Page 121 of Heir

“It’s enough for now,” I said. “Stay with her . . . please.”

They nodded, and I ran back to find Zandren.

How did Drak put him down with a bite? Did he have different kinds of bites? Did he have a poison in his fangs like a snake that paralyzed people?

I reached my big bear and fell to the floor beside him. “Zandren.” I shook him gently. “Zandren, you need to wake up now.” Resting my hand on his head, I bent low and pressed my forehead to his. “Please wake up. Please.”

“My fangs have a paralytic in them,” came Drak’s voice behind me.

Didn’t I just ask them to stay with Gemma? I spun around prepared to give him hell, but he had Gemma in his arms and Maxar was behind him. My expression softened.

“It’s voluntary,” he went on. “It’s why I could bite you and not cause your limbs to stop working. But I bit Zandren and injected the paralytic, so he stumbled away and then stopped moving. It’ll wear off though.”

“When?” I asked, stroking his fur.

“I gave him a big dose because he’s huge, so a few hours.”

“Gemma needs medical attention now.”

Drak nodded and gently set Gemma down beside Drak.

“We need to get out of here. We’re sitting ducks,” Maxar said, glancing around. He appeared mostly healed, but his tattered shirt from Zandren’s claws hung like scraps of torn fabric off his ripped abdomen.

He was right. Lerris could dispatch an army to finish the job. We needed to leave. We also couldn’t go back to the apartment. He knew where we lived. It wasn’t safe anymore. Nowhere was safe.

Drak was on his phone. “Yeah, and we’ll need a safe house too.” He nodded. “’Kay. Thanks, Raver.” He hung up. “Our ride is on his way.”

Because Bauer and Arik left us, Drak promised to take care of our getaway vehicle. Hopefully, the driver would be strong enough to help lift Zandren.

In less than five minutes, Drak’s phone buzzed and he went to let in this Raver.

Another vampire, of course. And between the two of them, and Maxar, they managed to drag Zandren’s body outside, where they then rolled him up a ramp made of the pallets and into the back of a big, cube van. We nestled Gemma beside him, and I ordered them to take us to the hospital.

“What are we going to do about that thing?” Maxar asked, pointing at Lerris’s henchman, who was still bound, his eyes wide with fear.

I glanced at the fire mage. “No loose ends. Lerris—and possibly this fool—killed my father and my aunt.”

Maxar grinned. “Shall I make him suffer, my Queen?”

I hummed for a moment; the henchman made a noise of protest against his gag.

“We need to get going,” I finally said. “Make it quick.”

Maxar nodded. “As you wish, my Queen.” Black fire shot from his palms and there was just a quick scream of protest around the gag before the henchman’s body burst into flame, crumbling to ash a moment later. The acrid smell of burned flesh hung in the air, making bile coat the back of my tongue.

“To the hospital,” I said suppressing the urge to gag and getting comfortable between my best friend and my bear-shifter mate, in the back of the cube van.

“Too risky,” Raver said, holding onto the door of the van. “There’s a healing mage—equivalent, if not superior, to your human doctors—not far from here.”

“Gemma’s human,” I protested, stroking my friend’s hair.

“The healing mage will still be able to help her,” Maxar said. “It’d be tough to explain some of her injuries to a human doctor.”

“Fine,” I exhaled, glancing down at Gemma. “Let’s go then.”

Raver nodded and shut the door, leaving Gemma, Zandren, Maxar, and me in the back, while he and Drak took the two seats in the front.

“She’s going to be okay,” Maxar said, wincing from pain as he held his abdomen, which was seeping blood from where Zandren had clawed him. He funneled some flames against the gashes to cauterize the wounds.

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