Page 176 of Blood Stone

“What are you doing?”

“Shh…”

“I heal, Winter.”

“Shh…”

He could feel it, whatever it was. He’d not noticed until now the growing uneasiness in him, that presaged the need to feed, but abruptly, it was not there and the absence of it was remarkable. He could take a deep breath, as if he had been afraid to breathe deeply before in case something popped or exploded. Tension that he hadn’t been aware of building inside him had simply vanished.

“How did you know?” he asked.

“I live with a vampire,” she said with a small smile. “And I have to feed once a month myself.” Her smile broadened a little more. “But that’s a secret between you, me and my husbands, okay?” She stepped back. “The effect won’t last long. It’s like taking Tylenol. It just masks the problem. But it will give you a few hours.” She tilted her head toward the door. “I heard a noise outside the room a few seconds ago. Is that what prompted you to act?”

“Yes.” He got to his feet, carefully keeping the gun on the two standing in the corner. “Any second now. The only problem is, I can’t tell who is going to come through the door.”

“Friendlies or enemies?”

“Right.”

Winter nodded toward the guards. “Put them in front of the door. We can stand behind them.”

Garrett glanced at her. “You don’t match your delicate appearance, do you?”

She smiled and the smile held a touch of wickedness. “Married to the two reprobates I’m married to? If I’d had any delicate tendencies at all, I lost them on the honeymoon.”

The soft shuffles were closer now. Garrett held up his finger for silence and motioned the guards forward. They stepped forward stoically, their arms crossed. Garrett got behind them and roughly pushed them until they were a few feet away from the door. It would make them appear more of a threat when the door opened.

Then he crouched down against the wall behind them.

Winter stood against the wall right by the door, where it would swing open and hide her.

Garrett shook his head and waved her over to him.

She frowned.

He waved her over again. She shrugged, moved over and hunched up next to him on the floor, moving silently and quickly.

It was still outside the room and the tension wound up inside him again, but this time it was because he knew the door was about to bust open.

Three shots fired, drilling right through the simple plasterboard wall, a foot away from the doorframe and almost exactly where Winter had been standing. She shivered where she sat next to him, but didn’t say a word.

Then the door was rammed open, the wood around the lock splintering and flying apart as the lock was forced out of the lock plate. The door waivered open until someone on the other side either kicked it or shouldered it aside.

Two bodies streaked through the open door, almost too fast for even Garrett’s enhanced vision to see. They leapt at the two guards, driving them down to the floor, where they came to a halt. Roman and Nial, their hands around each throat, thumbs against the carotids, sending the guards to sleep.

Garrett got slowly to his feet and helped Winter to hers. “The cavalry has arrived,” he observed dryly.

“About time,” she replied tartly. “I’m hungry.”

“Abouttime?” Sebastian demanding, coming into the room. “We’ve fought off Navy bloody SEALs for you, I’ll have you know. That’s not a job just anyone could pull off.”

But Winter was already in his arms before he’d finished protesting, her face against his chest and her arms winding around his neck.

Garrett waited patiently for Roman to finish his work.

“Micheil.” Kate’s soft voice sent a tremor from the base of his skull rippling all the way down to the end of his tail bone.

Garrett turned, feeling like he was moving through treacle.