“Caesar’s on the field tonight. Ace, you’re on tomorrow. Tanner, you’re the day after that. I’ll be the day after that. Griffin, keep up the research.”
With Rowan in on everything, they weren’t all called out on the same night anymore. I only worried about one of them every night, except Griffin, who never got called to fight. He was fine with that, finding the whole thing ridiculous. He could kill as easily as the rest of them, but there were better uses for his time.
“We were just talking about going to Asheville.”
Rowan leaned against the counter. “You look pretty, Maci. I could go to Asheville.”
“Thank you.” I stood up. “So, should we go?”
I didn’t have to work the next day, or I would’ve said no to Asheville. We’d probably get home just before sunrise.
“Did you eat anything?” Rowan walked toward the fridge and opened it. “Or am I making you something?”
Rowan hated the smell of food cooking. They all did, but Rowan seemed to dislike it the most. Ace hated the smell of orange juice. Tanner never complained, but the scent of coffee made him gag. If Griffin and Caesar had complaints, they didn’t voice them, although Caesar had hated it in the beginning, too.
“I ate already.”
My whole body suddenly went cold, as though I’d stepped into a freezer completely naked and been locked inside. I doubled over, my hands going to my head as my ears rang and my vision blurred.
“What is it?” Ace had me in his arms and against his chest. “Talk to me. What’s wrong?”
“Her pain.” Tanner gasped. “It’s awful.”
I couldn’t answer him for a long second. I had to think, had to make it through the awful so that I could even explain the horror that suddenly dawned on me. “Caesar,” I managed to choke out. “He’s hurt.”
“He’s what?” Rowan’s voice boomed around me. I closed my eyes. I had to center, to push through his pain so I could make some kind of decisions about what to do. The door slammed open and shut—Rowan headed out to find Caesar.
I gripped Ace’s shirt, my hands shaking. “Take me to him. To the battle, right now.”
“No,” Griffin snapped, answering for Ace. “That’s too risky. Humans will give him blood. He can feed from you later. You on the battlefield is not going to happen, and Caesar would say the same.”
Fuck that noise.I pushed off Ace. I wasn’t losing Caesar. There was nothing that was going to take away my happy, not as long as there was strength left in my body. Pain wouldn’t take me down, and these vampires weren’t going to dictate things. They just weren’t.
I stumbled backward, pushing Ace back with a shove when I did. “Then I’ll walk to him, and so help me, if any of you try to stop me, I’ll never speak to you again.” The likelihood of that was small, but in that moment, I meant it—I fuckingmeantit. Caesar didn’t need random blood; he neededmyblood. Damn it. He did.
“Okay.” Ace nodded. “Come on. I’ll take you. In the car. You’ll stay in the car. We’ll find a way to bring Caesar to you. Okay? That will have to do. I’m not parading you around for the elders to see. Especially not any of those fuckers who fed from you before.”
Griffin shoved Ace’s shoulder. “Why do you think you get to decide this? I just said no. You don’t outrank me, and despite what others think, I’m absolutely as capable of fighting as you.”
“Boys.” I put myself between them. “I don’t give a shit about your bickering right now. Griffin, he’s not in charge, but neither are you. I run my life. That’s how this works. And I’m going to Caesar, the same way I’d go to any of you. Time isn’t on my side.” I could feel the cold surrounding me. It was going to consume me, take me under, and I’d never come out the other side.Like drowning in cold.
“I’m going.”
A muscle ticked in Griffin’s jaw, but he backed off. I walked outside and was hustled into the car by Tanner, who scooted in to sit practically on top of me. We took off with a screech, the car practically coming off its wheels with how fast Ace drove it.
Griffin tugged on my hair. “He wouldn’t want this. You know that, right? I wouldn’t want it, either. You anywhere near this is not on our agenda. I don’t even think Ace would want this.”
Hearing his name, he pounded on the steering wheel. “No, of course not, but if she’s going to do it anyway, then I’m going to help her, so she doesn’t get fucking killed. How is that?”
I didn’t answer, drowning in ice. Tanner sighed. “We’ll figure out a paradigm after this. For now, she helps Caesar, and then we’ll know how we’ll proceed in the future. She was so pale when she felt his pain. I don’t want that again. She’s not better yet. Everyone, just calm down.”
We finally arrived at the location of the current battle. It felt like hours passed, but it probably took ten minutes. Sometimes time physically hurts in its passage; I don’t think I understood it before then. There was pain to the way time moved fast or slowly.
I didn’t have to get out of the car. Tanner jumped out before Ace even really slowed down, and Caesar was placed inside by Rowan. He nodded at me and then at Ace. “Get them out of here. Fast. Attention is turned elsewhere.”
The car jerked forward, but I hardly noticed it, all of my attention on Caesar. I’d never seen an injured vampire before. They hurt me, but I’d never seen any of them as anything but powerful and healthy.
Caesar looked like he would die… any second. Pale skin, with blue veins tracking jagged lines all over his face—even right under his eyes. His lips were pale, void of any blush of redness at all, and his eyes, barely squints, were pure black.