The only place she wanted to be was home. If she was going to die, it wasn’t going to be on a street corner, surrounded by strangers.
After explaining the situation, she expected Shepherd to show up in his Jeep. Instead, the black van appeared, Viktor behind the wheel. Both he and Shepherd rushed out the moment they saw her.
“What can we do?” Viktor asked.
Shepherd felt her pulse. “What are your symptoms? What did he give you?”
“Do you want us to call a Relic?” Viktor asked.
She held up her hand. “Hold on with the interrogation. I have chest discomfort—burning and pressure. It feels like bad indigestion. My head hurts, and my muscles are weak. Also, I can’t shift.”
That shut Viktor right up. He covered his mouth with his hand and stroked his beard, looking to Shepherd to fix the situation.
Shepherd didn’t exactly instill confidence. “You said it was poison?”
“He said the toxin had a cumulative effect, so that’s how he could give smaller doses over a period of time. He tainted a stick of gum I chewed the other day, and tonight I got a large dose mixed in with mustard. I didn’t taste anything different.”
“Did you try vomiting?”
She shook her head.
Shepherd opened his medical bag and took out a syringe and bottle. “This works really fast.”
After he gave her a shot, Blue started feeling queasy. Not wanting to vomit on the street, she moved to get up. As if reading her mind, Matteo helped her stand and hustled her into an alleyway just seconds before she threw up her meal.
It really didn’t get more humiliating than that.
“Let’s get her into the van,” Viktor said as he hooked his arm around her waist. Her feet dragged beneath her, but Matteo and Viktor all but carried her to the back doors, where a small mattress awaited her.
They lifted her in, and she crawled over the makeshift bed and collapsed. Viktor squeezed her ankle and held it long enough that she looked down and met eyes with him. Seeing his cautious gaze made her heart quicken. For a moment she thought he might say something, but instead, he gave her a curt nod and returned to the driver’s seat.
“Feel better?” Shepherd stepped over her and set his bag down. “Still nauseous?”
“No.”
Matteo got in, shut the doors, and sat on one of the benches along the side.
Shepherd knelt above her head and offered her a tiny shot glass. “Drink this.”
“What is it?”
“Activated carbon with a little juice. If there’s any poison left in your stomach, it’ll absorb it.”
Blue gulped down the inky liquid and handed him the glass.
“Try not to puke that up,” he said, no humor in his voice. “I brought a few extra things when you mentioned poison. I ain’t gonna lie to you, honey. Poison isn’t my area. Unless we know what he gave you, there’s not much even an expert can do. Did he tell you anything about it?”
She shook her head. “We think it causes massive clotting and strokes. Wyatt’s ghost said that it wasn’t just his heart. He got a headache and had trouble breathing.”
Shepherd put his rough hand on her forehead, his dark eyes softening. He was such a tough-looking guy with all his muscles and hardened features. Yet something about being a dad had brought out a compassion she’d never seen in him before. “That’s good. That’s something. When we get back, I’ll give you blood thinner, and we’ll go from there.”
The ride didn’t take long, notthe way Viktor was driving. Or maybe she had lost her sense of time. Graham had mentioned she had hours, and suddenly, every minute flew away from her like a sparrow. She gave Matteo an impassive smile. He stared down at her as if he were looking at a corpse, and she didn’t like it.
She turned away, listening for the voices of her ancestors. Their spirits beckoned her, and never had she felt more detached. She was no longer tethered to the living world and yet was not part of the spirit world. The connection to her falcon was blocked, leaving her terrified. She clung to the memories of her sons, imagining what their final moments must have been like. Neither died with fear in their eyes, but had they felt any peace?
“Maybe the lion should have killed me,” she muttered.
Shepherd leaned over. “What?”
