One of the vampires had grabbed a fire extinguisher and was tending to any remaining flames from the dragons’ fire – luckily, there hadn’t been an abundance of consumables in the warehouse – while the ever-efficient Edward was distributing bags of blood from a cooler he must have fetched from a vehicle outside. He handed two to Kane as his worried eyes took stock of an abundance of injuries marring Kane’s body. “Sir, I have a bit of medical training if you’d allow me to look at your injuries.”
That had Kane’s brow shooting up practically to his hairline. “By a bit you mean you once applied a Band-Aid or…” he trailed off, his hand making a circular motion as he waited for Edward to complete the sentence.
“I was a trained field medic before I became an accountant.” The man hesitated. “Though I feel I must warn you that that was some time ago.”
Kane didn’t have too many options. It wasn’t like he could just pop into the ER at the nearest hospital and the pack healer would be busy with her own people. “Think you can manage to dig the bullet out of my thigh?”
Sophia let out a clicking growl that had Edward stepping back with wide, fearful eyes as she screeched, “You were shot?” She glanced down at the blood-soaked bandage on his thigh. “That’s from a bullet? Why didn’t you say so?” and then half dragging him to the floor, she demanded, “Sit down!”
Kane grinned, he couldn’t hold it back, her concern for his well-being touching him more than he could say. Raising the bags of blood so she could see, he gave them a little shake. “This will help, we just need to get the bullet out so I don’t heal over it.”
Catching sight of Jourdain, who was kneeling on the floor next to Jamie and Archer over the turbaned witch who was either still unconscious or possibly dead, Kane sobered. Levering himself up, despite Sophia’s protests, he said, “I have to talk to Jourdain. The bullet can wait.”
His dragon sputtered, but she didn’t hold him back. Kane limped forward. Jamie, he could see, was using tissues to wipe the blood from the prone witch’s face, while Archer stroked his mate’s back in an attempt to comfort her. “Is she all right?” Kane asked.
It was Jourdain who answered, pushing up to his full, intimidating height. “She will be,” he said. “She over-exerted herself, but she’ll recover with rest.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Kane responded with a nod before adding, “Thank you for coming.” Extending his hand, he waited for the other man to grip it with his own.
For the first time, Destin Jourdain didn’t hesitate, clasping Kane’s hand firmly and holding it for a moment between his two large palms before he shook it. “I believe your idea of an alliance, cooperation between us,” Jourdain said in his deep bass rumble, “has merit, Mister Fletcher. Tonight, we came together, unified. One could argue that, had Archer Langley and his wolves not been here, I would never have obtained the upper hand over Evangeline. One could also argue, that had your vampires not provided the level of firepower used to keep her distracted and focusing her power on holding back their bullets, Langley wouldn’t have been given an opportunity to attack.”
“And one could argue,” Kane added, “that had your witches not come and provided an illusion spell, this place would be crawling with law enforcement and reporters. Not only would we most likely all be spending at least a night in jail, but the information leak would have been a nightmare.”
Jourdain nodded, glancing around the warehouse. When his eyes settled on the starburst of glittering dust that had once been his aunt, Jourdain’s face became a mask of grief, loss, and Kane legitimately felt bad for the man. “I’m sorry you weren’t able to help her. I know you wanted to.”
Another nod of that head before Jourdain grimaced. “I think I was dreaming when I thought I might be able to bring Evangeline back into the fold. Even if I had managed to siphon off the dark powers, I don’t think I’d be able to keep her from trying to obtain them again. Her lust for power…” he trailed off, leaving the statement unfinished. “I would have been forced to imprison her again, and that’s no life for her.”
Kane nodded, not sure what to say to that.
Jourdain turned, facing him fully, and with a sharp nod, held out his own hand. “You have my support,” and then with only a slight hesitation, he added, “and my friendship.”
Kane shook the proffered hand with a grin and saw a smile spread across Jourdain’s hawk-like features as the man added, “Kane,” instead of his usual Mister Fletcher.
∞∞∞
They decided to wait until they were back in pack territory before removing the bullet in Kane’s thigh. Well,theymight be an exaggeration since it was Sophia that had insisted, while Kane and Edward had both merely declined to argue with her logic that should something go wrong, the pack healer should be close by, just in case.
Archer hadn’t balked too badly at having Edward on pack lands once he’d learned the man had some medical training. Marguerite, the pack healer, could only do so much, and while miraculously there weren’t any truly life-threatening injuries, there were quite a few nasty cuts and some broken bones to set. Enough where a second set of hands – even vampire hands – was more than welcome.
Edward, to give him credit, did a stellar job, held up remarkably well under the pressure, and beamed at the praise coming his way from both the healer and the patients to whom he had tended. Sophia, on the other hand, had been a nervous wreck. Full-on, nail-biting worry, and anyone who had come to check on Kane had quickly retreated with one look at her face.
Okay, so yeah, she might have snarled at a few people, and she was pretty sure her eyes had stayed shifted the entire time, and if the lingering smell of sulfur in the air was any indication, her nostrils had most likely been smoking, so it was no wonder those would-be visitors had taken off as fast as their feet could carry them. She’d more than proved in the last several weeks that she was prone to destruction when she got riled. She really needed to work harder on that before they declared her a public menace.
It was only once she was with Kane again, able to see for herself that he was fine, sitting up in bed, even smiling as he raised a mug – most likely filled with blood – in a toast to her as she entered the room where he and Edward had closeted themselves earlier to remove the bullet in Kane’s thigh.
“How are you feeling?” she asked, nervously biting her lip and shifting her weight from one foot to the other as she hovered over him, afraid to touch him in case she accidentally hurt him.
“Better now that you’re with me,” was his cheery reply. Pulling the covers back, he patted the space next to him on the bed. “But I could use some cuddles.”
Sophia practically pounced on the invitation, hurriedly toeing off her shoes so she could join him under the covers. She hesitated half-way in. “Your leg?”
Kane pulled back the covers even more so she could see the pristine white bandage wrapped around his thigh, though it took her a moment to focus once she spotted the sexy lines of his naked hip. “The bullet’s out, the hole stitched,” he raised the mug again, “and healing is underway.”
“Are you in pain?”
He shrugged. “A little sore but nothing major.” And then, obviously tired of her procrastination, he grabbed her around the waist and tumbled her onto the bed with a laugh. “I need me some loving from my lady,” he told her with an amusing wiggle of his eyebrows.
Grinning, Sophia felt herself relax as she cuddled against him, her fingers tracing the tape edge of one of the bandages on his shoulder. Pressing her ear against his chest, she heard the reassuringly strong and steady beat of his heart. Sighing, she indulged in the feeling of his embrace for several minutes before she propped herself up on an elbow to look into his eyes. Taking a deep breath, she said, “The other night, I saw you leave with that woman and I was so angry and hurt –”
