the girl but another sign of Stephanie’s skill at pulling information from their minds. It was growing increasingly obvious that Stephanie had some mad skills, beyond anything he’d encountered before.
Turning back to the road, he saw that they were approaching the first set of stoplights on the way into Port Henry. He eased his foot down on the brakes. . and then applied more force when nothing happened.
“What’s wrong with the brakes?” Stephanie popped into view in the rearview mirror as she abruptly sat up. He had no idea how she knew, probably a stray thought from his mind, he supposed, but didn’t have time to work it out.
“The brakes?” Drina asked with confusion.
“Hold on,” Harper ground out, reaching for the emergency brakes and cursing when that had no effect. He tried to shut off the engine then, but knew it was too late; they were already flying into the intersection on a red light. . and a semi was roaring toward them from their right, unaware of their problem and rushing to make his green.
The next moment seemed to pass both with the speed of a heartbeat, and crawl by like a slow-motion hour for Harper. He was vaguely aware of the girls’ shouting, of roaring Drina’s name himself and reaching desperately for her, and then the truck barreled into the passenger side and the scream of tearing metal joined the chaos. Blood, pop, and glass exploded through the interior of the car, and they were slammed about, and then moving sideways, screeching up the road on burning rubber and then rims, propelled by the semi. That seemed to last forever, though it was probably only a minute or two before the semi driver managed to stop his vehicle, and consequently the car as well, and then everything went silent and still.
Chapter Ten
Harper opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling over his bed, then a vision of Drina covered in blood filled his mind, and he sat up abruptly.
“Settle down, boy. You’re safe,” Teddy Brunswick said, hefting himself out of a chair beside the bed.
Harper stared at the man blankly, the crash replaying in his head; blood splashing, glass flying, and the smoke from burning rubber all filled his vision, accompanied by the sound track from hell. Shouts, screams, screeching metal, shrieking brakes, and then dead silence and stillness.
He recalled being dizzy from hitting his head. Barely holding on to consciousness, Harper had turned instinctively to Drina and moaned at what he’d found. Her bloodied body had appeared partially encased in metal, and what wasn’t-including her face-had been shredded by the flying glass.
“Drina?” he growled, shoving aside the memory along with the blankets that had been covering him, and shifting to get up.
“She’s alive. You know you people don’t die that easy,” Teddy said grimly.
Harper relaxed a fraction, but continued to his feet, asking, “And Stephanie?”
“They’re both in their room being tended to by Beau and Tiny,” Teddy assured him, reaching out to steady Harper when he swayed on his feet. “I’m thinking you need blood. Your head wound didn’t look too bad, but you lost consciousness and have been out all night. Your nanos probably used up a fair amount repairing whatever damage was done.”
“All night?” Harper muttered with surprise.
Teddy nodded. “I was surprised myself. Once we cleaned away the blood, there didn’t seem much wrong with you compared to the girls, but the knock your head took must have caused some internal damage that needed repair or something. We fed you a couple of bags of blood, but didn’t want to give you too much and cause other problems.” He frowned, and asked, “If I go fetch a bag for you, will you sit your arse down and wait for me to get back before trying to-?”
“I need to see Drina,” Harper interrupted impatiently, staggering past the man.
“That’s what I figured,” Teddy said on a sigh, and caught his arm to help him to the door. “I’ll see you down to the girls’ room then before I fetch that blood.”
Harper muttered a “thanks,” but then remained silent for the rest of the walk down the hall, the flight of stairs, and up the second floor hall to the girls’ room. He knew he definitely needed blood by the time they reached it. He was unsteady on his feet and exhausted by then. Obviously, there had been more damage done inside his head than it had appeared, but then his brain had probably bounced around inside his skull like jelly in a bowl during the accident.
Teddy reached past him to open the bedroom door, and Harper staggered eagerly forward, almost desperate to see for himself that Drina was all right. He spotted an exhausted Mirabeau and Tiny sitting in chairs by the window, and then his gaze dropped to the first bed, and he let out the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. Drina was pale, but otherwise appeared fine, with no sign of the shredded skin or smashed body he recalled in his memory.
Of course, she was under the covers, so there might be injuries still mending, but she would heal, he assured himself, his gaze now moving to Stephanie. She had been seated directly behind Drina on the impact side as well, and had no doubt taken equally severe injuries, but like Drina, the girl appeared pale and still but otherwise fine. There was an IV stand between the two single beds; two bags of blood hung from it, each with tubing. One long tube dropped down, and then curved into Stephanie’s arm, the other trailed down from the second bag and led into Drina’s.
“Sit down before you fall down,” Teddy said gruffly, urging him to the bedside as Tiny and Mirabeau stood up.
“How are you feeling?” Mirabeau asked, coming around the bed toward him.
“I’m no expert on your people, but I think he needs blood,” Teddy answered for him as he forced Harper to sit on the side of Drina’s bed.
Mirabeau nodded and turned back toward the windows, but Tiny was already opening a cooler that sat under the window ledge and retrieving a bag.
“What happened?” Harper asked as he accepted the bag, and then clarified, “After the accident. How did you get us out?”
“I was first on the scene,” Teddy said grimly. “Got the call in my car and headed right over. Didn’t realize it was you three at first. Between injuries and the burst bags of blood all three of you were unrecognizable.” He grimaced at the memory. “I thought it was people at first and as good as dead, but then you moaned Drina’s name, and I took a second look. Once I realized it was you three, I blocked off the road and called the house, then started trying to get you all out. I thought we’d need the Jaws of Life, but then Beau and Anders got there and started pulling the metal away like it was toffee. Even so, it took a long time to get Stephanie and Drina out. They were both a damned mess. Never seen a body so mangled, let alone two, and it was hard to tell where flesh ended and metal began,” he added with a shake of the head. “Never want to see anything like that again so long as I live.”
“I had no brakes,” Harper said fretfully, his old familiar friend, guilt, creeping over him as he wondered if there was something he could have done to prevent the crash.
“Yeah, I know,” Teddy said, surprising him, and then explained, “I took witness reports, and when they kept saying you didn’t even try to stop, I knew something was wrong. I had the car towed down to the garage to be looked over. The mechanic, Jimmy, called me just a few minutes before you woke up and reported that the brake lines were cut.”
“Cut?” Harper asked with a frown, and then muttered, “We didn’t have any trouble on the way into London. It must have been done in the parking lot while we were in the mall.”
“Most likely,” Teddy agreed. He then added, “The news, though, immediately made me wonder if that Leonius feller didn’t track down the girl here after all.”
Mirabeau shook her head at once. “Leonius wouldn’t try to kill her. He wants her alive for breeding.”
“Breeding?” Teddy squawked, his dismayed eyes shooting to the fifteen-year-old.
Mirabeau nodded, her expression tight. “To replace the sons he lost taking Stephanie and her sister. He wouldn’t have tried to kill her,” she said firmly. “It couldn’t have been him.”
“I don’t know,” Tiny said slowly, and when the others turned to him in question, he pointed out, “He’d know
