Page 83 of My Eternal Light

She took in his appearance. “You were injured?”

He looked down at the blood on his chest. “Heath healed me.”

“How much blood did you lose?”

“Hardly any, just coughed a bit.”

“I can’t have you passing out during surgery.” She turned to Serenity. “Get him scrubbed in and send a message down to Vivi. This one,” she’ll point to Leon. “Will need blood.”

She eyed Leon floating in mid-air. “Are you holding him up?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Okay, change of plans. Follow me, we’ll get Leon on an actual gurney, then you’ll need to clean up.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Rheia smiled. “You Éire Danu boys are so polite.”

“We can cook too,” Leon joked weakly.

“Then by all means, let’s get you well,” she said, then met his eyes.

It was going to be close.

*****

Zadie sipped her cappuccino and watched as Meryn acted like some sort of battle air traffic controller. What would amuse her if things weren’t so tragic is that it didn’t matter who she was talking to, she spoke to everyone the same. Prince of the Vampires or Dav, the pub owner, it didn’t matter. These people were thousands of years older than she was, but her common sense directness had proven repeatedly to get results and that’s what they desperately needed.

“Are they killing the bad men now?” Cody asked, walking in from the courtyard.

She had heard from Cord that Kyrn was helping the kids set things up in the house. They were getting comfortable being around him and by organizing the classroom, they really felt a sense of ownership. More importantly, it kept them from the darker things that were happening in the queen’s chambers. She looked down at Cody, or it was supposed to.

“I believe they are.” She held out her arms. “Do you think you could give me a hug?”

Cody scrambled into her lap with his washcloth Mr. Bear. “Do you miss Mr. Kincaid?”

“I do. I’ve never had a mate before, humans don’t get them. It’s amazing to find someone just for you, but it’s also scary at the thought of losing them.”

Cody rested his head against her chest. “I wish Mr. Kincaid was home.”

She leaned back so she could look at him. “Why is that honey?”

“I heard Ms. Bayberry wants to make him his favorite foods, but she seemed sad when she saw we hadta wait.”

They both turned at Meryn’s outburst.

“What are you doing, single-filing that shit? Fucking send them in as many across as the portal will allow,” Meryn ranted into her headset. “I want to clear that facility in the next twenty minutes, not the next hour.”

There was silence, then she practically snarled. “That’s it, Colton, I’m telling Rheia.”

Zadie watched as Meryn grinned then deliberately disconnected the call. She picked up her phone and sent a text.

Motion from the backdoor had her turning. Aeron was peeking in. He saw Cody and gave a thumbs up with a questioning expression. She nodded. The little boy was fine where he was. Aeron smiled and ducked back out.

Cody leaned in. “She’s really cool and tells everyone what to do.”

When her own phone had dinged earlier alerting her to keep an eye on Meryn, she thought the men were being overly cautious, but she could see Meryn’s patience was starting to wear thin and that the evening was taking its toll on the smaller woman. She was now sitting more than standing and she was on her third coffee. She flagged Izzy down. “Maybe she should go de-caf?” she suggested quietly.

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