Lucien glanced toward the lightening sky, but it would still be a couple of hours before the sun was up enough to burn away the remains. “We should set up a roadblock so no vehicles can come by here until the bodies are gone.”
“Asher and I will take two of the SUVs to do that,” Logan said.
“I also need blood for when Callie wakes. I have to feed her.”
And she will wake,he told himself. He couldn’t allow himself to doubt it; he’d go mad if he did, and now was not the time to do that. They would end up having to restrain him too, and they needed all the help they could get to clean up this mess and get out of here.
Callie would make it through this, and soon the agony of her transformation would take hold. He ground his teeth together as he resisted going to her, but they had to take care of this mess before he could do that.
He sneered at the creature on the ground as the demon part of him stirred. This never should have happened. Callienevershould have suffered in such a way, and it was all thisthing’sfault.
We must keep it alive. We have to see what it knows.
It’s never going to tell us anything; just kill it.
That was most likely true, but no matter how much he’d prefer to see it dead, they had to learn if it would reveal anything. They also needed to learn if they could discover any weaknesses.
“We’ll get some blood for you soon,” Killean said.
Lucien opened his mouth to argue; he wanted to ensure he was ready for her now, but it would be hours before Callie required blood to complete her transformation. Before then, they had to ensure the demon was secure, find out where the Savages came from, get the roadblock established, and ensure the bodies were destroyed.
When the demon stirred, Saber kicked it in the head, and its movements ceased again. “I guess we’ll know when it wakes,” he said.
Willow rolled her eyes as she slid the sword into the scabbard on her back. “Let’s go see if we can discover where these things came from,” she said to Declan.
He nodded.
“We’ll set up the roadblocks,” Asher said, and Killean tossed him a set of keys.
They split up, and Lucien checked on Callie before helping Killean and Saber gather the Savage’s bodies. They placed them out where the sun would hit them soon. He dumped Yannis’s body on the ground before retrieving his brother’s head and dropping it unceremoniously on the body.
He stared at him for a minute before turning away. Yannis was the past; Callie was his future.
When they finished cleaning up the mess, Lucien stalked over to the SUV housing Callie. He pulled open the back door to discover Simone had lowered the seats and settled Callie in the back. She rested with her head on a pillow.
He held his breath as he watched for the small rise and fall of her chest that would indicate she was breathing. His ears instantly picked up the laborious beat of her heart, but it took far longer than he would have liked before her chest rose.
His shoulders sagged before he crawled into the back to settle next to her. He lifted her hand and clasped it in both of his while he studied her abnormally pale features and her black hair spilling across the pillow. Through the hole in her chest, he watched the beat of her healing heart as it lumbered to pump blood through her.
Simone didn’t speak before she slipped out of the vehicle and closed the door behind her. Carefully, Lucien lifted Callie’s head and settled it in his lap. He brushed the hair back from her forehead as he studied her features. Her mouth was pinched, and as her transformation progressed, she twitched and moaned.
He would give anything to take away her discomfort, but he could only sit by her side and watch as she suffered just as he’d watched her mortal life come to a vicious end. The reminder caused his fangs to lengthen as fresh color swirled over the backs of his hands.
He needed to kill, to rend and destroy, but the Savages were all dead. Nothing remained for him to slaughter. Leaning closer to her, he inhaled her sweet scent now intermingled with Simone’s andhis.
He was inside her, a part of her, and though she still suffered, when she came out of this, she would be immortal, stronger, and they would seal the mate bond.
Her aroma and the tantalizing promise of their future together helped calm the demon inside him. He stroked her forehead as he bent to kiss her.
Her breath tickled his lips as he whispered, “I love you. Come back to me soon.”
He thought her hand squeezed his, but it was such a fleeting movement he couldn’t be sure.
“It will be over soon,” he promised. “The worst of this will be over soon, my love.”
He longed to crush her against him, but he didn’t dare for fear he would damage her more. As he ran his thumb down between her brows, her eyes fluttered back and forth behind her closed lids.
He spent his time alternating his attention between Callie and Killean, Simone, and Saber as they stood guard over the demon they’d moved into the back of his battered SUV. They’d swathed it in blankets to protect it from the rising sun, but Saber had kept its head out, and they all watched its face like vultures circling carrion.
