“I have absolutely no clue,” the doctor said. “This is uncharted territory.”
Okay. She’d never asked this, but she had to know all the facts. “What if we mate again?” Not that she’d ask Adare. But still.
“Again, I don’t know, but it looks like his cells are attacking yours instead of strengthening them, so if I had to bet, I’d wager that a second mating would kill you.” The doctor sighed. “You really need to see the queen—she’s the expert in this situation. Well, with genetics. There never has been thissituation.” He coughed. “I’m totally guessing, but if you took the virus, negated the mating and somehow survived, you could conceivably mate some other immortal whose cells don’t try to kill you.”
It figured the best kisser on the planet would be unexpectedly trying to kill her on a cellular level. Time was not on her side. Adare wouldn’t like it, but she had to finish what she’d started and get some answers in case she soon faced coma or death. Nobody understood how it felt to have blanks in your memory that tortured you every night. If she was going to die anyway, she’d die knowing who she’d been. Maybe who she could’ve been. She couldn’t let Adare stop her. “Thanks, Doc.” She hung up and hustled back outside, ready to say goodbye.
Her car and driver rolled to a stop, its headlights piercing the darkened winter day.
“Let’s go, Grace,” Adare said, reaching to pluck up her camera bag. Did he sound relieved? She could swear he sounded relieved.
With one last fake smile at Jacqueline, Grace stepped out from the protective overhang toward her car, wondering when she’d lost her mind. What did she care that a snotty feline shifter was making the moves on Adare? Would the old her have punched Jacqueline in the nose? It was doubtful.
Suddenly, all four doors of the black sedan opened at once.
“Grace!” Adare bellowed, turning and lunging toward her.
Chapter 6
Adare smelled the enemy a split second before the first boot hit the ground. Sour lemons. He dropped the bags and pivoted, manacling one arm around Grace’s waist and twisting to shot-put her over the hood of the SUV. She flew high, her arms windmilling as she disappeared on the other side. Before she hit the ground, he turned and charged, head down, into the chest of the driver, smashing him against the rear door. Glass shattered and metal dented with a loud crunch.
Bullets pinged above his head, and he rolled the soldier over, punching repeatedly toward the bastard’s face. Blood began to blend with his blackish red hair, and the driver struck up, slicing Adare’s neck with a knife.
Blood arced and pain lashed through Adare’s head. He growled, letting his fangs drop low, while sending emergency healing cells to the injury. The Kurjan beneath him, his eyes a swirling purple, struck up again.
Adare blocked the blade and went into a pure fighting state, which was where he belonged.
The Kurjan clapped a hand against Adare’s ear, grabbed his hip, and rolled them across the icy ground. Thunderous pain clashed through Adare’s head, but he reached down and drew his knife from his boot as they moved, slashing up and through the Kurjan’s white skin from beneath his jaw to his brain.
The monster flopped down, and Adare shoved the heavy body off. The guy would be out for a while. Adare crouched against the vehicle to take in the scene. It was dark enough that the Kurjans probably didn’t need the caps they’d donned, and there was no sight of the sun beneath the clouds. Damn it. He wouldn’t mind the sun frying the bastards. Two Kurjans remained on the other side of the vehicle from him, shooting wildly at the SUV while Jacqueline leaned around the side and returned fire.
At the rear of the SUV, Benny fought hand-to-hand with the final Kurjan, their movements so fast they were only blurs. Blood spurted from them both, and the glint of silver could barely be seen through the storm.
Adare was too big to roll beneath the sedan, so he edged toward the front, planning to jump over and take down one of the shooters.
Two more vehicles burst up the road, traveling so fast the gravel beneath the ice spun up.
“Grace? Get into the SUV and lock the doors,” he bellowed. “If you have to, drive out of here.” It was doubtful she’d make it past the other two SUV’s headed up the drive. He plunged his blade into the front left tire of the Kurjans’ sedan and slid to the back to take care of the other one.
Benny punched through the throat of the Kurjan he was fighting and tossed the body to the ground, instantly stomping on the neck to decapitate the enemy. This Kurjan had red hair with black tips, and his pale skin melded with the snow as the head rolled away.
If there were eight more Kurjan soldiers in the oncoming vehicles, Adare had to get Grace inside the house and now. They could defend that position until reinforcements arrived.
Benny ran around the SUV, firing over his shoulder at the two shooters, no doubt deciding the same thing.
Adare took a deep breath, caught Jacqueline’s eye, and she nodded, prepared to provide cover. She partially stood just as he bunched to run, sliding across the ice to the SUV and around it, landing behind her and pressing his back to the vehicle. “Thanks.”
She ducked down, excitement dancing in her eyes. “Plan?”
Grace crouched on her knees, her hands on the SUV. “I need a gun,” she said, her eyes wide.
He reached to the back of his waist for the Max-20, one of the Realm’s most deadly firearms, and handed it over. “Aim for center mass.”
She took the weapon and it looked far too large in her delicate hands, which were shaking. The cold had turned her skin pink, but her movements were deliberate.
Benny leaned around the rear of the SUV and fired as more bullets impacted the vehicle, shredding glass and metal in every direction. The tires popped with loud hisses, and the engine blew with the sound of metal shrieking. The smell of gasoline and other liquids morphed together into a warning that they should flee and now.
Adare grasped Grace’s arm. “We need to run for the house.” He had to cover Grace and fire, and he’d be faster carrying her than dragging her. “Just hold on to me.” He looked toward Benny. “Provide cover until I hit the porch, and then I’ll do the same for the two of you once I get Grace inside.”
