Page 30 of Patrick’s Seduction (Scanguards Vampires #19)

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P atrick had run after Fallon, concerned about her wellbeing, but Isabelle who’d been sitting closer to the hallway, had been faster and reached the powder room before him. She blocked Fallon from his view, but he could hear her throwing up.

“I’ll take care of her,” Isabelle said with a look over her shoulder and shooed him away.

He retreated to the living room.

“Is she alright?” Wesley asked.

Patrick ran a hand through his thick hair. “No. You heard her. How can she be? It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have told her about Cameron eating his victim’s heart. No wonder she’s throwing up.” He looked at his colleagues. “If only I’d taken her seriously when Anita brought her to me and put her in a safe house right away, Cameron would have never had the chance to—”

“Don’t!” Amaury interrupted. “You couldn’t have known then that he’s a werewolf. Nobody could have known. So don’t do this to yourself. It’s not gonna help us figure out how to proceed.”

Slowly, Patrick nodded. Amaury was right. Nothing would be gained by him wallowing in his guilt. He needed to find a solution to Fallon’s predicament.

“Wesley, hit the books,” he ordered. “There must be something about werewolves in your spell books. Charles can help you.” Charles was the other witch working for Scanguards. And he’d been a witch much longer than Wesley and had much more experience and knowledge.

“Alright,” Wesley replied. “But don’t get your hopes up. As you know, most spells are only temporary and will eventually go poof.” He made a dramatic gesture with both hands to indicate an explosion.

“I know. Still, we have to do something.”

“You do know that we can’t harbor a werewolf,” Zane suddenly interjected.

Patrick snapped his gaze to him, challenging him. “Yeah, and why is that?”

Zane narrowed his eyes. “It’ll be perceived as us holding a werewolf prisoner. Her pack’s not gonna like it. They’ll fight us and claim her as theirs.”

“Her pack?” Patrick went nose-to-nose with his much older colleague. “You’re suggesting that the Gallaghers are her pack?” He stabbed his index finger into Zane’s chest. “You listen to me: Fallon was turned against her will. She didn’t choose this. She deserves our protection. And I’ll be damned if I let the Gallaghers take her. They’re not her pack.”

“But they are, aren’t they?”

Patrick spun around to look at Fallon who’d spoken. She stood in the archway to the foyer, looking dejected. There was silence in the room, and he swallowed hard, not sure how to respond, because there was a kernel of truth in Zane’s words.

“So, it’s true,” Fallon said into the silence, standing there as if frozen in place. She tipped her chin up, determination sweeping over her face. “I’ll never be one of them.”

He crossed the distance between them with several steps and took her hands into his. “You’ll always be under my protection.”

With a sad smile, she shook her head. “That’s not enough, is it? Like Zane said, they’ll come for me.” She swallowed, pressing her lips together in a clear effort not to cry.

“They might try, but they won’t succeed,” Patrick said with a firm voice. “We have to confront the Gallaghers about Cameron.”

“What will that accomplish?” she asked, doubt in her voice.

“That depends on whether they know that Cameron has faked his own death or not.”

“I’m not following,” Amaury interrupted.

Patrick turned to look at his colleagues. “If the Gallaghers don’t know that Cameron is still alive and hasn’t only killed three people recently but also turned Fallon into a werewolf, they might help us find him and take him down. And they won’t claim Fallon as one of theirs.”

At least he hoped that the Gallaghers had some sense of honor that would make them respect Fallon’s wishes not to join their pack and punish one of their own for his evil deeds. The vampires at Scanguards had done this many times: punished a vampire for killing innocents, and for turning humans against their will. He hoped that this werewolf pack lived by the same kind of code.

“And if the Gallaghers are complicit?” Amaury asked.

“Then we know that we can’t expect any help from them and have to find Cameron ourselves and be prepared for resistance.”

“Resistance?” Zane huffed. “You mean war. And it doesn’t matter if they were complicit or not. They’ll never go against one of their own. They’ll protect Cameron no matter what.”

“You can’t know that!” Patrick replied.

“Neither can you!” Zane countered.

Patrick made an impatient hand movement to shut him up, not wanting Zane’s doubts to intensify his own. “In any case, Cameron has to pay for what he did. He’s a killer. And as long as he’s out there, nobody’s safe, least of all Fallon.”

“I agree,” Amaury said. “How do you suggest we confront the Gallaghers?”

“We’ll pay them a visit.”

“I need to come with you,” Fallon said.

He stared at her. “No. You can’t. You’re too volatile during the full moon.”

“I’m not,” she protested.

But her body betrayed her immediately. With her protest, her eyes began to change in color, becoming larger, while hair began to grow on the backs of her hands. She was on the verge of shifting again. He had to calm her down to help her fight it.

“Fallon, baby. Look at me,” he said calmly, pinning her with his eyes.

A tear loosened from her eye and ran over her cheek. “Patrick, I have no control... But I have to do this. I have to tell his family...”

All the while, he recognized that her body was readying itself to shift. All he could do was give in to her demand.

“Alright, you’ll come with us, but not tonight.”

Her response was a growl.

“Fallon, please listen. You’re about to shift again. You can’t control it. We can’t risk you going there at night.”

He took a step closer and noticed all of a sudden how the moonlight shone into the room hitting her as if it was a spotlight.

Below his breath, he instructed his colleagues, “Guys, very slowly, close the curtains.”

“What’s that gonna do?” Zane asked.

“Just do it.”

Fallon’s eyes reacted to the movement in the room. They narrowed, zooming in on his colleagues, who were quickly drawing the curtains shut.

“Fallon, baby, please look at me.”

She turned her head back to him.

“We’re going tomorrow during the daytime. You’re coming with us.”

Fallon seemed to relax a little. “Thank you,” she pressed out as if speaking caused her pain.

The curtains were finally closed. Fallon glanced in their direction. “It won’t help for long.” Then she met his gaze. “You have to lock me up. Do it now, while I can still fight the wolf. Once I shift, I can’t guarantee anything. And I will shift. I have no choice.”

Realizing that Fallon was holding on to her human form with all her strength, and would lose the battle soon, he gave an order. “Zane, get the van. We’ll have to lock her in a cell at HQ.”

“Hurry,” Fallon pleaded.