Meant to Be Immortal (Argeneau #32) - Lynsay Sands Page 0,121

the looks of it.

“Bricker’s bringing blood. Mac will be fine,” she assured her, and then glanced to an anxious Julius and added, “And so will Marguerite. She’s just had a little upset. But her water hasn’t broken, she’s calming now and we’ll give her lots of blood to distract the nanos so they don’t attack the baby.”

“Nanos,” CJ breathed to herself with bewilderment, and wondered what she meant by Bricker was bringing blood? What the hell were they supposed to do with blood? Hook him up right here for a transfusion without tending the wound to stop the bleeding that wasn’t really happening?

“Here we are!” Bricker announced, sailing into the room with a large cooler in hand. “The police took Jefferson away, and I brought the blood. It’s all good.”

CJ peered at the man blankly as he set the cooler down on the floor next to Mac, but her eyes widened with incredulity when he flipped it open and grabbed a couple of bags to toss to Decker. She had no idea why. But then, nothing he had said had made any sense to her. The police wouldn’t have taken Jefferson away without coming in to review the scene and interview everyone, and she still had no idea what the blood was for or why he was throwing them to Decker who had turned back to Marguerite now, blocking CJ’s view of the woman. Mac was the one who needed blood, but unless Bricker had an IV stand, needle, and rubber tubing in his pocket somewhere to hook Mac up it was useless. They needed to get him to the hospital; he needed to be operated on to remove the bullet, she thought, and glanced back just in time to see the bullet push out of his chest the last millimeter necessary for it to tumble to the side and roll off onto the bed.

Okay, maybe he didn’t need an operation, she thought grimly, watching the hole that remained and expecting blood to either start bubbling or shooting out. Neither happened, though. Frowning, she leaned down to get a better look in the hole again. There was no blood rushing toward the surface. There was no blood at all that she could see, just flesh.

If it was flesh, CJ thought suddenly as she recalled seeing a movie once where bullets had ejected from a robot’s chest just like this. One of the Terminators or something. Or maybe it had been a werewolf. She couldn’t remember, but this wasn’t the first time she’d likened Mac to a robot. That freaky silver that looked like liquid mercury filling his eyes had made her think of a robot, and his ability to perform sexually over and over and over again had made her think he was a machine. Now his body wasn’t bleeding and was ejecting bullets. Dear God, she hadn’t fallen in love with a robot or something, had she? Some kind of cyborg, or android, or—

“He’s not a robot,” Bricker said with amusement, and then shoved a bag of blood her way. “Here, hold this.”

CJ automatically took the cold bag, but she was staring at Bricker with uncertainty, wondering just how he’d known what she was thinking.

“Because I can read your mind,” he explained as he pulled a second bag of blood out of the cooler and then glanced toward the bed to ask, “Does Marguerite need more blood?”

“No,” Marguerite muttered, sounding less breathless and pained, but more annoyed now.

“It’s probably best to keep the nanos busy, Marguerite,” Dani said gently. “We need to keep them from attacking the baby.”

CJ did notice the use of that word again: nanos. But she was more concerned with Bricker’s comment about reading her mind. He couldn’t read her mind. Could he? And if so, how?

“Incoming,” Bricker called, and CJ watched him toss another bag of blood toward the bed. Dani reached up and caught it in the air and then turned and slapped Marguerite in the face with it. At least that’s what it looked like she was doing, but then she took her hand away and the bag stayed on Marguerite’s face. Although it did begin to shrink, CJ noted, and stared with fascination as the liquid inside disappeared and the bag compressed and wrinkled as it emptied.

Bricker turned back, saw her expression, and grimaced slightly. “Right. So, explanation time.”

CJ shifted her gaze to him, her mind rife with confusion.

He hesitated, and then asked, “I don’t suppose you can wait until Mac wakes