When Cormia appeared in the courtyard, Layla was up on her feet in an instant. “Tell me.”
Lassiter had long since left, fading away in a shower of golden sparkles, leaving her alone with her terror.
The Chosen was frantic. “You must go down now. They need blood and I have given all I can. I shall stay with the young.”
The two of them hugged and then Layla took off, traveling between the two realms in a rush, and re-forming outside the mansion, for she could not get into the interior for the steel mesh.
She didn’t notice the cold as she ran up the front steps, yanked wide the vestibule’s heavy door, and threw her face into the security camera—and as she waited, she wanted to scream.
It was Beth who opened things up.
“Oh, thank God,” the Queen exclaimed with a hard embrace. “Go, go now to the training center. That’s where they all are.”
Layla started off and then called out over her shoulder, “Has anyone died?”
“Not yet. But, oh … just go. I have to wait for Wrath and then take him back down again.”
Layla made it through the underground tunnel and out the other side into the training center in record time—but as soon as she broke into the corridor, she stumbled to a halt.
The smell of blood was overwhelming, and so were the number of males down on the floor in various stages of injury and wound care.
It was not only Brothers. In fact … what she assumed were all of Xcor’s fighters were lined up shoulder to shoulder with the Brotherhood, Ehlena, the nurse, and all of the other Chosen, tending to them.
While Manny and Doc Jane were no doubt in surgery.
“I am here,” she said to no one and everyone.
In her mind, she was yelling at them all, demanding to know what had happened to Xcor, for she didn’t see him and couldn’t sense him, and that terrified her.
Yet she went to the first of the injured she came to, yanking up her sleeve and putting her wrist out.
She recognized the male. It was one of Xcor’s.
Zypher shook his head at her. “I am honored, sacred Chosen. But I cannot take your vein.”
“You must,” she breathed.
“I cannot. You are the female of my leader. I will die before I know the taste of your blood.”
One of her sisters came up. “I shall feed him. Go down to Rhage.”
And so Layla did, offering her vein unto him. When the Brother had taken what he needed and thanked her, she went to the next male in line.
But he was a Bastard and he, too, shook his head and refused her. “I cannot know your blood. You are the female of my leader.”
And so it was down the line, until she focused only on the Brotherhood and didn’t even try with the others.
So many wounds, some so deep that she could see anatomy that terrified her. And all the time, she worried about Xcor, and panicked over what Lassiter had done, and prayed that no one died.
She was about to move on to Phury, who needed another vein, so grave were his injuries, when she felt her elbow get taken in a grip.
As she looked up, Tohr’s face was grim. “Xcor needs you. Now.”
Layla got up so fast that she grew light-headed and Tohr had to help her down the corridor.
“You would have been proud of him,” Tohr said as they came up to the closed door of the second OR. “He was unbelievably brave, and he was the one who got Wrath out of there.”
“He was?”
“Yes. And he knows. About him and me. I told him because … why the fuck not after a night like tonight?”
Tohr opened the way in, and Layla gasped. Xcor was on the operating table, his stomach cut open, his intestines showing—and yet he was conscious.
He turned his head and tried to smile. “My love.”
His voice was so reedy, and oh, his coloring was bad. And yet he still tried to sit up.
Manny’s tone was sharp. “Okay, that’s not working for me. Not while I’m stitching up your bowel.”
“Do not look,” Xcor commanded her. “You do not look at my body.”
In a vivid flashback, she remembered him not wanting to take his clothes off around her.
Layla raced to him and held her wrist to his mouth. “Drink. Take of me.”
“We did this once”—he winced and coughed—“once before when I was dying. Did we not.”
“Twice, actually. And both times it was colder,” she said through tears. “Oh, God, don’t die on me. Not tonight. Not ever.”
“You are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.” His eyes were fading, the light dimming. “I shared my body with others, but I was as a virgin with you, for my soul had been given to no one. You alone … you alone have me …”
A machine started beeping.
“Someone better fucking start CPR here!”
Tohr came over in an instant, and as he formed a fist of his combined hands, he said, “Breathe for him! Breathe for him!”
Even though Layla’s heart was pounding out of control and she felt like she couldn’t stand, she sealed Xcor’s lips with her own and blew a great breath of oxygen down deep into his lungs. And then Tohr set about pumping.
“Breathe! Now!”
She dipped down again and exhaled everything she had.
And still the alarms continued to go off …
“Again!” Manny yelled as his bloodied, gloved hands worked fast with sutures and a needle.