“Glad I could oblige.”
“How are you feeling?”
“Like I got run over by a Mac truck and picked apart by the crows who found me afterward.”
“So… alive then.”
Despite her misery, she smiled. “Alive then.”
Cabo bent and opened the cooler as Zina walked over to join him. Together, they started removing the bags of blood inside. She’d been so lost in her concern over Asher that Brie hadn’t realized how ravenous she was.
Those bags caused saliva to fill her mouth, and her stomach rumbled as her fangs elongated. She was close to drooling when Zina walked over and handed her two bags.
“Do you think you’ll need more?” Zina inquired.
She’d never required more than two, but these wouldn’t be enough. “Yes.”
Zina returned to Cabo.
“I got twenty bags,” Cabo said. “You’re both in such rough shape, I figured you’d need it.”
“Thank you,” Brie said.
“Anything for you, boss.”
He chuckled when Brie gave him the finger, but she enjoyed the twinkle in his eyes as he gave Zina two more bags before loading the remaining ones into the fridge. Tearing the top off the first bag, Brie downed the contents in one gulp.
It did nothing to satisfy her hunger.
Feeling a little out of control, she drank the second bag as Zina walked over with the third and fourth.
“Where did you get all these?” Zina asked as Brie took the third bag.
“There’s a hospital about forty minutes away. I figured going there was my best bet. I doubt any nearby medical clinics have blood on hand, never mind the amount I suspected we would need.”
“Good call,” Zina said.
“What happened down there?” Cabo asked Brie.
She set the empty fourth bag aside. Her hunger was finally ebbing, but she would have to feed more to get Asher through the rest of his transition.
“An atrocity,” she said.
She proceeded to tell them what they’d discovered. As she did so, Zina offered her two more bags, and she took them; her appetite had eased, but it was still present.
When she finished speaking, the horror on their faces probably mirrored exactly what she looked like when they discovered those bodies.
“The stone!” she blurted as for the first time she recalled they found it.
She really was struggling if she was just recalling it now. But then, Asher was her priority upon waking, which told her more than anything else he was her mate. Nothing had ever distracted her from her mission with the stones before.
“It’s right here.” Zina walked over and opened one of the drawers in the battered dresser. She removed the small blue stone and held it up. “Do you want it?”
Brie held out her hand, and Zina walked over to place the stone in it. She turned it over as she inspected its ridges while admiring its color.One more down, one more to go.
Her fingers closed around the stone, and she squeezed it before setting it on the table beside her. She’d feel better when it was locked in the safe, but they couldn’t do anything about that now. Asher was in no condition to be moved.
She rested her head against the wall as the blood seeped through her system. Now that she’d fed, she was feeling a lot better. The skin of her abdomen itched as it started knitting together at a faster rate, and her discomfort eased until it became more bearable.
