Page 96 of Cooper’s Passion

A hand on her shoulder made her turn her head to Virginia.

“I would be the first to tell you, if he won’t recover. He’s my family too. But this is normal. Your blood helped him over the first hurdle, but he’ll need more, and he can only fully heal by sleeping.”

Anita nodded slowly.

“He drank your blood again?” her father asked, his voice laced with concern, before he turned to Samson. “You can’t let her give him any more tonight. He already bit her back at the house, when they… uhm… during…uhm…”

It appeared that her father still had problems mentioning the word sex in front of her.

“Don’t worry, I understand,” Samson said. “We’ll make sure he gets sufficient bottled blood to let Anita recover.”

“But I feel fine,” Anita protested.

“You’ve already done more than anybody expected from you,” Samson replied. “Cooper wouldn’t want to weaken you any further. Let’s get him back to HQ. We’ll monitor him there.”

Samson turned to his team. “Clean up here. We’ll take one of the SUVs back to HQ. Amaury, you’ll take your Porsche back.”

Luther, Zane, and Amaury nodded.

Less than half an hour later, Samson and her father helped the unconscious Cooper lie down on a hospital bed in the mini medical center on one of the lower levels of Scanguards HQ. In the same room, his mother lay sleeping on another bed, Haven and Lydia by her side. Haven jumped up and rushed to Cooper, stroking his hand over his son’s forehead.

“Thank God, he’s alive,” Haven said and turned to Anita. “Thanks to you.”

He approached her, and put his arms around her, pulling her into a tight embrace. “Thank you for giving me my son back.”

“I was so scared that I’d lose him,” she admitted, tears welling up in her eyes again. In fact, she’d never felt so scared in her entire life.

Haven released her from his embrace, and Lydia put her arms around her, squeezing her for a moment. “Thank you, Anita. You’re so brave.”

Anita tipped her chin toward the bed next to Cooper’s. “And Yvette? How is she doing?”

“Mom will be fully recovered in twenty-four hours, maybe even earlier,” Lydia said.

“In the meantime,” Samson said, “you and your father should get some rest.”

“But what if he wakes?”

“We’ll take care of him,” Samson assured her. “Maya, our physician, will monitor him and Yvette, and will make sure both of them have what they need. Besides, Haven and Lydia are here to watch over them both.”

“Come, Anita,” Virginia added, “You and I will quickly go to the lab. Wes can give you something for you to recover from the blood loss a bit quicker.”

“All right,” Anita agreed with another glance at Cooper, who appeared peaceful in his sleep.

When her father made a move to join her and Virginia, Samson put a hand on his shoulder. “José, I wonder whether I can have a word with you.”

Her father hesitated, then he nodded. “Sure. What do you wanna talk about?”

“Let’s go somewhere private.”

Anita left the room with Virginia, and they walked down a long corridor.

“What was that about?” Anita asked.

Virginia shrugged. “Not sure. But whatever it is, don’t worry. You’re part of the Scanguards family now, and so is your father. Nobody will hurt either of you.”

Anita smiled. She could feel a bond with all of them now; she could feel their gratitude for having helped save one of their own, even though she’d done it for herself, because she loved Cooper unconditionally. And she couldn’t wait for their life together to begin.