Blood Rites

"Oh, Slender, quit being a worry worrier." Jen stumbled forward and Skender caught her. He reached back and turned the knob on the door to her room, gently pushing her in.

"Go to bed and stay out of trouble," he growled again.

"What is it with you wolves and your bossy beingness? It gets old, you know. Hey Spender, is the room spinning or are you spinning? If it's you, could you please stand still." Jen was wobbling on her feet.

Skender took her by the hand and led her to the nearest bed. "He is going to rip my throat out with his bare hands," he was mumbling under his breath as he eased her to the bed and stepped back.

"Naw, he won't rip your throat out." Jen's inebriation did not keep her from understanding he was talking about Decebel, although her words were very slurred. "He won't be that quick about it. Geeze, Snipper. Don't you know him better than that? When he's in grouchy bear mode he wants to inflict pain. I see it every time he looks in my inspection, wait, that's not right. When he looks to my…well whatever it is ends in 'tion'. The points is pain. 'K, now stop spinning."

Skender went to the door to leave, but turned back before he closed the door behind him. "You going to be okay?"

Jen gave him a thumbs up. "I am better than good, Spenster. I'm fantabulishisness." Skender shook his head as he closed the door.

Jen stood up and wobbled over to the stack of clothes lying on the other bed. For some reason a shower seemed like a splendid idea. As she reached for her clothes, she noticed a lump under the covers. She leaned forward and poked the lump, there was a grunt and then nothing else. Well, she thought, it's a lump and although she should probably investigate she figured the lump would still be there when she was done with her shower. Nodding her head in agreement with herself, she headed off to the shower…without the clothes she had picked up and set down while she poked the lump.

Chapter 23

Fane paced the waiting room of the ICU while Decebel and Vasile played cards. He looked in their direction and growled.

"Fane, it's not that we don't care, but this room would get rather small if all three of us were pacing, and the cards keep our minds busy. So keep your snarling to yourself," Vasile growled back.

"It's just driving me crazy," Fane admitted. "The constant waiting, the not knowing. I can't pick up any of her thoughts, it's making my wolf very restless."

"The doctor must have sedated her, which is a good thing since she was in so much pain. She will be fine, Fane. You know I will do anything in my power to keep her safe and get her well."

"I know, thank you," Fane told his father.

Logan's phone vibrated, indicating he had a text message. He picked it up and looked at the lit-up screen.

Cme to 4th flr. Use staff elevtr 2 avoid wt rm, I will buzz u n the doors.

Logan stood up and put his phone in the pocket of the lab coat Dr. Steele had left for him. He grabbed the keys to the car the Coldspring pack had loaned him and headed to the fourth floor. He couldn't help but be nervous with Vasile and his wolves still in the hospital. When the elevator doors dinged and opened, he stepped out and immediately froze. One of Jacque's friends was standing in front of the doors that had the words ICU on them, trying to figure out a way to open them. If she was trying to sneak she was very lousy at it. He crept up behind her, his wolf helping him be silent while he stalked his prey. Just as the girl was about to turn around, Logan placed his hands on the point between her neck and shoulder and squeezed. She crumpled like a house of cards. He caught her before she hit the floor and the only thing he could think to do was put her in the elevator and hit the button that would take her back to her floor and hope she would be okay. He placed her limp body on the floor of the elevator and pushed the button to her floor and watched as the doors closed. That was a development he had not been expecting but he couldn't worry about it now. He walked back to the ICU doors and heard a loud buzz and the doors opened. Directly in front of him was the nurses' station, a circular desk that gave them a clear view of every glass-encased room. Dr. Steele stood waiting in the doorway of a room directly to his right.

"She's heavily sedated. I have her hooked to an IV drip to keep her under. I also figured that since she would have to have the IV attached that if stopped, we would need to have a reason to be wheeling her out of the hospital, so I forged transfer papers to the burn unit at Children's Hospital in San Antonio. Not really plausible but it may buy us some time if caught."

Logan was impressed with the doctors' forethought. "Thank you."

"Let's just get this done," she growled. Logan wondered if the good doctor's conscience was nagging her. He thought about reminding her about what Fane had done to her brother, but decided it would be better to just keep his mouth shut, get Jacque, and go. Dr. Steele had wheeled a gurney into the small room, right up against the bed that Jacque was lying in. Logan thought she looked pale, even with her still-pink healing skin.

"I need you to grab that end of the sheet and on my count, pull. It will slide her smoothly across," Dr. Steele was telling him as he stared at the woman he had chosen as his mate.

Logan grabbed the end as instructed and pulled smoothly on the doctor's count of three. He covered her with a blanket up to her neck and Dr. Steele placed and oxygen mask over her face. She said it was just to help make it harder to identify Jacque. They began to wheel the gurney out and it struck Logan that there was no one else around.

"Where are the nurses?"

"There are only two ICU nurses at night and I sent one to get me some more antibiotics from the pharmacy, and the other to my office to get my phone."

"But you have your phone," Logan said before thinking.

"Yes, but she doesn't know that now does she? Now hurry before they get back," she told him as she pulled the door to the room Jacque had been in closed. They pushed the gurney through doors opposite the ones that Logan had come in. It brought them straight to an elevator that had the doors held open by a large steel trash can. Dr. Steele was ahead of the game, Logan liked that. As they rode down, the sound of elevator music filtered through the speakers and although the music was meant to be calming, it was grating on Logan's nerves, and he really just wanted to rip the speakers out. Calm down, he told himself, it's almost over.