“What are you doing down here?” he asked.
She gasped for air, not having time for an argument, and spotted the enormous tree shaped like a question mark. “There.”
“Be fast.” Gunn was next to her, lifting a huge branch in his hands. He swung it at the first hound, sending it reeling into another creature. He elbowed the third one in the face, but it shook its head and charged.
Cyra popped open the vial that shook in her grasp.
The sensation of blades jammed into her shoulder. She screamed. The pain was lava, owning her, dominating her, and she tumbled over. But Gunn was there, blood gushing from a wound on his neck. He slammed a rock into the hound’s head, and within a split second, he squatted and swept a leg out, tripping another beast coming for her.
Tears blurred her eyes from fear, from seeing Gunn throwing himself into danger. She tossed the holy water onto the grave. “Return everything to how it used to be.”
A hound bounded toward her, its lips peeled back, snarling. It leaped directly for her.
All thoughts fell from her mind except one:
Finish the spell!
She clapped once, loudly, the sound echoing around them.
A spark of electricity zipped through her, so powerful it blinded her temporarily and her lungs emptied. She ducked, every muscle tense, expecting the hound to maul her. Instead, she smelled the sweet smell of flowers and lifted her gaze to a lush lawn about ten feet around her. Wait! What?
Climbing upright, she found the tree near the grave bursting with green leaves and white flowers, and a faint vanilla scent caressed her nostrils. Everything beyond the circle of greenery remained dried and dead. The hellhounds circled the perimeter, howling, crashing into an invisible wall. Gunn lay unmoving several feet away on the grass.
A screeching sound had her ducking. She glanced up as a black form hurtled down from the sky, tentacles flapping outward as if it were trying to catch its balance. The demon from the house!
She recoiled and darkness swarmed her mind, her vision, her everything. But when a snap of iciness clasped her, tearing the world out from under her, she screamed.
Her eyes snapped open and she yelled, only to find herself drenched in morning sunlight in the kitchen back in the house. How much time had passed? She’d never been happier to see the light. But was this real or an illusion?
Staggering to her feet, she found no portal. And the mistletoe vines were gone. Behind her, she spied Gunn on the floor.
Stunned, she rushed to his side and rolled him onto his back. “Gunn. Speak to me.” He had a bruised eye and gashes across his face, but he was losing major blood from a bite mark on his shoulder. She ripped off her top and tied it up under his armpit and over his arm, then applied pressure to his wound. “Please, Gunn, don’t leave me. We made it.” Her words choked up. “I saved your stubborn ass.”
She touched his neck for a pulse. It was present, but so faint she might have missed it. “Please come back.” Had he lost too much blood? She patted his chest, stomach, and even his thighs, searching for other wounds. Aside from scratches, nothing else looked life threatening. Memories of their time together filled her mind, how gentle he had been, how he’d made her feel incredible. She adored everything about him and would do anything to help him overcome his past. But she couldn’t lose him.
“You sure this is the time to feel me up?” His gravelly voice was soft and filled with sarcasm.
She launched herself onto him, straddling him, her arms tight around his neck. “Don’t you ever try dying on me again.”
He pushed himself to a sitting position, groaning with obvious pain. His attention swung to the window drenched in sunshine. “About fucking time. How did we get out of Hell?”
“We didn’t belong there. I think my spell saved us.”
“Why does it feel like a truck hit me?” He rubbed his temple.
“Looks like you might need a bath in holy water and maybe stitches,” she teased. “You took on three hellhounds. That’s insane.”
He grinned, and she brushed the drop of blood rolling down his cheek from the cut beneath his eye. “Baby girl, I’d take on all of Hell for you. Now, back to this bath. Will you be joining me?”
She burst out giggling, loving that even while in pain, he flirted. “On one condition.” When she pulled away, his fingers pressed into her back, drawing her nearer, closing the distance between them.
“And what is that?” he whispered.
“No more pushing me away. I said that if we survived, I wasn’t taking ‘no’ for an answer.” She held on to him as he studied her. Was he going to give her an excuse again?
“I lived for too long with fear and telling myself I didn’t deserve a happy life. And I’m not wasting another second. It’s a deal. I want to take you out on a real date.”
Her cheeks hurt from smiling, and joy spread through her chest as she stared at the guy who’d admitted to needing her. “Exactly the words I’ve dreamed of hearing.”
His laughter warmed her from her head to her toes and everywhere in between. Somehow, through the darkest of times, she’d found a beaming light.
“Baby girl, I never intended to let you go. I claimed you the first time I laid eyes on you at Chase’s place. It just took me a while to get my act together.”
He leaned closer and kissed her with a softness she hadn’t experienced before, and right then, she’d found her match. The man who adored her for who she was, knew her faults, and still wanted her. Yep, this was the perfect ending to the scariest time of her life. Now,
