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Slowly, Mercy’s gaze traveled from the table in front of her to the edge of the row, where the shadows bled into the dim light. There, leaning against the stacks, stood a man—naked and bleeding. His dark hair was slicked with the rain from outside. Curiously, his muscular chest didn’t seem to be rising or falling. Beside him, slumped in a half-conscious state, was a woman, her head lolled to one side. She looked barely alive.
Mercy’s heart skipped a beat.What the hell?
Her chair screeched loudly against the stone floor as she pushed it back, the sound grating in the tense silence. She rose slowly, her eyes fixed on the man. Recognition hit her in an instant. It was him. The falcon from earlier—the one she’d felt drawn to, if only for a moment, before she’d fled. But now, standing here in the flesh, there was something undeniably different about him.
Hunter.
His name filtered through her mind as she took him in. He wasn’t just a shifter. That much was clear. There was a darkness to him, an aura that whispered of something ancient, something dangerous. And yet, despite the fear that twisted in her gut, there was something else—an inexplicable pull, something she couldn’t explain.
The woman at his side was also a shifter, but her essence was so faint, it was almost as if her other side had been erased. Mercy's chest tightened with unease. That was her gift, her ability to sense and identify the supernatural with pinpoint accuracy. And yet, she couldn’t figure out what the woman truly was.How is that even possible?
"You're bleeding," Mercy said, her voice cutting through the thick silence, eyes flicking to Hunter’s wounds. They were deep, vicious, as if he’d barely survived an attack.
Hunter's dark, piercing eyes met hers, and for the first time, there was no trace of the arrogance he'd shown earlier. He looked… wounded. Vulnerable, even. But behind the pain, there was still that intense presence that drew her in like gravity.
"I was… involved in an altercation," Hunter rasped, his voice hoarse. "A rescue mission, as it were."
"Sit down," Mercy interrupted, her instincts taking over as she moved closer, gesturing to a chair. "You need help, both of you. You’re in no condition to be going anywhere."
Hunter shook his head, his body trembling as he lowered the woman onto a chair. His hands were unsteady as he carefully laid her down, her limp form barely moving. "I wasn’t finished. I need to get back."
Mercy frowned, stepping toward him. "You’re not going anywhere like this. Besides, you don’t just show up at the village library and dump off some half-dead woman."
“I’m not half-dead,” the woman whispered.
“Of course not,” said Mercy. “But my guess is you’ve had better days.”
She glanced down at the woman. Her pulse was weak, her breathing shallow, and there was something not quite right about her either.Who are these people?
Hunter took a few shaky steps toward the door, refusing to listen to reason, but the strength in his legs gave way.Swell. Now, I have two half-dead people.He collapsed to the floor, his body hitting the stone with a thud that reverberated through the room.
“Damn it!” Mercy dropped to her knees beside him, her fingers instantly going to his throat to check for a pulse. His skin was cold—unnaturallycold. She froze. The strange aura she’d sensed earlier clicked into place, and a wave of shock rolled through her.
Holy shit. Hunter wasn’t just a shifter; he was a vampire.
Her stomach twisted violently. She had always hated vampires. Their predatory nature, their cold, lifeless existence, everything about them rubbed her the wrong way. But here he was, this shifter-turned-vampire, lying unconscious at her feet after having just saved this not-quite-right female shifter.
Mercy’s heart pounded as she placed the back of her hand against Hunter’s forehead, confirming the unnatural chill to his skin. She cursed under her breath. Despite her hatred, shecouldn’t just leave him here. He’d saved someone, and from the look of it, he’d paid a steep price.
Mercy took a deep breath, steeling herself, and fished her phone out of her pocket as Hunter’s eyes fluttered open. There was only one person she could call.
"Brie, it’s Mercy. I need you to come to the library. Quickly," she said, her voice low and urgent. "There’s a woman; she needs help. It’s… complicated. Bring Colby and whoever else you can."
“Mercy, such a pretty name,” Hunter rumbled before passing out.
Within short order, Brie and Colby arrived, accompanied by two other members of Colby’s clan. They entered the library quietly, their eyes immediately drawn to the scene before them. Colby, ever the joker, raised an eyebrow as he took in the sight of Hunter slumped on the floor.
“Well, well. Isn’t this a lovely surprise,” he said with a somewhat malevolent smile. “You brought home a vampire, Mercy. That complicates things.”
Brie knelt beside Hunter, her keen eyes assessing his condition with a practiced ease. “He’s definitely a vampire,” she muttered, more to herself than anyone else. “What happened?”
Mercy shook her head, her gaze dropping to the unconscious man. “I don’t know. He just showed up like this… bleeding, half-dead. He mentioned something about a rescue mission, but he collapsed before he could say much more.”
One of the men who had accompanied them lifted the woman out of the chair and headed outside, to where two SUVs stood waiting.
Brie stood up; her expression thoughtful. “We’ll take them to the abbey. They’ll be safe there. Both of them need time to recover. Then we can figure out what happened.”
Colby shot Mercy a teasing glance. “So, you going to come with us this time? We’ve been trying to get you to move in for ages.”
