Yes
, Isaiah thought,
I am an abomination.
Only an abomination would bring this down on Addy. Only an abomination would have ignored the rules. Only an abomination would’ve been so weak.
Reese put his fingers to Addy’s neck. With a curse, he reached for the upper left pocket of his jacket. His hands shook as he pulled out a small hand mirror.
“What the hell do you keep in that coat?”
“Whatever I need.” No one, including Isaiah, breathed as he slipped the mirror under Addy’s nose. Reese swore and dropped his head.
No!
“She’s still with us, Isaiah. Barely, but she’s hanging on.”
Alive. Isaiah closed his eyes as a wave of blackness rode the relief. Addy was alive. It wasn’t too late.
“Remind me never again to tease you about that coat of many pockets,” Cole drawled.
Reese opened what was left of Addy’s dress. The wounds were extensive, gruesome. Mortal.
“She didn’t shoot herself.”
Isaiah could have told them that. Addy was a fighter.
“Never thought she would.” Cole reached out with his free hand and touched a clean spot on Addy’s cheek. “Addy’s not the type to give up.”
“Damn it, Cole, sometime I’m going to have to introduce you to Addy.”
“Let’s get her home.”
“No.” Reese shook his head. “She’ll never make it.”
Yes, she would. She’d make it if he had to carry her the whole way. Isaiah made it halfway to his feet before dropping back to his knee.
“Neither will he.”
The beast growled. The man vowed,
I’ll make it.
“We can’t leave her here, lying in the dirt among all this.” The sweep of Cole’s arm blurred out of focus. Isaiah swallowed back his gorge as the world spun.
“This mess is going to be hard enough to explain to people,” Cole continued.
“I don’t give a shit about explanations.”
Neither did he.
“But being found amidst a bunch of dead, naked men isn’t a tale she’ll want following her.”
No, she wouldn’t. Isaiah forced himself to his feet. Addy was alive. Her future had to be protected. He stumbled sideways, not forward. Catching himself on the wall, he gritted his teeth and willed the dizziness away. As he stood there, the hairs on the back of his neck rose. Holding perfectly still, he listened. The music still played but crickets were silent.
Reaper.
He shouted it in his mind, but the warning never made it past his lips.
“Put the gun down, Cole.”
“Give me one good reason.”
“He’s her only chance.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“She loves him. Let him help her.”
Isaiah met Cole’s gaze and lifted his lip in a snarl. There was no “let” about it. Whatever Addy needed, he would provide. Cole broke the stare first.
“Help her how?”
Isaiah took another step forward. And then another. He had to get to Addy. To protect her.
Reaper.
He didn’t know if the warning made it past his mind.
“By getting out of the way,” Reese lashed out. His fist caught Cole on the jaw. The big man went down. Reese shook his hand out. “I’m sorry, brother, but you always did have a glass jaw on that side.”
Reese put the mirror under Addy’s nose again and swore.
“Get over here, damn it.”
Isaiah pushed the darkness away, and took a step. At least he thought he took a step.
Reese swore again. Dropping the mirror, he rushed to Isaiah.
The beast snarled and bared its fangs. Powerful muscles gathered for the strike.
No!
Closing his eyes as Reese slipped his arm around his waist and wedged his shoulder under his arm, Isaiah willed the beast under control.
“Damn, they really tore you up.”
The beast snarled again, ready to strike as Reese half led, half dragged him. Isaiah snarled right back.
No!
“Are you going to be all right?”
Isaiah nodded and dropped to his knees beside Addy, gritting his teeth as the beast struggled to gain control, its instincts demanding the death of the threat that was so close to its mate.
Leave him be.
The beast growled and clawed at Isaiah. Isaiah clamped down harder, fighting the beast’s power and his own growing weakness. The darkness beckoned. He shook his head. Soon enough, but not yet. Addy needed him.
“Isaiah. Stay with me.”
Yes, I have to stay.
“You need to bite her,” Reese ordered. “Three times.”
No, he couldn’t do that. The memories of the women he’d had to kill flew at him, half morphed, eyes wild, tortured with the agony of a conversion that could never complete, caught between the world of human and Reaper, insane with the reality of it. Screaming women. Hurting women. Unable to die, unable to live. Women who chewed off their own limbs to end the madness of the third bite.
“No.” He forced the word out in a guttural bark. “Madness.”
“I told you, I’ve been watching. They don’t all go mad.”
He thought of the one he hadn’t killed. He’d always assumed she’d avoided the third bite, but what if she hadn’t? The beast howled,
Yes!
Hard, fast, and powerful, the order surged past the barrier, feeding his hope.
No!
He shook his head. He couldn’t do that to her. Couldn’t risk it for the selfish need of the beast. He’d let her go to her God, whole, as she was meant to be. Let her live with the angels. He had the devil covered.
The beast howled a protest and clawed at its confines. As weak as he was, it was a struggle to keep it contained.
“Goddamn you, bite her. You’re not going to let her die with her only memory of this life being the hell she fought her way out of.” Reese grabbed his shoulder and shook him. “She loves you, goddamn it, be worth something to her. Bite her!”
A hand reached out of the hovering darkness, followed by a body.
Reaper.
“Who the hell are you?”
Isaiah recognized the scent.
“Blade.”
Blade looked around. “Hell of a fight you had here.”
Reese swore. “What the hell do you want.”
“I heard the ruckus.”
“From where?”
Reese was right to be suspicious. Blade was an unknown quantity. A Reaper with no loyalties other than to himself.
Isaiah didn’t need to see Blade’s face to know the look Blade was giving Reese.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“What are you?”
“Reaper.”
“The good kind, I hope.”
“If there is such a thing.”
The sound of the hammer of a gun being drawn back and Blade’s low chuckle preceded the scuff of leather across dirt as Blade knelt beside him.
“You’re his friend?”
The weight of Blade’s hand increased as the darkness encroached further. Keeping his gaze locked on Addy’s face, Isaiah held to consciousness.
“I wouldn’t go that far.”
Isaiah shook his head and touched a drop of blood sliding down Addy’s cheek, stopping its fall. She was cold, so cold. Her image grew fuzzy around the edges, but that blood spreading over his finger stayed bright. He was losing her.
“Make him bite her.”
Blade sighed. “You know they go insane.”
“Not all of them.”
There was a long pause in which Isaiah could feel Blade’s energy gathering. Isaiah gathered the remnants of his own strength in preparation for a strike. Reese protected Addy. He needed to live.
Finally Blade answered. “I’d be interested in knowing how you know that.”
“I bet you would.”
“You’re playing on dangerous ground, human.”
“I’m not playing.”
“So I see.” Air swirled against Isaiah’s cheek as Blade motioned to Addy. “What if she’s one of the ones that go insane?”
No!
“Then you’ll kill her.”
“That’s not a job I want.”
“But you’ll do it.”
Yes, he would, Isaiah knew. Blade’s ethics leaned toward not torturing women. It took tremendous effort for Isaiah to turn his head, but he needed to see Blade’s face. The man was looking at Addy, a strange expression on his face. With a twitch of his lips, Blade nodded. “Yeah. But not for the reasons you’re thinking.”
“I don’t give a shit what your reasons are, just make him bite her.”
“I’m not sure I can do that, either.”
“Then you bite her.”
Blade easily blocked Isaiah’s lunge. That shouldn’t be possible. The thought flitted through Isaiah’s mind. He and Blade were evenly matched.
Rest, Reaper.
The order slid easily under Isaiah’s beast’s confusion. Powerful and seductive, the command quelled the beast.
Reese brought up the gun. “I said, you bite her.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“It takes three bites to convert a human, but there has to be at least three days between the second and third bite.”
Three bites
, Isaiah thought. He’d already given her two.
“She’d die before I could do her any good.”
But you can save her
, Isaiah’s beast nudged.
Shut up.
“What happens if it works?”
“Your spying didn’t reveal that?”
“Just answer the question.”
“She becomes a Reaper.”
“Completely?”
“I don’t know.” Blade leaned in. Both Isaiah and the beast snarled a warning. There was the sound of cloth being disturbed and the scent of blood increased. Addy’s blood. “It’s just a theory.”
Easy, Reaper.
Again that deft delivery of calm from Blade before he said, “He’s already bitten her twice.”
“How can you tell?”
“A Reaper can always tell.”
“Why did those other Reapers want her?” Reese asked.
Blade’s expression stayed carefully blank, but Isaiah could feel his tension. “To test a theory.”
“How did they know about her?” Reese asked, keeping the gun drawn.
“Through me.”
“Why the hell did you tell them?”
Isaiah’s beast snarled.
Yes, why?
Blade nodded toward the gun. “Not only is that empty, but I’d take off your arm before you could even pull the trigger, so put it down.”
Reese hesitated. Isaiah found the strength to reach over and take the gun. At Reese’s glare, he shook his head. Fresh blood dripped down his side. The small effort left him totally drained. Blade took the gun from his hand and set it on the ground.
Thank you. I didn’t want to kill him.
I don’t want to kill you.
Sending the thought back drained the last of Isaiah’s strength. He listed to the side. A shift of Blade’s position and he was unobtrusively propping Isaiah up.
Bold talk for a half-dead Guardian.
Try me.
“Did you tell them on purpose?” Reese asked, interrupting the mental exchange.
“That’s a stupid question.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Why?”
“Maybe I thought my influence could stop all this,” Blade snapped back. “Hell, what does it matter? We’re wasting time. He’s going to pass out soon.”
“He fought a good fight.”
“He’s fought a lot of good fights,” Blade corrected, sliding a hand under Addy. The move released more of her scent. The beast howled at the odor of impending death that rode it. “But I have to admit, he’s never been hurt this bad.”
“You’re a cold son of a bitch, aren’t you?”
Yes
, Isaiah thought.
Very cold.
“So I’ve been told.”
“So are you going to help or not?”
“I believe I am.” Isaiah knew what Blade was going to do before he felt the touch of his hand on his arm and the brush of his mind.
No!
Yes.
Blade could influence anyone, anyone but Isaiah. Blade had never been able to influence him.