Blind Spirit (Scourge Survivor Series Book 4)

by JL Madore

  Before I could take my first step, a bloodied trio Flashed into the center of the room.

  “A werewolf, a demon and a mute walk into a bar.” Cowboy coughed. “Gods, I wish this was a bar.”

  Cowboy’s joke fell flat as his fellow warriors staggered under his weight and headed toward the stainless-steel operating table. All three Talon Enforcers looked in need of medical care, but it was Cowboy who wore his innards across the front of his blood-drenched leathers.

  “Yeah, buddy,” Kobi said, easing Cowboy’s battle vest off his broad shoulders, “we’ll hit the Hearthstone as soon as Blaze can Humpty Dumpty you together again. Promise.”

  Jade tied her long, burgundy curls away from her face and surveyed the group. “Shit boys, take a drink now and it would likely leak out the holes. Here. Get him up so I can see what I’m dealing with.”

  Savage, the largest and most fearsome of the Enforcers, bled heavily from his arm. Still, he shifted support under Cowboy’s shoulder while Kobi struggled under the other.

  “Shit, Wolf,” Kobi grunted, “ever hear of Jenny Craig? You’re a walking hernia.”

  “Pussy.” Cowboy’s ashen complexion drained further as they moved him. Brow tight and slick with perspiration, the male’s bloody hands covered his abdomen in an effort to hold his organs in place.

  As his brothers-in-arms shifted him to the surgical table, an inhuman snarl echoed off the pale green walls of the clinic. Weres were temperamental, violent creatures at the best of times. Injured Weres, well, they were downright dangerous when their animals felt vulnerable.

  I stiffened as Cowboy bared his teeth.

  Jade grabbed his jaw and held his half-lidded gaze. “Don’t you shift on me. With this jumbled mess, there’s no telling where your insides will end up. I mean it, Wolf. Stand down.”

  As Cowboy fought for control of his wolf, Jade massaged her nails through his hair and sang to him. Her voice, mesmerizing in its magical tone, rose in rich, seductive notes.

  My heart rate slowed. My body grew heavy.

  Cowboy’s eyes returned to their usual caramel color and he nodded. “S’all good, Blaze. I got this.”

  The acrid tang of blood burned my sinuses and churned my stomach. I crossed the room and fetched the stainless-steel rolling cart of surgical supplies.

  A healer by birth, Jade was a true force. A female accustomed to such scenes, she studied the wound as she snapped on gloves. Her smile remained genuine and her scent confident and calm. “Wow, you really got diced. Did you at least get the guy who did this?”

  Cowboy rolled his head on the table, his focus weak. “Bet your ass . . . lit the fucker up like a Christmas tree.”

  Jade nodded her approval, drew the knife sheathed to her thigh and slid it up each pant leg of Cowboy’s leathers. In a graceful series of motions, the male’s pants were removed and a cotton drape covered his bare hips.

  Swallowing hard, I forced down the retch creeping up the back of my throat and breathed through my mouth. Jade prepared a syringe and I turned away. Mayhap I should excuse myself and go out to the corridor—

  “Lia, breathe past it, I need you.”

  I swallowed. “Of course, how can I be of aid?”

  Jade leaned close to the wound and gently shifted the mound of pale intestines as they coiled and flopped loose. “Okay, it doesn’t smell like the bowel has been perforated, but I can’t see what I’m dealing with. Glove up and give me a hand while I look under this mess?”

  It took me a moment to realize she literally wanted me to give her my hands. After pulling on a pair of latex gloves, I fixed my gaze on her emerald green eyes across the table. Holding my arms out, I let her place them where she needed.

  “Perfect, don’t move.” Jade’s song filled the space once more and I let my mind drift. When involved in extensive healings, her bard powers helped her connect with her healing powers. The song she sang now was an Elven ballad I knew well. I sang along to distract myself.

  With my eyes closed and lost in the entrancing cadence of Jade’s healing voice, I startled when she spoke next. “Got it, Lia, you can step away and help the others.”

  Loose limbed, I peeled off the gloves and went to the sink to wash up. In the time I aided Jade with Cowboy, Kobi had removed his battle vest, his grime-covered muscle shirt, and stapled the curved knife wound across his hip.

  Most of the demon’s visible skin was either mottled with purple and blue, or smeared with blood. Finished with his own injuries, Kobi regarded the gash running the tattooed length of Savage’s forearm. “Extra points for exposed bone, Sav. That’s nasty. Staple or stitch?”

  Savage signaled a response with his hands and blood squirted in a streaming spray.

  “Stitch it is.” Kobi propped himself on a stool opposite Savage and worked for some time with his fingers inside Savage’s arm. The stench of burning flesh suggested he called upon something in his demon nature to cauterize the wound. Withdrawing his fingers, he closed the flaps of skin beneath his grip and began stitching.

  I gripped the counter. “Jade shall heal you if you wait.”

  The stark overhead light of clinic reflected off the line of platinum piercings puncturing Kobi’s brow. He also had one through his left nipple. Kobi caught me staring and smiled. “Jade has her hands full with our boy. Besides, I’ve become quite a little seamstress over the years. Not to the level of Iadon, mind you, but I can Martha Stewart a leak.”

  The demon unwound a length of black suture thread and returned his attention to Savage’s wound. He pulled the thread taut and tightened the black loop of the stitch until it pinched his fellow warrior’s skin together. Each time it gathered more flesh, another trickle of scarlet pulsed from the cavity of the gaping wound. Blood ran off Savage’s forearm and dripped a steady stream to the surface of the supply counter.

  I thought again about retreating to the corridor. Given the quiver in my legs and the slow spin of the room, mayhap it was best not to move. Closing my eyes, I absorbed the muffled laughter and chatter beyond the closed door of the clinic. The bustle beyond the clinic accompanied the sea of students flowing from one course of study to another.

  The Academy of Affinities amazed me, from the language and informality of the students, to the emboldened interactions, to the enlightened notion of males regarding females as strong and equal.

  “Lia?” Kobi said, his nostrils flared. “You all right?”

  Could demons smell emotions like Elves and Weres? I pressed my shoulders back. “Of course. May I assist you?”

  Kobi’s charcoal gaze narrowed within the ebony eyeliner he always wore. He studied me for a long, awkward moment. He tilted his head. “You could snag me a couple more rolls of gauze and some medical tape from the tall cabinet by the window.”

  I whirled away from his macabre ministrations. The cabinet in question sat across the clinic, arranged in orderly rows of all manner of supplies: bandages, burn ointment, unguents, disinfectant swabs and remedies. Rolls and packets of gauze sat piled in a woven wicker basket on the second shelf from the top. I selected a couple large rolls, retrieved the bottle of antiseptic Jade used to flush wounds, and picked up the white medical tape and cutters.

  As I passed by the surgical table, I cast a quick glance to the surgery table. Jade had managed to return Cowboy’s insides back in which was no small feat. I returned to Kobi and Savage and tore the gauze free from its paper wrapping.

  “Verily, you males are brave beyond good sense. With the violence of the Scourge rising, you must needs take better care. There are those of us who worry about your welfare.”

  Kobi threaded the loop and tugged the thread into a knot. “You don’t hear Sav complaining, do you?”

  Savage, who had been left mute after his voice box was severed, raised his middle finger.

  Kobi laughed. “There’s nothing like a little pain to remind you that you’re alive. Besides, it looks worse than it is. Just caught a bleeder, nothing vital.”

  When he g
estured to the cutters, I snipped the thread and handed Savage the bottle of liquid.

  The ink-skulled warrior took what I offered, stalked to the sink and rinsed the blood away before opening the antiseptic and pouring it over his wound. Though the students often reeled from the sting of the cleanser, Savage appeared to take no notice as it hissed and bubbled across his decorated forearm. When he turned back, our gaze met.

  The male exuded a haunting anger: dark features, dark scent, dark soul. What horrors must a male endure to grow so hardened and utterly violent?

  Reaching above the sink, I fetched a towel and put my fear out of my mind. After he blotted the wound dry, I laid the gauze over the long, puckered gash. Despite my body’s urge to step away, I taped it in place. With his arm repaired, my attention turned to the blood dripping off the table and pooling on the ivory clinic tiles.

  Kobi brushed past me on his way to the utility closet. “Don’t worry about the mess, Lia. We’re fully housebroken. I’ll clean this up.”

  Ashamed as I was that Kobi had to mop up after battling evil, it was either that or revisit my morning repast.

  “Lia?” Jade said. “Could you bring me a damp cloth and a towel. We’re done here.” Jade gently wiped Cowboy’s belly and patted his upper chest. “All done, Wolf. Now shift and go curl up on one of the recovery beds for a few hours of healing sleep. If you’re good, you’ll get to the main house before Elora rings the dinner bell.”

  Cowboy accepted Jade’s help sitting up and nuzzled his face into her neck and against her cheek. I had seen Weres do this before with her. It was the animal’s way of showing affection. His usually golden skin remained far too pale for my liking, but with what seemed like the sheer force of his will, he eased his naked self from the table, staggered down the hall, and ducked into the first recovery room.

  “He’ll be fine,” Jade said, squeezing my shoulder. “The recovery of a Were in healing sleep is remarkable. Cowboy’s wolf is dominant and a survivor. It’ll take him no time.”

  “Yeah,” Kobi said, “by dinner, he’ll be cranky, horny, and starving. Good as new.”

  Jade yawned, her hand rubbing a gentle circle over her belly. The bulge of my brother’s twins forced her smock shirt away from her rounding figure. She pulled the elastic binding her deep red curls and shook her hair free. The richness of the color was contrasted by the shining silver of Galan’s mating braid hanging to the side of her face.

  I was about to suggest she go rest for a few hours herself when Kobi’s phone rang. He tugged it from the back pocket of his tight black jeans. “Yeah? Sure. On our way.”

  He strode across to his belongings, regarded his tattered shirt and tossed it in the garbage bin. “Sorry, ladies, duty calls. You ready, Sav?” After pulling his battle-vest over his bare chest, Kobi checked his knives and patted his pockets.

  “What’s doing?” Jade asked.

  Setting a cigarette between he shrugged. “Julian caught a spike of unsanctioned magical energy along the perimeter of the north forest. Could be Scourge opening a bolt-hole.”

  “Or it could be a couple Lightning Sprights getting busy in the woods,” Jade said.

  Kobi nodded. “Take care of our canine. We’ll be back to take him for that drink in a few hours.”

  Savage stood, checked his weapons and nodded.

  I raised my hand. “But you just sewed yourselves up. Surely, there are others who could—”

  Kobi exhaled a cloud of sweet-smelling smoke. “No rest for the wicked, babycakes. Talon is working double time these days.”

  After a quick nod, the two Flashed and were gone.

  When Jade turned to the mess of her operating table I drew a deep breath and retrieved the cleaning supplies. “Jade, you are exhausted. Go lie down. Allow me to clean this up.”

  Jade chuckled and arched an elegant brow. “No offense hon, but if you start cleaning the blood, we’ll have vomit to clean up too. Clinic gore isn’t your strong suit.”

  My ears warmed. Jade grasped her purpose better than any female I knew and I knew nothing of mine. “Yes, well, until we discover what my strong suit is, Galan has tasked me to assist you as I am able. I mean to. Please. Go rest.”

  Jade raised a hand to her neck and absently swept her bridal pendant along its silver chain. After studying my resolve, she conceded. “Maybe just for a little while. I have things to do later.”

  For the remainder of the morning, I tidied the surgical area, inventoried the stockroom for herbs, medicinals and unctions, and readied for the next barrage of wounded. With the rise in Scourge activity, it seemed the endless threat of wounded hovered without end.

  Verily, Jade needed help. Though Rowan—Lexi’s mate and a gifted surgeon—came when needed and I admired the work they did with all my heart, I was not the female for the job. I would have to convince Galan this was not my place.

  Since my kidnapping, I had imagined this madness ending. I dreamed of returning to the village, being courted and mated by a gentlemale, and living a productive life. In my dream, Galan and Jade visited often and their young, who grew up playing and laughing with my own.

  The picture had been so clear in my mind, I could almost will it into reality. My return to the Highborne village shattered that dream. Now, I wondered where the Fates and my future would take me.

  As Cowboy said—I was lost.

  “Jade? Are ye here, Luv?” The Celtic cadence of Samuel’s voice was recognizable even before I came out of the stockroom and saw the raven-haired male. My heart went out to him. The unfortunate soul, was seven months into his recovery from a magical explosion and no matter what attempts Jade and the other doctors, healers, and wizards made, he remained blind as a star-nosed mole.

  Meticulous in his appearance, he wore slacks, a silk shirt and a worn leather slicker. As much as I wished to support my brother’s hatred of Jade’s previous suitor and despise him on principle, Samuel risked his life to save me from the Scourge and then lost his sight while rescuing Bruin’s mate, Mika, from her captivity with the same vile group.

  Friend or foe, the male was undeniably heroic.

  “Apologies, Samuel,” I said, sliding the stockroom door closed behind me and joining him by the examination table. “Jade is sleeping in one of the recovery beds. Was she expecting you?”

  Samuel retrieved his tinted glasses from his pocket and covered his sightless, diamond-white eyes. “Aye, she was, but if she’s resting, let her be. My exam will keep.”

  The scent of his concern filled the air as strongly as his affection. And though Jade would never love another to the depths she loved my brother, she held a special warmth and gentleness for her ex-suitor as well.

  “It is thoughtful of you to let her rest. She exhausted herself healing Cowboy this morning and with the pregnancy—” I winced as his frame stiffened. “Apologies, that was insensitive.”

  He scrubbed his palm over his darkened jaw and exhaled. “Cowboy was hurt, ye say. Is the Wolf all right?”

  “Perfection in every way,” Cowboy said, stepping out of his recovery room. He stretched, naked in the hall and as he strode forward to join us, he accessed his powers and clothes appeared magically upon him. “Hey Merlin, we missed your blue bolts zinging through the air this morning. You would have been a welcome addition while we cracked Scourge heads in Deleran.”

  Samuel frowned. “Deleran? Abaddon’s army started a mangle with the Centaurs? What would possess them?”

  “Their master is crazier than a shit-house rat?”

  Samuel glanced down the corridor and stepped closer to his friend. “Does Jade know the Centaurs were attacked? Chiron wasn’t hurt, was he? The old man was her tutor for years and the two of them are still tight.”

  Cowboy shook his head, his tri-colored flaxen hair still matted with sweat and filth. “A few guards along the wall got messed up, but not bad. Chiron called Reign in as soon as the scouts detected Scourge movement in the forest. The bastards hadn’t even had the chance to make a run at t
he gate before we got there. Score one for the good guys.”

  Samuel raised an ebony brow. “The Centaurs called for help?”

  “Times, they are a’changing, Merlin. Reign’s made it clear we can’t let Abaddon’s army gain ground with Rheagan floating around. The Talon is on call 24/7 to ensure we keep those fuckers at bay. Even still, it’s an uphill climb.”

  Samuel rubbed his eyes under his mirrored glasses. “Ye won’t be able to keep it up forever. What happens then?”

  Cowboy shrugged. “No idea, but I gotta skedaddle. Lia, where’d you hide my weapons, sweetheart?”

  I opened the cupboard by the door and handed him his leather vest, weapons, and his bolo-necktie. “Jade wants to assess your condition before you leave.”

  Cowboy winked and lifted the hem of his shirt to show the long pink line across his tight, rippled belly. “As much as I’d love a sponge bath and extra TLC, I gotta saddle up. Don’t you worry. I’ll roll over and Jade can rub my belly at dinner.”

  I laughed and retrieved his black hat. “I swear you say the craziest thing that pops into your head.”

  Cowboy slung on his necktie and weapon’s vest and checked his phone. “Damn, Reign called a debrief an hour ago and I slept through half of it. Gotta dash. See all y’all later.”

  The moment Cowboy Flashed out to join his fellow warriors, Samuel’s expression went blank. To look at him, one saw only a devilishly handsome wizard with black hair and mirrored sunglasses. I smelled the ache of his loss. The male was a warrior—a hero likely ne’er to battle again.

  To give him a moment, I hung my apron on the hook by the door and gathered my wrap. “Fash not, Samuel. Jade will figure out your sight and then—”

  When I touched his arm, he recoiled and caught the corner of the exam table. He toppled back in a windmill of hands, cursing wildly. Fearing he would fall, I grabbed his arm. In the next instant, my head buzzed.

  We Flashed.

  The moment my feet met solid ground, I released his arm and waited for my skin to stop tingling. We stood at the edge of a tree line, the bank of a stream winding across a rolling countryside. “Where have you brought us?”