Chapter Twenty-Four
Cain could smell her blood from a block away. He could smell everyone’s blood at a distance if he wanted, but Angel’s blood was special. She was a healer, and that magic in her veins pinpointed her location for him like a beacon on a stormy sea.
When he reached her vehicle, she was slipping into unconsciousness. He could hear her heart; the pulse was erratic and faint, fast and highly unsteady. Her organs were shutting down, and her heart worked desperately to keep them going. But it was losing the battle.
He opened the Jeep’s door and gently pulled her into his arms. He knew what he had to do. He’d known before he’d even found her, and he had to do it quick, because he’d heard her mentally call out for her sentinel, and he had little doubt the protector was on his way.
“Excuse me,” came a deep voice behind him, on cue.
Cain turned a little and glanced over his broad shoulder to find the sentinel standing a few feet away. He looked very familiar to Cain. The man’s expression was dour, and his orange eyes burned. They really were orange, like the middle part of a candle flame.
“May I ask where you’re going with my warden?”
Cain gritted his teeth behind his calm façade. He hated wasting time, especially when there was no time to waste. But if Darius really wanted to, he could very well stop Cain. Sentinels were at the top of the food chain in a manner of speaking; no supernatural creature could hurt them and no warden could hurt them, and Cain was both. “I’m guessing you’re Darius.” Then his gaze narrowed on the man. He suddenly realized where he recognized him from. He looked exactly like the sentinel of… someone he knew very well, someone from another lifetime.
“Are you Ashrim’s twin?”
Darius didn’t respond. His gaze was focused solely on Angel, and it was clear he was losing patience.
“Got it,” said Cain. He nudged the door of the Jeep shut with his knee and strode around Darius, keeping Angel gripped tight to his chest. He had a feeling this might not end well. It all depended on how possessive or protective Angel’s sentinel was. And if Cain had been her sentinel, he would have been very protective indeed. So he threw in a little honey to sweeten the pot. “I’m not here to hurt her,” he told Darius frankly. “I’m here to help.”
He left it at that. Either the man would believe him or he wouldn’t, but Cain didn’t have any more time to waste worrying about it. He carried Angel to the sidewalk. He half expected the sentinel to rip her away from him at any second – but it never happened.
Instead, Darius was waiting for him on the sidewalk when Cain got there. Sentinels could pop in and out of existence in a blink, so Cain wasn’t surprised. He joined him, “Hold her for me,” Cain instructed. “I don’t want her on this ground; it’s filthy.” Plus, that would give Darius recognizable control over the situation. His precious warden would literally be in his grasp.
Darius nodded, gently taking Angel from his arms. “You’re going to give her your blood.” His expression was dark, his eyes troubled. Darius the sentinel was definitely Ashrim’s twin. Cain and Ash went way back. And that meant Darius probably knew who and what Cain really was.
Cain nodded. “Right now, it’s pretty much our only shot.”
He could tell Darius was concerned, and for good reason. Cain’s blood was for lack of a better word, tainted. But the wrongness in Angel was taking her over. There wasn’t a thing in the world a doctor could do at this point to save her, nor were the warlocks’ supplements she took every morning going to help her. She’d grown increasingly enervated over the last few weeks, and her flight from Santiago had stressed her system to its limit, pushing her over the edge.
He could scent that the iron in her blood was all but entirely gone; her veins pumped blue beneath her skin, giving her a strange, ethereal pallor. Ancient and dark magic was at work on her at a cellular level. It was going to take equally ancient and dark magic to reverse it.
“This ride’ll get bumpy,” Cain warned. He met Darius’s gaze and held it meaningfully. Darius nodded. The sentinel knelt on the sidewalk, sitting Angel’s limp form on his knee so the blood would glide down her throat. Her head rested on his shoulder while he wrapped both of his strong arms around her body, trapping her arms at her sides.
Cain exposed his long, sharp fangs and bit down hard into his wrist; blood welled fast from the vein. He pulled his fangs free and shoved a hand through Angel’s hair to grasp her head and hold it still. Then he pressed his wrist to her lips. She was unconscious, so his command was going to have to go deep.
He closed his eyes and focused on the fading presence of her spirit. It was a tiny candle’s flame on a dark, windy night, but he found it and zeroed in. Then he issued his command, strengthening it with a heady dose of mind control.
Drink.
At once, Angel’s lips parted. His powerful blood welled into her mouth, and she swallowed. If she’d been conscious, it would have burned like acid going down, stronger than Spirytus. But she was well under. Her body had been well on its way to a complete shut down. So she drank without coughing, flinching, or pulling away.
But they weren’t out of the woods yet. The hard part was coming.
He knew his blood had reached her heart when her eyes suddenly flew open, and she arched her back, bucking violently in her sentinel’s strong grip. The change was sudden and extreme. But Cain didn’t have to remind Darius to hold on tight; sentinels had by default been around the block a few times.
Cain held his wrist firmly in place until he felt she’d taken enough to negate the damage. Then he pulled away. His wound closed at once.
“It’s working,” Darius whispered. He held Angel lovingly. His vivid eyes watched as the blue-gray pallor of her skin slowly shifted into a healthy glow. Her brown eyes flashed once with unearthly light, the vampire blood in her veins changing them to gold. Then they fluttered closed, and she settled down in her sentinel’s arms.
Cain listened to her heart. The erratic pulse evened out to become stronger. He could smell the iron in her blood being replaced. It worked.
Thank the Storyteller.
Cain stood up. Darius followed suit, gripping the now sleeping but healthy Angel to his chest. “Don’t take her back into Vega territory tonight,” said Cain. This, he was prepared to go to blows over if he needed to. Angel was Jake’s girl, and she’d run from Santiago for a reason. Until he knew what that reason was and dealt with it, he was officially granting her sanctuary. “I have a place she can stay.”
“Cain,” said Darius. His voice was laced with warning. “I won’t allow her to be –”
“No,” said Cain, who understood clearly. Darius wasn’t willing to leave Angel alone in the Monsters safe house. Smart sentinel. Though Cain knew damn well not a man there would touch her because of Crow. “There’s a hotel nearby,” he explained calmly. “They know me and will take good care of her until I can get things settled with Santiago.”
He wasn’t looking forward to that phone call. But a clan leader’s job was never finished.
“We can’t walk through the doors of any hotel with Angel like this.” Cain understood his concern and had anticipated it. Cameras were everywhere these days. The cops would be alerted to the fact that two men were walking around with an unconscious woman in no time.
“We’re going to transport directly into the room. It’s warded against everyone but me when the boys and I are in town.”
Darius eyed him warily, but with obvious interest. “Why’s that, exactly?” he asked.
“Because I own it.”
Darius blinked, lifted his chin, and nodded. They stepped into a nearby alley, out of the view of passing cars. Then Cain drew close and spoke several ancient, powerful words that warped space and bent time around them. The street and alley blurred, their dark colors melting, then swirling together. Cain felt their change in location, the magic sending them across town. Once there, he felt the barrier of his ward press back in warning. Once it recognized him, he passed through it, making certain it allowed the safe passage of his two companions as well.
When the swirling colors re-formed and the area around the three solidified once more, Cain stood in a massive sitting room with a grand piano. It was a room big enough to double as a ballroom. This was the most opulent suite in San Francisco, and he knew the sentinel would recognize it too. Sentinels always knew exactly where they were; it allowed them to better care for their charges.
Beside him, Darius non-discreetly looked around while he stood at the center of the plush room, Angel still in his arms. After a moment, a small smile curled the corner of his lips. Cain knew he was putting two and two together. He was remembering what he’d no doubt learned of Cain from his brother Ashrim. “Of course,” Darius said under his breath. “He’s Cain, so why not?”
“Why not what?” asked Cain because sometimes it was fun to brag. He left Darius’s side to stroll through an adjoining hall that led to the master suite. “You can lay her down in the master suite down that way.”
But Darius eyed him circumspectly and remained where he was. “Why not own the penthouse suite at the Fairmont San Francisco Hotel?” said Darius under his breath. He shook his head. “After all, it’s only twenty-thousand a night.” It was clear he trusted Cain about as far as he could throw him. Fortunately, he could probably throw him pretty far.
“Exactly,” said Cain casually. He shrugged as he made his way back down the hall to the phone on a side table near him and picked it up to let the staff know he was in-house. “It’s a drop in the bucket.”
“Then… everything my brother told me about you was true.”
Cain waited before pressing the button on the phone since he knew the concierge would pick up immediately. “Not everything, I imagine,” he said with a slight smirk. “There’s only so much Ashrim knows.”