“Yeah, creepy as hell. Like his face was underneath the darkness, screaming. Did the shadow thing eat him, too?”
“Maybe,” Bobby said. “We don’t know much about Erlik, and Cassidy is still AWOL.”
The dust cleared, leaving the place stinking of mold and stagnant air. The ghosts wandered back in, making me bite back a groan. “If you’re not going to help, then shut up,” I told them.
Every head turned my way with amused or confused expressions.
“Ghosts?” Bobby asked.
“This place is thick with them. They’re just here to bitch. It’s like a gathering place for them to whine.”
Wade shrugged. “It was a billionaire’s warehouse before the Veil took over.”
“Can’t imagine a worse place to spend the rest of eternity than an Amazon warehouse,” I said. “Why don’t you all move on?” I shouted. They ignored me.
Angel swung out to catch Victor around the middle and pull him closer, hanging from a ceiling beam with one hand while he shifted his other hand into claws and sliced through the shadows. “Stuff feels like taffy,” Angel said as he held Victor in a display of strength that made me suddenly want to try acrobatics. Maybe closer to the floor, but hey, a guy could dream. “Wade, can you catch him?”
“On it,” Wade volunteered. He was the biggest of us, maybe not stronger than Angel, but damn close. He found a spot below them.
“Ready?” Angel asked. “He’ll be grumpy if he wakes up from this.”
“Not news,” Wade groused, but waited.
Victor didn’t stir as Angel swung him out of the gooey cocoon and dropped him into Wade’s waiting arms. Wade laid him on the ground as Angel climbed down, and I knelt beside Victor, checking for a pulse.
“I think I need first aid 101 for vampires,” I said. “Certification didn’t cover resuscitating the undead. Is he supposed to have a pulse? I think I feel one.”
Bobby knelt on his other side as Wade cradled his head.
“There’s blood on the back of his skull,” Wade said. “Probably hit from behind.”
“You all didn’t string him up in shadow spider goo for me? Thanks.”
Angel snorted back a laugh as he came up behind me. “He’ll need to feed.”
“He has a pulse,” I told him. “It’s faint.”
“Blood loss. But he can heal a head wound.” He made to offer up his wrist, but I shoved him away.
“Uh-ah, Wolverine. The Count here has had enough of your blood.”
“Not it,” Ezra said.
“Not me either,” Remi said.
I glared at him. “You took from me.”
“Magic, not blood.” He winked at me. “I’ll share other fluids with you, just say the word.”
“No,” Angel said, giving him a shove.
“I can’t feed him,” Bobby said. “My blood would make him sick.”
“HV and NHV vampires don’t mix?” I wondered.
“Not that way,” Bobby said. “Things always have to be a bit more careful when we get bitey.”
“I can do it,” I said. It was just blood. Not that I liked the guy, but I wasn’t going to let him suffer either. I rolled up my sleeve.
