He turned and led the way. "There's a spare bedroom back here. Upstairs might be safer, but Sunny... Sunny's in the one upstairs."
The guest room smelled like Alan Choo, who'd evidently been sleeping here tonight. Arthur pulled the covers back farther so Charles could set Anna down.
"Angus said it was the vampires?" Arthur said.
Remembering that Arthur had a right to know, Charles explained briefly. He pulled the blankets up over her until only the wounds on her shoulder were exposed.
"Pity that one got away," Arthur said.
"Ivan," Anna told them. He'd thought Anna was unconscious, she'd been so still. "Ivan is his name."
Charles looked away from Anna for a moment, then looked at Arthur. "He can run, but I will find him."
Arthur veiled his eyes with his lashes instead of dropping his gaze, but Charles didn't care. "Yes. Tell me when you get him."
"I will."
"You think they are hired guns," Arthur looked out the window into the darkness before dawn. "Did you find out who they were working for-or why they killed my Sunny?"
"No. I wasn't in the mood to discuss things," Charles said. "Maybe Anna-"
"No," Anna murmured. "It wasn't a local werewolf. Not Angus or his pack. Or"-she glanced at Arthur and didn't mention Dana's name-"anyone else here. Someone out of the country. They wanted to fly me overseas."
"That doesn't make any sense," said Alan, coming into the room with a tray that held various surgical implements. "Killing Sunny, trying to kidnap Anna, killing Chastel. There's no pattern."
"It makes sense to someone," said Arthur. "If there's nothing more I can do?"
"No," said Charles. Having Arthur in the room with Anna wounded was trying his patience. "Thank you."
Arthur gave him a faint smile. "Call me if you need anything."
And he left them to themselves.
"I have morphine," Alan told Anna. "But wolves have different reactions to it. Some it doesn't help at all. For some it is worse than useless, doesn't stop the pain and doesn't let them brace for it either."
"No morphine," Anna said. "Just get them out."
Alan looked up at Charles.
"I'll hold her for you," he said, sliding in behind Anna so that her upper body was braced on his. That allowed him the most control. He might be a werewolf-but so was she.
"Try and relax into it," he told her.
Alan sat on the bed, too, swiveling until he was facing Anna. He set the tray on the nightstand and a bowl by his hip. He started with a pair of sharp-nosed forceps and picked out the easy ones first.
"Did you see?" Anna said, her eyes closed.
"See what?" Charles asked.
"The one-armed vampire. Wonder what he did with the arm?" She hissed then as Alan pulled another pellet free.
"I don't know." He kissed the top of her head.
Anna didn't struggle against his hold as Alan pulled out more surface pellets. She didn't move until he had to dig deeper.
Chapter TWELVE
ANNA was sweating and swearing-and Charles was fit to be tied and a fair bit on his way to needing restraint himself. Alan had nerves of steel, because his hands were steady even though Charles couldn't keep his growls to himself. Finally, Alan dropped the forceps into the bowl.
"All right," he said. "There is still lead in there. I can smell it, but I'll be damned if I can find it. At least it is not silver. An X-ray machine would be able to locate the rest."
"We have one of those in Aspen Creek," Charles said.
"Or you can let the remainder fester out. There isn't a lot-I don't think it's enough to make her sick."
"That's where my vote goes." Anna's luminous skin was greenish, and there were dark circles under her eyes. "No more probes, please."
Charles slid out from behind her. "You'll change your mind when they start festering," he predicted. "But you can wait if you'd like."
"I'll do that." She huffed indignantly. "Festering. What a lovely thought."
He kissed her lightly, then took a good look at the manacles they'd used on Anna. "I can pick these," he said, "if Arthur has the right tools around."
"Go look," Anna told him. "If I'm going to fester, I'd like to do it in comfort. And these things are not comfortable. Plus they're tacky."
Charles was smiling when he left the room, shutting the door behind him. While she was hurting, and he had to get her help, he hadn't even thought about her nudity. But he didn't want Arthur walking in on her, so he shut the door.
The house was dark, and he thought Arthur must have gone back to bed-morning was still a while away. He wasn't going to sleep again, not in Arthur's house-and he wasn't going to move Anna until she'd healed up a bit.
He went to the kitchen and opened drawers to see if he could find anything useful.
"Charles?" Arthur's voice. It came from the room that he kept his treasures in.
"Yes," he answered. "I'm looking for something to get the manacles off Anna. You wouldn't happen to have a lockpick kit, would you?"
"I probably have something that would work," Arthur said.
Charles stopped sorting through the kitchen implement drawer, lifting his head. There was something... odd about the other man's voice.
Maybe it was nothing. Maybe. He removed a fillet knife from the block and slid it into his jeans pocket.
"That would be cool." He was careful to keep his throat loose, so Arthur wouldn't have any reason to think Charles had noticed anything different. "She's tough, she'd handle it-but I want them off." He moved unhurriedly through the dark living room... and caught Sunny's lingering scent from the couch nearest him.