“You can use this.” Nadya handed over the hunting knife. “You just have to open the vein yourself.”
Rio’s hand shook as she took the hilt of the blade, and when she looked down at the inside of her wrist, the color went out of her face so that she was almost as pale as her male was.
“Here.” Nadya gently took the knife back. “Would you like me to help you?”
“Please. And hurry.”
The petrified courage on the woman’s face was the definition of love itself: Though she was absolutely terrified, she was not going to allow herself to turn back, not when she could save the one she loved.
For a moment, Nadya pictured Kane’s face—his new one, not the old one. Then she said softly, “Look at him, focus on him. You won’t feel a thing if you connect with how much you love him.”
Rio’s eyes shimmered with tears and one crystalline drop escaped, pooling on her lower lashes and then falling down her cheek. She was impatient as she brushed it away.
“Do it.”
Nadya nodded, and waited as the woman took a deep breath. Then she put the blade to the bones that were so close to the skin, and penetrated the flesh running parallel to them.
The blood welled immediately, and Nadya rushed the source of energy to Lucan’s mouth. “Talk to him. He needs to hear your voice. Tell him to drink.”
“Lucan? Honey, it’s me.” The woman smoothed his hair back from his forehead. “I want you to… swallow? Okay? I need you to swallow.”
Rio looked up for confirmation that that was correct, and when Nadya nodded, she continued speaking in the same quiet but firm voice.
And that was all they could do with what they had: The blood was pooling on his lips, right under his nose. He just had to open his mouth and take it down. Whether he could or not, was up to Fate.
As Nadya let herself fall back into a sit upon the soft padding of the pine needles, she thought of her mentor.
Do what you can with what you have, whenever and wherever you are.
Memories of the prison camp came back to her, and none of the images were good. She saw males and females who were half-starved, ill, injured, all of them being forced to package the drugs that were brought into the camp for distribution down in Caldwell.
“Is he going to make it?”
Mayhem put the question out there as blood trickled off of the sides of Lucan’s closed lips.
“I hope so.” Nadya reached out and stroked the sides of Lucan’s windpipe. “Swallow, Lucan. If you want to pull through this, you have to swallow.”
Her voice was so sharp and demanding that it cut through the crooning of his mate.
And sure enough, that was what did the trick. The male responded to the command and gurgled—and then took everything that had gathered around his tongue down into his gut.
It was not going to be like it would be if the blood were of the species. But it was what they had for where they were, and his bonding for the woman was going to turbocharge the strength it gave him.
“Just keep feeding him,” she said.
Glancing over her shoulder, she wondered where Apex was with those supplies. Although what Lucan really needed was an operating theater and a surgeon who could delicately reattach the severed artery.
“Stay with us, Lucan…”
“Honey, I need you to swallow—”
From somewhere off to the left, Kane suddenly reappeared, and as he looked at her across the dying wolven’s body, he had the strangest expression on his face.
Nadya stared up at him, and worried that he thought she wasn’t doing enough.I’m sorry, she mouthed.
For what?he mouthed back.
As she considered her options, she didn’t know, she really didn’t.