Bound by Danger (The Alliance #6) - Brenda K. Davies Page 0,28
teeth ground together. Once he got some sleep and healed, he would find a car, but it would have been much easier if he could have taken this man’s car.
“Close the gate,” he commanded.
The man shut the gate behind them, and Lucien led her into the numerous rows of storage units. Trying to process what she’d witnessed, Callie walked numbly beside him until they were halfway down the first row of units. He tripped and went to the ground, pulling her with him.
She muffled a startled cry when her knees hit the asphalt. Whatever reserves of strength he’d dredged up were fading as he knelt with his head bowed and his shoulders hunched forward.
She had no idea what she would do if he couldn’t get up on his own. She wasn’t strong enough to drag him through the rows of closed and padlocked doors, and she couldn’t leave him here. She didn’t want to spend any more time with the vampire than necessary, but he hadn’t left her, and she wouldn’t leave him.
“Lucien, you have to get up.”
“Okay,” he slurred, but he remained on the ground.
Bracing herself, Callie kept her arm around his waist as she strained to lift him. She gritted her teeth when she almost fell over, but he caught her, shoved himself to his feet, and leaned against her.
They stood in an awkward embrace as he leaned heavily against her and she tried not to fall on her ass. Then he peeled himself away but kept his arm draped over her shoulder as she held onto him with both hands.
Together they walked to the end of the row, but Lucien was aware he was leaning on her far more than he should. However, he had no other choice as his legs felt as sturdy as a deck of cards in a hurricane.
They could stop and break into any one of these units, but he was trying to get far into the maze of storage containers before stopping.
“There’s a bathroom,” she breathed.
He tried to locate what she was talking about, but everything blurred around him. “Do you need to use it?”
“Yes.”
Callie led him toward the concrete building with the bathroom sign reading “employees only.” She searched for another guard patrolling the lot before recalling the golf cart by the guard booth. It was more likely that, every once in a while, he would drive it around the area to make sure everything was fine.
She leaned Lucien against the wall outside the bathroom. “Can you stay up?”
“Yes.”
She hesitated, but the pressure in her bladder was becoming too strong to ignore. If she came out and he was lying face-first on the ground, she would deal with it then, but she preferred not to piss her pants.
Callie pulled open the heavy metal door, dashed into the bathroom, and used it as quickly as she could. When she finished, she splashed water on her face and scrubbed her arms as she washed away the blood clinging to her.
She studied the dark circles under her eyes and the lines around her mouth while she worked. She looked a good ten years older than her twenty-six years, but at least she was still alive.
She wanted to stand at the sink and spend the next ten hours scrubbing herself, but she didn’t take anywhere near as long as she would have liked to clean herself. Maybe later, when Lucien was stronger, she could return.
And she assumed he would get stronger; he had to after the amount of blood he’d consumed. The blood had made him unsteady, but eventually, the drugs would make their way out of his system. And then what would happen?
She’d be left with a stronger vampire to deal with, and she had no idea what he would do with her.
Callie buried her apprehension over her uncertain future, tossed the paper towels into the trash can, and rushed out of the bathroom. Lucien remained leaning against the wall where she left him, but now his head was back and his mouth hung open.
Had he passed out? That would be as bad as if he hit the ground.
“Lucien,” she hissed.
He jerked as if she’d pinched him and blinked at her like he’d never seen her before.
“We has ta go,” he said.
His voice was more slurred than before. She draped his arm around her shoulders and encircled her arm around his waist again.
“We have to stop and find someplace to stay,” she said.
If they didn’t stop, he would drop, and she’d be screwed.