Emma was still weak, in and out of consciousness as he stripped her damp clothing from her and bathed her wounds. Though she was visibly healing now, her fragile, soft skin was still ravaged between her br**sts down to her ribs. His hands shook as he washed her.
"That hurts," she rasped, flinching when Lachlain inspected her wounds a last time before bandaging her.
Relief washed over him. She could speak once more. "I wish I could take the pain for you," he grated. His own wounds were deep, yet he felt nothing. The idea of her suffering made his hands unsteady when he began rolling the bandage around her chest. "Emma, what made you run from them?"
Not opening her eyes, she murmured, "Scared."
"Why were you afraid?"
A small movement, as though she'd tried to shrug and failed. "Never seen a vampire."
He finished the binding and forced himself to tie it tight, wincing when she did. "I doona understand. You are a vampire."
Her eyes opened, but they were unfocused. "Call Annika. Number on medic card. Let her come get me." She grabbed his wrist, gritting the words. "Please let me go home...I want to go home..." then passed out.
As he tucked the blanket around her, he ground his teeth with frustration, not comprehending why her own kind would hurt her so. Not understanding why she would say she'd never seen a vampire.
She wanted him to call her family. Of course, he would never let her go back to them, but why not let them know that? Why not find out answers? He dug through her luggage, found the number for this Annika, then called for Harmann.
Minutes later, he was standing beside the bed, holding a telephone with no cord, ringing the United States.
A woman answered, "Emma! Is that you?"
"I have Emma with me."
"Who is this?"
"I am Lachlain. Who are you?"
"I'm the foster mother who's going to annihilate you if you don't send her home right now."
"Never going to happen. She stays with me from now on."
Something sounded like it exploded in the background, yet her voice was calm. "Scottish accent. Tell me you are not Lykae."
"I am their king."
"I hadn't thought you would commit an outright act of aggression against us. If you wanted to rekindle a war, you've succeeded."
Rekindle? The Lykae and the vampires were at war.
"Know this. If you don't free her, I will find your family, and I will sharpen my claws and peel them. Do you understand me?"
No. No, he didn't at all.
"You can't imagine the fury I will unleash on you and your kind if you hurt her. She is innocent of any crimes against you. I am not," she screamed.
He heard another woman in the background say softly, "Annika, ask him to speak with Emma."
Before she could ask, he answered, "She sleeps."
This Annika said, "It's night there - "
From the background again: "Reason with him. Who could be monster enough to hurt little Emma?"
He had been.
"If you hate us, then bring the fight here, but that creature has never hurt any living thing. Send her home to her coven."
Coven? "Why is she afraid of vampires - ?"
"Did you let them get near her?" she shrieked, forcing him to hold the phone away from his ear. She sounded more furious that the vampires had gotten near Emma than she was about him having her.
The one with the reasonable voice said, "Ask him if he means her harm."
"Do you?"
"No. Never." He could now say this with confidence. "But you said, 'let them get near her'? You are them."
"What are you saying?"
"Are you split from the Horde? There was rumor of a faction - "
"You think I'm a vampire?"
With that shriek, he removed the phone from his ear more quickly. "If no', then what are you?"
"Valkyrie, you ignorant dog."
"Valkyrie," he repeated dumbly as his breath left him. His weak leg gave way and he sank onto the bed. His hand found Emma's hip and squeezed.
Now it made perfect sense. Her fey appearance, her glass-shattering screams. "Emma is part...that's why her ears..." Christ, she was part shield maiden?
He heard the phone being passed. The reasonable one said, "I am Lucia, her aunt - "
"Her father's a vampire?" he asked, cutting her off. "Who is he?"
"We don't know anything about him. Her mother never told us before she died. They attacked?"
"Aye."
"How many?"
"Three."
"They will report back. Unless you killed them all?" she asked with a hopeful note in her voice.
"O' course I did," he snapped.
He heard her exhale as though relieved. "Was she...hurt?"
He hesitated. "She was" - immediate and numerous shrieks in the background - "but she's healing."
The phone was passed yet again. Someone said, "Don't let Regin have it!"
"This is Regin, and you must be the 'man' she was with. She told me you promised to protect her. Way to go there, Ace - "
He heard something like a scuffle, then slaps, then Lucia had the phone. "We are the only family she knows and this is the first time she's traveled away from the protection of her coven. She's very gentle in nature, wary, and she will be frightened away from us. We beseech you to treat her with kindness."
"I will," he said, and he meant it. He knew he would never hurt her again. The memory of her eye bursting red just before him, and of her running to him for his protection, were forever seared into his mind. "Why would the vampires attack like that? Do you think her father seeks her?"