Page 90 of Ryder’s Storm

Ryder looked at her with kindness in his eyes, and only now Scarlet noticed the burns that covered his body. But he didn’t even seem to notice them. She tore her gaze from him and looked at her father. The burns on his body were extensive, but he had other injuries too. Blood oozed from deep gashes on his torso, probably caused by falling debris. One leg was shattered in two places. His chest barely rose with each breath, and his face was grey beneath the soot that covered his skin.

“Will he still be the same person?”

Ryder nodded. “His personality will still be the same, though he’ll feel different at first. But we’ll all help him adjust to his new life. He won’t be alone in this. Scanguards will be his family. If that’s what you truly want for him.”

“There isn’t much time, Scarlet,” Maya said, her fingers on Brandon King’s neck to feel his pulse. “We only have a couple of minutes left. We can’t wait much longer. Once his heart stops, he’ll be gone for good. And nothing will bring him back.”

“Nobody will judge you, no matter what you decide,” Ryder said softly.

Scarlet wiped the remaining tears from her eyes and looked at Ryder and his mother. They had a life, a good one, a loving family, friends. And they had jobs, they had Scanguards and its mission, a calling to help others. And while Scarlet had only found out about vampires a few hours earlier, she knew that a vampire could be happy. Her father would get another chance at love. And maybe this time it would be forever. She wanted that for him, because she had found it for herself, with Ryder. She wanted the same for her father.

Her decision was made. “Turn him.”

“Okay,” Ryder said and lifted his own wrist to his lips, his fangs already extending.

“Son, I’ll do it,” Gabriel said from the front seat and squeezed through the opening between the driver’s and passenger’s seat into the back of the ambulance. “Your relationship with Scarlet’s father is gonna be complicated enough. If it turns out that he doesn’t want this, let him be mad at me, not at you. I’ll be his sire.”

“Thank you,” Scarlet said and watched Gabriel take off his Kevlar gloves and jacket, so he could access his wrist.

Gabriel’s fangs lengthened, and for a moment, Scarlet noticed how frightening Gabriel could look when he showed his vampire side, but she wasn’t scared of him.

“Pulse?” Gabriel asked with a look at his wife.

“Thirty and falling fast. Get ready.”

Gabriel brought his wrist to his mouth and plunged his fangs into it. Blood dripped from them when he removed his fangs.

“It’s time,” Maya said.

Gabriel moved his arm, so his bleeding wrist was right above Brandon King’s mouth. The blood dripped onto his lips, and Maya used two hands to open his mouth gently. Gabriel’s blood dripped into the open mouth in a steady stream.

“Drink!” Gabriel urged. “Damn it, drink!”

Scarlet felt the tension in the ambulance as the three members of the Giles family watched the blood fill Brandon King’s mouth. Nobody breathed. Nobody spoke. Everybody waited. Scarlet’s heart clenched. What if it didn’t work? What if it was too late? Had she waited too long to make a decision?

All of a sudden, there was the tiniest of movements of her father’s throat, the Adam’s apple moving slightly as he swallowed. His eyes remained closed, but he took the blood, swallowed it.

Ryder let out a sigh of relief, and gave her an encouraging look. He squeezed her hand and pulled her closer to his side, while he continued to watch. Scarlet couldn’t take her eyes off Gabriel’s wrist and the blood he fed her father. There was something fascinating about seeing a vampire like Gabriel engage in the selfless act of giving his blood to a human to save him. Ryder had offered the same without hesitation, simply because she’d asked him to do it. She looked at Ryder now, and he met her gaze.

“I love you,” she murmured.

He pressed his forehead to hers. “And I love you.”

She perceived a movement, and looked back at Gabriel. He removed his wrist from her father’s mouth and was about to bring it to his lips, when Maya took it and dipped her mouth to it.

“Let me.” She licked over Gabriel’s puncture wounds with her tongue, lapping up the remaining blood and sealing them, stopping the blood flow.

Fascinated, Scarlet stared at Maya, and noticed that her eyes were shimmering golden the same way she’d seen Ryder’s eyes shimmer.

The ambulance suddenly stopped. The driver—and she still couldn’t figure out which one of the twins he was—looked over his shoulder. “We’re here.”

Scarlet looked outside and realized that they were in Scanguards’ underground garage.

Jenny, the nurse Scarlet had met before, was waiting for them and opened the ambulance doors, helping Ryder’s parents to transport the gurney with Scarlet’s father to the elevator.

Ryder lifted Scarlet out of the back of the ambulance. Scarlet hurried toward the elevator, ready to join them.

But Maya lifted her hand. “No, you can’t be near him now.”