She shrugged. Shrugged.
She might just make him lose his mind.
Then she said, “I think I’d like to have a baby.” Her words almost broke him.
Careful now, he asked, “A baby . . . or my baby?” Because if any other dumbass came around her . . .
She might want a child with another angel. A pureblood. And Bastion had sure been sniffing around her.
Bastion could screw off.
Tanner took a nice, long count to five. The red faded from his vision. He could actually stay sane. He could. “I didn’t mean—”
“Yours.”
The panther roared inside, pride filling him. Tanner advanced toward her. “Marna, I—”
Footsteps raced up the stairs. Heavy. Hard. Tanner’s head whipped up and around to the door just as a fist pounded on the wood. “Kali needs you downstairs, shifter!” Riley yelled. “Now!”
Marna jumped from the bed. Her back was to Tanner, and he glimpsed her wounds. He frowned a moment. The red scars looked like they’d risen higher, and when he’d touched them before, the ridges had actually felt more solid, too. He hadn’t really thought much about it then because he’d been too lost in the best orgasm of his life, but—
They look different. They felt different.
“Your brother’s dying!” Riley shouted.
He forgot about her scars and leapt for the door.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Marna raced behind Tanner as he hurried down the stairs. When he’d yanked open the bedroom door, she’d immediately conjured her clothes. Being naked in front of Riley wasn’t an option she was in the mood to consider.
She only wanted to be naked with Tanner. For Tanner.
He leapt over the last few stairs and darted toward the back room. Marna wasn’t sure what she expected—maybe a makeshift operating room like Cody had once had at his place in the swamp—but inside the tiny room, she only saw a bed. A wall of surgical instruments. And a line of refrigerators that hummed.
She took a breath and caught the heavy scent of blood.
“Usually vamps are the only ones who come to see Kali.” Riley was at her side. “We figured out fast that we needed one of our own to help us when things got desperate.”
The small woman with the dark eyes and fragile beauty—she was a vamp? The lady’s hands were currently covered in blood because she had her fingers shoved over Cody’s bleeding wounds.
“The sutures didn’t hold. The bleeding’s too intense!” The woman—Kali—glanced up, and Marna clearly saw the fear on her face.
Cody’s eyes were open. They looked faded, tired, but his gaze found Tanner’s. “I-it’s . . . okay.” His words were a bare whisper.
“The hell it is!” Tanner was at his side instantly. “We can fix you, Cody. We can fix you. Just hold on and—”
Cody’s body started to shake.
Marna stepped forward. “Give him my blood.” It had worked before, with Tanner. It would work again.
Kali looked at her. “I tried giving him a transfusion already. It didn’t—”
“You didn’t try my blood.” Marna held out her arm. “Take my blood. Give it to him.”
Kali frowned at her. The woman managed to look angry, desperate, and hopeful all at once. “And your blood’s special because—”
“It just f**kin’ is,” was Riley’s response as he took what actually looked like a protective stride toward Marna. “Now stop asking questions. Take the blood, and give it to the demon.”
“N-no,” Cody’s whisper.
Marna looked over at him. Tanner had put his hands on his brother’s chest, and she knew he was trying to stop the blood. Trying, but it wasn’t going to work. His fingers were just getting soaked in blood.
Kali reached for a needle and syringe. “You the right type?”
Humans had types. Angels didn’t. “I’m the only type you need.”
Kali’s brow rose, but she didn’t ask any more questions. She just said, “Then I’m gonna rig this thing because we don’t have time to waste. Your veins to his, and if he dies . . .” Her breath rushed out. “Then at least we tried.”
Marna wondered if the others could smell the light scent of flowers that had drifted into the room. Death was close.
“N-no.” Cody began to thrash on the narrow bed. “Don’t w-want . . .”
“You want to live, don’t you?” Tanner snapped at him. “Then you let us help you.”
Cody shook his head. “W-won’t take her . . . bl-blood. ”
Kali hesitated.
Tanner swallowed and stared down at his brother. Just looking at Tanner’s face hurt Marna then, and she rubbed at the ache in her chest. An ache that seemed centered right over her heart.
Voice quiet, Tanner said, “If you don’t take her blood, you’ll die. Are you really gonna make me watch you die?”
Lines of pain bracketed Cody’s mouth. “If . . . t-take it . . .” Every word seemed to bring him more agony, but he kept struggling to speak. “Go back to . . . wh-what I was . . . l-like . . .”
“You’ll never be that way again! I promise. I can help you. I can—”
“A-addic . . . ted . . .” was Cody’s hushed whisper. “L-lost.”
Marna lifted her hands and stared down at the faint, blue outline of the veins at her wrists. Someone who didn’t want her blood? Now that was a change.
“I’m not letting you die.” Tanner was adamant. Fierce. The way she liked him.
Blood dripped from Cody’s lips. “Pl . . . please . . .” His whisper was almost painful to hear. “One t-time . . . let mme . . . do . . .” His body jerked. “S-something . . . right.”
“You’ve always done the right thing!” Tanner yelled back. Yells and whispers. So opposite, but both so desperate. So sad. “You were the good one. The one who had a chance. We both know I’m screwed up. That I’ve got the bastard’s darkness in me.”
Marna frowned. Tanner didn’t have darkness inside of him. He was good. Kind.
Kali and Riley just watched the brothers and didn’t speak, and Marna found she had no words to say, either.
Another tremor shook Cody. “Please . . .”
Tanner’s hands were still on his chest. “What the hell am I supposed to do without you?”
“L-love . . . her.”
The words were so garbled Marna wasn’t sure if she’d heard correctly. Her gaze dropped to Cody’s body. His stomach . . . how much pain he must feel. How much suffering. Why hadn’t a death angel come for him yet? If Cody wasn’t going to take her blood, why did he have to suffer?