Wen Read online

  “Please pick up and be okay,” she whispered.

  Five rings later and it clicked. “Hello?” It was a woman’s voice.

  Her eyes flew open. “I’m sorry. I must have the wrong number.”

  “You don’t. This is Stellia, correct?”

  Gerri was taken aback. That was the clan healer’s name.

  “Trayis said you might call,” the woman rushed on. “I apologize for answering Wen’s phone but he’s in the shower. I heard his phone ringing in his pants so I answered it. He’s feeling a lot better since he drank some of my blood.”

  Gerri finally managed to speak again. “Who is this?”

  “Trayis didn’t tell you my name? Well, he did say you were out hunting and he’d have to send someone to get you when I spoke to him earlier. You probably didn’t get many details. I’m Sherry. I work for your clan, and I’m the one Wen bit so he could heal faster. Tell Trayis he was right. My blood worked. I ordered Wen and I room service. I admit I’m a little lightheaded, but Graves pulled him off me before he took too much blood. I figured we both could use some food.”

  “I want to speak to Wen.” Sherry was with him? He’d bitten her? What the hell was going on? Anger and pure jealousy hit hard.

  “Sure. Hey, babe…”

  “What?” Wen’s voice could be heard faintly in the background.

  “Your doctor is on the phone and she wants to speak to you.”

  “Tell Stellia I’ll call her back.”

  Gerri lowered the phone and disconnected it. Her chest hurt. Sherry had called him “babe” and he’d answered to it, as if it were normal. It was blatantly obvious they were sharing a room if she could talk to him while he showered. Hot tears burned her eyes but she blinked them back.

  Time passed slowly, and finally Micah came back from where he’d disappeared with the airport worker.

  “We’re all set. Ready to go home?”

  She managed to stand. “Yes.”

  Micah stopped in front of her, studying her face. “Are you okay? You look really pale.”

  Wen had finished his mission and he didn’t need her anymore. He was with Sherry. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

  She spun, darting toward the ladies’ room, barely making it to a stall before she threw up the breakfast burrito she’d had with Wen earlier that morning.

  * * * * *

  Wen felt better. Blood wasn’t stuck to his skin or matting his hair anymore. He walked out of the bathroom and flinched when he caught sight of Sherry. She sat on the edge of the bed, gripping his cell with both hands, looking ready to faint.

  “I told you to stay flat.” He crossed the room, taking the phone from her with one hand, gently pushing her onto her back with his other. Guilt came next. He’d done that to her. His gaze went to her bandaged arm, glad it was covered. He couldn’t remember biting her. Everything had been a blur, from the time the fight ended to waking up in the SUV with Graves and Sherry.

  “Good idea.” She chuckled. “I hope the food comes soon. I usually get a cookie and some orange juice when I donate blood at the annual hospital drive, but this is worse. I think I need a cake and an entire orange tree.”

  “It’s not funny. I could have killed you. What in the fuck was Graves thinking? Why the hell are you even here?”

  She cracked her eyes open, her smile fading. “You sound mad.”

  “I am. I don’t even remember taking blood from you.”

  “You wouldn’t because you were unconscious. Your fangs were out though. You looked like you were dying. Jesus, Wen. I was so terrified I called Trayis, and he said you needed blood. Graves was going to give you his but I volunteered. It made sense. Blood loss was the last thing he needed, since he’d just told me about all the bodies he had to burn. I sure as hell couldn’t do that job for him while he recovered. He scratched my arm and I put it in front of your mouth. You latched right onto me.”

  Wen crouched next to the bed, careful to grip the towel around his waist so he didn’t lose it. “That doesn’t answer why you’re here.”

  “Trayis asked me to come. We didn’t know until I got here yesterday that your cousins were around in case you needed help.”

  “Why would he send you?”

  “In case you got arrested or something, I guess. I don’t ask Trayis why. He says go, I go. I might handle business law, but I know how to bail someone out. You know that. Imagine my surprise, though, when I ran into Micah at the bar last night. What are the chances of us staying at the same place?”

  “You always pick a five-star hotels when you travel. So does my cousin. This is the closest one to where I was undercover.”

  “True.” She smiled again. “Why don’t you lie down with me? That would make me feel better.” She patted the bed. “You could distract me with amazing sex until room service comes with our order.”

  Wen rose up and backed away. “I could have killed you, Sherry. Did Trayis mention that? You never bleed for an injured one of my kind. I’m half Vampire and have no control of how much I drink in that condition.”

  “Graves pulled you off my arm when he said you’d taken enough. You were fucking bleeding from like thirty places. What was I supposed to do? Let you die? What’s wrong with you?” She tried to sit up but then lay back down. “Shit. The room is spinning.”

  “Of course it is. I took too much blood. Goddamn it.” He reached up and shoved his wet hair back from his face. “I should take you to a hospital. You probably need blood now.”

  “You could give me some of yours.”

  He backed up until he hit the wall. “No!”

  She flinched. “Why are you snarling at me?”

  “We can’t ever exchange blood. Never, Sherry.”

  “Oh, that’s right. It’s how you VampLycans mate, isn’t it? Would that really be so bad?”

  “I don’t feel that way about you.”

  “We’re good together, Wen. Don’t we have a lot of fun? I wouldn’t mind spending all my time with you. I can’t say I’m a big fan of Alaska; it sounds like a godforsaken kind of barbaric hell, between the winters and all those animals I’ve heard about. But I’d deal with it to be with you. That’s saying a lot.”

  “It was just sex. You know that.”

  “It could be a lot more.”

  He shook his head. “It’s over, Sherry. I’m sorry.”

  “What in the hell do you mean by that?”

  The door beeped and then opened, admitting Graves. He stepped inside and smiled at Wen. “You look a lot better.”

  “Thanks for your help, but why are you even here?”

  “You mean because you didn’t ask for my help? You should have. Micah asked me to come.”

  Wen frowned.

  “It was getting boring in Colorado.” Graves crossed the room. “How you doing, legs? Feeling better?”

  “Wen is being an asshole. I saved his life but he’s acting as though I cunt-punched his mother.”

  Graves arched his eyebrows, glancing between them.

  Wen sighed. “You shouldn’t have let me feed off her.”

  “You had more blood outside your body than left inside by the time the fighting was done. I had to carry you out to the SUV—which was a bitch, by the way. Broad daylight. I wrapped you in a blanket and stuffed your body into one of those plastic garbage cans with wheels, then rolled you out of the building. You don’t fit well inside one, either.”

  “Then what happened?” Wen asked, curious.

  “I got you to the SUV we’d parked in the alley next to the building. Micah stayed behind to guard the building. Sherry flipped when she unwrapped you to see how bad you were, then called your clan leader. He said to give you blood. I would have done it, but we had a basement full of corpses to deal with. I shoved her arm against your fangs, you did your Vampy auto-drinking thing, and when she almost passed out, I yanked her away. At that point, you woke up enough to growl at us. I bandaged her up, and she babysat you while I went back into the building.�