“Just the bags in the back seat. Can you take those with you?”
“Sure thing.” Mr. Miller got the bags that contained a few changes of clothing and some other supplies, and hopped on to his own snowmobile. With a roar of engines, they prowled away over the snow into the darkening night.
They arrived at the cabin as the sun was setting. Mr. Miller helped her get Mitch inside and onto the bed and then hightailed it back so he could get home before full dark. She knew the Miller family would be on high alert and would be the first line of defense if anyone with bad intentions had followed Gina’s circuitous route from the city. After Mr. Miller left, silence descended. She was alone with Mitch.
She looked around the cabin, locating a few things she’d need and then turned to contemplate the unconscious tiger shifter. Another infusion of her blood might be just the thing to bring him around.
Universal shifter blood was a rare and magical thing. Gina could donate blood to any other shifter or were species with no fear of incompatibility. Just a few drops of her blood could purify any poison or contagion in another person’s system—shifter or human. In fact, her mother had covertly used Gina’s blood to save a number of students in her grammar school when they’d all been exposed to viral meningitis.
It only took a minute or two to take a few milliliters of blood from her own arm and inject it into Mitch. She’d done the same when he’d gone into convulsions back in Ellie’s apartment and it had saved his life. So far. But then she’d given him the nectar. She was kicking herself over that misstep.
She might’ve killed him with the nectar. She felt horrible about giving it to him, but Cade had been so adamant about rousing Mitch so he could answer questions. She never should have done it. The nectar had to have caused this relapse. Her blood had been working to heal him. She knew it had.
Five milliliters of her blood was more than enough to restore good health to anyone. The human kids in her grade-school class had only needed a few drops each to rid themselves of the deadly disease.
Even this huge Alpha should have been fine with the small amount he’d been given back at the apartment, but he’d relapsed. He had rallied for a little while and then collapsed again while they were in the car. With any luck, this second treatment would do the trick and put him back on the road to recovery.
“Come on, big guy.” She did her best to settle him more comfortably on the bed.
He wore a giant sweatshirt she’d bought for him on the way out of town. She’d had to make a quick stop at a large chain store to get Mitch some clothing. The shirt and pants he’d been wearing when he was attacked were ruined and it wasn’t worth the risk to get his own clothing. So now the tough Alpha sported a shirt that loudly proclaimed he really loved New York.
It was the only thing she could find that was big enough for his extra-large frame and warm enough for where they were headed. Winter had already hit up in the mountains. His pants were likewise sweats with a drawstring waist. There was another set in her bag along with some of her own clothes. It wasn’t much, but it would have to be enough for now.
They had to lay low until things settled down.
Mitch’s golden eyes opened.
“Where am I?” The words rasped out of a throat raw from what he’d been through, yet his tone was still compelling. If Gina had been made of more timid stuff, she might have cowed before the Alpha. As it was, she met his unvoiced challenge on even footing. Actually, she held all the power in this situation, but she was a little too nice to point it out to the injured warrior.
“Safe. In the mountains, at a remote cabin well-guarded by others of our kind.”
“Your kind or my kind, milady?” One golden eyebrow rose in an almost teasing question.
“So you remember that?” She sat back on her haunches next to him on the wide bed. She’d climbed up beside him to administer the blood and hadn’t left his side as she’d willed him to wake. She’d been that worried about him.#p#分页标题#e#
He still wasn’t out of the woods. She would have to keep close watch over him until he showed marked signs of improvement and could stay awake without yet another infusion of her blood. He was perilously close to succumbing to the poison and would have been dead already if not for the magical properties of her blood.
“That and more. I may have looked unconscious, but this particular poison seems to leave me aware but unable to respond, not even to open my eyes.
“You’ve been awake this whole time?”
“No. Not completely. But I was aware for some time after that first dose. I heard what Cade said and your plans to take me out of the city. I faded as he put me in the car.”