“You shouldn’t go after him at all—” Eli began.

“Shut up. Concentrate on your bleeding,” I told him firmly. I looked at Kirsten. “We have to get the bullet out. Once it’s gone, I can move away, and he’ll heal fast, but it has to come out first, or the silver will poison him.”

“We can try to get it out the old-fashioned way. Hang on.” She scuttled over to Jared Hess’s workbench, and I heard tools rattling around. When she came back, she had what looked like an enormous pair of iron tweezers. “Do you want to do it?” she asked me.

I shook my head, suddenly afraid.

“Okay. Eli, this is gonna be messy and hurt like hell, but it should get the job done. Ready?”

He looked at me and reached toward me with his good arm. Seeing what he wanted, I dropped down to my side and scooted against him, chest to chest. I wrapped one arm carefully around his back above the bullet hole to hold him still.

“I’m ready,” he said to Kirsten, but his eyes never left mine.

The next few minutes were some of the worst of my life, much less Eli’s. Apologizing like crazy, Kirsten dug in with the forceps, while Eli made very human whimpering noises right beside me.

“Should we be worrying about infection?” she muttered to me.

I bit my lip. “I don’t think so. The wolves never get sick; I don’t think they can get infected. I think, when I move away, he should be fine.”

Eli snarled at a particularly painful dig, burying his face in my neck, and a second later, Kirsten pulled back the forceps with a little smushed bullet pinioned in between them.

“I got it,” she said shakily, then stood up. “Excuse me a minute.” She sprinted over to the bottom of the stairs, where I heard her start to retch.

As soon as she moved, I started to get up myself, intending to get as far away as possible so Eli could heal. But he lifted a weak hand to snag my arm before I could fully stand. “Wait,” he said, and I crouched back down. “I want to go with you,” he said soberly. “You can’t face that guy and Dashiell alone. Just give me a minute to heal and—”

“No fucking way,” I told him, tears in my throat. “You got shot, Eli. With silver. And he’s got a ton more silver ammo. I can’t let you come.”

“But—”

“No,” I said, my voice rising. “I can’t do it.”

He paused and looked at me. “Can’t do what?”

“I can’t...I can’t be responsible for anyone else getting hurt. Not today.” In an attempt to ward off tears, I smiled. “And right now, I think I can even outrun you.”

He opened his mouth to protest again, but I leaned down and kissed him, not very gently. His good arm rose to touch my face, and when I finally broke the kiss, he was smiling at me.

“I’ll accept that as your surrender,” I told him.

I let go of his hand and stood up, brushing off my jeans. “Where are we?” I asked Kirsten, who was sitting on the stairs now.

“A little ranch house in Burbank, just off the 101.”

“Did you guys drive separately?”

She nodded, and I squatted back down to dig Eli’s keys out of his pants pocket.

“Hey!” he said.

“I’m taking your phone, too. I’ll bring it back later,” I told him. I headed for the stairs before he could answer, feeling the tug as he slid out of my radius. The second he was out, he gave a surprised gasp, and I looked back to see color already returning to his face. Good. I went over to Kirsten and crouched to hug her. “Thank you,” I said sincerely.

She gave a shaky laugh. “For the magic, anytime. But no more surgery, please.”

“Deal.” I ran up the stairs.

Corry.

By the time I got to Eli’s truck, I realized I had no idea where to go. Corry and her family were staying at a Holiday Inn, but I didn’t know which one. And Hess had a head start, too. I called Will, updated him on Eli, and asked for Corry’s phone number, which was still in my cell phone back at Kirsten’s. Then I called Corry’s cell, which at least rang this time. When it went to voice mail, I punched End and immediately redialed. This time she answered on the fourth ring.

“Hello?” Her voice was cautious and hushed, probably trying not to wake her family.

“It’s Scarlett. Where are you?” I said abruptly.

“Hi! Um, I thought I wasn’t supposed to tell you where—”

“Corry, he got away. I tried to stop him, but he figured out what was going on, and he’s coming for you. He knows where you are, do you understand? Tell me and I’ll come get you.”

“Oh God. It’s the Holiday Inn in Burbank, off Colorado Boulevard.”

I cursed and started the truck’s engine, pulling away from the little house. Dumb fucking luck. If I was in Glendale, that was five minutes away. How long had it taken Kirsten to get the bullet out of Eli’s shoulder?

More than five minutes.

“Corry, listen to me. He’s gonna be there any second. Get your family up and take them to the lobby, somewhere with a lot of people, okay? Go now.”

Before she could answer me, I heard a pounding on her end of the phone, and she gave a surprised little yelp. “Scarlett, he’s here. He’s trying to get in. Oh, God help us—”

“Corry? Corry!” I yelled into the phone, feeling helpless. Then the sounds stopped, and I checked the screen. Disconnected. I called 911 and directed the operator to the Holiday Inn, hanging up when she tried to ask questions. The police would be too late. And Corry and her family would be no match for Jared Hess when he was loaded for bear like that.