sounds like he was going to cut off her head, but Allie shouted a warning and Drina ducked.”
Magnus’s eyes shifted back to the gaping wound on Drina’s head. It was a bad wound, but would heal.
“Unfortunately,” Tybo continued, “aside from shouting, Allie rushed forward, we think to help Drina, but he hit her over the head with the butt of the machete, tossed her over his shoulder, and fled.”
“But he stuck the machete through the door handles so you could not follow,” Magnus muttered what Elvi had said.
Everyone in the room nodded and Magnus stared at them with bewilderment, and then burst out furiously, “Well, why the hell are you all standing here, then? We need to be out looking for her.”
“We were going to do that, but have no idea where to start,” Victor said quietly. “He could have taken her next door, or all the way to London. We don’t have the manpower to search that big an area door to door.”
“Well, we cannot just stand here doing nothing,” he growled with outrage.
“Lucian is on the way right now with Basha and Marcus,” Victor told him. “He thinks she can narrow the search. And we expect Abaddon to call soon too. It’s not Allie he wants. It’s Liam.”
“We think he’ll call offering to make a trade,” Tybo explained. “Liam for Allie.”
“Yes. He will do that,” Magnus breathed, feeling a little hope creep in to join the fear clutching at his chest. Abaddon wouldn’t kill Allie. He’d try to use her for a trade.
“In the meantime, we’re trying to get Drina to take blood so she can heal,” Elvi put in now. “But she’s determined to go find Allie and won’t let us give her blood.”
Magnus frowned and glanced to the woman. “Chain her down and make her take the blood.”
“We’re not chaining her down,” Harper growled. “We just need to talk some sense into her. She—”
“You cannot reason with her, Harper—she’s in shock, and probably has brain damage to boot,” Magnus snapped impatiently. “And if you do not chain her down, eventually she is going to try to get up again, fall over, and you are going to be scraping her brain off the floor and trying to put it back in her head. So chain her down, put an IV in her, start pouring blood down her throat as well, and open another bag to pour over the wound. She needs all the blood she can get and quickly or she is going to lose that baby she is carrying.”
Paling, Harper turned back to the bed and barked, “Where are the chains?”
“I’ll get them,” Victor said, slipping from the room.
Knowing they were kept in the linen closet in the hall, Magnus wasn’t surprised when the man was back quickly. Victor handed one length of chain to Harper, but gave Magnus and DJ each one too, then took the other and they moved out around the bed.
Drina didn’t lie down nicely for them to chain her. She fought like a wildcat, screaming that she had to find Allie the whole while. Magnus was right there with her. He wanted to be out looking for her too, and was fighting himself not to flee the house and jump in the car to do it. The only thing that kept him there was the hope that Basha really might be able to narrow down the search, and the possibility that Abaddon would call and possibly say something to give away his whereabouts. It was hard, though.
The moment they got Drina in chains, the women rushed forward, Katricia setting up an IV, Mabel popping a blood bag to Drina’s open, screaming mouth, and Elvi kneeling at the top of the bed, slowly pouring the contents of another bag over Drina’s head wound.
“How did you know?” Harper asked, concern clouding his face as he watched the women work.
“Because she said Allie saved her life, and she would have died if he had cut off her head,” Magnus said grimly. “I only know of a couple of cases where an immortal was beheaded and did not heal when the head was replaced quickly, and both of them were women who were pregnant.”
“Why would that make a difference?” Elvi asked, glancing up briefly from what she was doing.
When Magnus sighed wearily, and ran a hand through his hair, it was Katricia who explained. “The Argeneau scientists aren’t positive, but they think when the mothers were beheaded, the nanos automatically turned to the baby as