I nodded, not wanting to dwell on the inner workings of Allan’s mind or why he’d become so eager to help me. I turned toward the circling Weres as Allan jogged out of the building. I couldn’t best a Wereleopard one on one. But I could buy Wick time to heal. With a sudden burst of manic energy and no time to think, I ran across the room and willed the change.
Flying across the room, my feline body slammed into Tristan’s sleek black fur before he could deliver a devastating blow to Wick. We rolled, slashing at one another.
Andy! Wick shouted in my head.
Heal, I snarled back at him. Quickly!
Tristan shifted his weight and tossed me off. My body sailed through the air and came down hard against the floor. My head snapped back and I slid to the floor. Oh God, that hurts. I stood on wobbly legs, but the room wavered and I keeled over. Before everything went black, my muscles and skin folded, shifting back to human form.
****
Maybe Tristan really was an angel. It would explain why this one looked so much like him. I stared into the familiar sapphire eyes and frowned at his wrinkled brow and stooped posture. Why would an angel worry?
“Hang on.” His silken voice smoothed over my skin and rolled down my body. It awakened other sensations, less pleasant ones. The pain came slamming back. I’m not dead.
I moved my head and regretted it.
“Shhh...” Strong hands stroked my hair back. I looked up to see Wick bending over me. My head cradled in his lap.
My eyebrows bunched together as I looked back at Tristan. He kneeled by my waist, one hand resting on my hip and the other gently held my wrist as if taking my pulse. My attention flicked again to Wick’s upside down face. They were both alive. “Why aren’t you fighting?”
“You interrupted us, love.” Tristan ran a crooked finger down my cheek. He paused and then snatched his blood covered hand back. My blood. Wick growled.
Tristan looked away from my face and started to say something to Wick when the door across the room slammed open.
“Tristan!” A naked Angie ran into the room. “Do you feel it? Ethan’s dead. We’re free!” Her ecstatic expression soured when she saw both men bent over me.
Turn that frown upside down. Why would she be upset? She didn’t like me.
Wick’s worried expression turned back to my face. What? he asked.
I must have spoken that out loud, or in Wick’s head. He probably thinks I’m losing it. Maybe I am. Maybe my brain is leaking out with my blood. I didn’t have much left. Not after Ethan.
“Her mountain lion has retreated. I can’t reach it. But her wolf…” Tristan’s hand pressed firmer against my wound. “Heal her,” he hissed at Wick.
Wick didn’t need to be asked twice. He leaned down and hefted me into his arms. Tristan kept the pressure on the wound and moved with Wick.
“Why do you care?” Wick asked.
Tristan stared down at my face, his intense blue eyes met mine. “My cat has seen hers.”
Wick’s arms stiffened beneath me.
Tristan must have seen it. “We can fight over her later.” Tristan glanced back to my face. “We need her to survive first.”
Whatever he said after that became lost in the foggy gray void my mind slipped into. My last lucid thought contained regret that I had two naked Weres hovering over me and I hadn’t thought to look. Pity.
Chapter Thirty-Six
“We have to stop meeting like this.” Wick’s voice acted as a cool salve to the burning pain flowing through my body. The nerve endings in my skin screamed from the multiple shifts and felt so raw, the high thread-count sheet covering me may as well have been a coarse wool blanket used for horses.
“It hurts.” I opened my eyes to find Wick’s face inches from mine. He lay on his side on top of the sheets, resting his head on his hand. I’d woken up in this bed before. Wick’s bed. His room still smelled of man, wolf and floral dryer sheets. I inhaled deeply and let the comforting scent soothe away some of the pain.
“I know.” Wick moved a strand of hair out of my face, giving me a better view of the small crease between his eyes and the slight tightness to his mouth. He hesitated, as if to say something more, but a small smile appeared instead.
“Crap!” I bolted upright in bed. Ignoring the pain lancing through my body, I grabbed the sheets to throw aside. “The head!”
Wick’s hand dwarfed mine as he laid it across my fingers. “Allan presented it on your behalf.”
My lip quivered so I bit down on it. “Did Lucien accept it as payment?”
Wick let a breath out and his gaze cut away. “He said he’d deliberate on the matter and pass judgment after you’re healed.”