Trying to recover from the rush of wind in her ears, Ginny braced her hands on her knees and took a breathless head count. All of them were there and despite a scrape on Roksana’s cheek, unharmed. Thank the Lord.
“Nice assist, sweetheart,” Tucker chuckled, giving Ginny a high five. “You’ve got some trouble in your blood, don’t you?”
“Speaking of blood…” Elias said from the shadow just outside the circle of light cast by the streetlight. “We should get moving now.”
Roksana cursed in Russian. “We’re not taking her there. I promised him.”
“If he knew the separation was going to cause her pain, too, do you really think he’d want you to keep that promise?”
The slayer’s mouth formed a grim line.
“Exactly.” Elias paused, before coming back with a terse, “You going to fix that cut on your cheek or just stand there and bleed to death?”
“I don’t exactly have a first-aid kit handy.”
“Maybe your boyfriend in the bar has one.”
Without missing a beat, Roksana marched in the direction they’d come. “Maybe he does.”
Elias caught her by the elbow mid-step. “Don’t even try it.”
Ginny sidestepped in between them. “What did you mean?” she breathed, her pulse spiking. “What did you meant, cause her pain too? Is Jonas in pain?”
“Now there’s an understatement,” Elias rasped, letting go of Roksana’s arm.
He started to say more but slayers rushed into the alley fifty yards away, clearly searching for their foursome to continue to battle. “There they are,” someone shouted.
“Five more minutes, Mom?” Tucker whined, cracking his knuckles.
“Please,” Ginny pleaded. “I need answers.”
Elias sighed. “We’ll talk when we get there.” He gave his back to Roksana and she climbed on with an eye roll. Ginny did the same with Tucker. “Stick to the alleys. The last thing we need is to get caught accelerating.”
They skyrocketed into the night, traveling at such a high rate of speed that this time, Ginny definitely didn’t even need a blindfold. Her eyes couldn’t settle on one landmark before it vanished in their wake. One second they were powering down the street and the next, she was being set down in the elevator of Jonas’s building, surrounded protectively by Roksana, Elias and Tucker. All three of them watched the split of the metal doors warily, balancing on the balls of their feet.
Why?
Ginny’s breath started to come faster and faster, the hair on the nape of her neck standing on end. A ding let them know they’d arrived at the basement floor when an earsplitting bellow of denial rent the air.
Jonas?
Ginny’s entire being quite simply demanded to be taken in the direction of Jonas’s howl. He’s suffering, he’s suffering, he’s suffering. Her brain was not part of the operation. Her heart and possibly something baser and elemental jolted her toward the apartment door, her fingers wrapping around the door handle. She was only given the opportunity to yank once and find it locked before Roksana wrestled her back. Away from the place she needed to be.
A sob welled up inside her, breaking free as she struggled in her friend’s hold. Her throat swelled until she couldn’t draw breath, a magnetic current drawing her back to the door and she didn’t want to withstand it. She wanted to get in. Get in now. Go to him. Her vision transitioned into an angry red and her fingers turned to claws.
“Let me go,” Ginny shouted. “Please.”
Was that her voice?
She sounded almost possessed, but caring was beyond her at that moment. Who cared about anything when her heart was being wrenched up to her jugular, over and over again? He’s in there. He needs me.
“Jonas!”
The lights sizzled in the hallway, dimming, brightening, like a pulse. And then came another roar, this time of her name.
Her lungs seized, her skin feeling like shrink wrap on her bones.
With an agonized whimper, Ginny twisted in Roksana’s grip, noticing that Tucker and Elias were now holding her back, too—and that made them the enemy.
“Let me in,” she begged, eyeing the apartment door like it was heaven’s gates.
“Not until you listen,” Elias snapped, the steel band of his arm wrapped around the breadth of her shoulders from behind. “Believe me, I’m on your side. I know you going in there is inevitable, but we need to prepare you first.”
Roksana pressed a cool hand to Ginny’s check and nodded at her slowly. “He’s okay. He’s going to be okay.”
Apparently that was exactly what she needed to hear, because she dropped like a puppet with severed strings, Elias and Roksana lowering her the rest of the way to the floor. “Why does he sound like that? What’s wrong?”
The slayer sat in front of her on the floor, cross legged, and took Ginny’s hands. “This might be a little scary. We should have drunk more tequila.” She shifted. “Last night, when Jonas tasted your blood, it became obvious to him that you are his mate.”
Warm pleasure blew across Ginny’s senses at the word and she stared longingly at the door. “What exactly does that mean? His mate?”
And why do I like it so much?
Roksana hesitated. “Well…”
“I had an inkling when I saw the way he behaved around you,” Elias said quietly behind her. “But it’s not supposed to be possible for our kind to have a mate…twice.”
Jonas’s words, spoken days earlier, came back to her. I felt something like love once, a long, long time ago. Probably before your parents were born.
“He’s had a mate before,” Ginny pushed through bloodless lips.
“Briefly,” Tucker confirmed. “Very briefly. But the length of time doesn’t matter. It’s fate. A connection. For Jonas, both times his mate has been human.”
“Which is not only very unusual, Ginny,” Roksana said slowly, her gaze uncharacteristically sympathetic. “It comes with some…difficulties.”
“What are they?” Suddenly none of them would look at her. Not even Elias, who didn’t seem the type to hesitate while delivering bad news. “Just tell me.”
“A vampire senses his mate, but until he tastes her blood, he remains Silenced,” Roksana explained. “Last night…you made his heart beat again.”
Pure joy caused her lungs to seize. “How is that a bad thing?” Ginny cried. “Is he…human now?”
Tucker squatted down beside her, sympathy etched in his features. “Far from it. Still can’t be exposed to the sun, still has his abilities and needs blood to sustain himself. He’s actually more vampiric than before—and Roksana is right. It comes with a lot of complications.” He sighed. “Now that’s he’s tasted his human mate’s blood, he can’t drink from anyone or anywhere else.” He rubbed at the back of his neck. “Or he can…but it won’t make a dent in the thirst. Won’t nourish him and he’ll…”
“Weaken,” Elias said succinctly. “Die.”
Ginny’s ribs caved inward. “No.” She shook her head and tried to gain her feet once more, pushing at Roksana’s traitorous hands. “You weren’t going to tell me this? You thought I would let him die?”