Hot Blooded

“We have no choice.” I jumped up with the spell case in my hand. “We have to start throwing them or they’re going to die.” I gritted my teeth as I watched Danny continue to struggle. “Tyler, we have to act!”

“Aim the darts at their bodies instead,” Eamon said, walking toward me. “When the spell explodes into their bloodstream, it will instantly contaminate all the winged devils. The Camazotz are consuming their flesh and drinking their blood; they will absorb it by proxy.”

I met my brother’s eye as I held the darts. “Which color? We have freezers, sleepers, and two others, no kills. Choose.”

“Blue,” he said. “Try blue.”

I plucked out the two blues, rolled the case back up, and set it down on my pack. Then I walked as close as I could to the last tree before the clearing. I wedged the outside edge of my shoe against the bark for support and drew back my arm to take aim. Then I faltered. We had only a few precious spells and I couldn’t risk missing my target. If I threw it at Danny and it bounced off one of those the stupid blood-sucking rodents, we lost. New plan.

“Danny! Danny!” I called. He turned toward me, hearing my voice. “I have two spells.” I waved my hand in the air. “I’m going to throw them to you and you’re going to pierce Naomi and then yourself. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”

His face was bloody and ravaged. One of his eyelids looked like it was completely gone. Most of his face was covered so I couldn’t see his expression. I couldn’t tell if he understood me or not.

“Danny!” I shouted as I held up the potions again and waved them. “Do you see me? I’m going to throw these to you.” I mimicked tossing them underhand. “You have to catch them and inject Naomi and then yourself!” If he injected himself first, he would be spelled and out cold, so he had to hit

Naomi first.

After a moment, he seemed to understand. He turned to Naomi, but instead of turning back to me,

he started mindlessly pulling more off her, ignoring me completely.

“Tyler, he’s not listening,” I cried. “Or he can’t understand me anymore. I have to go out there and do it myself. We’re running out of time. Naomi hasn’t moved in too long. I can’t let them die. I’ll run out fast. We know what to expect. I’ll drag them as close as I can back to you before the bastards eat me and I’ll spell them. Then you can shoot me with another dart.”

Tyler hooked me around the waist as I took a step forward. “You are not going out there, Jess. Do you hear me? They will eat you alive, Lycan or not,” he growled. “If Danny’s not listening, make him listen. If that doesn’t work, I’ll go out there.”

“How do I make him listen? I just yelled at him and he ignored me.”

“Your wolf is above his and he’s submitted to you already. I’d do it, but Danny might not listen to me. Command him. Force him to hear you.”

Danny’s wolf had recognized and submitted to me the first time he’d seen me in my Lycan form.

“Are you sure it will work?”

“Fuck no!” Tyler shouted. “But it’s the only thing we have left. Do it!”

I gathered as much power as I could and shoved it into my voice. “Daniel Walker! Listen to me!”

The sound echoed out of my body in a strong, steady current. I wasn’t sure how much to use, so I

threw everything I had at him. “Stop! ”

Danny froze, his stunned gaze turning to meet mine.

It worked.

“I’m going to throw something to you. You will catch it,” I told him, strength vibrating my vocal cords. “Insert one dart into Naomi and then one dart into yourself. Do it immediately! Do you understand me?”

He nodded slowly. As he stood, he batted the devils away from his face so he could see.

I was at the very edge of the boundary. A pulse of energy hit me as my foot strayed past the tree. A

shock of warning. How could Naomi have missed it? It raced through me like an alarm, running up my leg and back down my spine. I yanked my foot back. The magic had a menacing undertone. I’d never felt anything like it.

Danny opened his arms to ready himself and I lobbed a single dart underhanded. He stumbled forward to catch it. It hit his open palm and he curled his fingers around it, capturing it without breaking it. Then I threw the next one. Once he held both, I yelled, “Go! Pierce Naomi first and then yourself. Do it now!”

He jerked around and fell to his knees next to her. There was a mass of devils on her chest. He ripped them off, their mouths saturated with blood, and plunged the dart deeply into her stomach.

She convulsed once and went still.

Then he turned the second dart on himself, stabbing it right through one of the screeching devils high on his thigh. Danny froze in place for a millisecond before he toppled onto Naomi, none of his body parts moving.

Blue meant freezer.

Almost immediately the devils started to fall off. Each of them twitching once before freezing in place on the ground.

“Ohmygod, it’s working! Come on. We have to go get them now,” I yelled, tugging Tyler’s arm.

“Eamon said it won’t last long.”

I moved forward only to be yanked back once again. “Tyler! You have to stop doing that.” I turned,

angry. My irises sparking. “I’m not a child and you’re wasting valuable time.”

“The hell I’m letting you out there,” he snarled. “My job here is to protect you. It’s what you hired me to do and that’s what I’m damn well going to do. Get another spell primed for me. I’ll bring them back, and if those little fuckers get me, stab me with it once I cross the line.”

He took off before I could argue. I hadn’t technically hired him—my father had. But he was right;

it was why he was here—that and he loved me. As he ran, the winged devils that hadn’t succumbed to the spell swarmed him. “Tyler!” I screamed. “Keep moving!” I tried to infuse as much power as I

could into my voice. I had no idea if it would work on my brother, but it was worth a try.

He raced to Naomi and flung her over his shoulder. She landed stiffly, which made it hard. Then he turned and grabbed Danny by the arm. Instead of lifting him, he dragged him behind. I fumbled for another spell, this time yellow. I fisted it right as Tyler barreled back through the trees.

He tossed Naomi at a stunned Eamon, who caught her with ease. At the same time he let go of

Danny and dropped to the forest floor on his knees. The few of the devils that had clung to him fell off and seemed discombobulated, opening their red-stained maws, gasping for breath. None of them had bitten him. “Why didn’t they bite you?” I asked.

“I think they all had a taste of the spell, even if it wasn’t a lot, and I think they’re confused.” He grabbed one off the ground where it had fallen. The thing tried to latch unsuccessfully on to his finger.

Its eyes blazed a feral orange and its skin was both scaled and leathery. Tyler gave it a squeeze. Its chest imploded and it went limp. Before he could toss it back over the boundary line, it disappeared right out of his hand with a little pop.

“Okay. That was strange.” I took a step closer and one of the devils on the ground flew halfheartedly at me. It wobbled like it was drunk, but its intentions were clear—it wanted my flesh and blood. “Oh, no you don’t.” It zoomed at me lopsided. I angled my arm back. When it was within a foot of me, I pounded my fist into it. It connected hard, and the thing exploded with a shriek and sailed outside of the boundary line and blinked out of existence.

Tyler started picking up a few errant ones. “Help me toss them out there.” He gestured to the clearing. “You need to kill them first so they go away. Then chuck them past the trees.”

“Wait,” I said after he’d killed two and threw them back. “We should keep one.”

He glanced at me with a question. “Why would we keep one?”

“The ones that aren’t frozen are dazed in here. Look at that one.” I pointed to one on the ground that wobbled in a circle. “We have to find a way to defeat them or we can’t go any farther, so let’s keep one.”

Tyler shrugged. “Okay. Fair enough.”

“Alive.”

He grimaced. “How are we going to keep it from attacking us? What if it decides to wake up?”

“We can tie it down somehow. How about nailing it to a tree?”