Read Online Love Is in the Air by Carolyn McCray - Free Book Online
Authors: Carolyn McCray
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seem but an ebb tide.”
The way his eyes hardened and teeth clenched, Tyr believed every word. Given the bodies piling up in the morgue, Sal was starting to as well.
Did she need to understand his need for blood to fulfill it? After seeing her blood change the color of steel, Sal didn’t need logical sense.
Slowly Sal pulled back her sleeve and offered Tyr her wrist, worrying if she had fallen prey to another of his edicts. Then she looked into those glacial blue eyes that waxed desperate. No, this offer of blood was of her own volition. With nearly twenty dead, her understanding of how this had all happened could wait.
“Go ahead, you can have your blood.”
But Tyr shook his head. “Yours is not in need.”
“Then whose?”
“That of a babe’s.”
CHAPTER 20
Sal blinked, not believing that she heard right. “A baby’s blood?”
Tyr spoke casually, as if explaining that he took his coffee black. “It must be free of its cord, but still in swaddling, yes.”
“No. No. No,” Sal was still busy shaking her head at his lunacy when laughter carried in from the nurse’s station.
She swung around to find Richard searching for amusement in one of Paul’s jokes. She looked at her watch. Eleven forty-five. Shit, he was early. Before her fiancé could spot them, Sal dropped the blinds.
“We’ve got to get you out of here,” she announced.
“Assist in securing the blood, and you shall be free of me.”
Why did the thought of his departure fill her with trepidation? The memories of that bloody basement—and even of Tyr—felt too important to lose.
Tyr must have misread her hesitation. “Upon my honor, I will go.”
They could discuss that later. Right now, they needed to get him away before Richard stumbled in on them. “Follow me. Quietly.”
He opened a small vial and breathed a word over it. “Quiet.”
Sal cringed, already hating his edicts. Yet this wasn’t aimed at her.
Instead the click of his boot’s heel evaporated. She looked up in wonder.
Up until now, it had been easy to shrug off Tyr’s “tricks.” Charisma and pheromones were known, verifiable, and quantifiable human quantities. Both of which he had in copious amounts. Even the laptop’s strange behavior could be chalked up to a glitch.
This, though? To literally dampen sound with a vocal edict? She couldn’t dismiss that as some trick or hack.
With a flicker of a grin, Tyr took her hand. It felt strong. And foreign. And very wrong. She was engaged.
Sal tried to pull away, but his grip tightened. She went to protest when Tyr nodded toward her feet. Sal had been so distracted by his touch that she’d failed to notice that now the squeak of her tennis shoes had vanished.
“Do we need to not be seen?” he whispered as he opened another vial.
As they rounded the corner, Sal pushed the blood away from his lips. Already shaken by her interactive laptop and soundless tennis shoes, she really didn’t want to see what happened if he tried to make them invisible.
“We’re good.”
They slipped into the stairwell and headed up to the third floor. His urgency set their pace, but as they neared the landing, Sal’s hesitation slowed them. She had completed her task. Tyr was far from Richard.
Where they headed and what they intended to do once they got there became much more problematic.
It had been one thing to offer her blood for the cause, but a baby’s? And not even her own, but one sick in the hospital? A place the parents trusted to offer only healing, not pain.
Her certainty in Tyr’s plan faded the closer they got to the pediatric ward. Her rational mind wanted to dismiss his wild assertions and crazy claims as a drug-induced psychotic break, but then she remembered the angry growl echoing off the basement walls. The red glow to the hallway.
Those had been as real as Maria’s mauled body.
How did she reconcile the two extremes?
As they reached the third-floor landing, Tyr put his hand on the doorknob, but Sal
The way his eyes hardened and teeth clenched, Tyr believed every word. Given the bodies piling up in the morgue, Sal was starting to as well.
Did she need to understand his need for blood to fulfill it? After seeing her blood change the color of steel, Sal didn’t need logical sense.
Slowly Sal pulled back her sleeve and offered Tyr her wrist, worrying if she had fallen prey to another of his edicts. Then she looked into those glacial blue eyes that waxed desperate. No, this offer of blood was of her own volition. With nearly twenty dead, her understanding of how this had all happened could wait.
“Go ahead, you can have your blood.”
But Tyr shook his head. “Yours is not in need.”
“Then whose?”
“That of a babe’s.”
CHAPTER 20
Sal blinked, not believing that she heard right. “A baby’s blood?”
Tyr spoke casually, as if explaining that he took his coffee black. “It must be free of its cord, but still in swaddling, yes.”
“No. No. No,” Sal was still busy shaking her head at his lunacy when laughter carried in from the nurse’s station.
She swung around to find Richard searching for amusement in one of Paul’s jokes. She looked at her watch. Eleven forty-five. Shit, he was early. Before her fiancé could spot them, Sal dropped the blinds.
“We’ve got to get you out of here,” she announced.
“Assist in securing the blood, and you shall be free of me.”
Why did the thought of his departure fill her with trepidation? The memories of that bloody basement—and even of Tyr—felt too important to lose.
Tyr must have misread her hesitation. “Upon my honor, I will go.”
They could discuss that later. Right now, they needed to get him away before Richard stumbled in on them. “Follow me. Quietly.”
He opened a small vial and breathed a word over it. “Quiet.”
Sal cringed, already hating his edicts. Yet this wasn’t aimed at her.
Instead the click of his boot’s heel evaporated. She looked up in wonder.
Up until now, it had been easy to shrug off Tyr’s “tricks.” Charisma and pheromones were known, verifiable, and quantifiable human quantities. Both of which he had in copious amounts. Even the laptop’s strange behavior could be chalked up to a glitch.
This, though? To literally dampen sound with a vocal edict? She couldn’t dismiss that as some trick or hack.
With a flicker of a grin, Tyr took her hand. It felt strong. And foreign. And very wrong. She was engaged.
Sal tried to pull away, but his grip tightened. She went to protest when Tyr nodded toward her feet. Sal had been so distracted by his touch that she’d failed to notice that now the squeak of her tennis shoes had vanished.
“Do we need to not be seen?” he whispered as he opened another vial.
As they rounded the corner, Sal pushed the blood away from his lips. Already shaken by her interactive laptop and soundless tennis shoes, she really didn’t want to see what happened if he tried to make them invisible.
“We’re good.”
They slipped into the stairwell and headed up to the third floor. His urgency set their pace, but as they neared the landing, Sal’s hesitation slowed them. She had completed her task. Tyr was far from Richard.
Where they headed and what they intended to do once they got there became much more problematic.
It had been one thing to offer her blood for the cause, but a baby’s? And not even her own, but one sick in the hospital? A place the parents trusted to offer only healing, not pain.
Her certainty in Tyr’s plan faded the closer they got to the pediatric ward. Her rational mind wanted to dismiss his wild assertions and crazy claims as a drug-induced psychotic break, but then she remembered the angry growl echoing off the basement walls. The red glow to the hallway.
Those had been as real as Maria’s mauled body.
How did she reconcile the two extremes?
As they reached the third-floor landing, Tyr put his hand on the doorknob, but Sal
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