One of the reasons I always downplayed just what I could do was for moments like this. People always assumed I was closer to a human or witch than anything else, and if it was Justin standing on the porch, he wouldn’t have heard Colleen’s breathing, much less three distinctive sets of respirations.
“I’m fine,” Colleen said, and her voice was steadier.
I imagined Megan had given her a good reason—probably was holding her hand right at Justin’s throat, ready to rip it out. Although I had to wonder—why hadn’t she just killed him? It would be easier.
Worry later. Rescue now.
The gist of the plan was to get inside and make sure she stayed away from Justin and Colleen. Then…
Well, the cavalry expected me to stay a nice safe distance away while they dealt with the wicked wolf.
Not happening.
“I’ll be there in a moment, Kit. I’ve been…” Her voice hitched. “Sick.”
“Oh.” I rolled my eyes. Sometimes I debated on whether or not I should tell Damon and Dair that they’d be wise to educate themselves and their respective peoples about the other races more, but I did so much better when the other NHs were uninformed. If Megan was half as smart as she liked to think she was, she’d know not to give that lie to Colleen. Strong witches like Colleen didn’t really get sick. Their bodies healed everything short of normal aging and severe injury. “Okay. I’m really sorry…”
As the shuffling footsteps drew closer to the door, I slid my Glock out, angling my body to the side so I could block my weapon-hand from view.
I slid the safety off just as the door opened.
The sight of Colleen’s pale face and red-rimmed eyes made my heart lurch.
She was alive.
Alive, and unharmed.
And Megan was right behind the door.
Even if Colleen hadn’t let her gaze slide to the right, I would have known.
I met Colleen’s gaze as I moved inside, encircling her with my right arm for a quick, tight hug as we stood in the door way. I continued to keep my left hand shielded.
“You said Justin was in trouble.” She murmured against my ear as she hugged me back and I could feel the minute trembling of her body.
“Yeah. We’ll make it okay, though.” I gave her one last tight hug. “That’s what I do, right?”
She eased back and she darted another glance to the door.
“You’ve still got your wards, right?” She had lowered something. I could feel it—the air here was different and it only made sense. She didn’t know Megan, but she’d allowed her in, probably because Megan had Justin. Megan would have said he was injured or something. She was Dair’s right hand—although she was probably fired now—she’d know the major players in the area, even if they had little use for witches.
Colleen’s wards were designed to protect her against attackers. Although she couldn’t defend herself, her wards were designed to defend her against threats. Justin had worked with her, using his own magic to pump them up so the wards themselves would step in and do what Colleen couldn’t do.
But a threat had gotten through so Colleen had altered or lowered one of the wards, even if it was something as simple as allowing somebody unknown onto her property.
“My wards…” Colleen frowned.
The door squeaked.
“What’s the one…armae?” I pursed my lips, fumbling over the unfamiliar word. I stared at her hard.
Armum. Latin for shield. Colleen liked Latin.
Her lids flickered in answer.
Drop it, I mouthed.
“I can do better,” she said. She shot out a hand as the door was torn open. I grabbed her and we both hit the floor. “Blood, Kit!”
The confusion cost me a precious second, but I drew out a knife and whipped it across my neck—yes, my neck. It was a shallow cut and I didn’t have to worry about it making the grip on my sword slippery. Colleen snatched the knife away with a grim shake of her head. She also swiped her fingers through the blood on my neck and flung them on the ground with a whisper, some unintelligible word that made no sense to me, but as the hairs on the back of my neck rose, I caught the intent.
It was a shield spell, something quick and dirty and it would last—
Megan threw herself at us and howled long and loud as she came up against an unseen wall.
She was thrown back and hit the far wall with devastating strength.
Blood-red cracks appeared in thin air before me and then, with an odd shudder of air, like a death sigh, they melted away.
The shield spell was gone.
Megan was already pushing away from the wall, shaking her head as though to clear it.
Colleen sliced the knife down her palm.
She couldn’t wound me—or anybody else—to save her life, but she could slice and dice herself just fine.
I stared at the hot blood welling out of her palm. Magic all but wept out of it and I was so fascinated, I didn’t have time to prepare myself. She slammed her open, bleeding hand over the shallow cut in my neck.
“Defensori!”
I tensed just as her magic flooded me. It punched through me and lit me up.
I was on my feet in the next blink, as though I had wings and it was none too soon because Megan launched herself at me. She was human when she first started to move.
Flesh began to melt away into fur and muscles began to realign, bones popping and breaking in a vicious shift as she changed forms.
The one and only time we’d ever had any physical contact, I’d broken my hand on her hard-as-rock face.
She’d been human that one time and she could have broken me easily.
If we tangled while she was in wolf form, I’d be shredded. I leaped into her, blade extended.
I felt the impact of her weight as I brought my sword up.
Smoke rose up to fill my nose, the silver in my blade scorching her flesh. She growled in response, her body stiffening from the reaction, but she didn’t pull away.
That’s the difference between a true high-level wolf and those who just think they’re bad asses. A high-level wolf can fight through the pain of a silver-wrought wound.
The rest just curl up and whine.
I really wished Megan would have just curled up and whined.
I wrenched the blade around, trying to widen the injury and she caught me, her claws sinking into my flesh. My skin began to burn as the virus ripped into me. She yanked me back and hurled me away.
I hit the wall and came down hard. My teeth were still rattling when I lifted my gun.
A strangled noise—something between a yelp and howl—escaped her when I shot out her left kneecap.
We both struggled to get upright first and I glared at her as she shot a rage-filled gaze my way.
“You’re done, Megan.” I was already panting. Never go head to head with a wolf, not if you can avoid it. “Dair knows.”
A snarl built in her throat and the rage ate up every other emotion in her eyes. “I’ll kill you.”
“Did you really think you could get away with killing Justin, killing a witch of the road…me…and not be found out?”
She rolled onto her knees, her breathing as ragged as mine.
She punched a fist into the floor, her hand going through the boards. I leveled the gun at her bowed head. Shoot. Just shoot…
They’d be coming.
Might already be pounding toward the house even now. This would be done in seconds.
Once Dair got here, it was done.
She was done.
But I had to know.
“Why?” I demanded.
She surged upright, a howl ripping out of her. She leaped through the door and I bounced up, my body screaming. I had to know.
“Kit!” Colleen screamed after me, but I ignored her.
Megan hadn’t even made ten yards before her knee went out, the silver in the bullet slowing her ability to heal. She must have sensed the inevitability of it and she shifted back t
o human. Her body healed with the change and she lurched upright, spinning to face me. Naked, strong and beautiful, she should have looked like a warrior goddess, blood still streaking her body.
But the desperation gripping her changed everything about her and even the threat inherent in her very being was altered by it.
She stared at me for a long moment and then spun on her heel, her body a blur as she ran away.
No.
It’s not cool to shoot a person in the back. I try to be a fair person and I won’t fight dirty unless I have to.
So I shot her in the lower leg and blood and meat exploded out as the bullet tore the limb apart.
She went down with a scream and I knew she’d stay down—for a few minutes at least. She’d expended too much energy healing herself and shifting. She couldn’t do it again so soon. Gun in one hand, sword in the other, I approached.
My ears picked up the sound of footsteps—quiet rustles as they flew over the grass and I swallowed.
“It’s done,” I said again. “Dair’s almost here. Tell me why.”
She was silent.
Circling around her, keeping a wide distance between us, I lifted the gun. “Next time, I’ll shoot you in the back—several times. I’ll sever your spine, Megan, and I use silver. You know that. You can feel it by now. If you’re lucky, the scar tissue won’t interfere with your ability to walk or run. But you’ll heal slowly and painfully.”
“Heal? I’m already dead. If Dair knows…” She laughed and the sound was bitter and broken. She lifted her head now and stared at me through a mess of bangs and blood. “Just kill me already. There’s no point to this.”
“I will kill you—and I’ll be quick about it. But I want a fucking answer.”
She roared, the sound inhuman. She lunged at me, fueled by fear and the desperation that had driven her this far. Although she only had one good leg, it was strong enough and she still had two good arms.
And one of them had done a partial shift, fingers elongating as black claws slid out from where her nails had once been.
I don’t know who was more surprised by what happened next. Me…or her.
Blood geysered out from the stump where her monstrous hand had been only a fraction of a second earlier.
She fell to the dirt on her knees—but she only managed to balance there for a second before she went over onto her side. Dumbfounded, she stared at the stump of her lower arm as blood pumped out in a fountain.
She grabbed her arm just above the wrist as she rolled to her back.
Then she threw back her head, the noise that left her throat was more scream than howl and it chilled the blood in my veins.
The sound was still dying in the air when she awkwardly rolled herself to her knees and one hand. Her lower leg was already regenerating and if she had time—minutes even—she’d been healed.
But she didn’t give herself minutes.
She leaped at me.
I sensed movement behind me but I ducked to the side.
I know my speed. I know my strength. I’ve never moved that fast in my life and I’ve never struck out with that strength. She went down with a force that spun her around and I leaped on top of her back, driving my blade in through her back, then through her chest, down deep into the dirt.
Magic rippled in me, made me shudder as Megan jerked away. The place on my neck where I’d cut myself, where Colleen had mingled her blood with mine and forced her magic into me, it stung.
What the hell had Colleen done?
Megan struggled to jerk away, but the blood pumping out of her veins, coupled with the poison that was now circulating inside her from the silver left her weakened.
I dropped my weight down onto her, shoving my knee into her back, close to where my blade skewered her.
I grabbed her hair, the long, shining, silken banner, and jerked her head up.
Her eyes met mine, tormented and full of pain. “Dair…” she whispered raggedly.
I looked up then and saw them all, gathered around us in a loose circle.
Doyle had a smug, shit-eating grin on his face and Dair’s soldiers stood at his back with their jaws locked. The rest of them, I couldn’t read their expressions for anything, although I could feel Damon—something that was pride and fear and relief and…I rolled my eyes.
The man was a walking sex bomb.
Dair stepped forward, dragging my attention to him.
Okay, him, I could read.
The wolf pack’s Alpha was all but trembling. The look in his eyes was one that spoke of heartbreak as much as rage.
Megan closed her eyes and started to weep.
“Why?” I demanded as he continued to stare.
“They…” She shuddered, her body spasming as pain from the silver wracked her system. “They gave me…no…choice. A few…strays. They leave the…” She started to cough and half screamed as it sent more pain lancing through her body. “They’d leave them…alone. If I helped. It seemed…a safe bargain.”
A growl worked its way out of Dair’s throat.
She flinched at the sound and then gasped as the movement drove the silver closer to her heart.
“Who is they?” I demanded. “And who would they leave alone?”
She wasn’t looking at me, though.
Her gaze locked at Dair.
He took a step forward. “I’ll get the information out of her, Kit. Please allow—”
She wrenched herself underneath me.
I recognized her intention but too late.
In the next second, before anybody could stop it, she heaved her body to the left—and completely shredded her heart on the sharp edge of my blade. Reflex had me jerking up, pulling my blade free, but it was too late.
Megan was dead.
Dair closed his eyes.
Chapter Eighteen
Damon was the one who found him.
Justin, battered to a bloody pulp and barely breathing, was in the bathroom of Colleen’s house and while I watched, my lover lifted my friend as though he were a fragile, broken doll.
Now, as I stood at the foot of the bed, Damon waited behind me, a silent presence.
We watched as Colleen worked.
And I prayed.
I don’t know that I’ve ever prayed before.
I don’t even know what—or who—I prayed to.
But I had to do something, because with each fragile beat of Justin’s heart, I could hear him slipping away.
When his heart slipped, I spun away and pressed my face against Damon’s chest.
His hands came up and rested on my hips.
Memories flashed through my head.
The first time I’d ever seen Justin—the dumbass had been getting the shit kicked out of him in the alley behind TJ’s. His idea of an interrogation.
“Well, you look like a little bit of nothing. But you went after a rat pack and helped bring them down. There’s gotta be something to you.”
Something to me? He’d been the first one to think so—the first one to make me want to think so.
A million other memories blurred through my mind—a job we’d taken because Nova had said, I think you’ll like the payout. And we’d found nearly twenty grand buried under the floorboard in the house of the guy we’d hunted down.
That time up on the mountain, when he’d come for me.
“Justin. You…are you here?”
“Yeah, Kitty-kitty.” A weak attempt at a smile. “Did you ever doubt it?”
And he hadn’t just come for me—he’d brought an entire fucking army.
I tightened my fingers in Damon’s shirt. “He can’t die, Damon. He’s my best friend. He can’t…”
Damon pressed his lips to my temple. “I know, baby girl. If he does, I’ll just have to haul his ass out of hell and throttle him for you.”
I would have laughed. But I was too afraid I’d start to cry.
So I just stood there, breathing in Damon’s scent and letting the memories swarm me whi
le Colleen funneled her magic and her healing into Justin’s broken body.
“Bruised spleen, bruised kidneys, both lungs are punctured, perforated intestines, nine broken ribs…” Colleen grimaced and passed a hand down her side. She took a deep breath and gave a long look at her patient. “Subdural hemorrhage and his heart is bruised as well. She almost pulverized his chest. Must have punched him hard enough to break every bone—had he been fully human.”
She slid me a look. “Apparently, she’s uninformed about the differences between warrior witches and the rest of the people out there.”
“Let’s keep it that way,” I said, rubbing the heel of my hand over my chest. I stared through the door at his pale, gaunt form. “Will he make it?”
“He should.” She leaned against the door frame opposite me, exhaustion in every line of her body. “If he doesn’t, it’s not for lack of trying on my part. And…if he doesn’t, I’ll find a way to make him suffer for it even if he is dead. I didn’t work that hard to put him back together just for him to die on me.”
Her voice went husky and tight.
I slid her a look, but she wasn’t facing me.
I reached down and caught her hand.
She squeezed mine.
“Where did the goon squad go?” I asked.
It startled a laugh out of her.
“Only you would call some of the scariest sons-of-bitches I’ve ever seen the goon squad, Kit.” She let go of my hand and then shifted to put her back to the door. Sliding down, she rested her elbows on her upraised knees. “I think Damon and his men are close by. Hunting…or just running. Although one of them probably went to the store. Damon opened the freezer and told me I have no meat here. Apparently this is problematic for him.”
I smiled. “Yeah. He thinks if it doesn’t bleed, it’s not really food.”
A look of mild disgust crossed her features. “I’ve never been inclined to go vegan, but that image is almost enough to tempt me.”
Chuckling, I leaned back against the wall. “He’s always fussing at me to get more protein.” The wall didn’t seem to help much, so I decided to follow Colleen’s example and I slid down the wall as well, groaning as my body screamed at me. Although I’d gotten off pretty damn light, I still felt every second of the fight with Megan—particularly in my back. That short, unscheduled flight across Colleen’s living room had done nothing for my spine.
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