Darkness Rises(24)

Sean closed his eyes a moment, then cupped his large hands around the back of her head. Seconds later, they heated and the pain slowly disappeared. “What else?” he asked, teeth clenched against the pain that now bombarded him.
“Nothing that can’t be patched up with Band-Aids, butterfly closures, and a few stitches.” Healing the head wound would have taken enough out of him that any cuts or gashes he healed on her now would open on his own body. She wouldn’t let that happen. After the mess she had just brought down on their heads, she wouldn’t make him bleed, too.
“Go shower. I’ll stitch you up when you get out.”
Nodding, she grabbed some clean clothes from her dresser. “Do you want to lie down for a while?” His head must be killing him.
He gave her a grim smile. “I can’t. Someone needs to watch our guest.”
Krysta said nothing.
What could she say? She had just welcomed one of the vampires she had sworn to kill into their home and placed them both in danger.
Heading into the bathroom, she closed the door.
The hot water stung her open cuts like salt, making her want to scream as she hurried through her shower. The most she would permit herself, however, was a grunt or two.
Damn, it hurt!
And rushing things didn’t help. She couldn’t be careful with wounds when she was dragging a rough, soapy washcloth across them as quickly as possible because she feared what her brother might do to Étienne if she took too long.
Or what Étienne might do to Sean, if she weren’t there when he awoke.
If he awoke.
She barely took the time to dry off before hurriedly donning a sports bra, tank top, panties, and shorts. Leaving her hair to air-dry in whatever tangled mess it had acquired, she grabbed a smaller towel, held it to the thigh that still bled sluggishly, and hobbled back to her bedroom.
Sean had dragged one of their sagging director’s chairs into the room and sprawled in it, his gaze shifting from the television to Étienne and back.
He didn’t look up when she entered. “Nothing on the news yet.”
Jeeze. She hadn’t even thought of that. But how could what had happened tonight not make the news? A dozen or more soldiers killed in what would be deemed a firefight on an elite college campus?#p#分页标题#e#
Just what kind of soldiers had those men been? Military? SWAT?
Crap. What if surveillance cameras had caught it all on tape? She knew where most of the cameras on the various college campuses were positioned and lured vampires away from them so she could destroy them without witnesses. But cameras could have caught her going into the loading area just before the fight broke out. They could have caught her and Sean loading Étienne into the car and fleeing the scene.
What had she done?
“You need to tell me what happened tonight,” Sean said in a low, don’t-fuck-with-me voice. “All of it. And you need to tell me everything else that has been going on.” His gaze went to Étienne, then rose to meet hers. “Because you’ve clearly been holding out on me.”
And he deserved more than that. After all he did for her, all he sacrificed for her . . .
Nodding, Krysta started to sit on the side of the bed.
“No. Sit here. I need to see to your other wounds.”
She hadn’t even noticed the first-aid bag on the floor beside him.
Krysta crossed to him and turned her back to show him the wound in her thigh as he rose.
“What is it with vampires and hamstrings?” he muttered as he knelt behind her and went to work.
It seemed to be one of their favorite places to strike.
“I don’t know.” She gritted her teeth as he began to stitch the wound.
“So?” he prodded.
“He’s been following me.”
“The vamp on the bed?”
“Yes. Ever since the first night I encountered him, he’s been following me and taking out the vampires I lure away before I can engage them.”
“That’s why you haven’t come home battered and bloodied lately?”
She nodded. “He kills the vamps before I can even draw my weapons.”
A pause. “You should have told me.”
“I didn’t know. Not for sure. Not until last night. I knew vampires were following me, I was sure they had taken the bait. But when I spun around to confront them, they were gone just like on the other nights. I heard the sounds of a struggle a few blocks away and ran like hell to see what was happening.”
“You what?”
“By the time I caught up, there was nothing but a pile of clothes. He had already killed them.”
Quiet enfolded them as Sean stitched. It must have been a longer and deeper cut than she had supposed.
“I confronted him. Goaded him into showing himself.”