“Just banged up.”
“You’re bleeding. Reach under the seat for that kit. Take a dose of what’s in there just to be safe.”
Cole was just about to point out some of Paige’s injuries but she was already looking a little better. He reached under his seat, found the small leather pouch and unzipped it. The pouch had probably been a travel kit for nail files and that sort of thing, but now held several small syringes. Since the labels marked with an N were Nymar antidote, he took one of the others, which contained the special concoction Skinners used for healing.
Perhaps it was the kit or the syringes, but he couldn’t help feeling like a junkie. “You sure I need this? I’m feeling okay.”
“You need to let it absorb into your system. Once you start producing it on your own, you won’t need half as many injections.”
Pausing with the needle poised over his arm, Cole asked, “Can’t I get addicted to this stuff?”
“Only if you take too much when you’re not hurt. Just do it.”
The syringe was half the size of a pencil and not even half full. The needle was about as thin as a hair. He didn’t feel so much as a sting, but could definitely tell the solution was doing its job after the injection. The breaths that followed were easier to pull in. The sore spots where all those punches had landed weren’t aching so badly, but his headache stayed put. Nothing was perfect.
Once she’d put the apartment complex behind her and pulled onto I-90, Paige floored the gas pedal.
“Shouldn’t we look for that thing?” Cole asked.
Daniels leaned forward and grabbed the backs of both seats. “The hell we will! We’re going back for Sally and then getting the hell away from here!”
Paige turned around to look directly into Daniels’s face when she said, “Both of you, shut up! Burkis got what he wanted and left, just like Canada. He’s long gone by now.”
Cole was still anxious. He looked in the mirror a few times, but there was nothing bounding down the street behind them, and the burning reaction from his scars had completely cooled off. Finally, he let out a sigh and slumped into his seat. “Right. Just like Canada. He was after the Blood Blade.”
“And Daniels gave it to him,” Paige said.
“No I didn’t.”
Ignoring the squeak from the backseat, Paige continued, “Cole, you happened to be in the spot where Gerald and Brad were picking up two of those blades and the Full Blood came to get them. You brought one back, so he tracked you here and came to get the second one.”
“If Blood Blades can kill those things, why would Burkis follow it around?”
“Probably so nobody else can have it.”
“But,” Daniels mumbled, “he doesn’t—”
“It’s not your fault,” Paige said as she tossed a wave over her shoulder. “We’re not angry. You did the best you could.”
The Nymar’s meek voice gained an edge when he said, “I saved your lives.”
Cole took a quick look back to find Daniels sitting with his arms crossed. “He’s right, Paige. Burkis was there for the Blood Blade and he got it, right in the damn face. Maybe the cops haven’t found him yet because he changed back after he lost too much blood. He may even be dead.”
“He’s not dead,” Paige said.
“How do you know?”
“Because,” she replied as she steered toward an interchange that led to I-80, “that would make things too easy.”
“I want to go back,” Daniels announced. “It’s the least you can do for me.”
Paige lifted her chin to look at him through the rearview mirror. “Your girlfriend is fine. I made sure of that myself, and Burkis has no reason to go back there. If you want to call her, go ahead, but we’re not going back there either.”
“Where are we going?” Cole asked. “Back to Raza Hill?”
Keeping one hand on the steering wheel, Paige dug out her phone with the other. “Nope.” Before Cole could ask another question, the call she’d made had already been answered. “Hey, Steph! How’s it going?…Yeah?…Well I just thought I’d give you a quick call to let you know we got the gift you sent…Oh, come on. You know the gift I mean. That guy from New York with the matching set of assholes from your own personal collection…Don’t give me any of that. I know you sent them…Uh-huh.” When she paused this time, Paige looked over to Cole and made the yapping gesture with her free hand.
Cole chuckled uncomfortably and looked out the window. The weight of everything he’d done started to mash him into his seat like a bag of rocks the size of Minnesota being slowly lowered onto the back of his neck. He had some trouble drawing his next breath, so he rolled down the window.
“Why would they come on their own, Steph? Tell me that,” Paige said. “Can’t think of a reason why they’d do that? That’s because they
The bag of rocks pushed down on Cole a bit more. Conversely, Paige was doing her best not to keep her smirk from bleeding into her voice when she said, “You know those two Nymar I was talking about? They’re dead…Yeah, we’re sure. Dead as Abe Lincoln. And that guy from New York? He’s a Full Blood. Send anyone you like down to Schaumburg or you could just flip on the news. You’ll hear all about it. What’s that?…”
Cole pulled in one deep breath, held it, and then let it out. It helped, but not a lot.
“You’re sorry?” Paige laughed. “About the Full Blood or the guys you sent to kill us?…Oh, I see. Well, since the only time Full Bloods generally deal with Nymar is to pick them out from between their teeth, you’ll be real sorry before too long. Just thought I’d keep you in the loop, sweetie. Tell Ace me and Cole say hi…Huh?…Oh, well screw you too, then. ’Bye.” Paige snapped her phone shut and threw it toward the backseat. When she heard Daniels yelp, she looked into the rearview mirror and asked, “Wasn’t that great?”
“What did she say?” Cole asked.
“Oh, first she tried to say that Burkis came on his own and must have gotten the other two to come along with him. After I told her the news, she got all pissed and said she’d called Burkis and sent all three because we made her look bad in her parlor. When I told her about the Full Blood, that really got her.”
“Almost got all of us,” Daniels muttered.
She leaned over to Cole and said, “Nymar don’t like Full Bloods.”
“Is it the old ‘vampire versus werewolf’ feud?” Cole asked.
“Not really. Do
“No.”
“There you go. There’s more to it than that. Way back when, a few Nymar got lucky and killed some werewolves in Philadelphia. Whoever did that kept the ball rolling and tried to set themselves up like lords in a stronghold. The Nymar never really controlled the place, but they kept strutting to make themselves look good, and the Full Bloods have just stayed out of the cities since then. Cole, see if there’s anything new about KC on the Internet and then call MEG. After that, you can sleep for a few hours.”
“I can stay awake until we get home.”
“We’re not going back to Raza Hill. I already told you that.”
“Wherever we’re stopping, I can make it there and then crash when we get home,” he insisted.
“Well, we’ll probably stop for gas in a while, but we’re headed to Kansas City.”
Both Cole and Daniels sat up and said, “What?”
Paige nodded and tapped the wheel to a song that could barely be heard over the radio. “We chased away one Full Blood, but there’s another in KC. If we don’t do something about those Half Breeds, the whole city will have one hell of an infestation.”
“No,” Daniels snapped. “I’ve got appointments. Research to do.
“I told you to grab all the stuff you needed to finish that research,” Paige reminded him. “Did you?”
Reluctantly, Daniels said, “Yes.”
Bouncing her eyes between the road and the rearview mirror, Paige shifted her voice to a softer tone. “I didn’t
