“How did you manage to get locked in the cell?” I said, as Harris kicked out a chair then dropped me into it.
“I had no idea the vamp was even awake until Benny attacked me. It was lucky that I saw him move at the last moment, because the wrench smashed down the side of my face instead of the top of my skull.” He retrieved a large first aid kit from underneath the desk and opened it up. “I saw stars, but I had enough sense left to kick his feet out from underneath him and run for the cells.”
I grabbed my wounded leg with both hands and hauled it up onto another chair. The damn thing felt like so much dead flesh and, deep in my stomach, the fear of losing the use of my limb gnawed. But I guess I was lucky it was my leg rather than my shoulder. I’d been shot far too many times in that region now, as the numbness and sensitivity in my fingertips indicated. I might have died instantly, rather than merely suffering.
Harris pulled on a pair of surgical gloves, then grabbed a pair of needle-fine scissors. “Why didn’t he simply punch in the code and open the door?”
“Because I have an override locking code that no one else knows. I used it on both the vamp’s cell and my own.”
He began slicing away the material from the wound. Despite the fact he was being careful, the sharp point of the scissors dug into my flesh several times. Luckily, I felt the movement, not the pain. My flesh was too numb to feel anything right now.
“How did you lock the door from the inside the cell?” The keypad was nowhere near the food tray opening, and unless he was Mr. Elastic, there was no way known he would have been able to reach it.
“There’s a time delay on it. You have one minute to close the door before it locks.” He dropped the scissors on the chair next to my foot then reached for the long tweezers. His gaze met mine. “This will probably burn like a bitch.”
“The wound is numb, so it won’t really matter.” But my fingers tightened reflexively around the arms of the chair.
“Numb?” His expression deepened to worry. “That happened fast.”
“As I said, I’m extremely sensitive.”
He grunted and carefully pressed open the sides of the wound with his free hand. Blood poured out over his fingertips and started dripping on the floor. Thanks to the numbness it didn’t actually hurt, but something inside of me trembled anyway.
“I can’t see a goddamn thing through the blood,” he muttered.
He carefully pressed the tweezers into the wound anyway, driving them down into my flesh.
“You’re going to have to tell me when I hit the bullet.”
He dug deeper and hit it. Only gently, but it felt like he was driving a red-hot poker deeper into my flesh. I just about jumped through the roof, and sweat popped out across my forehead as my breathing became short, sharp gasps.
So much for the wound being numb.
“Meaning I’ve hit it,” he commented. “Hang on hard to something and try not to move.”If I gripped the arms of the chair any tighter, I’d fucking shatter them. And the damn things were metal.
The bullet moved again. Heat flashed, white hot, through my muscles and nausea rose thick and fast. I swallowed heavily and closed my eyes, hoping that not watching would make me less aware.
It didn’t.
I felt every inch of the bullet’s journey upward. Felt it when his grip slipped and the bullet fell back into my flesh. Sweat dripped from my forehead and ran in rivers down my back, and bile rose so fast it took all of my control not to vomit on his shoes.
Then the heat was gone and Harris was holding up the tweezers with the bloody bullet clamped firmly between its jaws.
“Done,” he said. “But you need to change to stop the bleeding.”
“Thanks.” I rolled out of the chair and reached for the shifting magic, instinctively calling to my wolf rather than the seagull.
There was no hesitation, no pain, this time. Just a surge of power that swept through my body, numbing and reshaping my body, until what stood there was wolf rather than human. I stayed in her form for several seconds, simply enjoying the feel of her, then, somewhat reluctantly, shifted back. The wound was nowhere near healed, but at least the bleeding had stopped.
Harris closed the first aid kit then put the bloody tweezers and scissors into a plastic bag. “What now?”
“Well, the vamp has proven capable of getting past the nanowire and controlling Benny, so our first order of business is to get him contained. And Evin’s waiting outside in the car for an all-clear, so we need to bring him in.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Why is he outside?”
“Because I knew something was wrong the minute we pulled up. I’m used to dealing with vamps. He’s not.” I shrugged. “I was simply keeping him safe.”
“Given the vamp is injured but telepathically unrestrained, how safe would it be to bring him within range?”
“With the silver out of my leg, I’ll be able to protect him.”
I said it with more assurance than I felt, but Harris didn’t seem to notice. He pushed away from the bench and moved toward the front door.
“I thought you suspected him of being a fake brother and connected to the evil plot surrounding you?”
“He is a fake, but he’s not willingly connected to the machinations.”
“Meaning you’ve unraveled more clues?”
“I certainly have.” And some of them he wasn’t going to like.
He opened the front door and waved Evin in, then walked across to Benny and squatted down beside him. He pressed his fingers against the side of his neck, then gave a slight nod. “His pulse is steady, but his nose will be mighty sore when he wakes.”
There wasn’t much I could say to that, so I didn’t say anything.
He glanced around as the door opened and Evin stepped inside. His gaze quickly swept Harris, Benny, and then me, taking in the blood on my pants and around the chair. “What the fuck has been happening?”
“Long story,” Harris said. “Grab Benny’s feet. We need to get him into a cell.”
Evin did as ordered, and the two lifted the young man with ease. “He looks as if he needs a doctor, not a cell.”
“He’s susceptible to vampire suggestion, so he goes into the cell,” I said, connecting just enough to his mind to feel if the vampire tried to control him. “And we can’t risk a doctor for the very same reason.”
“Oh.”
For someone who didn’t have much to do with either cops or vampires, Evin seemed to be handling it all amazingly calmly. The two men disappeared through the door. A few seconds later, the cell door slammed shut and footsteps echoed as they returned.
“So why are you two here?” Harris asked as he walked into the reception area. Evin followed him out and propped his butt on the reception desk.
“It’s not that I don’t appreciate the intervention,” Harris continued, “but I ordered you to stay away.”
“And we know how well ordering me to stay away in the past has worked, don’t we?” He rolled his eyes. I smiled and added, “I needed to ask you some questions.”
“Then fire away.” He strolled across to a percolator and flicked a switch. The rich aroma of brewing coffee soon filled the air, making my taste buds water.
I crossed my arms and said, “How well do you know Mike West?”
He gave me what I could only call a “cop look” and said, voice flat, “Mike West isn’t involved in any nefarious plot against you.”
“Then do you know why he was driving toward the whaling station just over an hour ago?”
Harris shrugged. “Why is that even important?”
I sidestepped the question with another. “Then do you know what Denny and his friends have been up to over the last few hours?”
“No. Not only have I been out of contact with Mike, Denny, and any of his friends, but I was with you, chasing a killer and then getting locked in a cell. How the fuck would I know what anyone has been up to?”
“Then no one has reported anything to you?” I persisted.
“No. And if anyone had reported it to Mike, I would have heard it. Emergency calls get routed to both cell phones when we’re out of the office.” He glanced at Evin. “How do you take your coffee?”
“White and one.”
Harris nodded, made the coffee, then carried over three cups, handing one to Evin and one to me before sitting on the chair I’d propped my foot on earlier. “What are you getting at, Hanna?”
“I’m not Hanna.”
“Well, until you remember your name, I need to call you something. Now answer the damn question.”
“While you and I were hunting your prisoners, Denny and his friends kidnapped Evin.”
“What?” He glanced sharply at Evin, eyebrow raised in query.
“It’s true,” Evin said. “I have the bruises and rope and silver burns to prove it.”
“And I have the ransom note.” I took the piece of plastic out of my pocket and handed it over. He read it silently and shook his head.
“Why would the damn fool do something this stupid?”
It was a rhetorical question, but I answered it anyway. “It was a ploy to get me out to the whaling station alone, where dearest Denny intended to exact his revenge. Except they were expecting me to drive out there and, as it turns out, I have an alternate shape—a seagull. That ability allowed me to get there ahead of time and get the jump on them. I disabled their trucks, rescued Evin, and we both got the hell out of there.”Harris raised an eyebrow. “Did Denny and his friends survive the encounter?”