“Riley?” He knelt by her side and listened for a heartbeat. So sluggish, and then it stopped. “Riley,” he roared.
Khent joined him carrying Paz. “Take him home,” the reaper murmured to a large hawk with blank eyes. The hawk cried out and gently grabbed the body before flying away.
Rolf dug out his cell phone and dialed Mormo, and soon help was on the way as Mormo arrived with Onvyr, Fara, and Kaia through a temporal gate.
Mormo took in the scene and started giving orders. Onvyr helped carry several bodies into the portal to go home, for further study. Fara and Kaia assisted with spells and with getting Max back on his feet.
But Kraft didn’t care about anyone but Riley.
“Give her to me,” Khent said.
Kraft instinctively growled and snarled at Khent.
“Brother, give her to me. And I will help her,” Khent said again, his voice quiet. “You, who are my kin, have my pledge to do her no harm.”
Kraft heard the truth and accepted it, willing to do anything to help his mate. He pulled back and held Riley for Khent to pick up and move.
He followed closely behind and watched as Khent cleared a space free of blood and bodies. “Come here.”
Kraft obeyed, standing over a long table in a market stall not destroyed by the battle. Khent laid Riley on the table and grabbed Kraft’s wrist. He swiftly cut the vein and bled Kraft into Riley’s mouth.
“Feed her while I take the vile poison from her body.”
“Poison?” What the hell had happened before he’d arrived?
“It’s what killed the beast, I assume. It’s a nasty toxin, made from the death of her kind. Especially horrible for a lycan.” Then Khent quieted and chanted in a low voice. “Tear off her shirt.”
Kraft did so awkwardly with one hand, the other still dripping bloode down his mate’s throat.
Khent used Kraft’s bloode mixed with some of Riley’s to paint symbols over her forehead, heart, and stomach. Then he shoved his handthroughher.
“Khent.” Kraft swore, shocked when Khent’s hand turned transparent while he massaged the heart inside her body.
Not sure what the hell he was watching, he said nothing as the others surrounded them, lending quiet support.
“Come on, Riley,” he heard her cousin say, his voice weak. “Stop being such a bitch and wake up.”
The tentative touch of her tongue to his wrist gave him hope.
Mormo added his voice to Khent’s, surprising the reaper by the look in his eyes. But Mormo nodded, and they continued to chant.
Riley’s tongue stroked his wrist again. He heard her swallow, felt her mouth close tighter over his wound.
“Thank the Night.” Mormo sighed. “I can’t tell you how annoyed my mistress might have been if we’d lost Riley.”
“And the rest of us, I assume,” Rolf said wryly. Then he sighed. “Paz didn’t make it.”
The others quieted, in respect for the dead.
Kaia sniffled and wiped her cheeks. “Orion’s going to be so upset.”
“Poor demon,” Onvyr murmured.
Kraft hated to think it, but he felt just as sad to lose a companion he hadn’t even been sure he liked all that much. As a demon, Paz hadn’t been terrible. As kin, he’d been exceptional. A true...friend.
Mormo accepted the artifact Khent handed him. Riley stopped swallowing his blood, so he pulled his wrist away and licked it to seal the damage. Kraft looked around and saw so many bodies. So much destruction.
“Yeah, it’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Rolf sighed.
