Bound (Legacy Series Book 4) Read online

  "I never said what happened. Just that something did." Xany giggled.

  "Uh huh…"

  "Loosen up, Nee. If you don't give them something, they will make up shit on their own. This way you're a goddess to everyone." Xany sat down in the desk chair before I had a chance to. I perched myself on the desk and sighed.

  "I guess at my last job I just let them make up whatever they wanted. It didn't matter."

  "Now it matters." Xany pushed the chair back and started spinning it around.

  "Yeah. It does." I watched her and tried to focus in on my mate bonds. They remained steady as always.

  "You're welcome." Xany grinned.

  "You're too much." I chuckled a bit. "How long do you think it's going to take for Ileana to show up?"

  "A day or two. I'm sure she has someone here spying for her."

  "Really?" Worry washed over me, choking me like a tight scarf around my throat.

  "How do you think she was able to set up that kidnapping so well? She had inside help of course." Xany picked her legs up as she twirled around in the chair.

  "Xee, this is a big deal. Did Caden tell you this? Why aren't you trying to calm me down when I feel like my heart is going to puke itself out my mouth?" I gripped the desk as images of nearly every hospital employee I ever met ran through my mind. What if it was the charge nurse? Or the new security guy? What if it was Beth? She seemed to be into kinky stuff like Ileana had in her house.

  "I heard..." Xany stopped spinning the chair. "Caden and Hank discussing it."

  "Why didn't they tell us that?"

  "Because then you wouldn't have come back to work."

  "Keeping me in the dark isn't helping us. What if we're in greater danger? Maybe I shouldn't have agreed so readily to this plan."

  "Then we wouldn't be here, silly." She got up and then hugged me. "You stood up to her once, you can do it again. We all have faith in you, NeeNee."

  I sighed and leaned into her embrace, "It's harder to be distracted and all-consumed by work when you're here because we talk about all of this. I guess it's not a bad thing."

  "I make it interesting." Xany grinned at me as she tucked a stray hair behind my ear.

  "You make it safer."

  "I promise not to stake you." Her lips curved into a soft smile.

  "It was horrible in that room, Xee. Surrounded by vampires." I held my breath as the words tumbled from me. "I could feel everyone freaking out and you all sent me images. I don't want to be there again."

  "But see, Nee, you weren't alone. So you'll never be there again."

  "It felt pretty alone."

  "But next time, if it ever happens again, you won't be. You'll know that someone is only a thought away."

  Only a thought away. Xany's words echoed in my head. I took a few deep breaths and glanced toward the darkened windows.

  "I saw her there. Remember when Mom healed my broken wrist? Ileana showed up outside the window and scared me. I tripped over that chair there and fell."

  "Why didn't you tell anyone?"

  "I thought I was hallucinating again."

  "You know better than that. You haven't had one of those things in like forever."

  "I know. But still."

  "Always trying to do things on your own." Xany shook her head at me.

  "Habit." I smirked.

  "One you need to break."

  "You're super serious tonight. Are you empathing the hospital? If so, that's a bad idea."

  "Sometimes you need serious Xany, like now. Funny Xany likes picking on you when you're in a bad mindset and needs cheering up. Right now you're just scared and need to see that things will be fine and not to panic." Xany rubbed her hands over my arms. Maybe it was me she was empathing.

  "Thanks, Xee. I'm also worried that you're not home with Vanessa. She has no idea what being pregnant means. Like, not at all." I checked my new pagers just to make sure they were working. It seemed way too quiet at Stormhill.

  "Your mom does. So she's just fine."

  "Thankfully." I sighed. "We should go back out there. Beth might get suspicious."

  "I'll just give her a few juicy details to distract her." Xany grinned.

  "Don't you dare." I laughed and shoved her shoulder.

  "You know I will." Xany giggled.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  "How was your first night on the job, Xee?" Gavin asked the next morning as we gathered for breakfast. Vanessa was the last to join us and she dropped down in the chair beside Mal. She appeared miserably tired with mussed hair and reddened eyes. I kissed her cheek when I set a plate of bacon and eggs on the table in front of her. Caden carried a dish of sausages to the table and sat down beside Xany.

  "Boring. No one came in covered in blood with their guts hanging out." Xany grabbed a sausage and took a bite.

  "Thankfully." I flicked Xany's ear as I sat beside Mal.

  "It was just sniffles and a few bumps and bruises."

  "Yeah and no vomit on the floor. I was right giddy about that." Gavin stacked eggs and sausages between two slices of toast.

  "Did any of the nurses hit on you?" Xany snickered.

  "A few. That pretty receptionist bought me coffee." A grin spread across Gavin's mouth around a bite of toast.

  "Sounds like you all had some fun." Caden chuckled.

  "Yep. Nee's a goddess at the hospital."

  "Am not." I poked around at the egg yolk, breaking it and watching the yellow ooze all over the plate.

  "By tomorrow the whole place will be talking about Nee's orgy house." Xany giggled.

  "Wait this is an orgy house? And no one invited me? I'm a cat!" Every word of Gavin's sentence got muffled within his mouthful of food.

  "That's 'cause you already live here, silly," teased Xany.

  "There's no orgies here. You all sleep like regular people. Now, the Pride during heat time. That's an orgy." Gavin nodded as he lifted his glass of orange juice.

  "Go back to sleep, baby," I whispered to Vanessa as she nearly nodded off after finishing half her plate. She rested her chin on my shoulder and shook her head.

  "Of course not but they don't know that," Xany said.

  "What fun is that?" Gavin made himself another breakfast sandwich while Caden seemed entertained by his antics.

  Xany tossed a sausage at Gavin.

  "Hey!"

  Mal looked over at Vanessa and then caught my gaze. He smiled and nodded in her direction.

  "Out cold," he said.

  "I know." I wrapped my arm around her shoulders. She snuggled up against me and soft purrs escaped her. "I'd carry her off to bed if I could."

  "I got it." Mal stood up and lifted Vanessa from the seat beside me. At first, she gasped and her eyes peeked open but as soon as she saw Mal, she held on to him and drifted back to sleep. I followed as he carried her to my bedroom. He set her down on the bed and I smiled at him. He grinned and kissed my cheek as he walked past.

  "Thank you."

  "I do what I can." He patted my ass and left me with Vanessa.

  I pulled a blanket over her and watched her for a moment. Peacefulness smoothed her features and thinned her lips into soft lines. As she inhaled, our mate bond followed, leaving me with a gentle fluttering sensation with each exhale. I kissed her cheek and tucked the blanket around her shoulders.

  Mal was in the hall when I closed the door behind me.

  "I'm going to have a quick shower," I told him.

  "All right, love."

  Why did all my thoughts seem to flow together whenever I showered? The events of the day, things I'd forgotten, worries, and to-do's always caught me there. Did it really matter if Xany told Beth my private business? It bothered me at the time but looking back at it, I'm not ashamed of who I am or of my family. Maybe it was time I started showing it.

  I turned the water off and grabbed the towel from the sink, wrapping it around myself. When I pulled the curtain back, Mal had just closed the door behind him.

  "What are
you doing, creepy wolfman?" I laughed at his goofy grin as I turned around to brush my hair in the mirror, I watched him from over my shoulder.

  Mal stepped up behind me, wrapping his arms around my middle. His eyes remained on mine in the mirror. He kissed my neck and our mate bond gave a sharp jerk, exposing his motives. I set the brush down on the vanity.

  Words weren't necessary as he placed his hand on my back and urged me to bend over the counter. His legs moved in between mine while his fingers caressed their way down my sides to my hips. The fullness of his desire pressed against the heat of my core, setting alight my own unquenched craving. His grip tightened and he plunged into me pausing with a groan as if being buried inside of me was like being home. We stayed like that for only a few moments before he began to slowly move, stoking the fire of our need. His length sliding from tip to core filling me with an unbridled sense of passion. The rhythm building to frenzy until we both exploded, clearing my mind of any worries and replacing it with mindless bliss.

  Mal had me breathless, my chest heaved against the sink as he held me. I dropped my head down on the countertop as a chuckle escaped him, radiating downward to the place where we remained connected. He ran his fingers up and down my back, his breathing matched mine. I glanced at him in the mirror as he lifted me, holding me from behind. The two of us in the mirror, a mess of bronzed skin and dark hair. We were almost a painting, or one of those dated photographs my mother used to have in our den. He cupped my breasts, then caressed my stomach as his eyes remained on mine in the mirror. When he opened his mouth to speak, a rattling vibration coupled with the shrill ringtone of my work phone tore apart our moment. I grumbled more than he did as I picked it up.

  "It's work."

  "Better get it, they never call you." He let me go as I flipped open the phone.

  "This is Shawnee." I mouthed "thank you" to Mal as he handed me a towel.

  "Doctor Twofeathers, this is Doctor Fox. We're going to need you here. We have half-a-dozen traumas of unknown origin on the way in."

  "Unknown origin? Who called it in?" I asked and scuttled around the bathroom gathering up clean clothes. I tossed them on as Mal frowned at me. He nodded toward the door and stepped out.

  "Multiple dispatches. ETA five minutes."

  "I'm close by, I'll be right there." I hung up the phone.

  Caden, Xany, and Gavin were still in the kitchen when I rushed in. "Xee, you'll have to come with me."

  "Got it." Xany hurried off down the hall.

  "I'll bend you there. Hank has some others still on perimeter watch," said Caden as he tied on his boots.

  "I'll stay with Vanessa. We can bend in if the need arises." Mal helped me clip the pagers to my jeans as Xany reemerged in a set of blue scrubs.

  "I'll head back myself. I'm not on duty but they'll think less of me wandering around aimlessly then you blokes." Gavin nodded toward Caden and Mal.

  "Good point. Ready?" Caden held out his elbow. Xany and I joined him at once. Mal offered me a firm nod as Caden bended us away.

  Our feet slammed the ground somewhere in the woods behind the hospital. Barron showed up beside us, his thick brow narrowed.

  "Let's go, Xee. We can run up the path there, it will look like we came off the street," I said.

  "Shawnee," Caden's sharp tone had me frozen. "Put this back on." He handed me the gun holster and hoodie. My stomach lurched. I'd forgotten my only weapon. Caden helped me fasten it and I tossed on the jacket. Sirens wailed in the distance. Xany zipped it up for me and we ran together at once.

  "We have no idea what we're running into," I briefed Xany as we skidded to a halt beside the emergency room entrance. "This could be bad."

  "I know." Xany took a deep breath. "Let's go."

  The emergency room was a scene out of a television drama. Twice as many nurses, Dr. Fox, and the resident, Dr. Nylar, stood awaiting the arrival of the ambulances. One of the nurses ran up to me with a gown and coveralls and I dressed as quickly as possible over my plain clothes. Xany allowed them to prepare her as well.

  "Nylar, you take room one with Doctor Twofeathers. We're going to have to double up," Doctor Fox said as screaming sirens halted out front.

  "What's the count?" I asked, leading Xany and the resident toward the door.

  "At last call, five. One pediatric."

  "Shit."

  EMTs and police officers flooded the ER. Two gurneys arrived first. I took the first, and Fox raced behind me for the second.

  "What've we got?"

  "Nine-year-old female, attacked by mountain lion. Wounds to the neck and leg. Heavy blood loss but she stabilized in the bus," an EMT answered me as a horde of nurses lifted the girl on to the table. She remained unconscious.

  "Get some blood in here," I said and tended to the patient. Blood matted her hair and saturated the towels over her neck and thigh. "Vitals."

  "BP is dropping."

  "We need to stop the bleed. Check the leg," I instructed.

  Xany stood beside me as I carefully lifted the covering on the girl's neck. I expected claw marks, bite marks, something to indicate an animal attack. Instead, her neck was torn out from a single point of entry. Xany tensed beside me while I pushed the flesh back into place. Remnants of matching puncture wounds about an inch apart met at the central position where the flesh tore. This time, I knew what to do. I slipped two fingers into the wound and immediately, my hand grew warm. Bloody towels hid my hand just as the slippery worm-like artery slithered together beneath my fingertips. I pulled my hand back, allowing the heal to radiate through the muscle and tissue. Just before the superficial injury healed, I tugged my hand away. Xany and I exchanged a glanced and, in that moment, I wished she could telepath like Mal.

  "We got this one, Doc," James' voice burst over the monitors and ruckus around us. "Bleeding stopped."

  "She's stabilizing."

  "Vitals good."

  "She's still out."

  "Send her up to the OR, she's going to need repair on that leg," I said.

  Nylar nodded as I tugged Xany out of the room. I tore off the bloodied gown and gloves and pulled on another set. "That was no mountain lion. We need to let Caden know."

  "I did," Xany said as she, too, redressed. "You healed her, Nee," Xany's voice was barely a whisper.

  "I know. Just keep following," I said as we raced into Dr. Fox's room. Monitors screamed in flat line.

  "Clear!" He shouted and everyone moved their hands away from the blonde woman on the table. The woman's body lifted and dropped back down as Fox shocked her with the defibrillator. Two beeps followed by another wailing flat line. "Again, clear!"

  "Is that woman wearing pink scrubs?" Xany asked.

  "Yes," one of the nurses answered.

  "Is she one of ours?" I asked.

  "We got a rhythm."

  "She's not ours," Fox said as he moved in to inspect the wound on the woman's neck. One of the nurses removed the mask from her mouth when the woman stirred.

  "We're going to need surgery here." Fox nodded to her neck.

  "You're going to be okay, honey," James said. "You're in the hospital."

  "What hospital?" The woman asked, her voice scratchy. My stomach churned as I took a step closer to the woman. Another neck wound that I didn't doubt was a vampire bite. Doctor Fox stepped aside and the woman looked at me. "Doctor?" She coughed. "Doctor Twofeathers? Your… your hair is down."

  Shit. Oh no. This can't be happening.

  "Sam?" When I spoke her, it came out as barely a whisper.

  "Yeah. What are you doing here?"

  "You know her?" Doctor Fox asked.

  "Her name's Samantha Riley. I used to work with her." I didn't need to look at Xany to sense her sudden tension. Sickness swirled in my stomach. "How'd you get here, Sam?"

  "Don't know." She breathed out slowly. "I'm tired."

  "Samantha, we're going to take you to get fixed up. You're going to be all right," Fox interrupted and the nurses prepped Sam for transport
. She closed her eyes and I was pretty sure she passed out. Xany pulled me out of the room and into the hall. More monitors screamed from room one. I ran back to the room just in time to see Doctor Nylar staring down at a man on the table. His head was turned to the side and covered in bloody towels.

  "How long has he been down?" I asked.

  "He came in down," Nylar's voice trembled. "I… I couldn't do anything. His… his chest. His chest…"

  "What?"

  I stepped closer to the table and she pulled back the sheet. A hole gaped at us, blood continuing to seep from it. It looked like a close-range shotgun blast.

  "He… I couldn't find his heart."

  "You couldn't find it?" I frowned at the resident then reached inside the cavity, fully expecting to find his heart or pieces of it at least. Nothing. Even his ribs had been broken away. "Call it."

  "But…"

  "Call it now."

  "Time of death, 9:34am," Nylar said as the nurse detached him from the monitors. I removed the rags from his face and froze. "It's Oliver. We operated on him a few weeks ago."

  "I thought he looked familiar. Did you work on him?" Nylar asked.

  "No, I diagnosed him. Shit." What the hell is going on here?

  "We had another guy come in DOA. They have him downstairs." Nylar took off the mask, her eyes sunken. "I've never called a death before."

  "I know. Where's the fifth?" I asked as Xany continued to stare at Oliver. I couldn't tell if she was preoccupied by something inside herself or by the dead body on the table. I put my hand on her shoulder.

  "She's in triage. Her wound was superficial," Nylar said.

  "Let me guess, neck or thigh?"

  "Neck. But her arm is broken as well."

  "I'll take it," I said. "Will you set her up in four with James? We can't move Oliver yet."

  "Nee…"

  "Hang on, Xee. We need to get the last patient in," I said, leading Xany into the empty exam room.

  "Yeah, sure." Nylar left to retrieve the patient.

  "What did Caden say?" I took the moment alone to steal Xany's attention.