I paced Layla’s hospital room in our medical facility in Boston. It seemed pacing and hospital rooms were becoming the norm for me. My father was in the next room but still not awake. Ben was in the same situation as my father in the infirmary on the naval base. Alia Costner had been correct. Things did happen in threes.
I pulled on my hair, mumbling swear words and more swear words. I was ready to go on a murdering spree. If Layla’s life hadn’t been on the line, I would’ve slit Rianne’s, Noah’s, and the other cousin’s, whose name failed me, throats. Four fucking days since that shit show, and I was still seething and ready to sever heads.
I settled at her bedside, shoving both hands through my hair. Other than her ashen skin tone and chapped lips, she looked more beautiful than I’d ever seen her. Her auburn hair was down around her shoulders. Her freckles seemed to twinkle in the muted light of the room, and her long lashes curled slightly. For the first time since I’d met her, she seemed peaceful and free from her demons.
I trailed my fingers along one of her high cheekbones. “Come back to me, baby doll. We have a lot to do, you and me.” I closed my eyes, enjoying her scent of cherries that seemed to be a balm to my frayed nerves. I hadn’t slept. I couldn’t eat. I could barely keep down blood. But that didn’t matter. Layla was with me, and I prayed to the gods she would wake up soon.
Vanilla tickled my nostrils as Jordyn rested against the doorjamb. “Sam, can I come in?”
Aside from the medical staff, no one was allowed in, not even Jordyn. I didn’t care that she was Layla’s sister or that she was innocent in the plot to burn me alive. I didn’t trust her. Rianne had all but turned on a dime, and I wasn’t foolish enough to think that Jordyn couldn’t do the same.
Above all else, I wasn’t in the mood to deal with people unless Jo or Dr. Vieira had news about Ben or my dad, and even then, that news had to be good. That was the extent of what I could handle. I considered myself a badass motherfucker with a high threshold for pain, but when it came to someone I cared about, the steel walls around my heart crumbled. My insides felt like someone had shoved them into a food processor. My brain wasn’t thinking straight, and my heart literally hurt.
“Go away, Jordyn,” I snapped. Again, I didn’t blame her.
“Please, Sam,” Jordyn cried. “She might not wake up.”
I bared my fangs at the brown-haired human. “She’ll wake up.” I had to believe that, although she had been shot in the neck, and I worried that the drug had been too potent. But according to Jordyn, Noah had filled the darts with a lower dosage just for Layla. The fucker.
I scrubbed a hand down my face. I couldn’t lose her. We were just getting started. But Layla’s fate was in her own hands. The ER doctor at the Montana hospital suspected her head injury was the reason why she wasn’t waking up. She’d hit her head hard on a rock. Add in the drug, and she could be out for days.
I hadn’t told the ER doc about the drug. It was best to avoid the questions it would raise with the human authorities. Instead, I’d brought her to the medical facility as quickly as I could. Dr. Vieira and Dr. Greer would know what to do. I worried that the cobalt in the sedative would wreak havoc on her. But if she had been shot with a lower dose, maybe it wouldn’t be too much of an issue.
As soon as we’d gotten there, Dr. Vieira and Dr. Greer went to work. They flushed Layla’s system, did a CT scan on her head, and had been checking her blood for traces of cobalt and the drug. The good news—her CT scan was clear. Her test results showed barely any cobalt or drug in her, so it was up to Layla.
I’d prayed for days that maybe she wasn’t human. Perhaps she had vampire DNA. If she did, she had a chance. Humans who carried the vampire gene did have some supernatural abilities. Dr. Vieira speculated that might have been the reason Layla was still breathing.
“You’re pale, Sam, and you need to sleep.” Jordyn was on the verge of tears. “Let me stay with her for a while to give you a break.”
“I don’t need sleep,” I shot back.
She sniffled. “She’s my sister, and I’m on your side.”
I narrowed my eyes, and when I did, I saw nothing but profound sadness and felt nothing but heartache from her. She was right, though. I had to be white as a ghost. I hadn’t had any blood since the morning before. On top of that, I needed some sleep. And it wasn’t as if Jordyn could take Layla out of the medical facility. Guardians stood watch at every entrance and on every floor, and a human wouldn’t get by them.
“I am hungry,” I said.
She inched in one step. “Thank you.”
I sauntered up to her, baring my fangs. “If anything happens to her, you know I’ll wipe your family off the face of this Earth.”
Tears clouded her eyes. “I will help you.” She skirted by me and went over to Layla. “Oh, Sam, any word on her DNA results?”
Dr. Vieira was also running a DNA test, since we knew Layla’s mom had vampires somewhere in her family lineage.
“Not yet,” I said before stalking out.
The minute I was in the hall, I sighed heavily and swayed.
Footsteps plodded toward me as my vision blurred. I needed a case of blood.
Jo rushed up and grabbed my arm. “I got you, brother.” She ushered me to the break room, where she helped me onto the couch. “I want you to get an hour of sleep at least. I’ll watch Layla for you.” She pulled two bottles of blood from the fridge, popped the top on one, handed it to me, and placed the other on the coffee table before she sat next to me.
I downed one in less than a second. The minute the blood exploded on my tongue, I felt instant relief as my vision sharpened.
She smiled as her silver eyes sparkled like diamonds in the rough. “Better?”
A shudder racked my body. “Much. You look happy. What’s going on?”
She swiped a hand up the back of her black hair piled on top of her head. “Ben is awake. The shifter blood seemed to do the trick.”
I pressed my fingers into my chest and pushed out the air in my lungs as a ten-ton weight lifted off me. “For real? That’s fantastic news. And Pops?”
She tucked her hands into the lab coat with her name embroidered on the chest. “He’s not awake yet, but tests show that the vein is healing slowly. And as it turns out, Abbey was right. Dad needed our blood.”
I grabbed the second bottle and twisted off the cap. “I don’t understand. We gave him ours.”
“You’re right. But Dad also needed his own blood. Dr. Vieira mixed all three, and that did the trick. We think it’s working because the mixture is super strong with lots of iron and platelets, which is the key for Dad since he’s an older vampire.”
I didn’t care how it worked as long as my father was healing.
“I’m so glad that Dr. Vieira keeps our blood in supply for emergencies,” Jo said.
He’d been doing that as protocol since becoming the attending physician for the vampire Navy SEAL team many moons ago.
I closed my eyes, praying that three was a charm and Layla would also wake up. Unfortunately, blood wouldn’t heal her since she was human—unless… My eyes flew open.
“What is it?” Jo asked.
“I need to speak to Doc.” I hopped up. “Is he in the lab?”
She hurried behind me. “Yeah. He’s working with the lab tech on Layla’s DNA testing.”
For the first time in four days, hope blossomed and happiness loomed. I couldn’t get down to the second floor quickly enough. I opted for the stairs to keep myself moving.
Jo was right on my heels. “Sam, tell me what you’re thinking.”
“I will when we’re with Doc.” It was better to say it once. If I articulated it too often, I would get my hopes up, only to be shot down.
I rushed into the lab minutes later. Dr. Vieira was examining something under a microscope while the lab tech, a pretty blond vampire named Giselle, typed on a computer.
They both looked up at me, surprise evident on their faces.
I skirted two lab benches before I was standing across from Doc. “If we suspect Layla has the vampire gene, maybe blood would do the trick. She is super pale. I know you said she doesn’t have any internal injuries, but I can’t help but think that blood is the answer. She seems to react to my blood for some reason. She craves it, actually.”
Jo stood beside me. “Sam, Layla’s been through a lot. Before the showdown in Montana, she’d been sick with the flu. Her body needs time to heal. She’ll wake up when she’s ready.”
I loved my sister, but I was ready to bite off her head. I didn’t want to hear the standard medical jargon about how the body will heal on its own and blah, blah, blah.
A beat passed as dead silence zipped around the lab, bouncing off glass cabinets and the scores of lab equipment scattered around the room.
Dr. Vieira exchanged a knowing look with Giselle, who was one lab bench over but in line with Doc.
“What is it?” I asked. “Did you find something?”
Dr. Vieira grabbed the back of his neck and rubbed. “Sam, you might want to sit down for this.”
I could feel my eyebrows drawing down. “I’m fine standing up. Hit me.”
Dr. Vieira cleared his throat. “Layla is pregnant.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, opened them, and shook my head. “I’m sorry?”
“You heard me,” Doc said. “Layla doesn’t carry the vampire gene, but she’s Vel negative.”
Motherfucker. I blew out one breath then another. “You’re right. I need to sit.”
Jo’s mouth was on the floor.
Giselle beamed as she rolled her chair over to me quickly. “This is great news.”
In whose fucking world is that great news? I dropped down and bent over, breathing in and out, in and out.
Jo finally snapped out of her frozen state and rubbed my back as she mumbled all kinds of words I couldn’t make out. Hell, my brain was on a collision course with a Mack truck.
Sitting up straighter, I pushed my fingers through my hair. “Have you known this since you started testing her blood? I mean, what made you test for that?” His reasons didn’t matter. The cat was out of the bag and had clawed out my eyes.
Doc grinned as if proud of me. “Sam, you know I run a full gamut of tests with patients. I don’t leave any stone unturned. Anyway, we ran her blood type a few times just to be sure and repeated the pregnancy test several times. Her pregnancy hormone, hCG, is on the rise. She’s not that far along, but this is great news. Your father will be elated.”
I laughed like a nervous Nellie. “Layla won’t be.” I wasn’t sure I was on board, either.
Dude, you have no choice. You can’t take that steamy, sexy, hot-as-fuck night back no matter how many magical powers you might have or witches you might know. The last part made me laugh again. I doubted Alia Costner had any magical witch spells to help me with this one.
“This is insane,” I muttered. “Is that why Layla’s craving blood? Because she’s pregnant?”
“She shouldn’t be,” Doc said, a ton of questions written all over his face. “She should have a normal pregnancy like any other human woman who gets pregnant by a vampire.”
“So why does she have a hunger for blood?” None of it was making sense.
Jo, Giselle, and Doc looked at each other, confused as well.
Dr. Vieira scratched his neck. “You know nothing about the Mason family is normal. Maybe the fetus does require blood. Jo, start a small IV drip with Sam’s blood. If Layla shows any signs of a severe reaction, stop it immediately. I’ll be up later to check on her.”
I growled, wanting to punch something. “I need air.” I skirted benches and equipment.
“Sam, you need to go with Jo,” Doc said, raising his voice. “I don’t have any more of your blood here, so we’ll need to connect a line from you to Layla.”
“I need a minute.” I slapped a hand on the door and pushed so hard the wooden structure flew open, hit the wall, and punctured a hole in it.
Man, Layla was going to have a cow when she found out.