Chapter Eighteen
“Josh, don’t you fucking leave me, do you understand that, soldier?” Candy nearly screamed at the wolf lying in blood on the floor in front of her. She pressed her uniform coat to his wound, trying to stanch the red flow. She’d flown enough medevacs in her life to know how to treat battlefield wounds. Funny how she thought that part of her life was over.
She never would’ve anticipated not only meeting, but falling for, a male from another species living side by side with humans. No, she wasn’t falling for him. Dammit, yes she was, ever since she’d walked into his office. How had he gotten through her defenses when no man ever had in her life? And he thought he was going to take a bullet for her and die. Fat fucking chance.
Agent Day knelt beside her and laid his hands on his boss’s pelt. “He needs to shift to heal. Like Frank did. When he does, the body will eject the foreign material and regenerate muscle and lost blood.”
Her mouth dropped open. “Are you kidding me? You’re instantly self-healing?” They were the perfect soldier that science had been trying to create for years.
Day frowned. “Yeah, sort of. But it’s hard to grow a new head once the original is removed and you have to be conscious to shift. Which Tumbel isn’t.”
She looked down at the creature. He looked like he was sleeping, taking a long-deserved nap, and not dying. His fur was gorgeous. She wanted to slide her fingers through it, but her hands were busy trying to keep his blood inside his body.
“So how do you get him to shift?” she asked.
Day’s worried eyes met hers. “You don’t. Pray that either his wolf or the man inside is with it enough to make a shift.” Day glanced away. “There is possibly another way, but if it works, he’ll kick my ass into next month.”
“Who the fuck cares? Let him kick it into next year. As long as he’s alive to do it,” Candy retorted.
He grumbled to himself and ran a hand over his face. “Okay. Long story short. You are very special to him and he will do whatever it takes to make you happy.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m so dead when he wakes. But if you demand that he shift, he will.”
If that wasn’t the strangest thing she’d ever heard. Why would she be special to him? How could she make his subconscious mind do what she wanted?
“Oh, shit.” Day jumped to his feet and returned to the monitors.
“What?” she asked. “What’s going on?” She twisted around to see the screens while keeping pressure on the wolf’s injury. Yulian was talking to the NIA director’s wife. Poor thing looked scared to death. Didn’t help that the little prick held a gun to her. “What is he telling her?”
“He’s instructing her to relay a message about using a helicopter,” Day said.
“For what?” she wondered out loud. She and Day watched as the wife stuck her head out the front door and spoke to the female reporter. Yulian stood behind the director, resting a hand on the seated man’s shoulder. The news woman nodded and ran toward the police.
When the director’s wife returned to her husband’s side, Yulian raised his gun and shot her.
Shocked, Candy watched the woman crumble to the floor. Screams erupted in the lobby, echoing in the security room. Agent Day turned down the volume.
Why? Why did the terrorist bastard have to kill an innocent woman? Then a sick thought crossed her brain. Perhaps this was the boys’ way of getting back at Pommer for taking their father. Murder the man’s wife.
Anger and hate swept through her. Burning bloodlust settled in her heart. She wanted to rip the fucker’s balls off and feed them to him. He deserved no mercy in her book.
Director Pommer sprang from his chair, hands tied behind his back, and one of the men hit him over the head with the butt of a gun. He fell to a knee next to his prone wife. Two of the gunmen lifted Pommer to his feet.
“Ve’re almost even, Director,” Yulian said. “Only one last thing and my part is done. And I’ll be rich. Now, ve take your helicopter and escape back to our beloved country.”
“It only holds four people,” she heard the director say. Yulian looked at his four other team members, turned to the man he’d argued with a couple of times, and shot him in the head.
“Now ve have four. Let us go.”
“The son of a bitch shot his own man,” Day said, his incredulous voice wispy.
That was it, Candy thought. “Day, they are headed to the director’s helo on the roof. You’ve got to get up there and stop them.” The agent was out of his chair in a blink. “Wait,” she said. “Turn off the roof lights.” She nodded to a panel on the wall with labeled switches. He also switched off the heliport lights. “No, leave those on. They’ll light the chopper, luring them so you can take them down.”
Day gave her a weird look. As if the thought of what she said would’ve never crossed his mind. He flipped the switch back on. “Can we get to the roof without the elevator?” he asked.
Shit. With the elevators shut down, the stairwell was the only way to the roof. And they had to go into the lobby to get to the steps. The monitor above the desk showed the group of three gunmen and the director walking toward the elevators. Then it hit her.
“The garage. The upper level has a bridge connecting to this roof so the director can go directly to his car from the helo without having to come inside the building. That’s the only way. Go. All of you.” As Day opened the exterior door, she added, “Agent, grind his nads off with your teeth for me. The director’s wife didn’t deserve that.”
He gave her a sad nod and was gone.
Candy turned her attention back to the wolf in front of her. Her hands were covered in red stain, her coat completely soaked through. How could so much blood be lost and it still be alive? Her heart hurt, which seemed ridiculous for her. But it did. She raised a silent prayer to the One listening. If Josh lived, she’d do anything. Anything.
Banking on Agent Day’s words about Josh obeying her orders, she sat straighter and put on her commanding persona. “All right, Tumbel. You’ve lain around long enough. Get your ass in gear and shift.” She waited as nothing happened. Maybe she shouldn’t come off as such a bitty, but more personal. Day did say Tumbel would do whatever to make her happy. She leaned down to his ear.
“Josh, if you shift right now, I’ll be the happiest person in the world. If you don’t, I’ll be so pissed off at you that I’ll never talk to you again.”
The first crack of bone made her heart smile.