touching them. I’m beginning to think the whole underworld has joined forces against us.”
“What’s next?” Jamie asked. “Werewolves?”
Cody’s mentor had told him about a creature he saw when he was a kid, a human that changed into an animal. Daniel swore it wasn’t a demon. He spoke of it only once, when he had too much whisky following a hard battle.
Jamie shifted, wincing. “Is someone guarding the tunnel?”
“Shane and Tomas checked it earlier, and we’ve posted two guards there.”
“Maybe we should move Shay to New York,” Jamie said.
“If we move her, we’ll risk having her out in the open until we can get her inside the castle walls there. Even though we’ve been breached here, more warriors are on the way. France has a dozen on the way, and Ireland’s sending twenty.” He hadn’t asked the clan in Ireland, not after sending one of their own back in a casket, but they had volunteered. “We can line them up shoulder to shoulder, if we have to.” Cody looked around the room, trying to decide how to ask Jamie what he wanted to ask. “I need a favor.”
Jamie looked surprised. “I’m listening.”
Cody held Jamie’s gaze and remembered staring at him across the body in the woods, thinking Shay was dead. “If something happens to me… I want you to take care of Shay.” His throat tightened at the words, but he had to make sure she would be okay. Jamie loved her. He would protect her. Give her a good life.
Jamie watched him for a minute and then he nodded. “You have my word.”
“Thank you.”
Duncan stuck his head in the door, his scowl even more pronounced than usual. “Has anyone seen Sorcha? Bloody woman’s never where she’s supposed to be.”
“She’s guarding the gate,” Cody said. He hadn’t seen Sorcha and Duncan together since Duncan kissed her during the Council meeting.
“I’m going to check on her,” Duncan said, passing Coira on the way out.
“Have you been to the bathroom tonight?” she asked Jamie.
He rolled his eyes. “Not yet.”
“Better do it while you have a man to help you, or I’ll have to stick a bedpan under you. I’m going to sleep in the infirmary so I can watch Shay. Don’t forget your pain pills. Won’t do anyone any good if you don’t rest so your body can heal.”
“Damn,” Jamie said, after she left.
“Uh… you need to go?” Cody asked.
Jamie nodded and slowly sat up. It took him a minute to stand. Cody put his arm around Jamie, supporting him, and helped him into the bathroom, wondering if this was some kind of karma or penance for acting like an asshole.
***
Ronan frowned as Bree stood over Shay’s bed. He and Niall had spent the night hunting that thing in the woods. Cody left minutes after they had. He hoped Cody had better luck. It was as if it had vanished into thin air with not even a track.
“What’s wrong?” Faelan asked Bree.
She leaned closer and touched the bandage on Shay’s arm. “Vampire,” she said, and blinked several times. “She’s been marked by a vampire.”
Chapter 18
Ronan felt as if he had swallowed a frog. “Are you sure?” he choked.
“I think so,” Bree said.
Faelan moved closer. “Marked by an ancient demon and a vampire? Damnation. Poor wee lass.”
Bree pressed her hand to her forehead. “I think I need to sit down.”
“You don’t need to sit down, you need to lie down,” Ronan scolded. To Faelan he said, “She’s been hanging off those ladders in the library like a monkey when you’re not watching.”
Bree gave Ronan the evil eye.
“I don’t need you to take care of my wife,” Faelan said to Ronan. He turned to Bree. “Are ye trying to drive me mad?” He swung her up in his arms and carried her sputtering from the room.
The whole clan couldn’t keep Bree out of trouble. Ronan wished he could just tell Faelan about the baby, so he didn’t have to worry about letting Bree’s secret slip.
“You think it’s a bite?” Coira asked, unwinding the bandage to check Shay’s scratch.
“Scratch, bite, it doesn’t matter,” Ronan said. “If her blood’s been tainted by a vampire, she needs a transfusion.”
“A transfusion? I don’t have enough blood. She’ll have to go to the hospital, and Cody will kill us if we take her outside these walls. You know how he feels about her.”
“There’s no time for the hospital. She’s his mate. What do you think he’ll do if we let a vampire lure her away? I think she’s been marked.”
“Cody said she got the scratch days ago. Why isn’t she dead? I thought vampire bites were supposed to kill, drain the blood, you know,” Coira said.
“I think marking a victim is different, like injecting a poison or drug. It makes you weak at first, and then if it
