Beth glanced to him with surprise. She’d been so lost in thought, she hadn’t realized Scotty had finished the explanations and the younger immortal had called Mortimer.
“We’ll take you back to the house first,” Donny assured her. “And then Matias and I can take the girl—”
“Don’t be silly. I’m fine,” Beth said quietly. “Besides, there’s blood in the SUV. Isn’t there?” she added, glancing to Matias in question.
Her cousin nodded solemnly. “Always.”
“I’ll grab a couple bags,” Donny said, moving to the back of the vehicle.
“Make it four,” Scotty ordered, ushering Beth and the girl into the back seat. The other man must have stopped and glanced to him in question, because he added, “The sword cut nearly through the bone. Two bags won’t do.”
“Right,” Donny muttered weakly.
“The lad needs to toughen up if he really wants to be a Rogue Hunter,” Scotty said quietly as he slid into the back seat next to Beth.
“He’s fine. This is only his second day on the job,” she pointed out. “Actually, technically this is still his first. At least, it’s his first twenty-four hours.”
Scotty grunted at that and lifted his arm to set it along the seat back behind her so that there was more room and he could turn to look at her. He asked, “How is your arm?”
Beth raised her eyebrows at the concern on his face, and admitted, “It hurts like a bugger, but I’ve had worse.”
That made Scotty’s mouth tighten, and then Donny closed the back door of the SUV and came around to give him the four bags of blood before getting into the front passenger seat.
“Where to?” Matias asked as he started the engine.
“The house,” Scotty said firmly. “Beth needs to rest and heal.”
“But what about the girl?” Donny asked with a frown. “Mortimer gave me an address to take her to. He said that they’d tend to her there, make sure there was no damage and retrieve any information they can.”
Scotty scowled briefly, but then asked, “What’s the address?”
Donny glanced down at his phone and rattled it off.
“That’s on the way to the house,” Matias said helpfully.
Scotty considered the matter briefly and then nodded as he handed one of the bags of blood to Beth. “Since it’s on the way, we’ll drop off the lass ere we go home. That way none o’ us has to leave the house. I’d rather all three o’ us were there to watch out for Elizabeth tonight. At least until we sort out how best to keep an eye on her from now on.”
“What?” Beth had been about to pop the bag of blood he’d given her to her fangs, but instead turned on him with surprise as Matias steered the SUV into traffic. “Why? I’m fine. A couple of bags of blood and a bit of time and I’ll be good as new. And what’s with the Elizabeth thing? I’m Beth. Everyone calls me Beth.”
“Beth,” he said with emphasis, “someone has targeted ye. Ye were deliberately lured out into that alley, and ’tis an immortal.”
“Yes, but—”
“And this is no’ even the first attack,” Scotty continued right over her.
“What are you talking about?” she asked with amazement.
“The car crash ere we left,” Scotty reminded her sharply.
“That was an accident,” she said at once.
“Nay,” he assured her. “When I read his mind, the driver did no’ remember a thing.”
“Perhaps he—”
“He was controlled.” Scotty’s expression didn’t hold a bit of doubt as he made that statement.
“What accident?” Matias asked, glancing at her in the rearview mirror.
“A semi hauling girders swerved in front of me on the highway,” Beth admitted with a frown. “But I wasn’t even hurt.”
“Ye should ha’e been,” Scotty said with certainty. “Ye should ha’e been beheaded, and then burned to death in an explosion. I still do no’ understand how that Explorer o’ yers did no’ blow up. The weight of the girders landed on your engine when the semi’s tires blew.”
Beth glanced down at her injured arm, but her mind was on the accident back in Toronto. She’d just started to try to read the driver’s mind when she’d heard Donny’s and Scotty’s voices and had stopped to look around. Still, in the brief glimpse she’d had into the driver’s mind, she’d noted the blank spot where his memory of swerving should have been. She’d wondered about that herself, but had just assumed the man had been so traumatized he’d blocked it from his thoughts. But Scotty was saying there had been nothing to find, and suggesting it had also been a deliberate attack and the man had been controlled . . . like the girl tonight.
“My cousin is a wonderful woman. Who would want to kill her?” Matias asked with outrage.
Beth grimaced and admitted, “Probably a lot of people.”
“What?” Matias met her gaze angrily in the rearview mirror. “Do not be ridiculous.”
Beth offered his reflection a crooked smile. “I hunt down rogue immortals, Matias,” she pointed out gently. “Most of them have families. Sometimes the family understands and knows it has to be done. But other times they’re in denial, grief turns to anger, and they want revenge.”
Scotty nodded solemnly. “Family members seeking revenge can be more dangerous than the rogues themselves. At least when ye’re hunting a rogue ye ken ye’re walking into a dangerous situation and are prepared for it. Revenge attacks are unexpected and can be deadly because o’ that. I’ve lost good hunters to relatives seeking revenge.”
“Huh,” Donny said with a frown. “Nobody mentioned that to me when I was in training.”
“They’re too busy trying to teach you how to stay alive,” Beth said with a wry smile.
“This is the address,” Matias said as he slowed to turn into the driveway of a neat white house with a wraparound porch.
“Do you want me to—?” Donny started.
“Nay,” Scotty said at once. “I’ve been controlling the lass since we left the club. I’ll take her to the door. Ye lads keep an eye out for trouble, and you,” he added, turning to Beth, “stop talking and get some blood in ye. Ye’re pale as death.”
Beth grimaced and lifted the bag of blood he’d given her earlier. When he then waited, she dutifully popped it to her fangs.
Nodding with satisfaction, Scotty set the other bags in her lap and then slid out of the vehicle. A moment later, he opened the door next to the mortal and she got out.
“I told you Scotty likes you,” Matias teased as they watched the Scot walk the girl to the porch.
Unable to talk, Beth merely grunted and glared at her cousin over the bag at her mouth. He was talking like a twelve-year-old mortal boy, and doing so mostly to annoy her, she was sure.
“No, Matias is right,” Donny said as if she’d spoken her thoughts out loud. “I know you don’t think so, but Scotty worries about you way too much for anyone to believe he doesn’t like you.”
Beth rolled her eyes as she waited for the last of the blood to be drained. She then ripped the bag away with relief and said, “Now you’re both being ridiculous. You make it sound like he has a teenage crush on me.”