She’d given me her life.
All because I was about to die.
And I remembered what she’d said during the clouded haze of pain.
You’ll live because you’re needed. I love you.
NO! You can’t leave me!
I hadn’t realized I’d said that aloud until Nikolai’s face was in front of mine.
“What is it, Keifer? Tell me! What do you see that I don’t?” Nikolai asked urgently, looking around like there was a threat looming that nobody else could see.
My eyes took in my surroundings.
All the cages were gone.
Self-destructed with the van Joseph was in.
They were all back to normal.
The dragons were gone, and all that was left were my brothers. Blood and blood bound alike.
“Keifer!” Nikolai called once again. “I don’t see it!”
That’s because the threat wasn’t here. It was in my heart.***
Two hours laterThe Darcy ManorIt took me nearly two hours to get everyone back.
It would’ve taken me significantly longer had I not commandeered a tractor trailer to carry all of our wounded dragons.
I’d gotten word from my sister, within minutes of Blythe arriving at the hospital, that she was breathing and was, in fact, in excellent condition. And the baby had a strong heartbeat.
Blythe was in a coma, though.
They weren’t sure if the coma was something reflexive from expending so much energy or what, but they’d know more in the coming days.
For now, though, I was bringing all my men home.
They wouldn’t be going to their own homes.
Not anymore.
I’d be informing them of this later on this evening.
For now, I was just gathering all of my people in the same place so we could talk about what had just transpired.
And do some damage control.
“I don’t think I’ve seen you drive an eighteen-wheeler before,” Jean Luc said, laughing. “Common work and all that shit shouldn’t be done by the King.”
I flipped him off.
I was fairly sure he had a broken arm.
And possibly a broken leg.
Another thing we wouldn’t know until we got our more significantly wounded taken care of.
Regular hospitals weren’t an option right now.
Not with the media uproar, as well as the warrants on all of our heads.
We’d be arrested on sight, and that wasn’t something that I was willing to go through as of right now.
It’d take a lot of time that I just didn’t have right this moment.
“I used to drive a truck like this when I was eighteen. Used to drive them across the country. That’s where I learned the value of the dollar, and then came back to work with my father when I turned twenty-one,” I informed him.
Vassago Motors had been my father’s. He’d started the company when we were little more than small children, needing a monetary outlet that wouldn’t draw the attention of the Feds.
He’d done well with it, and it now was a huge conglomerate that supported us instead of just being an outlet for us to run our money through to make sure it came out clean and untraceable.
“That’s cool. Can’t believe it’s never come up before, though,” he whispered tiredly.
No, I couldn’t either.
Jean Luc and the rest of The Dragon’s Warriors were a huge part of my life, and I made it a point to let them into it. They knew quite a bit about me, as I did about them.
That was how you made a successful brotherhood.
You made sure that the people that would always have your back had a reason to have it. That they knew the person that they’d give their lives for, was worthy.
“Heard anything from your woman?” Jean Luc asked after a long moment.
I glanced over at him, and moved my eyes back to the road. “Not yet. But we’ll be there in less than twenty minutes. I guess I’ll know more then.”
I’d been hoping for better news over the past two hours, but none had come.
In fact, any news had been scarce from Darcy Manor.
Everyone there was busy making sure that the wounded that were taken there were taken care of.
One of those being my mate.
Exactly twenty minutes later, I was walking into the infirmary, flabbergasted by what I saw.
Each and every bed was being utilized.
Conscious. Unconscious.
Minor injuries. Grave injuries.
They varied from person-to-person and bed-to-bed.
“Holy shit,” Nikolai breathed. “This is a nightmare.”
I agreed wholeheartedly.
Now what were we going to do about it?
“Where’s my mate?” I asked the first nurse I saw.
The nurse, I think her name was Alba, smiled and pointed to the room beyond the one we were in. “The less serious injuries are in there through that door. She’s in the very back corner behind a blue curtain.”
I was walking away before she’d even finished.
I realized it was rude, but I couldn’t help it.
The last memories I had of her were of Farrow taking her home and seeing her limp, unconscious body draped in his arms.
Then came his alarming update about her having a seizure, and I just couldn’t quite work out polite conversation at that moment in time.