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The man in the backseat moaned. He’d lost a lot of blood and from the looks of him, had gone into the river, a very unsanitary place. If he didn’t die of exposure, the bacteria from the river water might kill him.
“Could you hurry?” Selene urged.
Deme shook her head, but the SUV’s speed picked up. A red light ahead made her slow the vehicle enough to look both ways before blowing through.
In what seemed like an interminable amount of time, but had been less than ten minutes, Deme pulled up in front of Selene’s shop.
“We’re here, now what?” Deme cast a glance into the backseat, where the man lay semicomatose. “How are we going to get him in the basement? Assuming I agree to this plan of yours.”
Selene bit her lip. “I don’t know. But we have to.”
Deme reached into her purse and pulled out her cell phone. “Cal can be here in fifteen.”
“No.” Selene put her hand over Deme’s phone. “I’d rather we kept this to just you and me.”
“What? You and me carrying a large unconscious man into your basement apartment?”
Selene nodded. “Yes. And I don’t want Cal to know that he’s even here. I don’t want anyone else to know. Not even Gina and Aurai. Especially not Brigid.”
“We’re your sisters. Why keep it from us? Look, just let me take him to the hospital. Let them handle him. They have big strong burly orderlies that—”
“No.” A deep voice cut into Deme’s words. The back door to the vehicle opened and the man got out.
Selene ripped her door open, but not in time.
One second he was holding on to the door, the next he’d crumpled to the ground.
Her heart beating hard against her ribs, Selene dropped to her knees. “Are you all right?”
“I don’t need your help,” he said.
Deme stood over them both, her fists planted on her hips. “Like hell you don’t.”
“I won’t go to a...” He lay still with his eyes closed, his breathing shallow, almost nonexistent.
Selene slid one of his arms around her neck. “Help me get him up.”
Deme sighed. “Stubborn witch.”
Selene’s lips twitched. “Shut up and get his other side.”
Deme lifted his arm to drape over her shoulder, but as soon as she moved it, he jerked, growling like a rabid animal, his teeth peeled back over sharp incisors. With her head down to get the arm over her shoulder, Deme didn’t see the pointed fangs.
But Selene did. Her stomach flip-flopped and she ducked her head to avoid Deme’s gaze. “Just get an arm around his waist and help me haul him to the stairs.” To him she said, “Could you manage to stay with us long enough to help yourself down a flight of stairs?”
“Must get below,” he said through gritted teeth.
“That’s where we’re going, just help us get you there.” Selene glanced across at her sister. “Ready?”
“Whenever you are.” Deme’s arm tightened around his waist.
Selene stepped forward at the same time as Deme.
The man between them lurched and stiffened, then a low rumble rose in his chest.
“Either stop growling, or I’ll drop you here and leave you on the pavement,” Selene threatened, her voice sharp, her back straining under his weight.
“You go, sister.” Deme grunted, easing toward the building and the next hurdle. The steps.
The rumbling abated, but his grip tightened around Selene. He snorted. “And I thought you were an angel come to rescue me.”
Deme laughed out loud.
Selene shot an angry glare at her before she responded. “Hardly. I’ll be your worst nightmare before this night is over.” She shuddered thinking of how she needed to clean his wound and how painful it would be for him. She guessed he wouldn’t like it in the least.
When they reached the narrow stairs leading down into the basement apartment of the shop, Deme laid the man’s hand on the rail and moved down the steps in front of him. “The stairs aren’t wide enough for three. You’ll have to help yourself down the stairs, big guy.”
The man groaned, his eyes rolling to the back of his head, the hand on the rail turning white with the strength of his grip.
Selene turned his face toward her and tried to probe his mind.
His chaotic thoughts were a jumble of pain, darkness and overwhelming sadness.
Unable to bear the ache and sorrow, Selene jerked out of his head and swayed.
“What is it?” Deme asked.
“Nothing. I just can’t read his mind.” She could sense emotions and pain, but not thoughts or words. She’d have to use other means to get through to him. “Listen, mister, if you want to get off the street and lie down, you have to help me get you down these stairs. Do you hear me?”
He moaned and leaned heavily on her.
“Wake up.” She shook his good shoulder. “I need your help.”
“No angel,” he muttered, his eyes opening.
“I’ll be the devil himself if that’s what it takes to get you down those steps. Now, move!”
Deme chuckled. “Didn’t know you had it in you, sis. Sure you don’t want me to get him down here? I’m bigger than you are.”
“I got him.” Selene fished in her pocket for her keys and tossed them to Deme.
Her sister hurried down in front of Selene and the stranger to open the door to the little apartment.
Straining against his weight, Selene stepped down first. In a combination of deliberate steps and clumsy falling, she got him down the short flight so quickly he slammed into the door frame.
The big man roared, his eyes flashing open, exposing deep, tawny gold irises, like a lion.
Selene gasped.
“What?” Deme leaned past the man to stare out at her sister. “Did he hurt you?”
“No, no.” Selene couldn’t meet her sister’s gaze. “Let’s get him to the bedroom.” No need to worry her sister. Especially when she wanted her to leave as soon as she got the injured man settled. If Deme had seen what Selene had, she’d have this man out of her apartment so fast his head would be spinning more than it was already.
By the time they reached her antique cast-iron bed, the man teetered on the verge of passing out. He was more a dead weight than a help. Or that’s how he felt to Selene, bearing the brunt of his weight. He leaned toward the bed, but she held on.
“Not yet. You’re soaked to the skin.” Selene pushed him toward Deme. “Hold him up while I get his clothes off.”
“You’re going to strip a stranger?” Deme asked.
“You want the honors?” Selene quipped. “He’s not lying in my bed in those wet, smelly clothes.”
“Why is he going to lie in your bed? I’m not liking this arrangement, Selene. You don’t know this guy. He could be a serial killer.”
“I can’t leave him on the streets, Deme.” Though her back hurt, she held on to the man. “Look, if it makes you feel better. I can sense that he won’t hurt me.”
Deme’s lips pressed together and her eyes narrowed. “You said you couldn’t read his mind.”
“I can’t read his individual thoughts, but I can tell he’s harmless to me.”
Deme stared hard at her sister. “I’m not convinced, but I’ll hold on while you do the stripping. I don’t think Cal would be thrilled to know I’d stripped a strange man.” She took over by sliding beneath the arm Selene had been holding him up by. “Just hurry. He weighs a ton.”
The man groaned, his knees buckling.
Selene helped Deme straighten him, then she went back to work, reaching for the waistband of his trousers. She wasn’t a virgin, but removing a strange man’s tattered pants was...well...disturbing. She quickly flicked the buttons loose and stripped the damp trousers down thick muscular legs coated with a fine layer of tawny hairs.
Her heartbeat quickened when she realized he wore nothing beneath his trousers.
Breath caught in her throat and she hurriedly removed his pants, setting them in a pile on the floor.
“Holy smokes, the man is hung like a frickin’ horse!” Deme grunted and almost fell over. “Damn, I think he’s out again. It’s all I can do to hold him up.” She shifted his weight, leaning hard to keep him up.
With her heart already beating a rapid tattoo inside her body, Selene hoped Deme wouldn’t mention the man’s nakedness again. Her older sister couldn’t be happy about this stranger being totally nude in her sister’s bed. She’d never leave him alone with Selene at this rate.
Selene knew, by way of her “gift,” that she had to get Deme out of the apartment before she tried to clean this man’s wounds. Something about him screamed danger. But not necessarily a danger to her. Those eyes, that growling and the roar, were only the beginning, she feared.
Deme wouldn’t understand. She didn’t have the gift of spirit like Selene.
Trousers off, completely naked, the man swayed. Selene helped Deme maneuver him to the bed, where they sat him on the edge and laid him back gently, lifting his feet up onto the mattress. Once settled, Selene pulled the sheet up over his legs and hips.
Selene went to work on the padding she’d tied over the wound, pulling it carefully over his shoulders, easing the fabric caked in sticky blood loose from his injury.
He sat straight up, his hand reaching up to grasp hers in a surprisingly strong grasp.
“Easy now. We have to clean it so that it doesn’t get infected,” she said in a stern but gentle tone.
His grip loosened, his hand falling to his side. Golden eyes, glassy with pain, stared at her before they rolled back in his head again, and he slumped against her.
Selene braced herself to keep from falling over with his weight.
Deme moved forward to steady Selene. “You got him?”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
Selene and Deme held on, lowering him back to the mattress. Once there, they stood back and flexed their arms and shoulders.
Selene took a deep breath and let it out. “I’m sure you have to get back to Cal. I can take it from here.”
Deme crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m not leaving you alone with him.”
“Yes, you are. If I need your help, I’ll call you. I have you on speed dial.”
“Selene, be serious. You don’t know him and what he’s capable of.”
“I told you. I can sense he won’t hurt me. Trust me, Deme. I need you to leave me and go check on the woman who was attacked earlier.”
“He could be her attacker.” Deme’s brows rose and her gaze captured Selene’s. “Your sense of spirit has been wrong before, hasn’t it?”
Selene shook her head. “Never. And no, he didn’t attack the woman.” She knew beyond a doubt this man wasn’t the girl’s attacker.
“Still, I don’t feel comfortable leaving you with him.” Deme’s cell phone buzzed and she pulled it from her back pocket. “Hey, Cal. What’s happening?” She listened for a minute, her gaze going from Selene to the man on the bed and back to Selene. “Okay, I’ll be there in ten minutes.” She clicked the off button.
Selene’s brows rose. “Cal wants you at the hospital to question the woman, doesn’t he?”
Her sister nodded. “He’d like you to be there, too.”
Before Deme could finish the last word, Selene was shaking her head. “I’m not leaving him. His wounds must be treated.”
“He’s unconscious. We could take him to the hospital with us and let the professionals fix him up.”
Selene stared down at the man’s pale face. “Even if I wanted to, we couldn’t get him back up the stairs.”
“The woman regained consciousness. I need to get there before they knock her out completely.”
“Go. I’ll be fine.” Selene didn’t wait for her sister to leave—she started gathering supplies to clean and bandage the man’s shoulder.
“Well, then, I’ll check back here when I’m done at the hospital.”
“No need. I tell you, I’ll be fine.”
Deme snorted. “I’ll be here.” She touched her sister’s arm. “Be careful, and whatever you do, don’t trust him. You’re my sister and I care about you. I don’t want you to be the next woman in the hospital, or dead.”
Selene took Deme’s hand and squeezed it. “Then trust me. I know what I’m doing,”
“Fair enough.” With one last pointed stare, Deme left.
As the door closed behind her sister, Selene filled a bowl with hot water and set to work cleaning the wound.
She dabbed at the dried, caked blood all around the jagged, ripped skin, careful not to cause him more pain. But the effort was hopeless. She’d have to scrub to get the dirt and grime off. She applied more pressure, anxious to get the river water off and treat him for infection with one of her mother’s poultices made of the dried herbs she kept in her pantry.
