I held Klaus’s wrist so that blood dripped into Eli’s mouth. “Drink,” I pleaded. “Please drink.”
The blood dripped in. I feared I’d choke him to death. A cold breeze swirled through the SUV, stealing what warmth there was. Ten drops into Eli’s mouth. Twenty. Finally Eli swallowed. He managed five small mouthfuls without coughing.
I dripped vamp blood into Eli’s torn flesh at each of the wounds, watching as they closed. I sliced a cut along the vamp’s other wrist and went back to Eli’s mouth, feeding him. After three swallows, he turned his head away, grinding out the words, “God-awful. Worse ’an greasy grimy gopher guts.”
A small gulping sound left my throat. “Gastronomically gruesome,” I agreed, the boil of relief simmering through me again. The vamp groaned and I shoved the arrow back into Klaus’s belly, rolled the vamp against the sidewall, and dressed Eli’s wounds by placing layers of gauze over the top of each. I secured them in place with stretchy wrap.
“Sick,” he muttered. I rolled Eli so he could vomit, and my partner’s stomach emptied. The stench was blood and stomach acids. The vamp blood looked clotted and slimy.
I wiped Eli’s mouth with his cold coat. It wasn’t very absorbent. “I’m getting you home. Hang in there.”
“Silver shackles in the . . . metal chest,” he managed.
“No time. I’m getting you home.” There were blankets and a down quilt and even an electric heating pad that ran on the car battery in the sidewall compartments, and I wrapped my partner in the folds and turned on the pad to combat the shock, which killed people faster than simple blood loss. Tucked his feet and his body between the crates and chests and loose gear, his feet higher than this heart.
“Babe.” He stopped and exhaled slowly. I thought he had passed out. Then he finished. “Get clothes. You got . . . hairy boobs.”
“If you’re looking at boobs you aren’t going to die.” Chuckling, I broke Klaus’s neck with a vicious twist, slammed the hatch, and raced to the front, where I turned on the SUV and set the heater to max. Then I negotiated a six-point turn and eased up even with the red Rover. I stopped and got out, opened the other driver’s door. Found a key fob in the console and tossed it in Eli’s SUV. With my partner’s knife, I sliced through the sidewall of the driver’s-side tires. Then I pulled through the dark and headed to the inn, calling Alex on the way.
* * *
* * *
I felt the SUV cross a magical warning system when I turned into the snow-blanketed drive. The hedge of thorns was a half mile ahead and it dropped as I made the last curve to the inn. It was huge, the biggest hedge I could have imagined. The moment we crossed it, Lincoln Shaddock himself raced from the front porch and into the snow. He nearly tore the hatch off its hinges getting it open, and his wrist was already bleeding. He held it to Eli’s mouth. Thema, who had followed him into the snow, lifted Eli like a baby, side by side with Lincoln, carrying my partner inside. I had dressed as I drove, so I wasn’t an embarrassment to myself or anyone else. And when Bruiser opened my car door and stepped close, I turned and lay my head against his belly. And burst into tears.
My honeybunch stroked my head and massaged my neck, which was unexpectedly pelted, and brushed behind my ears, all the while murmuring soothing sweet nothings. After too long a time for a badass woman with fangs and claws, I pushed away. He let me go.
“I passed the outgoing team. Did you find them?” I asked.
“Our team hasn’t arrived, and they haven’t passed a red Range Rover with two bad tires, but Kojo says there are fresh tracks in the snow that match that sort of damage. He thinks we missed them and expects to find them gone. The snowmobiles are trying to follow the tracks, but it isn’t likely that the attackers will stick to back roads when the county has kept the main roads plowed.”
“Eli wanted me to take the time to silver cuff them.”
“In which case they would still be there, or their backup would have rescued them already and Eli would possibly be dead. Don’t second-guess yourself in battlefield situations.”
That sounded like Eli more than Bruiser, but I nodded and