It struck her then that she’d killed someone. Samantha knew she should feel something, but as the flames continued to climb higher and higher around them, nothing came. And she didn’t have time to worry about that. Instead, she kicked Rogi’s rifle away from the body—just in case—then turned and ran toward Trey.
From the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Kyson standing up, Shaylee still protected in his arms. The wound across his back was already closed and healing fast, but he’d be left with yet another scar on top of everything else he’d been forced to live with.
It wasn’t fair.
No matter how worried she was about Kyson, all that disappeared the second she reached Trey where he lay tangled among the crushed pieces of antique armor he’d landed on, a huge pool of blood splattered all across his chest. Her doctor’s training immediately told her there was no way he could still be alive even as she watched him pushing himself upright.
“Is it safe for you to be moving?” Samantha asked as she dropped to his side and slipped one arm behind his back to help him sit up.
A quick glance at his chest revealed a ragged hole the size of her little finger to the right of his heart. It was bleeding, but not nearly as much as it should have been. And obviously not as much as it had been only a few seconds ago, considering all the blood running down his chest. Her instincts were screaming in confusion, caught between wanting him to stay still to avoid injuring himself worse and dragging him out of there right this second before the place burned down around them.
“Do we have a choice?” he asked, using her arm to help him stand, motioning toward the fire that was consuming the second and third floor like a living thing.
Trey was right. Staying here for even a few more seconds could mean the difference between living and dying.
Ignoring how pale his face had become now that he was upright, Samantha slipped her shoulder under one of his arms and did the best she could to help him in the direction of the front door, Kyson right on their heels, Shaylee still unconscious in his arms.
Just before they slipped out of the atrium entryway, Samantha looked back, catching sight of Rogi’s body lying there with the sword still sticking out of him. She knew that was going to be an image that stayed with her for a long, long time.
It was dark outside, and Samantha didn’t have a clue where they were going, but none of them stopped moving until they were a good hundred feet from the home. Even at that distance, she could feel the heat on her skin, and she turned to see that flames were already shooting up high into the sky. She supposed they didn’t need to find a phone to call for help. No way in hell someone hadn’t seen the fire already.
They crashed to the ground in a section of perfectly manicured grass. Samantha gently helped Trey lie back on the ground, immediately moving to take a look at that terrifying wound in his chest. But he waved her away.
“I’m fine. Check on Shaylee.”
Samantha hesitated for a moment, then reluctantly nodded. Turning, she saw Kyson sitting on the grass, still holding Shaylee in his arms, his blue eyes glassy and scared, his expression making her think of a little kid holding an injured puppy.
Samantha moved closer to check the girl’s heart rate and respiration, but Shaylee was already coming around, coughing violently as she gasped for fresh air. Kyson pulled her close to his enormous chest, rocking the girl back and forth, making soft calming sounds that seemed so out of place coming from a man his size.
The moment Shaylee stopped coughing, she reached up and threw her arms around Kyson, dragging his head down to hers and kissing the hell out of him. Kyson seemed a little surprised at first, but then kissed her back. It was so damn sweet that Samantha had to bite her lip to keep from saying aw. Trey’s big hand closed around hers, and she glanced over to see him smiling, clearly as affected by Kyson and Shaylee’s moment as she was.
“I’m okay,” Shaylee whispered, her resting her forehead against Kyson’s. “You got us out in time. You saved me. You saved all of us.”
Samantha was still a little amazed at how this evening had ultimately turned out. Yes, they’d been imprisoned by a complete psychopath, tortured, experimented on, almost burned alive, and then shot, but they were all alive…and together.
She turned back to Trey, finally able to get a look at the wound in his chest. It took a second to realize it wasn’t even bleeding anymore. In fact, there was already soft pink scar tissue starting to fill in the void.
“Rogi shot you through the lung with a high-powered rifle,” she whispered. “How can you possibly be okay?”
Reaching out, she traced her fingertips over the area, her medical training telling her it wasn’t possible. Without questioning why she hadn’t thought about it earlier, she checked Trey’s back for an exit wound. Sure enough, there was one, the hole on this side worse than the one in the front. But while it was obvious that a lot of blood had poured down his back in the beginning, the thumb-size hole was closed up now. She sat back on her heels again.
“Is it because it wasn’t a silver bullet?” she asked.
“Nah, silver has nothing to do with it,” he said softly. “I’m alive because the bullet missed my heart. That’s what it takes to take to kill a werewolf—severe damage to the heart or head. With the bullet passing clean through, I healed in minutes. If any of the bullet had been left inside, it would have been worse. In fact, the small piece of scalpel blade Rogi left in me hurts worse than the gunshot wound ever did. That’s going to have to come out at some point.”
Samantha was more than a little rattled about the casual way he talked about werewolves dying, never wanting him to even think those words. But she pushed those thoughts aside, leaning in closer and trying to find anything that looked like a cut made by something thin and sharp like a scalpel. But other than the dried blood and endless scraps and abrasions from his fight with Nadia, she didn’t see anything obvious.
“You won’t find it that way,” he said. “The skin has already closed up.”
He cupped her face in a gentle hand, lifting her chin. That was the moment she remembered quite clearly that Trey was as naked as the day he was born.
“The moment an ambulance gets here, I’ll have them take you straight to the hospital,” she murmured, trying to stay focused on the pain Trey had to be feeling and not how much she wanted to kiss him. “A few X-rays to pinpoint exactly where it is, and they’ll have it out in no time flat.”
Trey leaned in and snagged a quick kiss, which turned into one that wasn’t so quick. Fortunately, Kyson and Shaylee were too busy with their own tender moment to pay any attention.
“Don’t worry about getting me to the hospital,” Trey said softly. “In fact, we don’t even need an ambulance. All we need is a pocketknife and a pair of pliers, and you can dig the fragment out yourself.”