Chapter 21

I screamedand turned away as shards of glass pelted me, ripping into my arms, back, and face.

The sounds of snarling and crashing caused me to shake my head and try to focus on what was happening. My vision was blurry and red; I realized glass had cut my face and blood was running into my eyes. I wiped it away as best I could and saw the fight had moved past me into my living room. The vampire and wolf moved so quickly, I had a hard time seeing what was happening, other than a gray-and-blue blur demolishing everything in sight.

"Stop!" I shouted and stumbled toward them. They were both a hundred times faster and stronger than I was, but I couldn't just let them destroy everything I owned.

Massive arms wrapped around me and held me back. "You're hurt." Bryan must have come in when I wasn't looking. "You have to stay back, or you could get killed."

"I have to stop them," I said stupidly, struggling in his grip.

"It won't last much longer. The wolf is weakened by the speed of his shift, and Mr. Vaughan is faster."

Bryan was obviously seeing something I wasn't, because it sure as hell didn't look as if—

Like someone pushed Pause in the middle of a fight scene, it was abruptly over. The sudden silence startled me.

In the middle of my wrecked living room, Charles stood over the wolf's limp body. He was fully vamped out, eyes pure black and fangs extended. His suit had been shredded by teeth and claws. Blood seeped from about a dozen lacerations, but they were already healing. I could see that the wolf—Sean—was still breathing but unconscious. Broken furniture, electronics, pictures, and glass were everywhere.

Adri came in, talking urgently into her headset in a low voice. I caught the words "cleanup," "tranquilizer," "cage," and "van" through the buzzing in my ears.

Charles's gaze shifted from the wolf to me. "Alice, you are injured."

I could see bloody cuts all over my arms, chest, and legs, and it felt like some of the wounds still had glass imbedded in them. I was standing in front of Charles, Adri, and Bryan in my bra, but was too much in shock to care.

"I'll be all right," I told him. Bryan's massive hands were under my elbows, holding me up with surprising gentleness.

Charles took a few steps toward me. I realized I was covered in fresh blood, and my heart was pounding. I was basically ringing the dinner bell, and he suddenly looked hungry.

With effort, I fought back my sudden fear. "Charles, don't come any closer," I said firmly. "I'm not on the menu tonight."

Adri and Bryan tensed. The hands on my arms tightened. I wasn't sure if Bryan would help Charles or me if the vampire lost control and attacked, and I wasn't going to wait to find out.

Bright green cold fire burst from my hands and ran up my arms. In a blink, Bryan released me and jumped away.

"Everyone stay back," I warned them. I moved until I had the wall behind me and could see Charles and his enforcers. Broken glass crunched under my boots.

Charles gazed at my cold fire, his expression somewhere between awe and appraisal. As I watched, his eyes began to return to normal, and his fangs disappeared. It was a remarkable—and chilling—display of control.

"I apologize," he said finally. "I forgot myself. You have my word I will not harm you."

We stared at each other. I read sincerity in his eyes. Slowly, the cold fire drew back to my hands and vanished.

Charles's eyes narrowed. "Alice, your shoulder."

I picked up my shirt and used it to cover the bite mark as my face grew hot. "It's nothing."

His gaze moved to my bloody and swollen hands, and his frown became thunderous. "Who is responsible for these injuries?"

I had no intention of discussing this with Charles, especially not in front of Adri and Bryan. "It's none of your business."

He looked at the blood splattered on the tile and the extensive damage to the foyer, and then back at my hands. I saw disbelief in his eyes as realization dawned. "You have done this to yourself."

Adri inhaled sharply.

My eyes stung with angry tears. Humiliated, I went on the attack. "Why the hell are you here, Charles?"

His eyes flashed silver. "Mr. Smith and I followed the werewolf when he left Hawthorne's. We believed he posed a danger to you, and it would appear we were correct."

"He says he never intended to turn me into a werewolf," I said quietly, almost to myself.

"Of course he would deny it," Charles said. "To bite someone against their will is a capital offense in both human and shifter courts."

When I stayed silent, Adri spoke up. "I have a team on its way to take the wolf into custody, sir," she told Charles.

"The window must be replaced immediately."

"I'll take care of it." Adri started scrolling through her phone.

I glared at Charles. "I don't need you to do anything for me."

"I will arrange for someone to come immediately to fix the window. Your home must be secure."

"Make sure I get the bill," I told him. "I don't want you to buy me anything."

He regarded me. "Alice, as I am at least partially responsible for the damage, I ask that you allow me to pay for the window."

"Fine," I conceded.

Adri made a call and began speaking quietly to someone about getting a window company out to my house immediately.

I shivered hard and fought back a wave of dizziness. When I glanced down, I saw blood forming a small puddle around my feet.

When I looked up, Charles was in front of me. I hadn't even seen or heard him move. Gently, he raised my hands. The movement made fresh pain surge, and I grimaced at the sight of my bloody, swollen knuckles. I couldn't make a fist with my left hand. In my blind rage, I might have actually broken something.

"I think you have," Charles said. I realized I'd spoken aloud. "Will you let me heal your injuries?"

"How?" My eyes narrowed.

"A few ounces of my blood will suffice."

"What will you want in return?" I remembered his request to drink from me and feared he would try to revisit that demand.

"Nothing. This gift of healing is freely given."

I sighed and hung my head for a moment. "All right."

"Will you permit Ms. Smith to assist you in removing the glass? You will need help to reach the wounds on your back."

I couldn't argue with that. "Okay." I started toward the stairs, then paused. "What will you do with Sean?"

Charles looked at the unconscious wolf. "He will be sedated and taken to a holding cell at Hawthorne's," he told me. "He shifted and attacked me, causing these injuries to you, and that cannot go unpunished. I will contact his pack and apprise them of the situation. For now, you must tend to your wounds. Ms. Smith, please go with her."

I shuffled across the floor to the foot of the stairs. I paused with one foot on the bottom step, looking at the wolf in the middle of my wrecked living room. I noticed then that my record player had somehow survived the destruction. Dark Side of the Moon was still on the turntable where we'd left it. I closed my eyes.

"Alice, do you need help up the stairs?" Adri asked me.

I looked up toward the second floor. I felt weakened and dizzy, but I shook my head. "I can make it," I said and began to climb.

When I got to the door to my room, I looked back at the trail of blood I'd left behind me. I couldn't leave my blood lying around, not with Charles and his people here. With difficulty, I crouched to put my fingertips in the blood on the floor. "Fire in the hole!" I hollered. I assumed Adri was warning Charles telepathically about what I was about to do.

"Burn." With a whoosh, an air magic burner spell flashed through my upstairs hallway, down the stairs, and into the foyer of my house, reducing all my blood to a fine layer of white ash.

From downstairs, I heard Bryan's familiar rumble: "What the hell was that?"

I smiled grimly and pushed myself upright using the wall as leverage. "Okay," I told Adri. "Let's do this."

It took well over an hour to pull all the pieces of glass out of my face, scalp, back, arms, and legs. I had to comb glass out of my hair. My bathroom looked like a scene from a slasher movie by the time we finished. Adri stripped off my clothes and put me in the shower to rinse off the blood. I used a burner spell to clean up the blood in the bathroom and my bedroom, and Adri swept up the broken glass and ash while I sat naked in the tub.

When the floor was clean, I asked Adri to change my bedding. She did so without comment and took the other bedding downstairs to the laundry room. When she came back, she wrapped me in my bathrobe and got me to my bed, where I curled up on top of the quilt. I was bleeding from a dozen deep cuts that throbbed painfully, and my hands hurt so badly it was hard to think clearly. I was glad Sean and I had taken the time to straighten my room before we left; the thought of Adri—and Charles—seeing it in such disarray would have been more humiliation than I could have dealt with tonight.

Charles appeared in the doorway of my bedroom, presumably responding to Adri's telepathic summons. For a moment, I saw a flash of something that might have been tenderness when he saw me lying on the bed. It faded and his face became impassive once more.

Adri stepped outside the bedroom and closed the door as Charles came to sit on the edge of my bed. Someone must have brought him a change of clothes; his tattered and bloody suit was gone, and he was elegant once again.

"You are very pale," Charles told me, removing his suit jacket.

"Look who's talking," I shot back.

Charles chuckled. As he unfastened his cufflink and rolled up his sleeve, I suddenly felt terribly awkward.

He touched my face, his cool fingertips brushing my cheek. I closed my eyes.

When I opened them again, Charles's fangs were visible. He used them to pierce his wrist and blood welled up. He raised his wrist toward my mouth. "Drink from me."

Before I lost my nerve, I reached for his arm, brought it to my lips, and covered the wound with my mouth.

The first taste was of blood, coppery and cool, but somehow not unpleasant. I sucked gently on the wound, and sensation exploded in my mouth, spreading rapidly through my body. I closed my eyes as it rolled through me in a warm wave of intense pleasure. I swallowed again, and this time it felt so good that I shuddered. Strange sensations flared in a dozen places on my body. Charles gently brushed my hair back from my face, his arm still at my mouth. I swallowed again.

A few ounces, I thought hazily. Surely that had been enough. I ran my tongue over his skin to lick up the last of his blood. I heard a moan. It might have been him or it might have been me.

Charles's arm moved away from my mouth. From beyond the bliss, I felt my hands spasm and I cried out. Cool hands were resting on top of mine, holding me still with my arms against my chest while things moved under my skin in my hands and wrists. I suddenly felt as if ants were running over my skin as my cuts began to heal. Charles held me as I whimpered and squirmed.

When my head finally cleared, I opened my eyes. Charles was leaning over me, his hands still covering mine. I looked dazedly up at him. "Did it work?" My tongue felt thick.

"Yes." Charles held up my hands so I could see them. I stared at them in wonder. The skin was unbroken, the swelling gone. I flexed them experimentally, marveling at how the fingers opened and closed without pain. Vampire blood had painful healing spells beat by a mile.

Charles settled back, rolling his shirtsleeve back down and neatly fastening the cuff. His arm was already healed, the skin unblemished.

I sat up and kept looking at my knuckles. "Amazing," I said, more to myself than to him. I pulled the collar of my robe aside to see that no sign of Sean's bite or any of the cuts remained. "What's going on downstairs?"

"The wolf has been taken to Hawthorne's," Charles said. "The window is being replaced and the glass cleaned up. My crew is cleaning your floor. Within a few minutes, the work will be complete."

I gave him a small smile. "Thank you."

Charles watched me swing my legs over the side of the bed. I felt cool air on my skin and realized the bathrobe had come untied at some point, and I was naked beneath it.

Charles reached out toward me, his eyes on mine. Given the way he'd been looking at me minutes earlier, I expected him to touch me, and, strangely, I wasn't sure how I would respond. I was surprised when he gently pulled the robe closed and held it while I tied the belt. Then he stood and drew me to my feet.

"Are you well?" Charles still held on to my hands.

"I feel good." I pulled free of his grip. "Thank you for everything."

His expression became distant for a moment, then he looked at me. "My people have finished their work downstairs. You may raise your house wards."

I laid my palm against the wall. In moments, the wards crackled with their familiar intensity.

When I opened my eyes, Charles stood next to me. "Do you wish me to leave someone here to watch the house?"

I shook my head. "No. You've got Sean in custody. My wards are up, and I'm fine."

"Very well." He hesitated, then bent down to kiss my cheek. "Sleep well, Alice."

"You too, Charles."

He went to the door of my room and opened it. Adri waited on the other side. She looked at Charles, and then at me with a thoughtful expression.

"Good night, Adri," I said. "Thank you for your help."

"Anytime, Alice."

She and Charles headed down the stairs. Moments later, I felt a tingle from the wards when they left.

I stripped off my bathrobe and changed into pajamas. Then I brushed my teeth and fell into bed, pulling the covers up to my chin. In minutes, I was sound asleep.