Page 12 of Act of Brotherhood
The little girl stumbled and then collapsed onto the floor, her gaze still firmly locked on Garth. He reacted faster than he ever had before. He shot forward and snatched her off the floor before Landros could so much as blink. Deep down, he knew the little girl was in critical condition.
Her eyes closed, and her tiny head lolled back. Garth knew without being told that she wasn’t breathing. For a second, he couldn’t take a breath either. His keen hearing picked up on the fact her pulse was weak and fading fast. It was then he noticed blisters on her and something white on her skin. He wiped his hand through it and it came away, taking part of her skin and leaving red, angry tissue behind.
“Auberi!” Garth rushed the child to a table in the center of the lab. He laid her upon it gingerly. “Something is wrong with her!”
The sight of the small child there, on the table, fighting for life, caused Garth’s wolf to react fiercely. He shook.
Auberi was suddenly there. The vampire thrust him out of the way with a force that sent Garth stumbling backward. Auberi began performing life-saving measures on the child. When he reached the point of CPR, Garth’s wolf roared within him. The wolf understood just how dire the situation was as well.
A line of French shot out of Auberi rapidly. Garth’s French was decent on most days, but Auberi’s state of panic caused him to talk faster than Garth could follow along. Auberi began shouting at Garth, demanding he hunt for items required to help the little girl. The vampire went on and on about her having a lethal dose of the chemicals in her system.
Garth’s brain raced with the list of items Auberi had given, getting stuck on low-molecular-weight polyethylene glycol—whatever the hell that was.
“Look for a three-hundred or four-hundred PEG one!” shouted the vampire, not that any of the men he was yelling at even knew what PEG meant. “Blaise, is there milk back there?”
Garth, along with Rurik and Gram, ran back into the first lab and began scouring the glass cabinets for the items Auberi required. Garth threw containers aside, desperate to find what was needed.
Rurik came up with a plastic tube of some sort and then went to a cabinet that looked to be refrigerated and grabbed two bags of clear fluid. Garth’s search yielded nothing, but then again, his mind was still racing and muddled. Currently, he couldn’t find his ass with both hands. The normal level of clarity he possessed in stressful situations was totally and completely gone.
Garth’s wolf pulsed at him from within, wanting to be free. It caused the muscles in his neck to strain and he had to step back from the cabinets as he tried to gain control once more. It didn’t work. He felt his shoulders increasing in size, another sign that he was losing the internal battle with his wolf side. But what had triggered it? Why was it trying to take control?
He wasn’t in danger.
The child.
She’s in danger.
The words echoed in his head.
“I found what I think is the low-molecular-weight poly-whatever-the-hell-col! It says PEG 300!” yelled Rurik, half in Russian, half in English as he came up with a jug of something clear. He too was panicked. He slammed into Garth on his way past and the act helped Garth to gain something close to control once more. The Russian kept going and took the last of the items to Auberi, who also lacked his normal calmness in stressful situations.
In fact, Garth couldn’t recall a time when the vampire had ever seemed so out of sorts when chaos surrounded him. He typically seized every opportunity to make smart-ass remarks, despite the gravity of the situation. No such quips came from him now.
Garth moved quickly to the side of the table once more and reached out, touching the little girl’s head. The need to lift her and protect her forever nearly took him to his knees. “Fix her!”
Auberi’s gaze whipped to him and filled with black instantaneously. That meant his demon had taken the lead.
And that meant he was a threat to the child in the eyes of Garth’s wolf.
“Captain, yer arms!” shouted Gram.
“He’s going to lose control and shift,” said Landros, coming at him quickly. “Rurik, get him out of here.”
Garth shook his head, his teeth lengthening and his mouth changing shape. The word “no” came from him, but it was nearly unrecognizable.
The Russian seized hold of him, lifted him off his feet, and rammed him back against an empty crib. He then held him as Garth fought, needing to get to the child. He had to help her. He had to keep her safe.
Why couldn’t they see that?
He would never hurt the little girl.
Ever.
Auberi lifted his arm and bit his wrist.
As Garth’s mind caught up with why the vampire would be doing such a thing, a red haze of rage came over him.
Auberi was going to give the child his blood.
