Mack pressed his lips together. He wasn’t going to say anything. He had to have faith in Jude’s abilities or he had to kill another aufhocker, and the babies. He couldn’t do it. They might be demon dogs, but they were still animals.
He stalked over to the car and hesitated for a moment before he lifted Mom off his hood. She was heavier than she should be for her size and she smelled far worse than any dog he’d ever met. Her body was limp in his arms, but her head was far too close to his neck and face, so he moved as fast as possible and placed her within the metal stars, then backed away.
“Call the cubs over, maybe we can trap them all,” Jude said, his voice carrying in the quiet night.
“What? Come here, Evil and Darkness. Who’s a cute little aufhocker?” Mack clicked his fingers.
Jude laughed. The cubs ignored Mack and tugged on the bloodied led of Jude’s jeans. They were not leaving a wounded dinner to play with the man who smelled like bear. Jude stumbled but steadied himself before Mack got there.
“Why don’t you do the star thing now?”
“Because it will use too much energy. Even the pepper will use energy, but less. External magic has a bigger cost than simple protection.”
“So you need to be awake to make it work.”
“Yeah.”
Mack glanced at his hands and then the sleeping aufhocker. He could kill Mom now.
Jude put his hand over Mack’s. “Don’t even think about it. I dragged you into this. I can’t ask you to kill again.”
“It would be safer.” Did the shadow just move? It definitely moved. “Get that circle up.”
The tranquilizer had barely lasted fifteen minutes.
Jude bent and put his hand on the line of pepper. A faint crackle raced around the edge and something dark shimmered up. The hairs on Mack’s arms lifted. The scent of that magic was like dirt that hadn’t seen daylight in centuries.
“Oof.” Jude was knocked off his feet by a cub. He tried to fend them off as they went for his throat.
Mack plucked one up. It had no scruff on the back of its neck, just thick hide. “Stop it.” Then he had an idea. Jude had packed food because Mack needed energy to shift. There was a pile of ham and cheese sandwiches and a flask of coffee and Mack’s camping water container. “If you behave, I’ll give you some ham.”
Jude got hold of the other pup. It snapped and wriggled as though it still thought it could take on Jude.
Mack held out his other hand and helped Jude up.
“I think I should seal us all in so the cubs don’t wander off.” The salt line was a yard from the tray. He handed Mack the other cub which was a snappy sack full of hate.
Mack nodded, but he could feel the tiredness creeping around the edges. Jude was injured and pouring his own energy into the magic. There was nothing Mack could do to help.
Jude touched the salt line, and the circle came into being.
Mack released the hell puppies and helped Jude onto the bed of the truck. He took off Jude’s boot. It was no longer shiny-new but scuffed and battered and bitten. He tried to push up the leg of Jude’s jeans, but it was too tight. The partial shift of his nails to claws was more useful than he’d ever thought, and he tore the fabric to inspect the wound. Jude groaned.
“You okay?”
Jude looked worse than he had a few minutes ago, but he forced a smile. “They were my favorite jeans.”
Mack shook his head. As much as he liked them on Jude and the way they cupped his ass, this was not the time to be wearing favorite clothes. “Buy a new pair.”
The wounds were deep and still bleeding, but they didn’t seem too bad. Though what the risk of infection was, Mack had no idea. His ability to shift meant that infection wasn’t usually an issue. It took a lot to make a shifter sick. For all that Jude had magic, he was still human. More so than Mack. “I’m going round the front to grab my shirt. I’ll use it to wrap that up.” It was all he could do for the moment. “Do you need to do anything to the circles?”
“No, as long as I don’t pass out, it’ll be fine.”
“Good to know.” He took two steps. “But at my house you slept, and it didn’t fall.”
“That’s different.” Jude drew his leg up to get a better look.
The cubs had crept closer, as though this was their first time out of the mine and they didn’t want to be alone. Had they also slept for two hundred years? He picked up his shirt and risked a glance at Mom. She’d pulled herself to her feet and was still wobbly. Mack wasn’t sure how much faith he had in Jude’s magic when she glared at him. He went back to Jude. Blood dripped from Jude’s leg, and the cubs jostled for a place beneath.
Mack’s stomach turned. He used his foot to nudge them aside, and they snarled and attacked his foot in return. “Little shit. Where are those sandwiches?”
“Cooler.” Jude pointed to the cab.
Mack picked up the whole thing, then slammed it down on the bed.
The cubs licked the dripping blood. It was gross, even though he knew that was what they ate. Hopefully they liked ham sandwiches. Jude took the sandwich off him and held it so the blood dripped on it. “Might as well make it appear like dinner.”
“You were almost their dinner.” Mack took back the sandwich, now stained red, tore it in two, and tossed it away for the cubs to chase. Which they did.
Now he could concentrate on Jude.
“This’ll sting.” Before Jude could agree, he doused Jude’s leg in water, which drew a hiss of pain. Then he tore up his
