“Thank you,” she said quietly. “I’m sorry I got you mixed up in this.”
She probably had no idea how much I’d begun to care about her. But if she was a mage, she must know alpha werewolves were hard-wired to be defenders and protectors. I would have gone through those wards without a second thought to help a stranger. For Alice, I’d have done much more.
“Don’t be sorry,” I said, my voice gentle but firm. “I’m glad you’re alive. When I saw you, I thought you were dead. I wanted to take you to a hospital, but I guess you can’t go to one.” And I very much wanted to know why.
Her eyes narrowed. “No hospital,” she stated flatly.
Malcolm spoke. “Alice, I gotta be honest with you…if Sean hadn’t gotten here when he did, I’m not sure I would have been able to save you. As it was, we used so many healing spells back-to-back that your blood pressure was through the roof. We were worried you’d stroke out if I did any more. If you hadn’t stopped seizing, I don’t know what else we could have done.”
It was my turn to flinch. I hadn’t planned to tell Alice about the seizures she’d had about an hour ago until she’d recovered more.
The news didn’t seem to faze her in the least, though, which told me a lot about how used she was to being seriously hurt.
“Itoldyou—” she began, her fiery gaze fixed on Malcolm.
“I know,” he snapped. “I know, no hospital, no doctors. But damn it, you weredying.”
As quickly as her ire had risen, it seemed to evaporate at his outburst.
With a sigh, she rested her head back on her pillow and closed her eyes. “Where’s Natalie?” she asked.
“She’s asleep in her room,” Malcolm said. “I used some of Sean’s energy to replace the binding spell on her and he put her in bed. She’ll probably be asleep until the morning.”
She exhaled, clearly relieved. “What time is it?”
I checked the clock on the nightstand. “Almost midnight.”
Her eyes flew open again and she raised her head. “Charles!”
It took me a beat to realize who and what she was referring to: that damned meeting with that damned vampire.
The meeting she’d gone to Hawthorne’s hoping to get, and met me instead. Did I owe the vampire a strange kind of thanks for being too busy to meet with Alice last night?
I tried to imagine a version of last night where he’d invited her upstairs to his office instead of asking her to wait in the bar, and I’d sat at my table watching her walk away, having no idea who she was, and eventually going home to my own bed.
That would have led to a version of today where my phone never rang. Where she didn’t have a wolf’s number. Where she might have called Vaughan’s people for help instead. The thought made my skin prickle.
“Don’t worry about that,” I said. “I’ll call and tell them you can’t make it.”
“I can do it,” she countered. “Can you get me my phone? I think it’s over by the library door.”
I started to argue, then realized she probably didn’t want Vaughan to know I was with her. He might already know, but if not, there was no reason for him to find out now.
I slid out of bed and went to get the phone.
“What’s your assessment of Natalie’s magic?” Alice asked Malcolm as I cleaned the phone’s bloody screen with my shirt.
“Mid-level fire, low-to-mid-level air,” Malcolm said. “The nulling thing is rare, though. I’ve known mages who could null, but not as fast as she does. It takes time to drain someone, usually. She can null instantly and break circles with a touch.”
“Tell me about it,” Alice said wryly. That little flash of her signature dry humor helped me breathe a little easier.
I returned to the bed and handed her the phone. She tried to sit up but didn’t have the strength—and she brushed my handsaside when I tried to help. Finally, she sighed, unlocked the phone, and made the call lying down.
After a few rings, a man answered. “Hawthorne’s,” he said briskly. I recognized the voice as belonging to the bartender from last night.
The call wasn’t on speaker, but my werewolf ears had no trouble hearing both sides of the conversation clearly—which Alice probably knew.
“Hey, Pete,” Alice said. “It’s Alice.”
