“Are you in the hospital now? We can come visit tomorrow morning,” Bobbi said.
Grace shook her head, trying to slam some sense into herself. She needed to focus. “No, I’m with Adare now. Just fine. Don’t worry.”
“He’s very, um, a lot,” Bobbi said tentatively. “Though seriously good looking. Like wow.”
“Hey,” Brian said, his voice carrying through the phone.
Bobbi laughed. “You’re seriously good looking, too. So, Grace? We were talking. Rosy is getting baptized in a few weeks, and we were hoping you’d be her godmother. You probably remember that neither one of us has family, and it’s so nice to have you back in our lives. It would mean the world to us. If that’s not weird.” She ended the last on an uncertain note.
It was definitely weird, considering Grace would soon be immortal. But her past life, or rather her former life, had helped shape who she was and that mattered. These people mattered. “I’d be honored.” She’d have to figure out how long she could stay in their lives, without aging, before it was time to say goodbye.
This immortal situation took a lot of thought. Thank goodness her sister was immortal, too. It was too bad their parents had died when she was in her teens.
“Good. I’m so glad. I’ll give you a call in a couple days once we have the schedule set. I’m glad you’re okay,” Bobbi said.
Grace swallowed. “Thanks.” Hopefully she’d remain that way, and so would Adare.
Chapter 24
“This is ridiculous.” If the woman weren’t the queen, Adare would’ve told her to go jump in the freezing lake outside. Instead, he sat on the examination table after he’d showered, waiting for her to finish looking at his blood through the microscope across the room. He’d left on his shirt when she’d taken blood so she couldn’t see the marking across his back. Even though Garrett Kayrs was her nephew, and a member of the Seven, he’d taken a vow to keep the shield a secret, and Adare was sure he’d kept that promise. “I need to go, your highness.”
“You’re cranky.” Emma straightened and partially turned. “So far, no antibodies. It looks like Grace’s cells are flattening yours.”
Adare didn’t much care. “Looks like? Perhaps they’re both mutating.” Either way, he needed to find Benny and make a plan for their upcoming raid.
He stood, his legs already touching the floor. “Thanks for checking, but I’m good.”
Heavy footsteps ran down the hallway outside, and Adare immediately put himself between the doorway and the queen. Benny came into view, grabbing the door frame to stop himself. “Hey. We have to go. Now.”
Adare stiffened.
Benny looked down at Emma and then back up at Adare. “Um, our project? The one we’ve been working on? Yeah. The contractor is there now.”
“Okay.” What in the holy hell was Benny trying to say? Adare smiled at the queen. “Thank you for trying, but I’m sure my mating will go as planned.”
“When we get back.” Benny grabbed his arm and yanked him out of the room, right into Grace. Her face was freshly scrubbed from her shower and her hair was drying softly in cute tendrils.
Adare reached for her before she could hit the opposite wall, lifting her with one arm and swinging her free of Benny’s barreling body. “You okay?” He set her down gently, his senses humming to life.
“Fine.” She blew hair out of her eyes. “What’s going on?”
Benny hovered, moving from one foot to the other. “We need to return to the cabin.” He leaned in toward Adare. “Right. Now.”
Shit. Something had gone wrong. He had to get Benny alone to find out the details, but it appeared they were on op. Right now. Adare forced a smile for Grace and Emma, who’d just emerged from the examination room. “Looks like we’re taking a trip, but I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“No,” Grace protested, putting her hands on her hips. “You took blood last night, so we need to, you know, tonight.” Color burst across her face, but she kept eye contact.
Emma nodded vigorously. “If you hope to have any chance of surviving a mating, it has to be tonight.”
“I’ll take your blood again when I get back,” Adare said, “and then we’ll go the next night.”
Emma frowned. “That’s a good plan, but Grace is fading, too. Time is of the essence for her, as well.”
Shite. If he didn’t return, then she was as good as dead. “Give me a minute.” He jerked his head for Benny to follow and hustled out the front door, stopping on the porch. “What is going on?”
Benny scouted the area. “Satellite feed just popped up from our lair, and the Kurjans have a new crop of females at their site. Right now. We don’t know where they ship them next, but it’ll be fast like always, so we need to go. Now. We can actually save this bunch.”
If they waited, they’d lose those females. If he stayed here, the women would perish or face terrible fates. But if he left Grace right now, he was leaving her to possibly die as well. There was a good chance he wouldn’t be able to bring her out of another coma. “How many females?” he asked.
