.”
Julie nodded, but Cassidy wasn’t sure she believed her. They would have to prove to her that she was safe and earn her trust.
