“She killed them both,” Liza whispered as she turned her gaze to the Coyote still sitting motionlessly against the far wall, his blood sprayed around him from the chest wound he’d sustained.
“Good for her.” Stygian’s tone was savage. “Her father’s been notified and she’s being flown to a secured section of the hospital now. She’s just in shock, unconscious, but we want to be certain she’s okay otherwise.”
Liza nodded. Joe would be at the hospital. He would ensure only the Nation’s healers oversaw her care rather than the Breeds, who would most certainly use this to their own advantage if given the chance.
“This was my room,” Liza suddenly realized.
Stygian’s gaze jerked back to her as two Breeds moved past them and began preparing the bodies for transport.
“What did you say?” he growled.
Liza turned her gaze up to him. “Until a week ago,” she said faintly, “this was my bedroom. I wanted to paint the walls in Isabelle’s former room before I moved in, and we weren’t able to get it done quickly. Claire was sleeping on the couch until we finished it. I just finished moving in days ago.” She had to swallow before she could go on. “They were coming after me again, weren’t they, Stygian?”
She could feel it. Her stomach was tight with dread, her chest clenched with panic.
“They’ve been after you since before the morning Diane Broen found you on that jogging trail,” he agreed. “We warned you of that, Liza. That morning, we warned you that you were a target.”
“But it doesn’t make sense,” she whispered. “Stygian, I can’t help them get whatever they want. I don’t even know what they want. Why come after me?”
Gripping her arm, Stygian moved her carefully into the living room, where Chelsea, Ashley, Emma and Shiloh were waiting.
Chelsea moved to join them, though after a quick, whispered comment from Ashley, hesitated before she stepped back to the other three girls.
“Stygian, what the hell is going on?” she demanded again, keeping her voice low, quiet.
“I’m not certain yet, Liza.” A quick shake of his head had her realizing how his hair flowed, like a warrior’s, around his face.
Falling to his broad shoulders, the raven black strands looked like living threads of coarse silk.
Even now, amidst a danger she hadn’t expected and had no idea how to deal with, all she wanted to do was touch him. Have him touch her.
She wanted his arms around her, because suddenly, she felt so damned alone and so adrift in a world she had no idea how to understand.
Nothing made sense any longer.
“Come here.” As though he had read her mind, sensed her need, as though somehow those incredible primal senses he possessed were able to see into the heart of the woman and the fear clogging her mind, his arms were around her and he was wrapping her close to the warmth of his body.
She hadn’t realized how chilled she had become, how cold she was. She hadn’t realized how much she needed his body heat to still the ice slowly moving through her system.
“Oh God, Stygian.” Holding her arms between their bodies, her fingers clenching onto the fabric of his shirt, over the reassuring beat of his heart, she let that shudder of terror have its way.
It tore through her, shaking her until she felt weak, pulling several tears from her eyes despite her attempt to hold them back.
“What’s happening to me?” she whispered, almost terrified to let the words free. “Please, tell me what’s happening.”
She felt as though she were tearing apart inside, twisting into so many directions that nothing made sense anymore.
The sparring match and the sudden release of the abilities she had been fighting so hard to hide.
Claire’s screams and her reaction, so outside the realm of what she had been trained for so far.
None of it made sense. None of it meshed with the world she knew and understood.
“We’ll figure it out, baby.” His head bent over hers, the endearment whispered against her ear as he all but rocked her, easing the terrible fears tearing through her. “I don’t know what’s going on yet, but I promise, we’re going to figure it out.”
Stygian held her as close to his own body as he could, trying to share his body heat, to warm the icy chill of her flesh as she shivered and shuddered in his arms.
Glancing over her head to Ashley, he mouthed the word blanket, concerned with the unusual cold attacking her.