Page 35

Chapter 35

City of Angels

KEENAN

T ime slows as I realize something is wrong with my mate. She clutches her chest, her eyes frantically searching mine as her face drains of blood. Her eyelashes flutter and she collapses.

“Vanessa!” I shout her name, catching her and lifting her onto the stretcher as I try to determine what happened to her. “Vanessa, wake up, sweetheart.” I pat her cheeks, panic threatening to overwhelm me.

Pull it together, brother. You need your wits about you if you want to find out what’s wrong . Lennox’s voice sounds in my head.

I try to shake him away, but Lock jumps in, Vanessa is injured. What happened?

Goddam mate-bond. My brothers felt the moment she collapsed and are nearly as worried as I am.

“I don’t know what to do,” I mutter.

Yes, you do. You have medical training, Rush chimes in. I know it’s shifter medicine, but you can assess her.

“Okay.” I take a breath and run my hands over her, feeling her limbs. There’s no blood, no breaks, no outward injury.

Check her breathing and heart, Lennox instructs. He has medical training for humans.

Leaning over her, I check. Her breathing is shallow, and her heartbeat is erratic. I feel the sting of tears. This is it; we’ve had our time together and now she’s leaving me. Just like the others.

We’re not giving up, brother, and neither are you, Lennox snaps. Now focus. You need to check her airway, make sure it’s clear.

I do as he says, tipping her chin back and making sure nothing is blocking her breathing. All clear, I tell him. She’s still struggling to breathe. I dip my head to listen to her chest, unable to look at her deathly pale face.

Get her to a hospital, Lennox says matter-of-factly. She might have internal injuries.

She was walking around, talking, and helping people. I can’t wrap my head around what’s happened to my mate. She was fine, and now…

Keenan, move your ass, Lennox shouts in my head. Hospital, now!

You need help, brother. There’s compassion in Lock’s voice as he instructs me. Call for help, get a human to come check her while you drive to the hospital.

I shake the threatening despair away. Vanessa deserves my love and attention, not my fear. I feel a deep gratitude toward my brothers for coming to my aid, for organizing my frantic thoughts while I’m unable to do it myself.

We’re here for you, Keenan, Rush assures me, now go.

I fling the back of the ambulance open and search the crowd outside. “You!” I shout, pointing at a paramedic kneeling on the sidewalk, bandaging someone’s wrist. “I have an emergency in here. I need your help.”

They look up, startled, then nod, patting the person they were helping on the shoulder before joining me. “What’s going on?”

“My wife collapsed. I don’t know what’s wrong with her.”

“My name is Denise.” She does a quick assessment, before saying matter-of-factly, “We need to get your wife to a hospital. Check the front for keys.”

I check. “In the ignition.”

“Good. You’re driving, I need to stabilize your… holy shit, your wife is Vanessa Bedalia.” Her astonished gaze swings back to me. “Which makes you…”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m a shifter,” I snap, climbing into the driver’s seat and turning on the ignition. “You’re gonna have to deal with it.”

“Not a problem,” she says. “My adopted cousin twice removed is a bear shifter.”

I pull the ambulance into traffic, navigating away from the theatre as fast as I dare. There are people everywhere, some wearing finery and covered in dust, others helping them, and others taking pictures.

I plow toward a group of paparazzi huddled in the street making them scatter like frightened chickens. I wouldn’t have minded if I’d clipped one of them.

“What’s going on back there?” I demand, resisting the urge to look over my shoulder as I drive.

“I think she’s having a heart attack,” Denise shouts to me.

“She’s only 27,” I snarl, taking a right turn as I follow the glowing dots on the GPS.

“It’s not common, but it’s definitely possible.” Her voice dips as she moves around the back.

I dare a glance in the rearview in time to see her give Vanessa a shot of something.

“What was that?” I demand.

“I’m administering adrenalin for her heart.” Denise drops into the seat next to me, reaching for the radio. “I need to let the paramedics at the scene know we’ve taken their bus.”

“This isn’t your ambulance?”

She shakes her head. “Nope, not mine.” She makes her call, telling dispatch what happened and letting them know where we’re going. When she’s finished, she returns to Vanessa. “Shit, drive faster!”

I hit the gas, flying through a red light, sweat breaking out on my forehead as I nearly sideswipe another vehicle. “Where’s the siren on this thing?” She tells me and I turn on both the siren and lights, which helps ease my path. “What’s happening now?”

I hear a grunt, then Denise says, “Full cardiac arrest, I’m administering the paddles. Keep driving.”

I see the hospital up ahead and floor the gas pedal, taking the ramp so fast the ambulance bounces. I squeal to a stop in front of the emergency doors and hurry into the back where Denise is crouched next to Vanessa. She pushes a button on the machine next to her and Vanessa’s body jumps.

Without looking up, she says, “Tell them acute cardiac arrest. They’ll know what to do.”

Helpless rage rips through me at being unable to do more than gopher for the real heroes. I have to check the urge to put my fist through the back of the ambulance, instead pushing the doors open.

There’s nothing I or anyone can do to save her. The curse has come to claim another victim. I feel it in every part of my soul, feel her slipping away from me, feel my despair. I’m losing her like all the others.

“Help me!” I shout, racing into the emergency department. “We have an acute… an acute…” Fuck. Then I hear Lennox’s voice in my head. Acute cardiac arrest . I repeat it and seconds later, three humans join me as I lead them back outside.

They take over for Denise, pulling the stretcher from the ambulance while she fills them in on everything she’s done for Vanessa. I follow, but I’m stopped at a set of doors where a security officer steps out to stop me.

“I’m her husband,” I say urgently. “Let me through.” I try to look past him as they whisk Vanessa down the hall.

“I’m sorry, patients and staff only.” His gaze holds compassion, but it doesn’t stop me from reaching for him with the intent of using his body to unblock the doors.

What stops me is Denise, who slides in between us. She puts her hands on my chest and gives me a small push. “You can’t help her in there, big guy.” She indicates the sitting room. “Let’s have a seat. They’ll come talk to us as soon as they know more.”

“I want to be with her.” She might die if I’m not there with her. What if she slips away and I wasn’t there for her last breath?

“You’ll slow them down,” Denise insists, pulling me to the waiting room and shoving me towards a chair. “I have some paperwork to fill out, but I’ll be here. You stay put, buddy.” She strides away as I drop into the chair, my head in my hands.

I feel lost. I always feel lost among the humans. With every mate, we’re surrounded by humans, not shifters, when she dies. Human medicine is crap, it never saves them.

I know you’re hurting, brother, Lennox says, but you must not blame the humans. They’re doing what they can to keep her alive.

They’ll fail, I answer miserably. They always fail.

Enough! I’m startled to hear Fallon’s voice and I lift my head, listening. Fallon hasn’t spoken to us through our familial bond in over two hundred years. Not since his mate was killed. His words are dim, as though coming from a long way away, but I can hear them. Y our mate lives still and while she lives there’s hope.

Silence follows Fallon’s speech as my brothers scramble to understand how and why Fallon is suddenly speaking to us. His brain was damaged when his mate cursed him. We thought him incapable of reconnecting with us, but apparently, we were wrong.

I don’t need to understand why he’s here because he’s right. While there’s breath left in Vanessa’s body and mine, we are still mates and I owe her my hope, not my despair. She is courage incarnate and I won’t tarnish her bright spirit by giving up on her.

Okay, I’m good, I tell my brothers. Thank you for being here, but I need some time alone. I can’t think with your voices bouncing around my head.

Fair enough, Rush leaves.

Take care of her, brother. Seconds later, Lock is gone.

Fallon leaves without speaking again.

Lennox says, I’m enroute to the airport. I’ll be with you in a few hours.

He’s gone before I can reply. I don’t know what I would’ve said anyway. There’s no point in his being here to witness Vanessa’s death. But at the same time, I desperately want my twin brother here.

When I’ve lost a mate, he has always been the calm in my stormy seas. He’s the one person who has refused to let the tide of despair overwhelm me. But this time… this time is different. This time there’s no moving on. Come what may, Vanessa is my final mate.

“Keenan Wolven-North?” I look up as a woman in a lab coat approaches.

I nod, standing.

“Please come with me.”

She takes me to a private room. When she turns to me, her expression is grave and my heart sinks. “Your wife is Vanessa Bedalia?” At my nod, she continues. “I’m Dr. Davina Collins-Smith. Vanessa was in full cardiac arrest when she arrived, but she has stabilized, and she’s being taken for an electrocardiogram and blood testing.”

My chest squeezes and I rub a hand over it. “What does that mean? Will Vanessa be okay?”

Her tone is professional but caring as she says, “We’ll know more soon, but I do need to ask you a few questions.” I nod and she continues, “Does Vanessa have a history of cardiac dysfunction?”

“No, not so far as I know,” I tell her. “She’s always been extremely healthy.”

Dr. Collins-Smith nods, then continues, “Any family history of heart failure?”

“No, none.” I’ve kept close tabs on the little family Vanessa has and as far as I know, none have had problems with their heart.

Dr. Collins-Smith writes down my answer. “I suspect Vanessa has an undiagnosed underlying cardiac dysfunction.” At my frown, she adds, “There’s something going wrong with her heart, but we need to do some testing before we can come up with a treatment plan.” Her eyes search mine and I see sadness in them. “I’ll have you taken to Vanessa’s room when she’s finished with the ECG.” She leaves and I watch helplessly, my wolf clambering inside me, urging me to tear up the hospital and find my mate.