by Aliyah Burke
Together they sank to the mucky forest floor. He cupped the sides of her face and kissed her. A frantic kiss. Her split lip and bleeding gum didn’t matter. His taste surged into her and she leaned closer, wanting to crawl inside him and forget this had ever happened. His fingers were tangled in her hair, angling her head where he wanted it.
She hadn’t thought she’d see him again and she ran her hands along his shoulders, frowning when she felt the injuries. He wouldn’t release her enough for her to ask about them, though. The kiss went on and on as the rain washed away sweat and tears. Plus some blood.
When he broke away, she buried her face into his neck. “I didn’t think I would see you again.”
“Are you okay?” he asked, one hand on the back of her head, holding her close.
“I think I need a vacation.”
His chuckle came after a slight hesitation. “A beach or private island would be good.”
“Yes. Spend the day in a hammock in the breeze.”
“Walks along the pristine sand and swim in the crystal waters.”
“Let’s go now,” she said. “Seriously.”
“I promise to take you when this is over.”
“If I live that long,” she muttered.
Another passionate kiss.
“Are you okay, Tiarnán?”
“I need to heal.”
“Do you know where the truck is?”
“Yes.” Three more kisses. “Can you walk?”
“Can you?” she retorted. “I can feel all your cuts, I’m betting you have some on your legs as well, which you are soaking in a mud bath. Not sure how good that is for them.”
His answer was to stand and help her up after. She could feel the exhaustion in his trembling limbs. How she knew, she couldn’t explain. They got underway and she rubbed at her neck. It still hurt to swallow, but she’d take it.
Much better than being dead. She shuddered as she replayed the sight of that man being decapitated in her mind. Pushing it away, she focused on taking one step at a time. Tiarnán didn’t seem to be able to go any faster himself.
What a pair we make. Injured, bleeding, and moving as if we’re over a hundred.
The journey back took about thirty minutes. They stopped a few times to regain some energy. The road was dark, no approaching cars, yet the area was bright with the lights from the blockade.
“What about the tires on your truck?” she asked as they approached cautiously.
“Run flats.”
“Which means what?” She took on more of his body weight as he stumbled.
“They’re not really flat. We can drive a bit on them. I’ll call in some help and get us back to the vineyard.”
She helped him lean against the bed of his truck and glared at him in the again increased downpour. “Call in some help? Why didn’t you do that earlier?”
“Get in.”
“That’s it? That’s your response? Get in?” Her voice had gone up an octave.
“Calida.”
“No,” she raged, shaking her head. “You don’t get to Calida me. Are you crazy? We could have been killed.”
“A chance which is increasing the longer you stand out here. Get in.”
“I’m driving. You lay in the back and heal. Because we are so not done with this discussion. So talk to your people and get us out of here. We’ll go until we can get away from this mess and hide.”
His truck was still running and she opened the back driver’s side door for him. It took a few pointed looks before he acquiesced and climbed in. She slammed the door behind him. Standing on the muddy ground, she looked about at the destruction. It turned her stomach to see the cops lying there. Even though in her head and heart she knew they were part of The New Order, she still wasn’t a fan of seeing it. The few bodies of demons that hadn’t yet vanished remained, along with the reminder of what they’d tried to do to her.
After hopping into the cab, she shifted into gear then got them back on the road. Twenty minutes later, she saw a small side road, which she pulled off on. Not too much time had passed before she found a small run down house that she parked behind.
Headlights off, she turned on the overhead and peered into the back seat. Tiarnán looked horrible. It made the first time he’d saved her and gotten all cut up look like a walk through the flowers.
She could make out the mist, and the tiger, which was part of him, had its head on his chest, watching her. Not wanting to disturb him, Calida shut off the overhead light and slipped from the truck to check out the abandoned place.
At least I hope it’s abandoned. She entered the house via the back door and was immediately hit with a musty scent which came from being closed up. Pulling out the pen light she’d stuck in her pocket, she clicked it on and soon ascertained there was nothing in there other than her and probably some bugs.
I saw a dude lose his head tonight, I think I can handle some bugs.
Trudging back through the rain, she whispered a prayer as she opened the door. “Tiarnán.”
“Where were you?”
“Come on,” she ordered. “I found us a place to wait for your friends.”
She assisted him then made one more trip for blankets and her bag. Ten minutes after getting him on the couch, on the blankets she’d brought in, she sat in a chair near him with a single candle she’d found burning between them.
He watched her through slitted eyes. “How are your injuries? Are any hurting?”
She shook her head even though her throat was extremely painful. “I’ll be fine. You, put yourself under or whatever the hell you do to help heal yourself.”
“I won’t leave you unprotected.”
“You have to heal, Tiarnán. I don’t know when your friends will be here. At this moment, we’re safe. You need to take advantage of that fact.”
“What will you do?”
“I’m sitting in this chair. That’s it. Not going anywhere. I have my phone in here but there’s no service. We’re in the back of the house but all the curtains—what remained of them—are drawn so I doubt anyone could see us from the road.” She cleared her throat and rubbed it again. “There’s nothing else to do but rest.”
He didn’t speak for a few moments and the mist around him flared slightly. “They’re on the way. If you hear anything…”
She got up and tucked the blanket around him tighter. “I know, I’ll wake you. Sleep.”
He was out before she made it back to her seat. “I don’t know what to do.”
Calida wanted to clean his injuries. Run her hands over him and convince herself he was fine. But she’d seen him heal himself before and he could do it a lot better than she could. Waiting a few more minutes to ensure he was truly sound asleep, she stood and dropped the blanket before lifting her shirt.
Her neck was painful enough but the gash along her side was more worrisome to her. He mentioned poison. Everything happened so fast I don’t really know what it was that did this.
She went to her bag and pulled out a clean shirt, which she promptly stuffed against her injury, hissing at the contact. The fact Tiarnán hadn’t said anything about smelling blood told her how much that person or thing he fought had taken from him.
All of this only led to more questions. Wincing, she made her way back to the chair and wrapped up again. One hand clutching the blanket closed and the other on the shirt against her injury, Calida took a deep breath.
Has it truly only been a few days? Lord, it felt like a years that she’d been running and hunted. Her exhaustion was bone deep. The flickering flame of the candle lured her to the edge of sleep but she was too frightened to take the leap.
Rain pounded on the roof and she sat there as the candle grew smaller while Tiarnán lay helpless on the sofa. Every little creak had her jumping but she stayed where she was. He needed every second she could give him. She had no intentions of losing him when she’d just gotten him back.
Chapter Eight
The whomp whomp o
f the helicopter’s rotor blades woke him. Tiarnán opened his eyes and in the low light of pre-dawn saw Calida sitting in the chair across from him wrapped in a blanket. Her gaze staring down at the remnants of a candle. Large circles gave her a raccoon look.
He stirred and her head snapped to him. Her smile was forced.
“Are you better?” she asked.
“Yes.” Sure, he required more time for complete healing but at least now he could fight again if the need arrived. He sat up and cracked his neck before gaining his feet. “They’re coming.” Panic flared in her gaze. “My friends,” he added quickly, sorry he’d worried her.
“Oh.”
He noticed she made no attempt to get out of the chair. “Wait here,” he said as the noise grew louder.
“Sure.” Her voice was slightly slurred.
He stepped outside and watched the black sleek bird land before his truck. The door slid open and two people jumped out. Cale Mattox and his wife Taylor. He knew who remained at the controls, Aminta.
“You look like shit,” Cale said.
“Good to see you, too,” he replied. “Taylor.”
“Hi, Tiarnán. Where’s your woman?”
“Inside.”
Taylor nodded and passed them, heading into the rundown house. Cale grew serious and crossed his arms.
“What the hell happened to you?”
“Hara.” He tossed her Taser that he’d located in the forest into the helicopter, aware she’d want it back.
Cale’s blue eyes widened in shock than narrowed in fury. “Hara? What the hell is that bastard doing here?”
“He was tired of waiting, apparently.” Tiarnán rubbed his chest. He could still feel the ache in his bones from the beating he’d taken.
“Do you need healing?”
“I got some rest. Calida drove us here. But once we’re in the air, yes.”
“You look like you got the shit kicked out of you.”
“I did.”
“Cale! Tiarnán! Get in here.” Taylor’s cry snagged their attention.
They both ran for the door and he shoved through first. Calida was on the floor, eyes closed, and she had Taylor over her.
A roar of anger and protectiveness exploded from him and he ran to Calida’s side. The sight before him stopped him. Taylor had pulled away a shirt laden with blood and it still poured from Calida’s side.
“I can’t stop it,” Taylor said, looking at them both with panicked eyes. “She was like this when I came in. Oh, Jesus, Cale fix her. Help her! I can’t stop the bleeding.”
Tiarnán collapsed to his knees. How was it he’d not seen her pain? What kind of mate was he that he could ignore her hurt? Staring at the man who was like his brother, he rasped, “Cale?”
“I can slow it but I can’t heal her. You know it doesn’t work that way. I’m a healer for us, for the Guardian. Not pure humans. If Mal was here she could… But I’m sorry.”
“Do what you can and we’ll fly.”
He wanted to tip his head back and rage but he kept himself in check. It was what he did after all—he wasn’t the man who lost it. He watched Cale do what he could. “Taylor, our bags are in the truck.” He shouldered the one Calida had been sitting with.
It seemed like it took them an hour to get to the chopper when in reality it took barely two minutes. Taylor came running up with their bags and threw them in the back before scrambling in. Cale jumped after and Tiarnán carefully put Calida in before clambering up beside her.
“Haul ass, Aminta,” he cried over the whirl of blades.
The petite woman glanced over her shoulder at them. She took it all in and had them airborne within a blink. Tiarnán refocused all he could on Calida, whose blood continued to spill. Not fast but steady enough she’d already lost more than she could afford to.
“Cale?”
“Working on it, man, I don’t know what else to do for her.”
“Billy! Ask Mal how we stop a slow but steady stream of blood.”
“What happened that Cale can’t fix you?”
“Not me.”
“Shit. Hang on.”
While waiting for Billy to get back to him, he stroked his hand along her face, unmindful of the bloody streaks he left behind.
“Surgery. You need to get her to a hospital as quickly as you can. Or she’ll bleed out.”
“We’re coming home. Have her ready to operate.”
“You’re a ways out, Tiarnán. Think about this smartly.”
“How exactly am I going to explain her being attacked by a demon, Billy? Cale says he can hold her here until we get there but it’ll be close.”
“She’ll be here and ready.”
Ending his conversation with Billy, Tiarnán inched closer to the woman who lay comatose on the chopper’s floor. Cale sat back and wiped off his forehead.
“I don’t know if it’s going to work, Tiarnán. Her body is rebelling everything I try to do to it. I got rid of the poison but I can’t fix or even find what’s causing the continued bleeding.”
Tiarnán had never felt so helpless in his entire life. Cale didn’t give up, but at this moment it looked that way to him.
“What about you doing it, Tiarnán?” Taylor’s suggestion had him frowning in her direction.
“I’m no healer. I barely helped her previously.”
“Hear me out,” she said, placing a clean cloth against Calida’s side. “Cale healed me, after that demon attack.”
“He’s a healer.”
“But I’m still human. He took it all away, remember, Cale?”
His friend’s expression became thoughtful. “It may work, Tiarnán.”
“I’ll try anything. What do I do?”
“I don’t know. It had to do with the sparks between us. I suspect it will be with whatever signs flowed between you two.”
He recalled Calida saying the flames healed her as well.
Fire. Those tiny pinpricks of flame. As he thought of them, they appeared along his arm and danced along the tan skin to hers, the color of brown sugar. Melted and smooth. Tiarnán placed both hands on her and watched as more flames appeared. Soon they covered her entire body so she looked ablaze.
* * * *
“Tiarnán.”
The male voice broke through the haze he’d been surrounded by.
“What?” he asked.
“We’re about to land.”
They’d switched from the helicopter to a private jet and he’d immediately got back to Calida. Calida had yet to wake and her blood still seeped from the wound. He peered out of the window and heaved a sigh of relief when he saw the waiting van.
Mal was waiting at the bottom of the steps next to a stretcher when they taxied to a stop and opened the door. He carried Calida in his arms down to where she waited.
“How’s she doing?”
“No change.” His fear had hit the highest point.
“Place her down and let me look at her.”
He was reluctant to do so but Mal was one hell of a doctor, so he did. While she assessed Calida, he wanted to push them along—he needed her in the operating room getting better.
“We need to go,” Mal said, her expression serious. “Load her up!”
They all climbed in and the driver, Billy, shot away. “Can you save her?”
“You’ve managed to keep her in better shape than I would have expected, given how you described it to Billy.”
“We tried something else.” He brushed her hair away from her face. She was so still and so pale.
“What’s her name?”
“Calida.”
“Calida, I’m Mal. If you can hear me, I need you to squeeze my fingers. Or can you open your eyes?”
Nothing happened and she shone her penlight into her eyes, lifting each her lids. “Billy, step on it.”
The engine revved and the scenery that normally calmed him did nothing right now. He couldn’t relax. Not with Calida lying so still there beside him. They drove up t
o the back of the mansion where Roz had the door open with a stretcher beside her.
The last thing Tiarnán saw of Calida was her being wheeled into the state of the art operation room that had been set up for the times that his brethren needed it. Now his woman needed it, and all Mal’s skill. Although exhausted, he remained vigilant as they got to work on her, opening her up to begin fixing her up.
* * * *
Calida slowly opened her eyes and even that took a huge effort. The room she was in was bathed in a gentle light, the walls had a lavender and gold color that made her feel comforted. Glancing down, she saw an IV in her arm and could feel the thing in her nose—a nasal cannula—as well.
“Yer finally awake.”
Another monumental task was to turn her head to seek out the speaker. A small, slender black woman stood there in sweats and a T-shirt. Around her neck hung a stethoscope.
“Wh…where am I?”
The woman pulled out a light and checked her eyes. For a few seconds she stood there making notes on a clipboard.
“I’m Mal. You’re safe.”
“Tiarnán?”
“He’s sleeping. I’ll have someone wake him and he’ll be right down. Normally he would have been here, but I had to send him away to get some rest.”
“Why do you sound Scottish?”
Mal smiled, her light brown eyes sparkling with good humor. “Because that’s where I’m from.” She moved to a phone and lifted the receiver. “Let him know she’s awake.”
“Why am I here?”
“Because I had to operate on you. I must say, I was looking forward to meeting the woman who was for Tiarnán, but I hadn’t counted on it being on the operating table.” The doors slid open and she smiled. “We’ll catch up later. I don’t think I’m needed for this reunion.”
Too wiped to rotate her head again, Calida barely wriggled her fingers as Mal departed from her line of sight. What replaced her, or rather who, was Tiarnán. He sat on a stool and wheeled himself to her side.
Touching their foreheads together, neither said a word until he drew back. His hazel gaze had tears pricking the corners of her eyes.
