"Lose my number, Atkins." I loved the fact that I was able to slam the phone down instead of merely swipe my finger across the screen. It made hanging up on Atkins all that much more satisfying. Maybe I should stick to land lines.
Well, my question of Professor Bradley's involvement in all of this had been settled. That bastard was in this up to his neck. I just had to prove it. So far, I didn't have much to go on for either man.
When my phone rang again, I snatched up the receiver. "I told you to lose my number."
"Uh, no you didn't."
"Ian?"
"Yeah, dude, you want to let us in?"
I quickly went to the camera down the street from my house and panned it toward the brownstone. Ian and the others stood on my doorstep.
Crap!
I reached down and disabled the front door lock. "Get inside quickly. I'm in the bunker."
I watched as everyone filed inside the house. As soon as the door closed behind them, I reengaged the locks. I cast one more glance at the security feed before walking over and opening the door to the bunker.
I was back sitting on the side of the bed next to Abe when Ian, Hank, Andrew, Cooper, Kaito, and Ewan walked in. I didn't know where the other men in Abe's Marine unit were, but I knew they had to be close.
"Abe's been hurt," I said without looking away from the man's pale face. "He needs a hospital."
"What happened, Danny?" Ian asked.
Oh, so much. I wasn't sure there was time to explain it all.
"It's a really long story." I glanced up at Ian, beseeching him with my eyes. "Can I explain it to you after Abe gets some medical help?"
Ian must have seen my desperation, because he nodded and patted my shoulder. "Sure, Danny."
"I cleaned his wound as best as I could and bandaged him up, but he's still not waking up. I think he might need a CAT scan or something."
"How long has he been out, Danny?" Hank asked as he moved over in front of me, leaning over Abe.
I didn't growl, but I did reach over and grab Abe's hand.
"Thirty minutes maybe? I'm not sure exactly when he got hurt. I was upstairs fighting off another one of Atkins' goons. He seemed to want a private party with just the two of us. I disagreed with his plans."
Ian's eyebrows lifted. "Did you kill him?"
"No, but I scratched him pretty darn good before he jumped out the window." I frowned as a weird thought hit me. "Did you know we could shift just parts of ourselves, like our claws?"
Ian nodded. "Yes, I knew."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because you're supposed to be coming back to the house to learn these things from Santos, not me."
Yeah, I wasn't real thrilled with Santos. The guy drove me nuts.
Mostly, I was angry at him for making me a shifter without giving me a choice. I understood that the spirits had told him that we were "the guardians of the galaxy" or some such crazy ass thing, but it still would have been nice to be asked if that's what I wanted.
"I'll call an ambulance," Hank said.
"No!" I jumped up. "You can't."
Hank's eyebrow rose.
