I nodded and winced as I braced for him to do just that. He looked at my flesh, noting the parts that weren’t crispy, and then carefully picked me up, starting forward as I buried my face in his shoulder, crying against him as pain burned violently through me. I bit into his shirt, sending the scream against his flesh as I was no longer able to stop it. I inhaled, gagging, and the scream continued as the scent of burning flesh grew repulsive to my senses.
“You’re fucking beat the fuck up, girl,” he muttered. “What the fuck happened?” I wasn’t sure if his small talk was to keep me alert or to keep him from throwing up as he inhaled the cooked flesh.
I shook my head, begging him silently to hurry so he could put me down. I needed sleep to heal, to recoup from the damage that had been done. I closed my eyes as I felt him moving up the steps, each one becoming more painful until he reached the doors, shouting orders as we walked through them.
“What the fuck happened to her?” Adam’s voice echoed as I was set down, but held on my feet, Zahruk steadying me. “Jesus Christ, what the fuck. Did they try to cook her?” he demanded as we moved past him slowly with Zahruk guiding me carefully.
“Get Eliran here, now,” he ordered as voices sounded.
“What happened…what the hell?” Synthia’s voice was sharp as she echoed Adam’s words, confident as she moved to me, inspecting me, and I swallowed hard. “We need the healer, now!” she screamed at those around her, turning her eyes back to stare at me as she smoothed down the panic that filled her eyes.
“Demons,” I uttered as I started to fall, only for Zahruk to catch me and cradle me against his chest.
“Take her to the dome; it’s clean and sterile. She can be tended to there. Adam, Lachlan, go get Eliran, we’ll need more than what the healer here is capable of to heal her. Lucian and his men should be here shortly with the witches on the busses; they may have a spell to ease the pain.”
“I…heal,” I whispered as I swayed, barely able to remain upright.
“Yeah, but not without feeling it,” she replied sharply. “You’re missing half of your fucking arm, and you look as if you were cooked alive. You need help.”
“That hurts,” I muttered and looked down, staring at the exposed bones as Zahruk tried to hold my hand, needing me to follow him. “I lit demons on fire, attacked. Window…jumped,” my fragmented sentences didn’t make sense, nor would they until I’d healed. “Dead,” I uttered as my mind went back to Callaghan, and the fact that he’d shielded me so that I would survive it, even though he hadn’t. We’d been too busy to even think of being disturbed. It served him right, and I wouldn’t feel bad, even if I did.
“And did what with the demons, Erie, play who can burn brighter?” she asked as she helped Zahruk leading me into the room with the dome in it. There was so much pain, pain that filled my mind as I screamed against their touches. They tried to help, but even that was painful as they helped me onto a bed, Zahruk peering down at me. Synthia’s touch sent the pain away, and she refused to let go until the healer had been summoned and drugged me as I slipped into oblivion.
“Sleep, Erie, we have you, girl. You’re safe.”
Chapter 17
I awoke to a hand touching my face and growled. Opening my swollen eyes to peer up at the male healer, who lifted his hands while staring down at me with a cautious look in his own. Mentally, I replayed what had happened and where I was. My arm moved, and I hissed as pain erupted from the simple motion. I groaned as I looked down at the bandages, soaked with healing salve that now covered them generously.
“You’re badly burned,” he gently explained as he went back to applying cream to my face.
“Erie, this is Eliran, our healer,” Synthia said from where she sat beside the bed I was on, her hand on my leg, as if she was somehow holding the pain away from me, at least for the most part.
I turned, staring at her, and groaned at the worry that displayed over her face. I wasn’t used to seeing anyone worry about me, and that bothered me. “Why do you care?”
“About you? I don’t, I care that you’re hurt and you needed help. You came to us. I don’t have to care about you to realize you were running from something and needed our help, even if you wouldn’t ask.”
“It’s stupid to help people,” I whispered as I closed my eyes against the pain the healer’s touch was creating.
“Is it? Because I see a girl who has been through hell, on her own for so long that she refuses to allow anyone to get close to her. I can respect that, but I will never leave you in the street to rot. You have your issues, I have mine. I’m in the business of saving people, I think you are too. You can stay here and heal, you won’t have to repay us for it, or even owe us. I won’t, however, stand by and watch you suffer because you think you’re too tough to need help. We all need help here and there, and this time, I am in a position to offer it.”
“I kill people for a living,” I stated, testing her boundaries.
“I killed a lot of people too, and will continue to do it so long as there is bad in the world.”
“I kill because it gets me off,” I uttered, watching her face as she swallowed and narrowed those violet eyes on me.
“No, you don’t. You kill because you are given a name on a list. You kill the bad people because they don’t deserve mercy. You didn’t walk into Vlad’s club to do harm to anyone who didn’t deserve it. You did what you came to do, and you made sure no one who was innocent got harmed in the process. I know you, Erie. I know you because I was you. You have an honor code, one that is embedded in the very genetic code of your being. I’ve watched you, and not once have you murdered anyone who didn’t deserve it. I’m guessing this is a test, and you don’t expect to pass what you think is our standards, and I’m telling you, we don’t have any. I’m willing to bet you want me to reject you, but that isn’t going to happen. Life’s a bitch, but there’s no way around that, no matter how much we wish it otherwise. Rest, recover, and then if you want to leave, you’re free to go.” She stood, nodding to the healer, and then to Zahruk who watched me from the corner.
“What the fuck are you looking at, asshole?” I demanded.
“Roadkill,” he smirked. “Pretty roadkill, but roadkill all the same,” he chuckled. “Or it might be BBQ, I haven’t really decided which you most resemble or smell like yet.” He shrugged.
“You don’t have many friends, do you?” I countered, and I winced as the healer began trying to apply the salve to my upper arms. I inhaled through my nose and exhaled out my mouth as I bit down the scream that threatened to bubble up.
“Pussy,” Zahruk said as he moved closer, looking over the seared tissue. “I probably have the same amount of friends as you do, crispy.”
“Fuck you,” I snarled as I started to sit up, only for him to gently push me back down, before taking my hand in his and holding it as I watched him.
“Pain tells you that you were strong enough to survive it,” he whispered as he brought my hand to his mouth and kissed the inside of my palm. “It reminds us that pain eventually ebbs, while the strength we gain from it endures. So get those big girl panties back on, because this shit is going to hurt. There’s no way around it. That salve will help the tissue heal with less pain, and from the looks of it, you need it.”
“You suck at motivational speeches,” I whimpered as more salve was applied while Zahruk continued to hold my hand, even though I had to be crushing his. Eliran continued silently, changing the bandages as Zahruk mouthed off, distracting me from the endless pain.
“I’m better with weapons and killing shit,” he shrugged as he leaned closer, staring into my eyes.
“Noted,” I hissed as a scream bubbled up from my throat.
“This is going to be painful,” the healer warned, and I watched Zahruk nod towards him as those sapphire eyes came back to mine.
“I got you, girl,” he said,
and I screamed as he stood, staring down at me, holding me there while everything inside of me begged for death. My body trembled, quivering as he pushed the salve into the destroyed flesh to ensure it healed quickly. “That’s it, give it to me, good girl,” he whispered as he brought his mouth down against my ear. “Sleep, Erie,” he urged, and I blinked as my eyes grew heavy with the need to do as he’d whispered.
“I can’t,” I muttered through a sob.
“Yes, you can, you’re safe here. I got you; you’re protected from the bad shit. I’ll stand guard so that you can sleep and heal. I promise.”
I didn’t get a choice. Blackness filled my mind, even as I fought against it, struggling to remain awake to know what was happening to me. His lips brushed my cheek as he continued whispering those words, over and over again until his magic filled my mind, overriding my instincts to guard myself, to stay alive.
Callaghan
Templar Order Stronghold
I dodged left as a group of children moved through the hallway, running as they chased one another, laughing hysterically. Children ran around unchecked as they played among the rooms of the lower levels. Stopping, I watched a boy as he helped a small girl up, who couldn’t have been older than three, from the floor, where she’d fallen down. He smiled down at her, cheering her on as they started back into the chase. I swallowed hard as I reminded myself why this had to happen. Why creating a child with Erie would happen whether she or I wanted it to. Besides, the idea of having a redhead with fiery blue eyes who talked back to me made my chest ache with longing.
That girl…for seventy-five years I’d stood by, watching her, trying my best to protect her when she had needed it, until she’d begun to blossom into her beauty. I’d done my best, and yet every time she had needed me the most, I’d been called away. I’d come back to find her broken by those who were supposed to protect her. My jaw ticked with the hatred and anger I’d felt for those who had harmed her, and had used my absence to inflict that pain onto her. It hadn’t been easy to travel back then, and those missions could take up to an entire year or longer. That meant they’d had an entire year in which they’d used to abuse her.
Pushing off the wall, I headed up the winding staircase that led to the upper level. The room was already packed with the older Knights, as well as a few of my crew. I tossed the notebook onto the table and leaned against it with my palms flat and my eyes boring into my father’s. Douglas, the man who had given me life before the dawn of mankind had ever awoken to become a race.
“Fucking demons,” I snapped.
“It changes nothing,” he argued.
Douglas stared at me, his eyes narrowing as his frown deepened while I stared him down coldly. I lifted from the table and rose to my full height, knowing what he wanted. It wasn’t fucking happening. Not now, not ever.
“You knew eventually that time would run out for her. I told you countless times not to intervene or get attached to that girl. She was created to birth a son to the Order, even if it wasn’t with you. I didn’t want this either, Mason. She deserves better, but innocent lives are at stake. We had three more premature babes born last night, along with two infants who perished from the sickness that no one has any idea how to heal yet. Our time has come, and we must use the cure to escape the fate that even now is hunting and taking out the weakest of our race.”
“We don’t even know if the sickness is tied to the curse,” I growled, pulling a chair out to sit down, hiding the hands which balled into fists at knowing he was right. “It could just be a mere coincidence since it isn’t time for the curse to start attacking us.”
Lance scoffed, his turquoise eyes finding mine and locking with them. “We don’t know that it’s not the curse, either, brother. We don’t know shit, other than Erie is our cure, and you’re getting nowhere with her. In a year, we end. There will be no one to lurk in the shadows and keep the darkness from devouring this world. Hell, we have a fucking apocalypse outside, and if the darkness comes, no one will ever be able to get this world back upright, and you fucking know it too.”
“Did you succeed in the injections?” Douglas asked.
“When has Mason ever failed, even if the mission wasn’t one he wanted to succeed at?” Rhett asked as he smirked, pushing his dark auburn hair away from his face. When my father just stared at him, he laughed. “Ask stupid questions, you get stupid answers.”
“I injected her with the drugs and my dick, and then the demons showed up. So you tell me, how the fuck am I supposed to get her pregnant with them now hunting her? I assure you, I wasn’t their target.”
“And how did she escape?” he asked.
“I used my body as a shield to protect hers. I don’t think they got her, but she isn’t holed up in that outlet store anymore. She isn’t anywhere that I can find her.”
“And the assholes at the Guild, did she run to them?” Douglas asked.
“She might have, or maybe she’s fucking being tortured by the demons who tried to kill her. It’s unclear where she went, but I can tell you she took down two of them. They’re in the lab being dissected to figure out which breed of demon they belong to.” I pushed up from the table to pace the floor, hating that I didn’t know if my body had shielded hers enough to give her a fighting chance, or if she was being tortured yet again because I’d failed to save her.
I’d used my body as a shield, unable to do more than that as I unhooked the cuffs that held her there, and what did the little imp do? She continued moving beneath me, as if her sole purpose in life was my dick, which wouldn’t have been a bad thing, had there not been fucking demons attacking us. I’d used my magic to buy her time, and it was time she’d used well, yet it had cost me. I’d lost my spine watching that nymph fucking my cock while we were under attack. Right up until I’d been fatally hit and had to roll her from where she would have happily died sated. It had been worth it, right up until I’d come back and been unable to track her past the fact that someone had picked her up, and they’d taken her somewhere heavily warded.
“So she’s missing,” Douglas frowned as he rubbed his temples. “If she had been here, this wouldn’t have happened.”
“If I may interject here,” Grigori said. “She’s been fucked twice, and may already have the cure growing in her womb. Or, we may bring her here as you desire to, and she fights us. That means she is less likely to breed anything. Erie is special, very much so, but what everyone seems to forget is that she was created. Yes, she had a mother and a father, but both were pushed into that cauldron and drank deeply of it to create that girl. Both also died within days of her birth. It was a miracle she survived, considering the violent way she was left, abandoned. Had Callaghan not had the foresight to see it through, we’d all be cashing our checks and counting down the days until our end was here. What I am saying is, if you corner her, and she fights back, this may end before it’s even begun. Erie is a ticking bomb, one that doesn’t even know what she is yet.”
“Still, we cannot protect her if she is out there on her own. We won’t know that she’s been bred, or if she carries his child until she shows it. Not to mention, they’re out there hunting her. The witches are awakening, and so begin the games of finding them before they find her. I assure you, my son, if they do, she will be destroyed.”
“Arthur is hunting them, isn’t he?” I asked.
“Arthur went off the grid the day Erie walked out of that apartment. As far as I know, he’s joined the others who tire of doing things your way. He doesn’t understand why she isn’t caged and fucked until she is bred like any other animal. When I refused to see the errors of my way and decision, he left along with a handful of others.”
“She’s a living thing,” I uttered as I turned around, staring at him. “She’s delicate. Those assholes put her through hell, and you knew about it. You knew about it, and you refused to let me bring her here. I could have changed this. I cou
ld have had her as my wife, had her never know what she’d been created from or for. You refused, and now you want to lock her up and have us take turns fucking her? No, no, that is my mate. When we take mates, it is forever, and if you refuse me her, the beast inside of me will rebel.”
“We all took a vow to do what was needed to secure the future of this Order. Some of us lost a lot more in this deal, and I understand your need, Mason. There’s a larger picture here though. I understand that you are attached, but more so, that which crawls beneath the surface is lured to her wildness, which is also why I am giving you three more months to plant your child in her womb. At that time, if it isn’t finished, we will move to the next plan. Mason, it isn’t because I want it to be so, but because I cannot watch us die out for the sake of one woman. Your team does, however, have free rein to find the others and bring them back to stand before their judgment. We cannot afford rogue Knights out hunting our only chance of survival. God forbid they set her into motion and light her fuse.”
The door to the meeting room opened as the scientist strode in, dropping a pile of clay onto the table. “They were created and controlled by magic,” he said as he swallowed hard, and audibly.
“The witches are in play,” Douglas said as he sat down and exhaled. “Time is running out for all of us.”
Chapter 18
I watched the scientist place clay husks onto the table as they explained the logistics of what had attacked Erie and me. I’d been otherwise distracted by the sweetest pussy on earth, uncaring of who watched us or invaded that bedroom and knew I was making her mine, but that had been stupid. Not fucking her, that was all right, but what happened after it, and everything else, if I’d been more careful, we wouldn’t be working to track her down and figure out what had happened to her.
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