Page 93 of Healer’s Betrayal

My heart thunders in my chest, and I don’t think I can breathe. “Nobody touches the vampire,” I thunder into the group. I know my eyes are wild, but I make sure everybody hears me loud and clear. “If anybody touches the vampire, I’ll kill your mate myself.” Harsh growls sound.

“Jackson!” Ransom hisses, but I ignore it.

“I’m serious.” And I’ve never been more serious in my entire life. I eye my own wolves. “If any of you touches Alicia, I will end you myself.”

Martin meets my eyes, and I see the sorrow there. I ball my hands into fists. “We won’t,” Martin says quietly.

Chapter 40

Jackson

Ransom steps close. “I don’t have a mate in this mix, so let me be the one to talk through facts.” He wisely ignores the growls. “They’re not going to kill Kayla, because the vampire’s life is tied to hers. They’re not going to kill the other females either.”

“How do you know?” Liam asks sharply

Ransom keeps his voice low. “Because they would have done it already. They already have the females incapacitated. If the goal was to kill them, they’d be dead.” Once again, he ignores the sounds of anger. “If the goal was to kill you guys, the same would have already taken place. What's the point of taking them somewhere else and then killing them.” This time, I add my own growl to the mix. I also have to remind my wolf not to kill him. “They want something from them. So, you let them take your females, give them the antidote,” he speaks over their protests. “And then, rescue them.” He meets my eyes and gives me a guilty look. “I’m not saying this is easy, by any means.”

I look down at Kayla, my whole world. My eyes take in Noah and the other females as well. “How do we know we get them back?”

“We don’t let them take them in the first place,” Max growls, stepping towards me, his eyes alight with his wolf.

Garrett pulls out his phone and then looks at me. “Can you get your pack to make noise, so she can’t hear.”

“Vampires can’t hear that well,” Ransom says in confusion.

“She’s a wolf shifter vampire,” Garrett says, and Ransom’s eyes widen. I guess I’d left that part out when I explained what was going on.

I find Martin and explain what I need them to do. They form a barrier between us and the vamps and start making a ruckus. Meanwhile, Garrett puts his phone on speakerphone. “Hey, Garrett,” a voice comes over the line.

“Bryce,” Garrett growls. “We have a situation on our hands. I need to talk to your mate and Sherese.”

“What’s going on?”

Garrett gets right to it. “Alicia showed up here. They did something to all the humans staying in the hotel. They’re all unconscious, and that includes our mates.” Garrett’s voice gets deeper and deeper the more he speaks. “Alicia says she alone has the antidote and that our mates have to go with her, or they will die in less than twenty-four hours.”

“Twenty-three,” Paul says from his spot on the ground where he’s continually monitoring the females.

“And we can’t kill her because she tied her life to Kayla, Jackson’s mate,” Liam adds.

“How’d she do that?” Ava asks, joining the conversation. She sounds out of breath.

When nobody answers, I do. “The shot they gave her; Alicia said it acts the same as siring a vampire. I don’t know if it actually worked because you healed her.”

“But if not,” she says for me.

“It’s not a chance we’re willing to take,” I say firmly.

“Sherese and Hunter are here now too,” Ava says.

I remember meeting them. Sherese used to be a vampire but was healed. “Ava and Sherese, what would they want from our mates?” Garrett asks.

“I don’t know, Garrett,” Ava says. “I mean Kayla and Sage could be used for their healer’s blood and—” she pauses and obviously changes what she was going to say. “But I don’t know why Raechel and Talya and Emma.”

“Sherese?” Garrett growls.

Her voice is heavy. “I don’t know, but they’re always working on something new—a new serum, a new device to try, new ways to get the outcome they want. It could be anything.” Several growls follow her words. “But if they go in there, Hunter and I will go in to get them out.”

“I will too,” Ava says, and a harsh growl sounds through the phone.