11. Max

11

MAX

H e didn't move, and I couldn't quite see his eyes, but I knew with a fierce certainty that they were locked on me.

For a long, tense moment none of us so much as breathed.

The chill air whirred around me and I shivered, suddenly aware of how cold it was—and how drenched I was—now that the adrenaline and heat between me and Wade had dimmed from the interruption.

I climbed off him, my movements stilted and awkward as I held my hand between us, the fire casting deceptively pretty lights around the small clearing.

"Max," Wade stood beside me, in one fluid motion, his hand reaching for my shoulder, to pull me back, "don't. Something's—not right. He seems—" his eyes narrowed, "off."

He was right, I knew he was. But I also knew, with an unwavering clarity, that Darius wouldn't hurt us.

At least not intentionally. And if he tried, I could teleport us out.

Still, he seemed to be almost in a trance, standing there, an icy chill emanating from him that had nothing to do with the patches of unmelted snow on the ground.

If not for the bonds, I'd think it was his twin brother, Claude.

My mouth tasted metallic, seeing Darius stare at me with the same indifferent disdain that I was used to from Claude.

"Darius," I shrugged out of Wade's grasp and inched towards him, every step I took echoing loudly in the strange stillness. "Are you alright?"

When he was close enough for me to reach out and touch, I paused, afraid to scare him, like I was approaching a predator backed into the corner, the light from my hellfire dancing softly across his pale skin like we were sitting calmly around a campfire.

He didn't seem to see me though. His eyes were dark, like no matter how thick the flare of flames, the shadows refused to abandon their caress.

He was still and statuesque, not even the breath in his lungs moving his chest so much as a centimeter.

And if he'd been staring at me before, he wasn't now. It was like he was seeing through me instead, beyond.

I turned around, following his gaze, but saw only the serene calm of the lake behind us.

"What the hell's wrong with him?" Wade asked.

I felt his warmth at my side, as I turned back to Darius. Panic lodged in my chest, clawing up my throat as I tried to figure out what the fuck was going on.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood tall, and for a moment, I second-guessed my unwavering certainty that Darius wouldn't hurt us.

This didn't look like the Darius I knew. It was the shell of him, sure, but there was something strange, something uncanny I couldn't quite put my finger on. He didn't feel the same .

I knew he had been a little…unlike himself for days. But I'd brushed it off, assuming it was the general chaos we'd been trying to get control over. Now, it was clear there was something more, something I hadn't seen before, brewing below the surface, and I was cursing myself for not checking in sooner. I'd been so focused on Atlas, on the patients, and working with Greta, that I'd missed something. Something big, something important.

It was tangible. I could almost taste the offness solidifying on my tongue, the mystery just out of reach of my fingers.

A thick pressure built behind my chest as I fought to get through to him—the connection wasn't severed, exactly, more blocked or clogged than anything.

Did they make mate-bond plumbers?

I closed my eyes, focusing on the feel of him, trying like hell to carve a gap, a path back to him.

What the fuck was going on?

Darius.

The word echoed sharp, loud in my head, as I reached for him, for the bond.

For a moment, I wasn't sure it had worked, but then he blinked.

He took a step back, shook his head, shoulders relaxing then tensing again as he noticed his surroundings, as if awakening from a trance.

"What the hell?" Wade's voice was quiet, filled with tension.

"Max?" Darius took a step back, voice raspy and deep. He turned to Wade, sparing him a quick passing glance, before his eyes locked on mine again, the dark emptiness in their depths replaced by the familiar heat and intelligence I'd come to expect. But there was confusion there too, a childlike innocence I wasn't used to seeing there. "Where the hell are we? What happened? "

Wade's head tilted to the side as he studied him. "You don't remember walking out here?"

Darius's tongue peaked between his lips, wetting them, like he was nervous, confused. "No, I don't."

Wade's eyes narrowed. "What's the last thing you remember?"

Darius shook his head, swallowed, and my eyes traced the bob of his Adam's apple as he searched for an answer. It was rare to see him so confused, the usual confidence that bordered on arrogance nowhere in sight. "I vaguely remember leaving the cabin, needing some fresh air when," he glanced at me, cheeks heating slightly, an uncharacteristic shyness, "Max went into Declan's room."

"And then?" Wade pushed.

"And then this."

"That was hours ago." Wade's tone was stern, not exactly accusatory, but not far from it.

"Maybe I'm not the only one who's been sleepwalking." I turned to Wade, my arms curling around my body as I fought to find heat. The sky was slowly turning to a gray haze around us, and I knew we didn't have long before the day broke. "Do you think that habit is slipping through the connections too?"

The two of them stared each other down, Darius's timidness solidifying back into his usual lazy confidence as he recalibrated to the situation.

"Maybe," he said, though he didn't sound entirely convinced.

I tried to read him, but all I could feel was Wade's unsettled confusion, edging towards distrust. Darius was like a silent wall.

My connection to him didn't feel quite as destabilized as it had, he was reachable now and I felt him—he was just silent, standoffish .

"What were you both doing out here?" Darius pulled his hoodie off and cocooned me in it. "Wake up in the water again? You look like you're freezing."

I was.

"Sleepwalking," I muttered through the fabric. The material fell midway down my thigh, and I burrowed into the warmth. My stomach flipped as I took in the scent of him now surrounding me. "Nasty habit, sorry if it's rubbing off on you too now."

"She was further out this time," Wade said, casting me a glance out of the side of his eyes, "deeper under the surface. I found her, but I don't know how long she would have?—"

He let the sentence die off there, and both of them took an unconscious step closer to me.

"Let's get home," Wade's hands ran up and down my arms in an attempt to warm me, completely ignoring the fact that he was also soaking wet and likely freezing just as much as I was, "get warmed up and then maybe steal another hour or two of sleep before the day starts and we begin tackling and testing the limits of these bond connections."

I shook my head. I wasn't tired. I had too much adrenaline from the day's events coursing through my veins. Lately, I was pleased with just a few hours of sleep each night. Nobody talked about how difficult it was to find peace enough to sleep with an impending apocalypse hanging over your shoulders. "Actually, can we swing by the med center first? We can grab some dry clothes there. I want to check on Sarah and make sure that Greta's okay. A few people went on a run and were supposed to bring in fresh supplies today, which means she probably hasn't had much of a break distributing it all—she always immediately puts everything to use."

If we were going to devote the morning to practicing power exchanges and siphoning, who knew when I'd get the chance to swing by otherwise. And while I'd joked about it earlier, I was starting to really worry about my favorite nurse. She was getting even less sleep than I was, and didn't even bother leaving the medical building anymore. Instead, she'd sleep in whichever thin bed was momentarily vacant. I was pretty sure she wouldn't even remember to eat if Charlie didn't have meals brought in three times a day for her and the patients doing well enough to consume solid foods.

"You sure?" Wade asked.

Darius shrugged. "I'm not tired, I can go with her if you want to go back to the cabin and rest."

Wade snorted, a gruff no way in hell I'm leaving her alone with you right now echoing in my mind.

A challenging smirk started to tug at Darius's lips, and I looped one arm through each of theirs and began dragging them back towards the well-trodden path before one of their typical pissing contests had a chance to commence.

I ignored the slick lick of heat down my spine as the two of them pressed in close to me, silent and strong sentinels that had my body humming and my mouth practically watering just with their nearness. The savage hunger pulsing through the bonds was going to strangle me if we didn't get a grip on them soon.

Eli was right, figuring out the limits of our connection needed to become top priority. Last thing we needed was me getting distracted by my own horniness during a mission.

A soft light lit the path, and we followed it in a heavy silence.

Even though Darius had awoken from whatever strange reverie he'd been in, I could still tell that he was shaken from it—could sense him sinking quietly into himself in that way of his.

It probably didn't help that Wade kept casting suspicious glances at him out of the corner of his eye, almost like he thought Darius would snap back into robot-vampire mode if he kept him out of his sights for too long.

When we came to the familiar sight of the medical cabin, my blood froze. Something felt inherently wrong.

Darius tensed next to me, no doubt catching onto the shift in the air even before I did.

"What's wrong?" Wade asked, falling back into my side when my body acted like an anchor and paused mid-stride.

I started towards the med center again, resisting Darius's attempt to keep me back. "The door's wide open."

Greta would never leave the door open. It was freezing in these mountains, and there were beds of patients in the direct path of the draft.

Fuck.

Greta.

She slept most nights here, and I knew from experience that she was a light sleeper. She would have noticed if something was wrong, alerted us if she needed help.

Unless she wasn't able to.

My heart beat an angry drum, and I tried to swallow the premature panic threatening to escape. She was okay. Maybe she went out for a bit, forgot to lock the door, and a gust of wind or dazed patient had made their way outside, forgetting about the door entirely.

It was an improbable course of events, but not impossible.

I followed Darius's gaze to the ground.

Small red divots carved into the snow, the heat from the blood melting through the ice as it stained the ground.

"What the hell is that from?" Wade's posture straightened, and he took a subconscious step in front of me as he scanned the area, looking for any sign of life.

"Not what," Darius's voice was soft, but clipped, "who. "

Finding blood inside of the medical center was nothing new, nothing unexpected. But Greta and the rest of us volunteers were pretty good about keeping it cleaned up, contained so as not to tempt any of the vampires around or startle anyone over the direness of some of the injuries we were treating.

"Where were you before you found us?" Wade asked, his eyes leveling on Darius.

"I don't know." Darius's jaw was tight, his hand clamping down around mine. "In the woods, I think. I wasn't exactly aware of myself, if you recall."

"This wasn't him," I said.

Wade's eyes softened, but I could see he wanted to push the matter.

"It wasn't. I'm sure of it."

I wasn't. Not empirically anyway, there was no evidence to suggest otherwise, but I knew Darius like I knew the others, like I knew myself. He may have walked a dubious path in the past, and maybe he made some questionable choices along the way, but I knew with a deep certainty he wouldn't do anything to compromise our safety here, to jeopardize our chance at saving everyone. The stakes were too high and he'd more than proven himself to us all.

"It could have been," Darius whispered, his voice cracking slightly—a sound that cut through me like an icicle.

"Looks like the path heads over there," Wade nodded, "opposite direction from where you found us. And there's a lot of blood here," he turned back to Darius, scanning him from head to foot, "none on you. Chances are this wasn't you. I doubt you would have cleaned yourself up mid-sleepwalk. Hopefully just a patient who decided to wander."

Darius's jaw was tight, and I could tell that he wasn't completely convinced, but he nodded once. "We need to go in there, see if anyone is hurt, find out what the fuck happened."

I took a step forward, ready to do just that—and was met with resistance as they both reached for a shoulder and pulled me back.

"I can teleport." I shook out of their hold, ignoring their icy glares and tense postures. "And literally conjure hellfire. If anyone needs protection, it's them, not me."

Wade took a deep breath, his eyes meeting Darius's above my head, as the two had a silent conversation I wasn't privy to. As much as they liked to poke and prod each other, they'd developed the same silent repertoire and strategy that the rest of Six had.

"Fine," Wade bit out. "We go in together. But if anyone attacks, or anything seems even slightly out of place, no holding back. You get out of there and don't be wishy-washy about defending yourself, yeah?"

I turned to Darius, expecting him to be on my side, my shoulders shrunk when I found him watching me with the same steely resolve as Wade.

"Darius, you literally watched me burn down Guild Headquarters single-handedly." I shot him a glare, but when I saw that neither of them was relenting, I let out a frustrated exhale. We were wasting time. I groaned. "Fine."

Without another word, we moved into the dark entryway of the building. The floorboards were coated in thick stripes of blood, and something in the air felt off—dark, almost.

Wade's hand moved towards the dagger that I knew would be fastened at his waist.

Several of the beds in this first entryway were uncharacteristically empty, but most of them were filled with patients too deep in recovery and sleep stasis to be bothered by the frigid chill brought in from outside.

It's too quiet in here. I sent my thought through our bond link. The hospital is usually a tornado of chaos.

Darius nodded, and a ripple of pleasure went through me that I was getting the hang of this communication thing .

There was a small creaking sound and we all froze.

I turned back towards the cabinet at the far end of the room to find a pair of wide, familiar eyes set in the face of a young girl meeting mine.

"Max?" She opened the door wider, her lips trembling slightly as she ran across the room to me.

"Ellie?" Her name came out like more of a grunt as she collapsed into me, her body shaking in fear.

Wade and Darius inched closer to me, both of them looking at her like a potential threat.

I shot them a look and pulled Ellie back so that I could have a better look at her. "Ellie, what's going on? Where is everyone? Where's Greta?"

"I," she sniffed, her eyes welling with tears that I could see her struggling to hold in, "I don't know. Someone screamed about an hour ago, and I got scared and ran into the closet. I heard crashes, more fighting, and then after a few minutes, silence. I smelled blood. A lot of it. And something—unfamiliar. I—" her hand gripped mine, and because she was a vampire with a tremendous amount of strength, I felt my bones strain under the pressure, despite her age and size, "I was too afraid to come out and check."

My stomach sank with each word she uttered. What the fuck was going on?

"She's right. There's blood," Darius's nostrils flared, his jaw tight as he scanned over the remaining patients, "a lot of it. But it always smells like blood in here."

Everyone else was still and silent, their bodies lifting in the predictable, smooth cadence that came with their medically-induced sleep.

I shook my head and moved to the wall, flipping the light switch on. It wouldn't be enough to alarm them or wake anyone who wasn't already awake.

Blinking back the initial shock of the bright, hospital-style lighting, I noticed several sets of rumpled sheets on the bed, blood coating them all. A few of the light bed frames were flipped on their sides, medical trays and tools scattered around the floor in chaotic arrangements.

"Do you think someone had a nightmare or something, woke up not entirely sure where they were, and attacked?" Wade asked, though judging by the skepticism in his eyes, I knew he didn't think it was really an option.

I shook my head. There were at least five patients not present in this room that had been here this morning when Izzy and I had been by. And, judging by the state of the place, they weren't simply released. "There's more than just one person missing right now."

"And no one appears recently injured, like they were attacked and left to deal with the fallout," Darius said, breathing in deeply, like a perfumer trying to isolate scents. "No one left smells like they have a particularly new or recent injury."

I patted my still-drenched clothes, searching for a phone I knew wouldn't be there. Sleepwalking wasn't exactly conducive for leaving the house well-prepared.

The guys shook their heads and I knew they'd left without theirs too.

"Ellie," I turned back to her, noticing a few tear streaks carving down her cheeks—she'd lost the battle with holding them in, despite the tough set of her mouth as she focused back on me. I nodded to a set of drawers on the wall. "Second drawer down, there's an extra burner phone with several numbers programmed in. I want you to go find it and call every single number on that list until someone picks up, okay? Tell them to get here immediately and to be careful—someone's in the woods, and whether they mean to be or not, they're dangerous. Do you understand?"

She sniffed again, then wiped her cheeks with the back of her hands. "Where are you going? You're not leaving me here, are you?" Her chin dimpled as she tried to contain her fear. "I don't want to be alone."

I shook my head and gave her shoulders a squeeze. "We're going to check the other rooms, see if we can find Greta or one of the other volunteers, make sure whoever caused this mess isn't in trouble or hiding in one of the rooms. After you make those calls, go back inside that closet, okay? We'll come get you when it's safe."

She nodded, posture stiffening and eyes hardening slightly. In a small way, she reminded me of me when I first arrived at The Guild, trying like hell to put on the facade of bravery when every molecule in my body was screaming at me to run and hide. Some days, I still wish I'd listened. "Okay."

The three of us left her to her task, our footsteps silent as we made our way to the back hall. I grabbed the ring of keys hidden in the lockbox and opened the door into Sarah's room, cringing as the hinges creaked.

A quick scan confirmed that she was still there, huddled in her usual corner. Okay.

Well, not okay by any stretch of the term, but at least she didn't seem to have any new injuries. She wasn't missing and whatever had attacked the others, seemed to have left this room alone. Probably because it was locked.

I turned, looking for her two roommates who were kept in here. Like her, they were silent and didn't react to the three of us hovering over them, their breathing erratic and heavy as they sank into themselves, prisoners to their own minds.

Satisfied that Sarah was still here at least, we left the room and made our way to the office and room that Greta and the volunteers usually tried to crash in for a few hours of sleep each night.

As I reached for the knob, it moved of its own accord.

Every muscle in my body tensed as the door opened .

I conjured hellfire in my left hand, preparing myself to use it if necessary.

I exhaled audibly when my focus fell on a familiar and chaotic mess of spiky hair.

"Greta. Thank gods."