Page 305 of Immune

Mercer looks at me and nods. “Would you be willing to let me examine you?”

I hold his gaze for a long moment before finally asking, “How will that go?”

“Vitals. Wounds. Pupils. Temp. I need to check your bites. Then blood, but only if you consent.”

Ah, yes. There it is.

Blood.

The room that isn’t even a room goes deathly still and my fingers curl under the sleeve of Kaito’s borrowed shirt. I only swallow once before muttering, “I’m not doing this shit in the hallway.”

Hale chimes in before Mercer can. “Briefing room.”

“No,” Ewan protests, voice rough. “Too many people.”

Hale looks over at him. “You’re injured.”

“That’s not relevant.”

“It is to me,” Ellis snaps. “But apparently no one here gives a shit about my professional suffering. Assholes.”

I glance at her and she glares back like the entire world is personally inconveniencing her.

Oh yeah. She’s cool.

Valeria points down the hall. “Small conference room. Eight seats. One door. No observers.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Who counts as observers?”

Hale’s gaze flicks to me. “Leadership needs answers.”

“I don’t think I remember asking what leadership needs,” I counter, and a pulse of something goes through Kaito’s bond. Approval, dark and quiet, that somehow manages to steady me.

I raise my chin a little and say, “I asked who counts as observers.”

For one second, Hale looks like he’s about to argue. But then Maine smiles a nasty smile, and Fletcher shifts closer to him. Probably because Maine’s smile looks like it’s a whole-ass crime just waiting to happen.

Valeria answers my question. “Hale, Mercer, Ellis for medical, me for security. Your pack. Your brother.”

My mouth goes dry at those words. Your pack.

No one corrects her. Not Ewan or Kaito. Not Fletcher or Xeon. Still, that empty place under my ribs notices instantly what’s missing. I don’t like it. Since when did that happen?

I nod once. “Fine.”

The small conference room smells of old coffee, metal chairs, and men making really shitty decisions under fluorescent lights. I hate it immediately.

Kaito takes the chair to my left. Ewan takes my right after Ellis shoves him down none too gently and starts checking the burn mark from the baton without once asking nicely. Fletcher stands behind me, and Maine sits across from Hale like he’s trying to win a stupid staring contest with authority itself. Idiot.

Xeon chooses the wall close to the door. Not beside me, or behind me. Right by the exit, guarding the way out. Of course he does.

I try my best not to look at the empty chair, but I fail twice.

Mercer places a small kit on the table in the next second. His hands are clean. Too clean, especially compared to mine.

“Kota,” he starts carefully. “I’m going to say what I know, what I suspect, and what I don’t know. Okay?”

I raise an eyebrow. “That sounds alarmingly organized.”