I never hit the floor. Aric caught me. He carried me to the bed and yelled for Emme. And while I panted heavily and could feel my jugular throbbing, my brain managed to keep me conscious.

Everyone raced into the room, including Taran, who must have been hiding out in her bedroom. Emme touched my face with her small hands. She closed her eyes, but she didn’t surround me with her soft yellow light. “There’s nothing to heal,” she said quietly. “Celia either needs three weeks of rest to recuperate or another transfusion.”

The last thing I wanted was to be confined to a bed, waiting for my body to regenerate its normal blood volume. Something was wrong with Aric, and the super-nasties wouldn’t stop until they found Shah. Nope. Bed rest was so not an option. I rolled onto my side and met my perky sister’s face. “Shayna, you need to give me your blood.”

Chapter 20

Aric wasn’t happy when Koda told him I’d been lurking in the basement. Seriously, those were the big guy’s exact words. “Remind me to kick your ass when I’m better,” I mumbled, to which he actually grinned.

Okay, maybe that wasn’t an ass I would easily kick.

The only thing that saved me was the pathetic state I was in. “You shouldn’t have left our room without me, sweetness,” Aric told me, frowning. “You could have fallen down the stairs in your condition.”

“Sorry, love.”

I was sorry for worrying everyone, but at the moment I was more terrified of what was going to happen to me. Aric had phoned Danny to come over while my sisters prepared to transfuse Shayna’s blood into me. Aric said Danny should be present in case Shayna’s werewolf blood needed to be “tamed.”

Nice. Just nice. My suggestion seemed like a reasonable one at the time.

Danny arrived along with Bren. It was strange having everyone in our bedroom, and the wolves kept exchanging tension-filled glances.

“Don’t worry, sweetie,” Emme said as she secured the IV to my arm. “We have diphenhydramine ready in case you have an allergic reaction to the blood.”

“And epinephrine if we need to restart your heart,” Shayna said. “Not that we’ll need it, dude,” she added quickly when she caught my horrified expression.

I looked around in time to see Taran hide an antiquated pair of defibrillator paddles behind her back. What the hell?

“Do you think we’ll need the cage?” Bren whispered to Koda.

“We’ll see how she does,” Koda muttered.

When they realized I’d heard them, Koda averted his eyes while Bren feigned a grin and gave me the thumbs-up.

I started searching for the nearest escape route. “Maybe this isn’t a good idea,” I said. Hell, the world had saved itself long before I’d ever showed up.

“Don’t worry, Ceel. You’re fine.” Shayna pointed upward. “See, my blood’s already transfusing.”

I took in the makeshift IV pole Shayna had constructed out of old wire hangers with her gift. Sure enough, drops of blood were already running into the chamber.

“Do you feel okay, honey?” Emme asked me gently.

I nodded. I did feel pretty good. In fact, I felt great! It was almost as if I could feel my red blood cells increasing in numbers and new blood circulating throughout my body. I sat up in bed and watched in awe as my sunken thin veins widened and plumped while my pallor dissipated and my golden skin tone returned.

Werewolf blood good.

My muscles relaxed, like after a good stretch. I felt young and energized. I smiled at my loved ones gathered around the bed. They smiled back.

At first.

Almost in unison their smiles faltered. “What?” I asked, feeling something brush against my arms. When I looked down I realized my hair was growing. It spiraled past my elbows, to my waist, and kept going.

“Maybe you should stop the transfusion now,” Danny suggested.

Shayna reached for the clamp, but I snatched her wrist, keeping her still. “Relax,” I said, followed by a spurt of maniacal laughter. “Everything’s fine.”

Our stares were locked, and while I was smiling, Shayna’s eyes widened in apparent alarm.

“Stop the transfusion, now,” Aric said.

Taran dropped the defibrillator pads and scrambled around Shayna. I took hold of her wrist with my free hand before she could touch the tubing. My jaw clenched, my fangs protruded, and a deep growl built in my throat. “I said, everything’s fine.”

“Oh shit,” Bren said.

The wolves exchanged brief glances before they pounced on me all at once. Time went into fast-forward. I don’t know exactly what happened. My mind only recalled a lot of grunting, hissing, and growling. I realized the hisses and growls had come from me when an invisible hand pushed against my chest. My eyes closed from its comforting feel. Whatever it was shoved me with feather-like softness until my back made contact with something flat and solid.

I pried open my lids. Somehow I ended up with my back against the ceiling…floating. Below, the wolves were sprawled on the floor looking like someone, maybe me, had knocked them on their asses.

Aric blinked back at me in shock. In his left hand he held the IV tube and bag of blood. I looked at my arm and grinned. Although Aric must have used enough force to cause a deep gash when he pulled the catheter, my injury was healing on its own. “Cool,” I said a little too psycho-like.

“Dan,” Aric said slowly. “Why is Celia flying?”

“Ah, she’s not flying. I think Emme’s force is holding her up.”

“I’m not touching her, I swear,” Emme mumbled, sounding defensive. Her hands were clamped over her mouth as she stared at me. Damn, she looked terrified, but I guessed I didn’t help matters when I began spinning on the ceiling like a super-sized top.

“Everything’s fine,” I said again. “Can I have some more blood?”

“No!” everyone yelled back.

“I meant the force in the blood you gave her last night, Emme,” Danny explained. “Shayna’s blood must have amplified your magic in it.”

“Aw, hell,” Bren said. “She’s got Taran’s blood, too. You don’t think she’s going to start exploding things with fire like she did last time?”

I stopped whirling around. “Only if you make me mad,” I answered, throwing in another nutso laugh.