Page 10 of The Brave (Black Arrowhead #6)

D ragonfly Bar it didn’t work that way. They could only turn humans or Relics. Even so, there was more involved in the process than just drinking a Vampire’s blood. As I watched the blood trickle into his mouth, I wondered what other effects it might have on Virgil. I’d never seen anything like this before.

The intense look on Atticus’s face unnerved me.

“Vampire blood is sacred,” he said. “Tell no one of this. And never ask me for blood again.”

Virgil sputtered a small cough before gulping what must have been a mouthful of blood.

Atticus retracted his arm and licked his wrist, instantly sealing the wound. “Feeling better, Mr. Nightingale?”

Blood sprayed in the air like a fountain when Virgil coughed again. To my astonishment, the hole in his neck closed. His lethargic movements confirmed that Vampire blood didn’t replenish blood loss; it merely healed his wounds and kept him alive.

Virgil’s head wobbled as he tried to roll onto his side. He smacked his lips and grimaced. “It tastes like I licked a railroad track. What is that?” Growing more lucid, he blinked at his surroundings. “Where am I?”

“You were shot in the neck,” Salem replied matter-of-factly.

I gave him an admonishing look before patting Virgil’s leg. “How are you feeling, honey? Does it hurt?”

He tilted his head to the side and back the other way. “It feels like I pulled a muscle. Wait…” He stared wide-eyed at his bloody chest. “I’m dead! This is it. I missed my chance, and now I’m trapped between worlds without my shirt and hat. I’m a phantom.” Virgil jumped to his feet and toddled around the room while examining the bloody chunks of hair in front of his face. “I’m going to spend eternity looking like a horror show.”

Atticus sat on the corner of his desk and gave Salem an amused look. “Maybe the fragment lodged in his brain. If so, good luck retrieving it.”

Virgil spun around, bloodstains across his shoulder and chest, his hair matted with blood. He pointed at Atticus, eyes wide. “You can see me!”

“You’re not dead,” I assured him. “If you were, we wouldn’t be able to hear you.”

Virgil stumbled toward Atticus, then rested his hands on the Vampire’s shoulders. “Why are you so handsome?”

Ignoring him, Atticus directed his attention to me. “Drinking Vampire blood creates a temporary… connection. Influence is a better word. If he speaks kindly of me, rest assured that it’ll wear off.” Then he locked eyes with Virgil, and a peculiar energy transpired between the two. “You might be getting brain surgery soon. It’s important that you don’t shift until after that happens. For now, you should rest.”

Virgil blinked a few times and then collapsed in the Vampire’s arms. “I want a cookie.”

Instead of returning home, we rode to Milly’s in the back of a catering van. Without knowing if our attackers would still be hunting us and what Breed they were, we remained silent. Tak met us there, and we descended the elevator into Milly’s underground medical facility.

After performing X-rays, she and Salem determined the bullet fragment was lodged in Virgil’s neck. It was operable, but Milly didn’t give him too much anesthesia.

Salem was experienced in emergency medicine, so between him and Milly, they didn’t need my assistance. I anxiously waited outside in the hall, still rattled from the car chase and shooting. Atticus stayed by my side, and since he could hear everything going on in the room, he kept Tak and me informed.

Once the surgery ended and the bullet was out, Virgil was groggy and uncooperative, so Tak forced him to shift. The meds were slow to wear off. Virgil remained in a stupor while Milly administered a saline drip. Even though Shifters usually bounce back from serious injuries, Milly wanted him on bedrest because of the blood loss. Transfusions weren’t commonplace since our bodies would naturally heal in time.

Atticus drove us home, and Tak left his truck at Milly’s for the night. Tak thought it best if Virgil remained downstairs, so Mercy and Bear gave up their bed, which made it easier to bring Virgil food and monitor him. Because of all the commotion, Bear hadn’t cooked the pack dinner. We’d been home for hours now, and our routine was completely thrown off.

When Mercy wandered into the kitchen, I set down my cocoa. “How is he?”

“Crazier than a loon.” She filled a glass with water. “I swear that boy has nine lives, and he’s already used up two.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. A hot shower and clean clothes helped settle my nerves, but I couldn’t shake the thought that someone targeted us.

She set the cup aside and hugged me. “That must have been terrifying. How are you feeling?”

“A little shook up.”

Mercy drew back and looked at my belly. “Maybe we should call Milly back.”

“I’m fine. Really. Before we left her house, she gave me a thorough checkup. Atticus and Tak insisted.”

In fact, Milly had given me another ultrasound. With the due date closing in, she was concerned because the baby hadn’t shifted back. Milly wasn’t certain if a wolf pup could survive being delivered by a human. No wonder I hadn’t felt pregnant—I wasn’t carrying the weight of a human baby.

We burst into laughter at Virgil singing out of tune.

Mercy took her earrings out. “The Relic gave him something to sleep, but she grossly underestimated his tolerance to drugs. I wonder if it’s a side effect from the Vampire blood.” She wrinkled her nose.

“I can’t imagine what might have happened if Atticus wasn’t there or willing to help. Virgil wouldn’t have made the drive to Milly’s.” A chill slithered down my spine when I remembered his limp body in my arms. It was hard to fathom that only hours earlier, he was clinging to life.

Lakota padded into the kitchen in jeans and a black beanie. After opening the fridge, he leaned down to study the contents. He finally settled for a carton of orange juice. “I need to get a second job to pay for all my truck repairs. The mechanic loves me.”

“Another job? You’re our second-in-command.” Mercy gave him a pat on the back. “That’s more than enough work.”

He poured his juice into a glass and then gulped it down. After setting the glass in the sink, he rested his arms on the kitchen island. “I was thinking about holding training classes for people who want to be bounty hunters, but I’m not sure if I can convince anyone to drive all the way out here.”

Mercy put the carton back into the fridge. “Do it online. Y’all need to think outside the box. Everyone does remote work these days. Working at home is the wave of the future.”

Lakota’s blue eyes flashed up, and he gave me a somber look. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m all right.”

He nodded before straightening up. “If you need anything, let me know. I mean it.”

“I appreciate that,” I said, giving him a reassuring smile. “Where’s Melody? I haven’t seen her since we arrived.”

“She’s outside in a tree somewhere with her bow.” Lakota scratched the scar across his heart. “I should find her before she shoots one of us by mistake.”

After Lakota left, I put his dirty glass in the dishwasher and turned to Mercy. “Have you seen Salem?”

“He was in the living room earlier, resting on the couch. Which reminds me, I better take Virgil his water before he starts fussin’.”

After she left the room, I headed through the dark house into the living room. The warm glow from a dying fire illuminated the leather furniture and wood floor in the empty room. Krys and Catcher were guarding the territory, and Lucian was busy monitoring security cameras.

The deep timbre of Tak’s voice sounded from the art room. When Salem spoke forcefully, I knocked and then opened the door.

Salem had his back against the wall to my left. “Close the door.”

I did, then moved farther into the room.

The desk lamp silhouetted Tak, who was leaning against the desk and glaring at Salem. Atticus stood between them, his eyes downcast.

Tak held Salem’s attention. “Why would they target you?”

“What’s going on?” I searched Salem’s eyes, wondering what I’d missed.

Salem rubbed the back of his neck. “Atticus sent someone to investigate the accident scene. I gave them a description of the vehicle we almost hit—the one that crashed into our attackers. Atticus tracked down the owner. He’s a local farmer and doesn’t have any recollection of the accident.”

“Someone scrubbed his memory,” Atticus tacked on.

My eyes widened. “Vampires were after us? But why?”

Salem gave me a sidelong glance. “Think about it.”

My stomach dropped. “But… how did they find us? We traveled so far, and we were careful.”

Tak folded his arms, his eyes boring through Salem. “If you two had filled me in sooner, I wouldn’t have called the higher authority to get your references.”

Salem fidgeted with his hair tie. “Whoever runs the lab must have connections with the higher authority—someone they paid off for information about me.”

“Should we be talking about this?” I gave Atticus a sidelong glance.

“He knows,” Salem said quietly. “He’s involved now, so we had no choice but to tell him.” After heaving a sigh, he murmured, “I should have changed my name before we arrived.”

I clutched his arm. “I never considered the lab might have spies working for the higher authority. That’s terrifying!”

“Well, another alternative is they had one of their Vampires scrub an official for intel. Maybe a desk clerk was paid off. It doesn’t matter. They found me.”

“You mean us.”

Atticus held an impassive look as he crossed his arms and listened.

“Do they want the baby?” Tak asked.

Salem stepped away from me. “They have no idea we’re together. I didn’t just free Joy that night; I released everyone.”

“What exactly were you doing in those labs?” Atticus inquired, his disapproval thinly veiled.

Salem put his hands in his pockets. “My role was research. I analyzed blood work, X-rays, and a myriad of other tests while writing up the results. Others conducted the experiments, so the left hand never knew what the right was doing. I didn’t interact with or see the patients, but I was curious about them. Not all were Shifters. I assumed they had defects or unique abilities.”

Atticus furrowed his brow to a dangerous degree. “Why would you involve yourself with illegal and immoral practices?”

Salem gave him a cursory glance. “If you don’t mind, this is pack business.”

“I have a relationship with this pack, and I don’t think it’s too much to ask why someone I associate with would involve himself in nefarious activities that include torture. You weren’t under duress.”

Salem’s face flushed with ire. “It paid well. It satisfied my thirst for knowledge.”

Atticus tilted his head to the side. “Still thirsty?”

“ Enough. Arguing solves nothing.” Tak braced his palms on the desk behind him. “Who are the Vampires?”

Salem huffed and calmed himself. “They’re the guards.”

Atticus paced, his hands clasped behind his back. “How did you manage to free all those victims without the guards capturing you?”

“Because the medical team didn’t pose a threat, so the guards ignored us. I think there were six, but only three worked inside the facility at a time. They rotated schedules. It took weeks to plan, and one evening I was scheduled to work late—after my coworkers had left.” Salem stared at the floor. “Our job was routine, so the guards were used to us walking the empty halls.”

Tak rubbed his chin. “How did you get the captives past them?”

“They frequently ordered tranquilizers to be sent down, and it was my job to place them in the metal container by the elevator and push the button. They kept the patients downstairs. Since that was one of the few times I could walk down to the elevator area, I hatched a plan.”

This was all news to me. I couldn’t believe he’d planned our release for weeks. I’d always assumed it was a spur-of-the-moment decision.

“One night,” he continued, “I loaded a modified gun with impalement wood. It wasn’t difficult to do. When I got close enough, I shot the guard in the hall and dragged him into the supply closet. He never saw it coming.”

“If you rarely walked the halls, how did you know where the other guards were?” Tak asked. “Seems like a risk.”

Salem scratched his beard. “Workers talk. I knew where they were located, but we didn’t know what went on in the basement. They placed a guard at the elevator on both levels. Since the downstairs medical team wore white lab coats, I put one on and headed down. As soon as the doors opened, the guard didn’t know what hit him. I dragged his body into the first room I found and hurried to the labs.”

Atticus crossed the room to a corner chair. “You weren’t worried about security systems or alarms?”

“No. I’d been down there once before while helping with a large container. They didn’t let the guards leave their station to help with anything. I’d been curious about the patients and wanted to see them. It was always my understanding we were doing good work—curing defects. Nothing prepared me for what I saw.”

Atticus suddenly lifted the heavy chair with one hand and carried it toward us. Then he set it down by the wall and gestured for me to sit. “You should get off your feet. It’s been a harrowing day.”

My sore feet did need a break, so I sat and quietly listened, stunned to hear the particulars. Salem never wanted to talk about the lab or rescue in detail.

Salem crouched and then sat on the floor, resting his back against the wall. “The first time I went down there, I thought the patients would have their own rooms. They kept them locked in cages and chained. You could smell the fear in the air. No one asked for help, but their eyes—I’ll never forget that vacant look.” He put his head in his hands, and I wanted to comfort him.

Yet another part of me wanted to scream and yell.

“I was on a need-to-know basis. Once I put the pieces together, I had to do something.”

“What about the third guard?” Atticus asked.

Salem rubbed his eyes. “He was in the room with the patients. I tucked the modified gun in my pants and walked in as if I’d been in that room a thousand times. The night crew didn’t know the daytime workers, so he assumed I was one of them. I had to work fast. When he turned his back to use his phone, I impaled him and locked him in one of the cages. After I freed the patients, most ran off. Joy’s wolf was too weak to fight, so I carried her out, which was no easy feat. Two patients rode with us, but they eventually returned to their families. Joy was the only one who stuck close because of the pregnancy.”

Atticus dipped his chin. “Did you kill the Vampires?”

“No.”

“Mistake.”

Tak cursed. “If they don’t know Joy’s here, they’ll find out soon enough. Did they have her name?”

Salem shook his head. “I doubt it. She was always in wolf form, so the workers and guards never saw her face. The paperwork only listed numbers for patient names. They didn’t care about anyone’s identity. She was just a lab rat to them, and knowing their identity could be a liability if a Vampire on the outside ever charmed one of the workers.”

Atticus stood by my chair on the right. “She’s not safe here.”

“Neither is Salem,” I pointed out, looking at the man who had pretended to be my mate so I could have a new life. “Why are they doing this?”

Salem’s head thumped against the wall. “Because they won’t stop until I’m dead. We learned a lot of information in there, and it would’ve been difficult to scrub that from our memories without doing a full memory wipe. It’s safe to assume that nobody ever leaves places like that alive. There’s no retirement plan. As long as I’m alive, I’m a liability to their cause.”

I stroked my neck nervously. “You need a safe place. I couldn’t bear the thought of anyone hurting you.”

“It’s too late for that.” Tak admired a stone on Hope’s desk before setting it back down. “If they know he’s in Storybook, they’ll find out soon enough that he’s with my pack. They won’t know if he leaves town unless he hangs a flag announcing it from his car, and that would sign his death warrant. Sneaking him out under the cloak of darkness leaves me with one less wolf to defend our home. They’re coming for us.” Tak rolled his shoulders and then rubbed his neck. “I’ll send Hope to stay with her father. The other women can decide with their mates if they wish to fight or flee, but I know them—they’re warriors.”

I put my hand on my forehead and worried we might not get out of this unscathed.

“If they find out about Joy, they won’t stop until they have her,” Atticus pointed out. “One can only assume that babies were the goal of their experimentation. They’ll kill him and take her. I won’t stand for that. She’s safer with me. I can protect her.”

Tak’s features hardened. “Are you implying I can’t?”

“At what cost?” Atticus shifted his stance. “I can offer absolute protection.”

Tak crossed his arms. “Convince me.”

“You can’t lie to Vampires. Those men will charm the information out of you and find out she was part of the experiments. No one here knows where I reside, so that gives her safety. If you send her with your mate, that could bring danger to Hope’s former pack. You’re Native, and you come from warriors. But this isn’t a large tribe. Your people have the option of choosing whether to defend their lives or flee, but Joy doesn’t have that choice. She can’t fight.”

Tak’s nod implied that Atticus made a fair argument.

“You can’t be serious.” I turned my attention to Salem. “He’s not serious, is he? I can’t stay with a Vampire. Absolutely not!”

Tak lowered his arms and pushed away from the desk. “Atticus is right. Salem left behind witnesses, and we don’t know if any of them were captured and questioned. They might suspect he’s still looking after one or more of the captives.”

“Then I’ll stay here.”

His brow furrowed. “If they get in the house, they’ll either take you or kill you. On my dying breath, I won’t have that on my conscience.”

“I’ll hide in the food cellar,” I insisted.

Atticus touched my shoulder. “I can hear a mouse scurrying outside the window. Unless the walls in here are soundproof, you can’t hide yourself from a Vampire.”

Tak wiped at the worry lines in his forehead. “We need to find out where they’re staying.”

“I can help.” Atticus circled to the front of my chair and came down on one knee, resting his arm over the other. “You have my solemn vow that I will protect you with my life. It’s wiser to leave now, before they begin charming people in town for information. They wouldn’t have fired at your truck if they’d known about you, so there’s still time. This may be your only opportunity to leave. My home is safe.”

“What if they find out where you live?”

“I will extinguish anyone’s life who attempts to come for you.”

This wasn’t my choice anymore. Atticus was trying to put me at ease, but the sole decision fell on my Packmaster.

I gave Tak a worried look. “Will you be okay?”

“I’ve battled greater foes than a couple of pipsqueak Vamps.” Tak bent over and gave Atticus a friendly pat on the shoulder. “No offense.”

Atticus winked at me and rose. “She’ll be safe, and I’ll still be able to leave her alone to help you.”

“I didn’t agree to that,” Tak said sharply.

The Vampire rolled up his sleeves. “My home is impenetrable.”

I hugged my middle as my world spun out of control again.

Tak crouched and leveled me with his dark-brown eyes. I stared at the intricate tattoo that marked half his face and teared up. He was as close to a father as I’d ever have again, and his asking me to leave resurfaced all those terrible feelings from another life.

“I want you and the baby safe,” he said. “That’s all that matters. Neither you nor Hope can shift. You can’t fight, and you can’t heal. It’s my job as your alpha to make tough choices, and you two are safer away from here. Atticus has given his word that no harm will come to you. If he betrays that vow, I will mount his head on my weather vane.” Tak rose and towered over the Vampire. “Give me your word you won’t use your Vampire magic on her—that she’ll be safe and unharmed in your care until we hunt and kill these men.”

Atticus inclined his head. “In front of these witnesses, you have my promise that I will shield Joy Lockwood from any danger. She will have all the comforts of home and the medical care she requires.”

The door burst open. Melody’s pink hair was askew—tangled strands stuck to her sweaty face, leaves clinging to her sleeves.

Panting and out of breath, she marched into the room like a soldier. “We have a situation. I kind of shot Kevin?—”

“You shot Kevin?” Tak stared up at the ceiling and muttered something quietly.

“Yeah, but that’s not the problem.” After a gulp of air, she dropped a bomb. “The town is under siege.”