Chapter
One
Abead of warm blood drips down my forehead, catching on my eyelashes. My heartbeat reverberates inside my chest and time stops. Devon’s eyes widen and his gaze meets mine for half a second before he collapses onto the ground. I stand there, rooted to the spot, still staring at the place Devon just was.
And then I blink and everything hits me all at once.
“No!” I scream and fall to my knees, hands shaking as I reach for the arrow that’s sticking out of Devon’s chest. All the years of training go out the window and I start to panic. “It’s okay,” I tell him, though by the amount of blood that’s pouring from the wound, I don’t think he will be. The arrow hit him right under his collarbone, missing his heart—I think. “You’re going to be okay.” Tears fill my eyes and I put my hands on the wound, meaning to stop the blood but when I press down, it only makes him bleed more.
Screaming, I jerk my hands back only to reach for him again. He feebly brings a hand up and I freeze, looking into his eyes as he wraps his fingers around mine.
“Stay away from them,” he pants, struggling to say each word. He coughs, sputtering up blood.
“Wren,” someone says, and I feel them coming up behind me.
“He’s not a vampire!” I cry, tears filling my eyes. I blink rapidly and try to remember what you should do when someone has been shot.Put pressure on the wound. Do not remove the arrow. I put my hands back to Devon’s chest. This isn’t the first time I’ve tended to someone gravely injured; in our line of work, you stumble across things like this pretty frequently. But I’ve never seen someone I care about—someone I love—hurt and dying before my eyes.
I can hear Leo and Ryder arguing several paces back and then Antonio’s hand lands on my shoulder. I turn and a mixture of my tears and Devon’s blood drips down my face.
"We thought he was—” Antonio starts, face sickly pale white. He holds my gaze for a moment and then jumps into action, taking off his plaid button-up shirt to use to stop the bleeding. “Keep him with us,” he tells me and I take one bloody hand from Devon’s chest and smooth back his hair.
“Hey,” I say, voice breaking. “You’re going to be fine.”
Devon’s eyes flutter shut and I shake him out of desperation. He’s going to bleed out if we don’t get him to a hospital—or if Xavier doesn’t get here in time.
“Get the car,” Antonio orders and I look up to see Leo and Ryder just standing there.
“I thought he was a vampire,” Ryder says, and I don’t know if he’s talking to me or just out loud to himself. “They said he took you. He was the one who took you.”
“Get the car!” I repeat, my tone shrill. My mind is torn; part is playing through what I should do as a hunter who is unbiased and well trained in intense situations like this. And the other part is panicking and terrified of losing Devon.
“We need to get him to the ER,” Antonio says. “Call 911 but anticipate taking him ourselves.”
His words should calm me, reminding me that we have a plan. But it sends another wave of fear through me: we don’t have the average eight minutes it takes for EMTs to arrive on scene.
“Hey, hey, hey,” I rush out, hands trembling as I watch Devon’s eyes flutter open and shut again. “Stay with me. You’re going to be okay.” I nod, more tears rolling down my face.
“I thought he was a vampire,” Ryder says again in disbelief. My heart is in my throat and I can hear Leo talking to the 911 dispatcher. Antonio presses down harder on the wound and Devon’s body shudders. I close my eyes, unable to look. I’ve never been bothered by anything, no matter how gruesome or gory. But this…I can’t handle this.
And it hits me like a sucker punch to the gut just how much Devon means to me. I’ve kept him at bay because I had to. He’s my brother-in-law. Even if we do end up having a child together, I’m not supposed to have feelings for him. I didn’t want to admit it to myself if I did. But I do, and it’s more complicated than I can comprehend right now. I’m not in love with him the way I’m falling for Xavier—or am I? It doesn’t matter at this moment what’s right or wrong. Which brother I should risk giving my heart to.
But I can’t deny it anymore. Faced with the reality of losing him, my heart is already breaking.
“You’re going to be okay,” I repeat. Everything around us is still and silent, echoing my rapid heartbeat in my ears. I’m aware of too much and nothing at the same time: Leo’s shoes scuffing on the loose gravel of the parking lot. The hum of the bright lights above us. The soft chirping of crickets in the distance. Traffic. Horns honking. The low hum of music from a bar a block or two over.
It all swirls around me until my vision starts to blur and I rock back, moving from squatting to sitting on the pavementnext to Devon. Antonio jerks his head up, looking to make sure I’m okay while keeping pressure on the wound.
“There are EMTs nearby,” Leo says and relief starts to wash over me, but in the back of my mind, I know it’s too soon to let myself think Devon can be saved. He lost a lot of blood. He’s going to need a transfusion—now. The arrow most likely shattered his collarbone and by the way he’s breathing, it pierced a lung.
“How long?” Antonio asks, tone level.
“Two minutes.”
“That’s good.” Antonio looks at me. “It’s going to be okay, Wren.”
Abhorrence floods my veins like ice water. I’ve sat next to him while he’s said those same words to victims before, knowing they weren’t true. No one is okay after having their chest ripped open by a wendigo. No one can survive after being bitten by hydra.
And the chances of surviving being shot in the chest by an arrow…
