Page 78 of Call of the Blood

“Shit. Hold on. I’m in control. I can help you.”

“Thank you,” she said, blinking several times. “Oh gods, this hurts.”

“The stab? I bet,” I said.

“No, my head.”

I looked at her face and saw the knot forming.

“Oh yeah, that’s a bump. Tell me what happened.”

“The moment you and Declan got off the phone, I was beginning to call my father just to let him know something was wrong. Glass shattered. The patio. He came in from the patio. He was on us immediately,” Lexi said, pushing to sit up as I grabbed a roll of paper towels and started to rip some off for her. Better than nothing. “This isn’t bleeding that bad. I got knocked on the counter… I think.”

“I can fix all of this.”

“Phone?”

“Broken. I was…” She made a motion, like she was remembering. “I was holding it, just hit my father’s name on the contact list. He had it and snapped it in half… he said he couldn’t have that, and none of this concerned the werewolves. I needed to be a good… bitch and stay out of his way. Declan was…” She closed her eyes and started to push to stand up.

“Woah, no. You need to stay down sitting for when others get here.”

“No. I can heal this. This is… pretty superficial. Getting conscious again was the most important thing. I just need to Change. It’ll exhaust me and take forever, but I can fix all this. I need to finish.” She leaned against the counter, holding those paper towels to her ribs. “Declan scrambled and tried calling you back as quickly as he could, but between a vampire and a werewolf, he was the slowest person in the room. He screamed for Henry not to do it… what it is. Henry, your fucking insane uncle was really weird. I tried to get Declan away from him, and he tossed me into the kitchen…”

“He’s over two hundred fifty years old,” I explained. “He probably isn’t that much stronger than you, but he makes up even more by having the experience… not that I know where he learned to fight. He spent most of his life in a nest that practiced non-violence.”

“Do you know what Henry really wants?”

“There are only a few options. He’s either going to just run away with Declan, kill him, or Turn him.”

Lexi grew paler with each option.

“We have to stop him.” She grabbed my upper arm. “We have to stop him. We have to help Declan.”

I tried to get my arm free as I spoke.

“And I will, but you⁠—”

“If you try to leave me here because you think I can’t keep up, I will dust you in the sun myself,” she snarled, her eyes flashing into a wolf’s. Her grip tightened. “I can fight. I know you fucking hate me, but I love your brother more than you understand. I’ve messed up, sure, but I’ll be fucking damned if you go alone after him and leave me here wondering. I can help!”

I stared at her for a moment. We didn’t have much time. I had already spent enough here with her, my duty to make sure she wasn’t dead or dying.

“We could die,” I explained softly.

“Then I will go to Valhalla with a warrior's death,” Lexi growled, and I saw a flash of the warriors her parents were in her eyes.

An extra pair of hands is useful.

“Fine. Let’s go. I have an idea of where he might be going.”

Lexi grabbed several items before we could go. Her bag, a first aid kit from the bathroom, and alcohol. We locked Declan’s condo up so none of the neighbors would eventually investigate.

“The neighbor across the hall is on vacation. She’s the one who would have,” Lexi explained, still holding paper towels to her ribs.

“Are you sure that will heal?”

“I cut myself with the knife, Everly. It’s not deep, just bleeding more than I’d like. I’m actually more lucky my neck wasn’t broken when he tossed me like that.”

“Okay.”