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“Take—take her!” the Hunter screamed and threw Olivia at him. Marek caught her easily, releasing the Hunter. Hiccupping with fearful cries, the Hunter scrambled away into the van.

The van's doors slammed shut, its tires squealing in a rush. Feeling the sun lighting up his back, Marek sprinted back into the building with Olivia in his arms. The other Hunters scattered, running after their comrades. They’d failed in their mission and weren’t about to continue pursuing Olivia with the crowd of onlookers around them.

Marek turned away from the cameras and hid Olivia’s face against his chest. She didn’t strike him as the kind who would like this kind of attention.

Putting on a burst of speed, he dashed away from the spectators, back to Betsy’s room, and shut the door after him.

This incident would be online soon if not already. He really should call Vegas to warn them to prepare for the media fallout, but he couldn’t take his eyes off Olivia.

She seemed unharmed. Her breathing was even. Her heartbeat strong. Whatever the Hunters had used didn’t seem to do anything else other than knocking her out.

Gently, he set Olivia in a chair. In sleep, she looked younger, softer, unburdened by everything life had thrown at her.

Would she ever look this unguarded with him when awake? Did she look unguarded with anyone? Ever?

As much as he wished to stay by her side, he could no longer disregard the silver burning through his bloodstream. Sighing, he stood and went to the hall, summoning the nearest nurse. The young man was about to protest before he recognized Marek as a vampire.

“Bring me two bottles of blood,” Marek ordered. “Be quick about it.”

The nurse nodded before running off. Marek stumbled his way to the bathroom with a grimace. His entire right side felt like it was on fire.

Extracting the silver would not be fun.

In the bathroom, he tugged off his shirt with a few choice curse words. Fuck. It hurt.

After turning the water on, he placed his wrist over the sink and sliced it open with his elongated claws. Black blood gushed out. With part of his attention on the room to make sure no one barged in to steal Olivia, Marek worked to push out the poisoned blood.

“Sir?” He heard the tentative call of the nurse.

“In here!”

A few rushed steps later, the nurse appeared at the door and handed Marek an opened bottle. His fangs ached at the scent of blood. Marek swallowed as hunger roared. He’d expended too much energy during the fight, not to mention the poison.

“Thanks. Put the other one here,” he said calmly, indicating to the side of the sink. “You can go now.”

The nurse left without another word. Marek drained the first bottle and sighed as strength returned. He re-opened the cut again. The one downside to their fast healing was that it made cleaning silver out of their system a slog. Marek grunted as he carefully and methodically extracted the bullets, too.

As he worked, he ruminated over the most recent development. The Hunters had sent people to distract him while trying to kidnap Olivia.

Why?

Had Sascha missed something? If Olivia wasn’t involved with the Organization, if she was innocent, then why were the Hunters here? Did she know something? Something she wasn’t telling him?

Maybe he’d been too hasty to trust her. Hadn’t he learned his lesson from last time? Everything Sascha had found could’ve been lies. The Organization was a master at creating fake backgrounds and embedding sleeper agents. Leah had been a stellar example. Nothing in her background check had suggested any ties with the Organization, but she’d ended up being a spy.

But why Olivia? Zylotech and the Organization couldn’t have known Marek would be there that night or that he would pick Olivia out of the crowd. Hell, no one could’ve known, not even Marek, until his heart had started beating.

It didn’t make sense.

It’s because you’re stupid. Worthless.His father’s words.

Marek gripped the sink so hard that the porcelain cracked. The last thing he needed was to hear his old man’s reprimands.

Fuck you,he said to whatever spirit haunted him to this day.

Angrily, Marek cut open his wrist again before setting his phone on the sink and video-called Sascha, who answered on the second ring with a smug grin.

“Yo, boss. I was about to call you. Guess what I just saw online.”