Page 87 of Call of the Blood

Everly dropped the head, still screaming. He started walking toward her, careful, unsure if she was coming back to reality outside of the kill. Her hands were quickly returning to normal.

Her scream hitched and changed. He ran, getting his arms around her when the sob wracked her body. He made sure she didn’t fall to the ground. She was still a young vampire. Coming down from the fight was going to quickly make her thirsty, and he knew from just the feel of her that she was considerably weaker now, only seconds later.

“Don’t fight it,” he murmured. “I’ve got you.” He lifted her all the way up, carrying her because he felt she deserved to get off her feet for a moment.

“Declan?” she asked softly, but also frantic. “How’s Declan? And Lexi.”

“Safe. Both are safe,” he promised. “We’re going to Maria’s nest. You need blood.”

“Okay,” she mumbled.

Alexius went past Maria at first but then remembered something important.

“Clean up.” It was all he needed to say.

“Being handled. And the body will be disposed of the way you always request.”

“Thank you.”

She tried to move, and he held on tighter. Everly, suddenly realizing she was in his arms in front of people, was almost funny.

“I can walk.”

“But you don’t have to.”

She hissed softly but didn’t fight as he loaded her into the car. Everything else could be dealt with from somewhere with blood.

33

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Istared out the window as we headed for Maria’s nest. Hollow. And pained. I reached down and touched my side, finally deciding to pay enough attention to my own body to realize there was a small hole.

“Ouch,” I muttered.

Alexius looked sharply at me, his nostrils flared and his eyes narrowed.

“I didn’t even notice,” he growled, seeing how I was poking at the hole. “Stop messing with it.”

“I didn’t even notice it myself. It probably got lost in the smell of all the blood,” I said, trying to approach it clinically.

“I didn’t want to treat you like glass too much in front of all of them, or I would have properly checked every inch of you.”

I tried to remember where I might have gotten it. It was a long drive back to the nest. Still enough time before sunrise to get there, so Alexius wasn’t speeding too much. Red. I remembered red, Blood. Hearing Henry talk and knowing his answers were the wrong ones. Knowing that my hunting partner, the vampire beside me, was keeping my prey busy for me. Henry was mine to kill, and that was respected.

Before that? Was that when it happened?

I tried to piece it together, seeing flashes.

“Ah. I think I know,” I said, leaning against the door in exhaustion. “When I tackled him out of the air. You had thrown him, I think? We landed in vegetation. A particularly hard tree branch was sturdy enough to…”

“Wood is surprisingly tough like that.”

“Like stakes,” I said, knowing he would hate the vampires-in-the-media reference.

But his chuckle was genuine.

“Sure.” He reached out, and I took his hand, putting it on the center console instead of holding it. I didn’t want to touch anything. I didn’t want to be touched by anything.