I shook my head and said, “No, it isn’t acceptable to me. I can’t let him die. I don’t want to let him die.”
The squeal of the ambulance sirens was getting closer and my uncertainty was wavering. I had seconds to make the decision and I made it.
He wasn’t dying on my watch.
With a look at Lincoln, I slit my wrist open again and placed it to Cade’s mouth.
“Liv,” Lincoln said, pulling my arm away. “You are making a mistake.”
But it was too late. It was done.
“If this is a mistake, I will deal with the consequences, Linc. I had to do it.”
“I know,” he said softly then and shuffled back to let the paramedics in to see to Cade. He hauled me to my feet as I just sat there staring at him. I couldn’t let them take him away to the hospital. I needed to get him back to the hotel where he could transition in private. I put my hand up to stop them from working on him, but Lincoln grabbed it and pulled me to him. “Let them do it their way,” he murmured to me. “We will go to the hospital and figure it out. We have drawn enough attention to ourselves, by just being here with him.”
I knew he was right. Everyone else had fled as soon as the shots were fired, and I sent Cole and Jess away with Devon. Just by staying with him we showed the world that we were either stupid or not afraid of getting hurt. Hopefully everyone would go with stupid.
“He won’t start to heal until they remove the bullets and then they will sew him up and he will be good as new. We can get away with this, if we just stay calm and level-headed,” Lincoln whispered to me and it was exactly what I needed to hear. I nodded my head, blinking back the tears. They were ushering Cade to the ambulance and I followed quickly. They tried to stop me getting on, but I snapped to them in French, “He is my father,” and they let me on, buying the story as I knew they would. Lincoln said he would meet me at the hospital, and I nodded again and then focused completely on Cade. I thought I was in shock; it almost didn’t seem real now that we were tearing through the streets of Paris with the sirens blaring. All too soon, we arrived at the hospital and Cade was raced into surgery. I knew he would be okay. I had made sure of it, but I was nervous as I finally came back down to Earth and realized what exactly it was that I had done.
Lincoln found me a few minutes later pacing fretfully as one of the nurses was trying to get Cade’s information out of me. I had no idea what to say to her. Give his real name? A fake one? I had no idea how he went about his business in the real world and it made me slightly ill. In the end, I told the truth. We were disappearing soon anyway, if we had to go earlier than planned, then so be it.
Lincoln hugged me to him and said, “I’ve called Cole. He’s on his way.”
“What? No! Linc! What if the shooter was after Cole? He might try again,” I said in panic, knowing in the back of my head that unless they were made of wood, Cole would have been okay anyway.
“It’s possible,” Lincoln said carefully, “but I know this profession. To maybe miss your target once is a slim possibility, but to miss and then hit the same target four times is impossible, Liv.”
“So, what are you saying?” I asked, my panic getting even worse. “That the shooter was after Cade? Why?”
“Why do you think?” Lincoln said gently, pushing my hair back behind my ear. “He defected from a very powerful group to join their enemies. That makes him a traitor, Liv.”
I knew that. Cade and I had discussed it a few weeks ago. He said he was cloaked. “He said he was cloaked,” I repeated my thought to Lincoln.
Lincoln just shrugged and said, “I am only going off the evidence.”
Cole rushed towards me then, followed by Devon and Jess. He crushed me to him, stiffening at the scent of human blood, albeit Hunter blood, all over my hands and clothes. I hadn’t even noticed the burning sensation.
“Cole,” I started, and he shook his head.
“I know what you are going to say: that you saved him,” he said.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I had no choice.”
“I know,” he said grimly. “I know you couldn’t let him die. It hurts like a motherfucker,” he whispered, “but I understand.”
“You know it isn’t like that, right?” I asked him, needing him to know that I didn’t love Cade. That I had no intention of siring him so we could be together.
Cole bobbed his head once, trying to believe me, but I was now horrified as a thought, that had never even entered my head during the last hour, was now all I could think about.
I stepped back from Cole, my hand on my mouth.
“What is it?” Devon asked, stepping forward and grabbing my arm in case I decided to pass out. I was close, I’ll tell you that.
“What will he be?” I asked. “I sired him, so what will he be?”
Everyone looked at each other uncomfortably and I shrieked again, “What will he be?” I was gaining the attention of several members of staff and people waiting for news on their loved ones.
“Liv,” Cole said, taking my arms and holding onto my wrists. “Liv,” he said again as I started to go into a meltdown. What if he didn’t come out the other end as a Vampire? What if he was some hideous, rampaging beast of mixed blood that I was going to have to kill? Or worse, he died anyway on the operating table because my blood can no longer turn humans?