Snorted breaths fanned the hair around her face. Her lip curled at the rancid smell. It pressed its full weight against her body and she suddenly knew a lot more about her friend’s anatomy than she cared to. The demon seemed to be hesitating and she wasn’t sure why, but she intended to use it to her full advantage.
“Sorry, Nathaniel.” She brought her knee up in one quick motion, putting all her strength and speed behind it. The demon howled and released her shoulders as it bent over in pain. Dropping her sword, she used both hands to push the demon toward the pool.
The creature was in the water before it even realized what happened. She arched her back and rocked forward on her toes to keep from following it into the water. Ignoring the howls and screams coming from her friend, she turned her back on the pool and pulled the other flask out of her pocket. As she filled her mouth with the whiskey, she walked back to the wall. She put the flask away and bent to retrieve her sword from the floor.
The horrible sounds stopped just as she turned to face the pool. Nathaniel, completely human again, was half out of the water with his back arched at an impossible angle. He opened his mouth as if to scream and black mist poured from his mouth. It collected in a cloud above his head, hanging in the air for a moment before sweeping toward her.
When it was a yard away, she spit the whiskey, spraying the cloud. A high-pitched keening filled the air and her blade flashed red as it sliced through the cloud. Once, twice, three times. “Go back to whatever dark god you came from,” she said with a growl that would have made Nathaniel proud if he was coherent enough to hear her.
The keening grew louder, higher pitched until pain lanced through her ears. She belatedly threw her hands up to cover them. The windows behind her imploded and she dropped to the ground, hunching her shoulders in an effort to protect her head. Tiny shards sliced her skin as they flew past. Finally, the cloud fell to the ground in a fine powder.
She stood, wincing at the pain that wracked her body and pierced her ears. Her equilibrium off, she stumbled to the side a bit. She pulled a flask of water from her pocket and used it to drench the ash. That wasn’t supposed to be necessary but there was nothing wrong with being cautious. The demon dealt with, she turned her attention to its former host. She found him floating face down in the water. Panic lodged in her chest and made it hard to breathe.
“Oh, hell no. I did not just save your ass from a demon so you could drown.” She dropped the sword and snatched the communicator out of her ear.
Thomas came through the door just as Juliana dove into the pool. The elemental was right behind him. Other agents surrounded the building. All the windows were shattered, the broken glass littering the floor crunched under his feet as he hurried to the side of the pool to help his mate with her friend. She looked surprised when Thomas lifted the wolf from her grip and passed him off to the elemental.
Thomas came back, grabbed her hands and lifted her out of the water. She staggered to the side and grunted in pain. The sweet scent of her blood flooded his senses. Even as his heart skipped a beat in worry for her, his mouth flooded with saliva. It had been a long time since he’d tasted her, so long.
Juliana turned to check on the wolf and Thomas caught a brief glimpse of her back. It was enough for him to see that was the source of most of the bleeding. The wolf coughed and Thomas glanced over to see the elemental had him rolled on his side. Given Juliana’s relaxed stance, he assumed she’d done what she’d intended and freed her friend of the demon.
His bride stumbled away from him. He reached out to help, but she righted herself before he reached her. She kept her back turned from them as she slid her sword into its sheath. As if she could hide an injury like that from him. Thomas clenched his jaw but forced himself to be patient. They would take a portal directly from here to the infirmary and she would be taken care of.
She bent to retrieve her blade and stumbled to the side again. “Are you okay?” he asked. Juliana didn’t respond, didn’t even acknowledge he had spoken. Instead, she was examining a dark smudge on the ground. “Juliana?
The elemental called for a portal with the earpiece. “What’s wrong with her?”
Thomas shook his head and headed across the floor toward her. She turned as if sensing his approach. That was when he noticed the thin line of blood running from her ear. He reached out and wiped it away with his fingertips. Holding out his hand, he showed her the smear. She shrugged. His mate had obviously shattered her eardrums and she was shrugging. Gods grant him patience.
“Did you get the other one?” she asked at a volume just short of yelling.
No, he hadn’t. The damn thing had eluded him. Its single-minded fascination on escaping him to get to Juliana disturbed him. It had tried several times during the course of their battle. Of course, after he ripped one of its arms off, it had lost interest in her and focused on surviving. It took off in the opposite direction and he went after Juliana.
Given the fact that she most likely couldn’t hear any of that even if he was to explain it, he just shook his head. The portal opened and Thomas took her arm. She twisted out of his grip. Cursed woman. Fine. Let her fall on the wet cement and broken glass.
Three men came through the portal to assist with the wolf. Once they were cleared away Thomas and his bride moved to follow. When he was certain she wasn’t watching, he placed his fingers in his mouth. The exquisite nectar of her blood coated his tongue, entered his system, throbbed through his veins. It fed the blood magic that sustained all of his kind. It thrummed within him, making him stronger. One drop of her blood was like a liter of anyone else’s. He closed his eyes to savor the sensation.
“Gods, Thomas, get a move on,” his mate yelled and grabbed the front of his shirt to haul him through the portal.
Juliana sat on one of the beds in the infirmary, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees. Her head hurt so bad it made her teeth ache. One of the medics kept running disinfectant over the wounds on her back. If there were any germs left in there, they’d earned the right to stay at this point. Thomas, Jeremiah and Ben carried on a conversation of which she was not a part because she couldn’t hear a cursed thing they said. It was getting old and she was getting paranoid.
Doc was giving Nathaniel a complete workup on the other side of the room. He hadn’t woken up yet. She let the scrubs top she’d been holding up for the medic fall and hopped off the table. He must have protested because the men turned to frown at her. She grabbed Thomas’s arm and dragged him into a small room off to the side, slamming the door behind them.
She let go of his arm and moved farther into the room to put some space between them. “I can’t stand not being able to hear. It’s driving me nuts. I’m not yelling am I?”
He shook his head and stepped toward her.
“How long till I can hear?” she asked.
He held up two fingers, then three.
“Two or three hours?” That wasn’t so bad. She could handle a few hours. Maybe.
Thomas put a finger under her chin and lifted it so she focused on him. He shook his head.
It took her a moment to get what he was telling her. She gaped at him. “Two or three days?”
He put a finger to his lips and glanced at the door. She knew she’d been yelling. She thought she was entitled. There was no way she could go that long without her ears working. A high-level demon still lurked out there somewhere. Not to mention Raoul. She needed everything functioning the way it was supposed to if she was going to make it through this alive. She ran a hand through her hair.
“Fix it.” It was more a question than a statement. She’d beg if she had to.
His brow furrowed and he frowned, confused.
“Give me some blood. Just enough to fix it,” she pleaded. He started to shake his head but stopped when she added, “Please?”
