the information he was passing along. “She was trying to rob the blood bank out of desperation. Feeding the boy is killing her, literally. And she knows it. She was hoping to get him blood from the blood bank to give her system a chance to recover, and got a job there to make the theft easier.”
Magnus turned his attention back to Allie, wishing he could read her thoughts so that Tybo didn’t have to. He didn’t like the other man poking through her head like this.
“Unfortunately,” Tybo continued, “she passed out during the attempt . . . hitting her head and losing even more precious blood.” Tybo shook his head. “At this point, she probably needs a blood transfusion herself. She’s very weak, Magnus. Even asleep her heart rate is elevated and her breathing rapid and shallow.”
Magnus frowned at this news and reached out to brush away a strand of hair that had fallen across her face. “Feeding a child as young as Liam should not be this detrimental to her health.”
“No,” Tybo murmured, and was silent for a moment, his gaze still on her, and then he said, “I think she’s been letting him overfeed.”
Magnus’s eyebrows rose. Overfeeding the boy would mean that his system would use up a lot of blood trying to remove the extra blood from his system, which would just mean a need for more blood. It would be a vicious circle—the boy always hungry, always needing more blood. Unfortunately, more blood than one mortal could safely supply. If she’d continued like this much longer, it would have killed her. As it was, Allie was lucky she hadn’t already suffered a heart attack or simply died from the blood loss. In effect, the boy was bleeding her to death.
“Who is the boy?” Magnus asked now. “How did she end up the mother to an immortal?”
Tybo was silent for so long that Magnus turned to look at him. The other man’s expression was even more concentrated now as he sought an answer to that question, but it was another moment before he murmured, “Stella.”
“Stella?” Magnus asked. “Is that the boy’s mother?”
“I . . .” Tybo lost the concentrated look and rubbed his forehead with his thumb and fingers as if trying to ward off a headache as he murmured apologetically, “Her thoughts are very confused and almost veiled. It’s as if she’s so used to trying not to think about this stuff that even in sleep she’s protecting her thoughts. All I could get was the name Stella.”
“Blood loss can cause confusion,” Magnus murmured, turning his gaze back to Allie. He stared at her silently, wishing she was awake to answer the questions he had, but knowing it was better to leave her sleeping until they got to the house. He suspected she would fight them about going to the house if they gave her the choice. It was better to get her there, reassure her that she was safe, and then ask the questions buzzing through his head.
Three
Allie was exhausted when she woke up. But that was normal for her lately. No matter how much she slept, it was never enough. She was always feeling tired and rung out. It was the blood loss, she knew. Liam needed too much of it and her body couldn’t keep up. That was why she’d risked robbing the blood bank, a despicable action to her mind. Blood banks were always desperately in short supply and needing more. Even considering stealing some of the precious blood they needed so badly had made her feel lower than low. But Liam needed the blood and she couldn’t supply what he needed. She was willing to die for the boy if necessary, but that would just leave him alone in a world that wouldn’t be friendly to a child vampire. She had no doubt they’d kill him, or at the very least lock him up and perform examinations and tests on him that would make what little life he had a misery.
These thoughts had Allie pushing herself up to sit in the bed and swing her legs off of it. She needed to see what he was up to and—
Allie’s thoughts fled, replaced with alarm as she realized she wasn’t in her own bed in the apartment she’d sublet four months ago. Her gaze slid around the cool blue room revealed by the sunlight splashing through the windows, memories suddenly rushing into her mind. She remembered everything that had happened right