“No!” Laina yelled. It came out as a growl. Her wolf form battled her human one for control. Flashes of lucid thought drove her forward, but her breaking bones betrayed her. The pain was excruciating. She yelled for Gerty, but the fairy had problems of her own.
Gerty and Nickelova were battling to the death, resorting to physical blows as fatigue set in and their magic grew weak. A shower of sparks flew from the rolling mass of shredded sequins, fists, and teeth. The spell carved a path above Laina’s head toward Hunt Club. She couldn’t tell if the source was Gerty or Nickie, but she heard glass shatter in the distance.
As Alex raised his open jaws above Kyle’s head, Laina cried out. Her wolf’s paw shot forward, dragging her toward him as patches of human skin erupted like boils through her fur. Although the process of shifting was inhibiting her, she dreaded its completion and actively worked to hold her animal form. She needed the wolf. She needed to be strong to save Kyle.
Suddenly, a blur of tawny brown rushed past her. Milo! One hundred sixty pounds of mastiff plowed the red wolf off his owner and straddled Kyle’s bloody body. In her half-shifted state, she could see the purple aura surrounding the dog, the same aura she’d seen over Kyle’s residence. Milo was enchanted!
Alex swiped a paw toward the mastiff, only to have his massive claws bounce off Milo’s protective barrier. Alex growled in frustration. This was Laina’s chance! On half-shifted limbs and breaking bones, she army-crawled toward him, each inch more excruciating than the last. Closer. Closer. Alex spasmed in the bloody grass. She raised her head and, with a growl, sank her teeth into Alex’s belly, a belly quickly shifting from wolf to human. Her wolf teeth tore through liver and spleen, human blood flowing over her tongue.
His human eyes met hers, even as his blood dripped from her now-human lips. It was a fatal bite, and he knew it as well as she did. His dark eyes flashed. He coughed, and a drop of blood stained his bottom lip.
An unseen force tossed her aside. Nickelova stood over Alex, dress torn. She peered at Laina, one of her eyes swollen shut. Deep scratches marred the flesh around her neck, and Laina flashed on hazy memories of Nate and Gerty trying to rip the dragon fae amulet off her.
Laina tipped onto her side, her fingers elongating in the bright glow of the rising sun. She had nothing left. If Nickelova attacked, she’d be dead.
But the dragon fae had problems of her own. Her knees wobbled as she scooped Alex’s shivering body into her arms. She stared down at Laina and bared her teeth. The shear hate in the other woman’s eyes goose-pimpled her flesh. “This isn’t over,” she said through her teeth. The amulet pulsed, and she was gone.
Laina spat the taste of Alex’s blood from her mouth. “Kyle? Kyle!” Milo stepped aside as Laina crawled toward him. She patted the mastiff’s neck. “Good boy, Milo. You did a good job.”
Kyle was completely shifted back to human now, and he wasn’t moving. Swallowing her fear, she knelt beside him and felt for a pulse. There was so much blood, so many wounds.
“We have to get him help.” Gerty limped toward her. The old woman was missing one shoe, her gray hair completely loose from her chignon, and several large rips decorated the leg of her pantsuit.
“Are you well enough to gather the wounded together? I can only transport us if we are all touching.”
“Transport us? How will you transport us?”
“Fairy magic, dear.”
“You can do that?” She didn’t know much about fairies and was still getting used to the idea of Gerty being one. Her wolf memories flashed back to her.
“Laina,” Silas called. He was crouched naked by Jason, one arm hanging at an odd angle at his side. Even from a distance, Laina could see bone protruding above Silas’s elbow, and in front of him, Jason wasn’t moving at all. Scooping Kyle into her arms, she stood, her thighs straining with the effort of carrying him to Jason’s side.
“One more, Laina,” Gerty said, pointing to a dark mass across the clearing.
“Who is that?”
“Nate.”
Laina shook her head. “He did this to us. He was working with Alex.”
“He saved your furry neck! Tried to tear the amulet right off Nickelova and, if I might add, delivered a few impressive blows before she knocked him out. I’ve never seen a man take so much magical abuse and continue breathing.”
“But I thought—”
“Alex may have bamboozled him into being his tool, but Nate did the right thing in the end. He needs help. I can get us to Bojingles Fae Hospital, but I have very little energy left. I can’t do it twice.”
Laina hobbled over to Nate, desperately wanting to ask where Bojingles Fae Hospital was. She’d never heard of it. There was no way she was going to be able to lift Nate—the man weighed 300 pounds if he weighed an ounce—so she hooked her hands beneath his rounded shoulders and dragged him to the others. If the process hurt him in any way, it was not enough to rouse him. Laina knew he was alive only because his chest rose and fell at regular intervals.
“Very good.” Gerty pressed a hand to her belly as if holding herself together. “Now link arms and pray this old tree has another ring in her trunk.”
With a wave of her silver wand, Gerty gave Laina her first taste of fairy magic.
ChapterThirty-Four
Perched on the edge of the chair beside Kyle’s hospital bed, Laina focused on the weave of the white blanket that covered him. The craftsmanship was exquisite, as if woven from spider’s silk by the spider herself. Then again, maybe it was. One of many marvels of the Bojingles Fae Hospital.
The doctor, a blue man not more than two feet tall, had told her that if Kyle’s supernatural side hadn’t activated, he’d likely be dead. But because he had shifted, they could treat him with fire lily juice, a therapy that might kill a human. He’d heal quickly, although not as quickly as a full-blooded werewolf. Jason, whose injuries were almost as serious as Kyle’s, had already woken up.
