SAWYER CROUCHED LOW next to the abandoned house. He’d been home now for two weeks, and in the shifters’ and vampires’ quest to find Gerald, they had been making their way through the entire metro area, searching all the vacant homes. They had installed cameras in Gerald’s home in case he went back. They had eyes on Brent, his son, twenty-four/seven. They had also hacked into every motel and hotel to receive updates on new customers checking in. The downside was that not every motel kept computerized records, but the shifters and vampires only had so much manpower.
With Gerald on the run for almost three weeks now, they were running out of options to find him. And they were starting to look a little pathetic. Sawyer didn’t understand how one shifter could get away from them all.
Sawyer hadn’t been the least bit shocked when he found out that Gerald had been behind Vaughn and Naya’s kidnapping. Sawyer had never liked the guy. He was a sorry excuse for a shifter, and even though he was related to the boss, he didn’t have a quarter of the alpha’s integrity.
What had shocked Sawyer was the wolves’ involvement. He hadn’t been surprised that they were involved. He had already smelled them on the humans who abducted Kenzie and him. No, he had been surprised that the wolves would be involved with Gerald. Obviously, Sawyer had missed a lot during his kidnapping and amnesia. He had been filled in on everything that had happened—Payton’s attempted capture, her rescue by Damien, Damien challenging his father, Dwyer losing and getting kicked out of Minnesota, and the pardon for the wolf-shifters to come back to the Twin Cities.
“Are you ready to go in?” Saxon asked from beside him.
“Ready when you are,” Dante answered from the other side of Saxon.
Sawyer had been working with the vampires for the last two weeks, and he was finally getting used to it. He didn’t have a problem with the vampires—they were better than humans—but it was still strange to be sharing so much information with them and trusting them to have their backs in situations like this. But he also understood how much they cared for their princess and that they weren’t going to be left behind while the shifters did all the work in finding Gerald.
“I don’t smell Gerald around here anywhere. Just humans,” Sawyer told the other two.
“Yeah, me neither, but we still gotta check it out,” Saxon replied.
Sawyer palmed the gun in his hand. It felt strange to use something other than his claws, but after Gerald had shot Saxon and Zane, Vance had ordered them all to carry firearms.
Saxon, Dante, and Sawyer had glanced in all the windows, and after not seeing anything, they were getting ready to go in the front and back doors.
“I’ll take the front,” Dante told them. “Go around back, and I’ll let you in.”
Saxon nodded and headed toward the rear of the house while Sawyer followed him. It appeared that Saxon had no problem with taking orders from the vampire leader, but it seemed the two were friends. Sawyer didn’t question it too much.
Just when Saxon stepped on the back porch, Sawyer heard a gunshot from inside the house, followed by Dante yelling, “Goddamn it.”
Saxon kicked the back door open, so he and Sawyer could enter the residence. They looked for anything suspicious until they found Dante on top of a filthy human, holding the human’s arms behind his back and tying something around his wrists.
“This fucker shot me in the leg. Can one of you find something to wrap around my thigh before I bleed all over the carpet? My jeans aren’t going to soak up much more blood.”
Saxon grabbed an old sheet lying in the corner. It was dirty, but so was everything else in the shithole.
“I don’t get it. We didn’t see anyone through the windows,” Saxon said.
“Yeah, this asshole was hiding under a pile of who-knows-what. That’s why we didn’t see him,” Sawyer replied.
“Ha-ha. I tricked you sons of bitches,” the human said from underneath Dante.
“Shut up,” Dante said before punching the guy in the jaw and knocking him out.
“We’ll quickly check the other rooms, and then we’d better get out of here before the police show up. Someone had to hear that gunshot,” Sawyer told the other two as he made his way down the hall.
Saxon and he cleared the other rooms and helped Dante up from the floor in the living room.
“I’m fine. I’m fine. I’ll probably just need a couple of stitches. Can we swing by the vampire clinic on the way to our next location?” Dante limped out of the house.
“Dude,” Saxon said, “I think you’re done for the night.”
Dante sighed. “Yeah, I suppose. Didn’t hurt to try.”
After they were all outside, Sawyer closed the door behind him. “Don’t worry. We’ll cover the rest of the homes on the list. We can do it with just the two of us.”
The three of them hurried toward their vehicle down the street.
Thank God only one of us got hurt, was the last thought Sawyer had before his head exploded in pain, and it was lights out.
Lexine was trying her damnedest to work with Phoenix, but it was hard. The more she was around the cat-shifter, the more Lexine disliked her. On a conscious level, she knew that it was petty jealousy. On an unconscious level, she didn’t care because she should be the one in Dante’s bed every night. It wasn’t fair.
Lennox was driving while Lexine was sitting shotgun, so thankfully, she didn’t have to look at the shifter’s face. Although not seeing her didn’t help much because the cab of the truck smelled like sunshine. Sunshine and Dante.
I think I’m going to puke.
Lexine knew they weren’t having sex. One, because they never smelled like it, and two, because one of the other guys made a joke one night, and Dante had shut it down really fast. But it was almost worse that they weren’t having sex. Lexine had never seen Dante in a relationship. She knew that he had girls who he would go out with, screw, and use for feeding, but none of them had ever come around the compound, and Dante had certainly never taken any of them on a date. Yes, this thing he had with Phoenix was much, much worse.
“Lexine!”
“Huh? What?” She hadn’t even heard her brother talking to her.
“Did you hear anything I had to say? Did you even know I had a phone call?”
“No,” she admitted embarrassingly. She could feel heat filling her cheeks. So much for being on alert when she was working.
She heard Phoenix huff from the backseat. Lexine turned and shot her a dirty look.
“Dante was shot and taken to the clinic,” Phoenix informed her, annoyance or anger or both on her face.
Lexine looked at her brother to see if what she had said was true. “What?”
“It’s true, sis.”
“Oh, no. I hope he’ll be okay,” she said.
“He said to meet them there ASAP, so we will soon find out.”
“He did?” A tiny flare of hope went through Lexine.
He could have told them to keep working, yet he had asked them to meet him there.
“Yes,” Phoenix said, practically yelling. “Now, can we hurry the fuck up and get there already? If I knew where this clinic was, I would drive myself, but since I have to rely on you, I’d appreciate it if you’d stop driving like a grandma.”
Lexine gasped. Phoenix didn’t have to be such a bitch. Lexine looked over at her brother to see if he was as mad as she was, but the big dumb idiot was grinning.
“Lennox,” Lexine scolded.
“What?” He shrugged. “It’s funny.”
Lexine rolled her eyes and counted the minutes until they arrived.
As soon as her brother stopped the vehicle, Lexine flew out of the passenger seat and into the building with Phoenix right on her heels.
“Take me to Dante,” she demanded of the first person she saw.
The woman in scrubs put her hand on her hip and gave Lexine a look as Lennox joined them.
“Please,” Phoenix added.
“That wasn’t so hard now, was it?” The woman turned around and waved them back. “This way. Doc Montgomery is almost done cleaning him up.”
Phoenix took a step forward.
Lexine put her arm out. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“Lexine, let her go. Come on, it’s not a big deal,” Lennox said.
Lexine looked over her shoulder at her brother. “But it’s the vampire clinic,” she bit out.
The woman in scrubs turned around. “He said to bring the shifter, too. Now, will you three hurry up? I don’t have all day.”
Lexine looked at Phoenix, expecting to see a satisfied smirk on the cat’s face, but she only appeared to be relieved.
Phoenix stepped forward again, and this time, Lexine didn’t stop her.
They followed the woman to a room in the back. The door was closed, so the woman knocked first and waited for a response on the other side before entering.
She ushered the three of them into the room. Besides Dante, there was a woman in a lab coat with a stethoscope around her neck, who was clearly the doctor, and then another shifter, Saxon.
Lexine eyed Dante up and down to see how well he was doing. He was sitting up in the bed, shirtless, with the sheet pulled up to his waist. Lexine didn’t notice a wound or bandage anywhere on his upper body.
“Hey, man. You gonna be okay?” Lennox asked Dante as they all crowded around the bed.
“Yeah, I was only shot in the leg. The doctor here assured me that I’m going to live.”
Phoenix snorted. “‘Only’?”
“Yes,” the doctor said, “he was shot in the leg. I removed the bullet and cleaned the wound. He should be just fine in a week or so.” She looked at Dante. “As long as you feed, that is.”
“Thanks, Dr. Montgomery.”
The doctor looked at everyone besides Dante. “Make sure he feeds, will you, please?”
Saxon pulled up his sleeve and stuck his arm out. “You can have my blood. Only the best for you, Dante.”
Dante swatted Saxon’s hand away. “Thanks, man, but no. Gross.”
“That hurts, bro,” Saxon said with mock sadness.
Heart pounding, Lexine took a step forward. It was now or never. There was a reason Dante had asked them to come. She knew he preferred women, like most adult vampires, unless he was on his deathbed. All she had to do was offer her blood, and he would be drinking from her. She would never wish a gunshot wound on him, but she couldn’t help but be pleased by the turn of events. She took a deep breath and opened her mouth—
“Could everyone please leave the room, except for Phoenix? I need to talk to her,” Dante said.
Black dots swam in Lexine’s vision as she got light-headed. What was going on? This couldn’t be happening.
He’d asked them to come because he wanted to feed from her? From a shifter? He would rather take the blood of a shifter than from another vampire? A vampire who was more than willing to share herself with him?
She had to get out of there.
Lexine spun around, marched to the door, and flung it open. She ran outside, not caring how cold it was. She couldn’t be in there a second longer. She was a foolish lovesick woman, whose night had gone to absolute shit. Her only luck was that she hadn’t said anything out loud because if Dante had turned her down in front of them—in front of Phoenix—Lexine didn’t know what she would have done.