Page 39 of Bound
“I took care of him.” Not-Emma-Stone rolled her eyes. “You’re welcome, by the way.”
August lowered the gun, but only fractionally. “You’re a shifter. Even if I hadn’t seen you in wolf form, your blood smells too strong for you to be a vampire who just fed from one of us.”
“Um… please tell me this isn’t how you normally pick up girls. Because if you smell like wet dog is your best material—"
“I just watched you dematerialize. So let’s cut with the bullshit. What the hell is going on here?”
She just smirked.
“August?” I said urgently. “Where’s Topher?” If he was hurt, if they’d taken him—
In answer, there was a sharp crack and Topher was dropped unceremoniously beside me. Vlad flicked a glance from Not-Emma-Stone to me then back around to August.
“Just between friends, I’d suggest not pointing that at either of us,” he said pleasantly. “Oh and you’ll want to be on your way before more reinforcements arrive.”
“Wait.” I held up a hand to stop them, my eyes locked with Not-Emma-Stone’s. “Who… what are you?”
“A messenger,” she said, and vanished into thin air.
* * *
“Did you try Brody?” August mumbled from my couch for what had to be the fifth time.
Flicking me a glance, Topher leaned over to check the IV line he’d started. “He’s out on a domestic call. Said it might be a while. How’re you feeling?”
“The same as when you took my blood pressure two minutes ago.”
“You realize I’m just using you as a practice dummy, right? We’re doing the defibrillator next.”
August snorted, startling Dean, who was sitting on his chest contentedly munching a baby carrot. For whatever reason, August was the one human Dean didn’t use as a chew toy. “Bite me.”
“I know I keep asking this,” I said, “but are you absolutely sure you saw Not-Emma-Stone in wolf form? Not for nothing, but it was dark and everyone was shooting.”
“And what, I might have mistaken her for a rogue poodle that happened to wander into the engagement zone? Or some idiot werewolf who decided to turn himself into vampire catnip just to see who could eat him the fastest?”
“Please. My wolf is nimble and light on his toes. I knew you two would pick them off while I leaped out of the way.”
“Uh huh. Just for that, as soon as the room stops spinning, I’m going down to the plant center out on Highway 29. You thought that Fangorn Forest stunt your kids pulled was hard core? Those guys were amateur hour.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Want to see what a team of engineers can do with baling wire and some nice creeping ivy?”
I growled.
“Not that I don’t find these Caldwell revenge plots highly amusing,” Topher said dryly. “But we’re getting a twinge off topic here.”
“I was the one doing the shooting, thank you very much. How many times did Mom drill firing safety into us? You think I’d discharge my weapon if my vision was compromised, if I wasn’t dead sure of my target? I took out two of those bloodsuckers tonight. I’m sure of it.” August threw an arm over his head in obvious frustration. “Then I felt the right side of my body start to go numb, knew I had seconds before an episode was going to take me. I was falling when a silver wolf leaped out of the fray and caught me just before I hit the ground. I know how it sounds, but I swear, she shifted to human and ghosted me out of there.”
I exchanged a look with Topher. He shrugged. He’d been unconscious when the vampire had dropped him at the car. I’d been so out of it from dematerializing twice, I probably couldn’t have identified a dead skunk at ten feet. Needless to say, no one was asking me to play werewolf CSI.
“Okay,” I said. “If you’re sure you saw her in wolf form, and we all saw her dematerialize, what does that even mean? Vampires and shifters can’t produce offspring.”
“We think.” Topher checked his phone. “You gonna try River again?”
“At least he’d take me seriously,” August mumbled.
I paced over to the window. “Hear me out. It’s always been believed that vampire-wolf pairings just weren’t possible. The undeads have tried it before, but the pregnancies weren’t viable. Any children born survived days, if that.”
