Page 51 of Remington’s Mate

At the very last moment she turned back to look for Remy, stepped on a piece of sharp metal and stumbled. Something hit her like a punch in the chest, and her knees buckled.

Just as she hit the edge of the roof and began to fall, Remy swept down and locked his talons around her upper arms.

Dimly, she saw Brandon burst through the stairwell door and shoot Smith with a tranquilizer dart.

Then everything went dark.

Chapter 20

Remy saw Jaeda running for the edge of the roof. He was almost there… almost… He was reaching for her with his talons when he saw Smith pull the trigger, saw Jaeda turn and then stagger back, saw the red stain blossom on her chest like a bloody rose.

She caught her heels on the lip at the edge of the roof and went over.

Remy continued his dive, straining to catch her upper arms with his talons as she fell. He had her! Her weight dragged at him and he gave two mighty flaps of his wings to straighten out, then dove once more.

They dropped quickly, Remy steering them around the corner of the next building before snapping his wings open and pumping them with all his strength.

He knew the others were probably on the roof by now, but he couldn’t go back. Jaeda was bleeding way too much—he could smell it on her, and she was passed out in his talons. He had to get her to safety.

Flying, he could go over fifty miles an hour, straight to the safe house—no speed limits, no traffic, no stop lights. If anyone looked up and saw an abnormally large snowy owl carrying a bloody human, well—he just hoped their video didn’t come out.

It seemed like they were in the air for an eternity, although it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes. The safe house was less than five miles away. Remy headed for the fenced-in backyard and came in for a landing, depositing Jaeda on the patio as gently as possible before Changing back to human.

He checked her pulse and her breathing. She was still alive, though there was way too much blood. He rolled her over to check her back, and felt a wave of nausea when he saw the size of the exit wound.

The bleeding was sluggish, though. Not nearly as bad as it should have been. Was it possible she had shifter healing, even though she had no animal?

He hoped like hell she did.

He punched the entry code into the keypad by the back door and pushed the door open, carrying Jaeda inside. He laid her on the couch and then went to gather medical supplies.

Bandages, gauze, medical kit. They had sutures and needles but he hoped she didn’t need any complicated surgery, because none of them were qualified for that and they couldn’t take her to a hospital. Gunshot wounds were automatically reported to the police.

One of the first things shifters learned was: stay away from human police whenever possible.

He was on his way back to her when he realized she might need disinfectant. Shifters didn’t get infections, but Jaeda might.

When he had everything he needed he raced back to her side. God, she looked pale, and he could smell the fresh blood.

One look at the couch cushions showed a terrifyingly large red stain.

What the hell had happened while he was gone?

He cut her blouse off, packed gauze in the entry wound and gently turned her on her stomach. The exit wound was saturated with new blood, and he probed it ruthlessly with his fingers, feeling for the bleeder. He couldn’t find it, and even as he watched, the bleeding slowed again.

Slowly, he pulled his fingers out of the wound. The fresh blood continued to well up slowly for a moment, then stopped.

What the hell?

Remy sat with one hand on Jaeda’s bare shoulder, using his other hand to soak up the excess blood with a wad of gauze. Then he felt inside the wound again to see what the hell was going on.

Deep in the wound, he could feel familiar movement. It was shifter healing at work, repairing the deepest levels first, working so fast you could actually feel it manipulating the tissues.

They were just lucky she hadn’t shattered any bone that needed a surgeon to put it back together before it healed wrong.

But why had she almost bled out when he was getting supplies?

Slowly, Remy took his hands away from Jaeda’s back and waited. After a minute her breathing hitched, and he could have sworn her skin started to look clammy.