“I understand, Miss Aniyah,” I cut in, my voice just firm enough to redirect her. “I’ll keep an eye on him and let you know if anything changes. For now, he’s just busy, I assure you.”
That, or he was obsessing over a human woman who smelled like roses and was invading my mind as well.
I was already pulling the phone away when the doorbell rang.
Once. Twice. Then rapid-fire, the chime cutting through the house in frantic succession.
My head turned sharply toward the front door, brows pulling together.
“I have to go,” I said quickly.
“You know I like being right,” she replied, her tone shifting back into something pointed. “ Just tell me if something’s off.”
Click. The line went dead.
I slipped the phone into my pocket as the bell was replaced by hard, desperate blows that echoed through the foyer.
Voices bled through the door, overlapping and urgent. My steps quickened automatically, instincts already sharpening.
Whoever it was, the wards weren’t rejecting them, which meant the barrier magic recognized at least one of them as someone trusted.
I reached the door just as a woman’s frantic voice broke through the chaos.
“Please! Please help us. She doesn’t have long! She’s lost too much blood.”
My hand tightened on the handle before I yanked the door open.
Cold air rushed in, and before me stood a blonde wide-eyed human woman, covered in blood.
Lark, I thought it was. Olivia’s friend.
Her gaze snapped to me the second the door opened, relief and panic colliding all at once. She surged forward, hands grabbing mine before I could even process it, her grip slick and shaking.
“Please,” she choked out, breath hitching. “Save her. She needs help now.”
The stench of blood hit me first. There was way too much of it, and when I looked at her, I realized she was covered in it.
My gaze shifted over to Nathan, a turned vampire, who stood just behind Lark, his shoulders squaring the second our eyes locked. His throat worked around a hard swallow, arms tightening reflexively around the body he held like he didn’t quite trust himself to let go.
And then I looked down at his arms and everything else dropped away.
Olivia hung limp in his grasp, head tipped back, hair clinging damply to her face. Her arm dangled uselessly at her side, fingers barely curled, while dark blood soaked through her clothes, steadily dripping from her abdomen to the ground beneath them.
No.
The word didn’t leave my mouth, but it hit hard enough to hollow out my chest. My pulse slammed into my ears, drowningout everything else as I stared, trying to reconcile the girl from this morning with what was in front of me now.
My hand hit the panel beside the door without looking, dissolving the wards, and I dragged them inside. I didn’t wait, didn’t think. I tore her from Nathan’s arms, cradling her weight against me as I crossed the room in long strides and lowered her onto the couch.
The cushions dipped under her, a dark stain already spreading beneath her body.
A breath left me, sharp and uneven, as I took in the damage. Her saturated clothes clinging to her body. The metallic scent thick in the air. So much blood. Too much for a human.
My fingers moved automatically, peeling back the fabric. It stuck for a second before giving, revealing the wound beneath, jagged, deep, unmistakable.
A bullet. A large one at that.
Heat flared hot and violent under my skin, something dark snapping awake at the sight, but I shoved it down just as fast. That wouldn’t help her. Not now.
