Chapter One Hundred and Fifty

Havermouth, Present Time

“Charles Gale, Pastor,” Pastor Gale recovered quickly, and his outrage transformed into charm. “I came to offer Aislen my services and company. I make regular rounds of the hospital,” he said as he stepped into the room. “And I understood that my son and his friends were at the river house.”

He had expected to find her alone, in other words, she thought. Alone and vulnerable. And instead, he found her guarded by a giant of a vampire.

“They are,” Talen replied, leaning a hip onto Aislen’s bed, a posture that was both confident and claiming. “We are alternating who stays with Aislen. They will be returning soon.”

“Thank you for your kind thought,” Aislen said, barely keeping the sarcasm out of her tone. “But I’m not religious and you’ve made perfectly clear that you don’t enjoy my company.”

“Now, Aislen,” Pastor Gale smiled patronizingly. “That’s simply not true.”

It was unnerving how similar he looked to Heath, Aislen thought, considering that she reviled the man, and loved his son. “The last time we spoke, you marveled that I did not combust upon entering your church,” she reminded him.

“And you accused me of infidelity and embezzlement,” he responded with a flash of irritation across his features.

“I didn’t accuse you,” she corrected calmly. “That would imply that I didn’t know for fact that you were embezzling funds from your church and sleeping with your parishioners, and I do,” she smirked. “Know for a fact, that is,” she told him. “Not only that you are, but where the money is and what their names are.”

He inhaled, his eyes turning icy. For a moment she saw Heath in him, as Heath had been upon that first meeting in the lawyer’s office. “You should be careful, Aislen Carter,” he said with a frostbitten smile. “What you say and to whom.”

“Dad.” Pastor Gale’s head jerked to the side at Heath’s simple word. The Triquetra stood in the entrance of the room, Rhett and Cameron flanking Heath, whose expression was hard and angry, fire to the Pastor’s ice. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

“Apparently he’s doing his rounds of the hospital and stopped by to offer Aislen comfort and company,” Talen drawled the words.

“Did he just?” Heath sneered the words. “That surprises me, dad, considering everything…”

“Not the place, Heath,” Charles Gale snapped out.

“Agreed,” Heath replied. “So why are you here?”

“I will leave,” Pastor Gale said the words graciously. “And we will discuss this further tomorrow.”

The Triquetra parted to let him pass, and Rhett closed the door behind him. “Trouble,” he said to Heath as he turned back to the room.

“He said tomorrow,” Cameron added.

“They must be planning on calling a pack meeting,” Heath answered. All three turned to look at the bed, and Aislen. “How are you feeling?”

“So over being in a hospital,” she replied. “I am going to have a shower and then I want to go home.”

“They cannot hold you if you decide to leave,” Heath replied. “I checked the law out last night. We can go at any time if we think you’re healed enough…” He looked at Talen and arched an eyebrow.

Talen’s smile was slow and scalding. “Little demon was doing her best to seduce me before your father entered. I would say that the blood has worked, and she is well enough to return home.”

“I don’t think I’ll be running a marathon any time soon,” Aislen added. “But I certainly don’t feel sick enough to spend any more time here. And, I’m fucking horny.” She slid Talen a mischievous look. “I wasn’t doing my best at seducing you; I WAS seducing you.”

He chuckled under his breath but did not deny it.

“My father coming here isn’t a good sign,” Heath told Talen. “He knew that we were not at the hospital…”

She had been correct, Aislen thought to herself. If Talen hadn’t been there… what would the Pastor’s intentions have been? If she hadn’t been taking Talen’s blood, she would have been weak, in pain, and vulnerable…

“What would he have done if Talen wasn’t here?” Rhett muttered darkly, echoing her thoughts.

“He could hardly do more than threaten her,” Heath replied over his shoulder, his voice sharp, not wanting to think the worst of his own father. “He’s an arrogant arsehole, but he’s not… He wouldn’t do anything in the hospital,” he amended.

Rhett raised his eyebrows dubiously, but kept his mouth shut.

“Let’s get Aislen out of here,” Cameron intervened, having caught Rhett’s expression, although Heath hadn’t. “We’ll all be a lot less tense, when she’s in a securable location.” He pushed past Heath and leaned over Aislen to kiss her, before whipping back the blankets, causing her to protest. “Let’s get you dressed. You can shower when we’re away from here.”

His urgency made Aislen’s heart race. He was the only one of her men without the skill at subterfuge to hide the reality of the risk, but was a true reflection of it, instead. She was in serious danger. Real, gritty danger. She had been too weak and too focused on her injury to really absorb the reason for it, and that, having failed once, whoever was responsible would simply try again.

Aislen wondered, what might the pastor have done? Injected something into an IV, smothered her with a cushion…? She felt her skin crawl as she came to understand just how precarious it would have been if she hadn’t been taking Talen’s blood. It had been a good call by both Heath and Talen, she decided.

She watched the silent exchange of information between Heath and Talen conclude in a slight inclination of Heath’s chin and realized, grimly, that what she had mistaken for petulance in Rhett, standing against the wall near the door, his face turned away, was actually vigilance – he was watching the window for anyone’s approach.

“Tyler will stay at the house around the clock,” Talen said quietly to Heath. “She will never be alone.”

“Cameron will go to his father’s property tomorrow and get one of his guns,” Heath replied, his voice barely audible. “Tyler isn’t one of us, and a gun will give him the upper hand.”

“If you demand parley with the pack,” Rhett said under his breath. “Then all assassination attempts, sanctioned or unsanctioned, will have to cease until the parley period is completed.”

“Someone’s been discussing werewolf law with his father,” Heath observed dryly.

“She’s my mate too,” there was the tone of an ongoing argument between the two in Rhett’s voice. “Dad might not approve of my career, or Aislen, but he wants to help as much as he can, and he’s more familiar with that side of the law than you, Heath.”

“Parley doesn’t come without a cost,” Heath replied sharply, his voice loud in the small room. “Did he tell you that?”

“Yes,” Rhett replied. “And I’m prepared to pay it, if they demand it.”

“What’s the cost?” Talen asked, calmly interceding into the argument. Aislen did not see what happened between the men as Cameron pulled her T-shirt on over her head, but there was a long silence before Talen sighed. “Hmm,” he mumbled. “We want to avoid that, obviously.”

“Avoid what?” Aislen asked, blowing her hair out of her face. Cameron’s hasty efforts at dressing her had charged the strands with static, which caused the hair to become frenetic around her face.

Heath just shook his head, refusing to answer.

“Could it be your dad?” She insisted. “The person who ordered the assassination?”

“Unlikely,” he replied unhappily. “Why order it done by someone else, just to turn up yourself? I think, rather, that he would have threatened you and tried to persuade you to leave town.”

“Could he have sent the tongue?”

Rhett and Heath both shook their heads. “Not his style,” Rhett said with certainty.

“Your enemies keep multiplying, little demon,” Talen observed with amusement.

“What can I say?” Aislen replied ruefully. “People either love me or they hate me.”

Talen's phone vibrated and he took it from his pocket to read the display. "I have to go to work," he said to Heath. "It should only be a matter of a couple of hours."

"We can handle this," Heath replied confidently.

"I am sure that you can," Talen ran his hand through Heath's hair in a simple, tender caress.

“All done!” Cameron declared, stepping back. “What do we do about the IVs? And should we get her a wheelchair?”

“Why does she need one?” Judith opened the door and took in the scene, already beginning to shake her head. “No. No. You cannot be serious. Just two days ago she was shot in the stomach. You cannot be planning on removing her from the hospital so soon. She hasn’t even finished her course of antibiotics.”

“I feel fine,” Aislen said chirpily. “Really. Just great. I just want to go home to my own bed. And look, I have four handsome men to wait on me hand and foot and cater to my every need…”

Judith continued to shake her head. “If you haven’t already overdone it and caused a bleed,” she said tersely, marching over to the bed. “Lie back down, let’s see the damage,” she ordered crisply, and Aislen leaned back against the pillows complicity. “See,” Judith said as she removed the bandage. “A raw wound…” She trailed off.

Aislen grimaced and looked down at the scab. “It itches,” she complained.

“That’s because… because…” Judith’s breath hissed out. “How…?”

“Aislen’s obviously got an exceptional immune system,” Heath intervened efficiently. “As you can see, she’s absolutely ready to go home.”

Unable to resist, Aislen scratched at the wound, expecting pain, but instead felt the scab move and peel away. “Oh,” she saw that the skin had closed beneath it. What remained was a twisted, ugly gnarled patch of keloid scarring, but it was healed. “No wonder I’m feeling frisky,” she winked at Talen. “I’m all good again. A bit ugly, but… I’m not complaining.”

“That’s just… not possible,” Judith protested.

“Obviously, it is,” Heath insisted, putting his hand in the small of her back and encouraging her towards the reception desk. “Or how else would it have happened? Aislen eats a lot of greens and fresh fish, her immune system is obviously very efficient and active. Nothing more than a healthy young woman, who eats well and exercises regularly.”

(Nothing unusual) Aislen tried to push out and groaned, putting a hand to her face as pain sparked around her eye.

“Aislen?” Rhett asked anxiously, having not missed the flinch.

“It’s nothing. Just a headache,” she replied.

Talen leaned over her, taking her chin in his fingers, his eyes searching hers, before he leaned over and kissed her forehead over her third eye. She wondered if the placement was accidental or if her vampire suspected the source of the headache. "It will take time to check out. I will leave you with the Triquetra," he murmured against her skin. "They will take good care of you."

"Okay daddy. I'll see you at home."

He smiled as he straightened and grasped Cameron's shoulder and nodded to Rhett as he passed.

“See,” Heath continued the argument with Judith. “Please remove the IV line.”

“Well, I guess, I can’t deny the evidence of my own eyes…” Judith replied hesitantly. “But you should wait until the doctor does his rounds…”

"The IV lines, please, Judith."

Judith sighed and went to the bed. "I could get into trouble..." She complained under her breath as she began to remove the J-line.

"I'm sorry, Judith," Aislen said.

The nurse smiled and nodded as she finished her task. "There's paperwork that you'll need to sign," she said to Heath.

“We will hire an at-home nurse to visit every day,” Heath told her, his voice fading as they stepped out into the hallway towards the reception. “And someone will be with her at all times…”

“Heath’s got it,” Cameron decided and scooped Aislen up into his arms, making her cry out in surprise. “Did I hurt you?” He was alarmed.

“No, surprised me, that’s all,” she assured him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

“Okay then,” he was relieved. “Let’s go.”