Jace Read Online Free PDF

glad to see you are, too.”
    “Sor-ry.”
    Miri’s soft face went hard as she moved another chunk of concrete off the woman. “I’m the one who should be apologizing to you. They hurt you because of me.”
    The woman shook her head, the movement shallow but emphatic. “No.”
    Derek moved more debris off her torso. Immediately, her eyes flew wide and fixed on a point high above, and a violent trembling seized her. Jace’s senses, so tuned to the emotions in others, registered the blood loss going on inside the woman’s broken body; registered the anguish coming off Derek and the horror off Miri. Above him the hall structure shuddered with a violence almost matching that racking the woman. They didn’t have much time.
    Vampire instinct said to get his mate the hell out of there and leave everything else to its own fate. Tiny rocks pinged down on his head, emphasizing the need to hurry. Miri reached back, her hand searching for his. He caught it and held it. Her energy reached up his arm, soft, strong, determined. She wanted him to save this woman. He owed this woman. Jace glanced at Derek. He owed this man. He owed his child. Shit, he must be losing his mind. He didn’t have time to get all human.
    “Help her,” Miri whispered.
    Apparently, he wasn’t going to have a choice.
    Kneeling beside Derek, Jace put his hand over the were’s when he would have removed the last piece of debris compressing the severed artery he could sense in her arm. Derek slashed at his arm, drawing blood. There was only one thing that could inspire such a reaction in a wolf. The discovery of his other half. “Your mate’s dying, Derek.”
    “No.”
    Jace understood that instinctive terror. The soul-deep rejection of the possibility of never feeling the brush of that person’s hand again.
    “She’s human. She can’t regenerate. If you remove that slab of concrete, she’ll bleed out in seconds.” The big wolf shuddered. “If she’s going to stand a chance, she needs to be converted,” Jace continued.
    Derek blinked. Awareness came back to his eyes. His canines flashed as he snarled. “There’s not enough time for a were conversion.”
    Which was going to complicate things. “Do you think she can be converted?”
    Jace didn’t know how one assessed that sort of thing. It’d never been an issue in his life.
    Derek’s “Yes” was immediate and strong.
    “What makes you so sure?”
    “She’s my mate.”
    Which meant they were going on faith, but at this point, did it really matter? Jace brushed a smear of dust from his eyes with the back of his hand. “It’s not too late for me to convert her.”
    Beside him, Miri gasped. Her hands squeezed his. Derek was a pack leader. He had responsibilities. Pack leaders could not mate with vampires.
    Derek touched the woman’s cheek again, his fingers a delicate brush on the bruised and bloody flesh. His voice was a gravelly husk of regret. “Do it.”
    “If her conversion is anything like Allie’s, she’ll be unconscious for a few hours, but then she’s going to hurt like hell.”
    Derek made room for Jace at the woman’s side. “She already hurts too much.”
    “Conversion will make this feel like a picnic.” He leaned over the woman. The comforting words he meant to say stuck in his throat. Her face was white, her lips just one shade darker with a bluish tinge around the edges. She was too far gone to hear them. “We’ll need to get her to a safe place before she wakes.”
    “I’ll take her to the D’Nally stronghold.”
    He glanced at Miri. She shook her head. He couldn’t take Miri there. “Can you get her there alone?”
    Derek nodded, not questioning the why. “Yes.” He slipped his big hand under the woman’s head, arching it back, presenting her to Jace. “Do it.”
    Jace shifted forward, feeling the weight of expectation upon him. It was harder than it should be to muster the enthusiasm. He’d never fed from the innocent before. Never tried to convert