My hand moved, grasping at my holster. I rolled to my knees.
“What are you doing?” Peter snapped. “We need to get out of here. Let the enforcer and the alpha take care of her.”
I didn’t bother responding.
I used him as a crutch and levered myself to my feet. My stomach was still bleeding but not as badly as before. Vampire healing to the rescue.
The reddish wolf darted in. Elinor turned, grabbing her by the neck and wrenching. I withdrew the judge and aimed. She dropped the wolf. It didn’t get back up.
Elinor turned toward me. I pulled the trigger. Once. Twice.
Double tap. Just like the Army taught me.
Blood splattered on the wall behind her. Her body slid to the ground, not much left to her head.
To the eye that could see magic, the black threads shriveled and dropped. I looked at Brax and Liam, noting with relief that theirs had detached as well.
“You’re an idiot,” Liam told me.
“You’re welcome, asshole.” My knees buckled. Liam caught me before I could fall.
“We had it under control.”
“Sure looked like it from here too.”
Pain radiated from my stomach. Maybe I had overestimated the amount of healing my wound had done.
“I can’t heal all this damage,” Liam said, his voice grim and sounding like it was coming to me from down a dark hallway. “Not when I’m this weak.”
I closed my eyes. That was too bad.
Chapter Eighteen
“Don’t you dare go to sleep.” A sharp slap stung my cheek.
I blinked open my eyes, glaring at the teenager looking down at me.
“Is there a reason you’re hitting a dying person?”
He snorted. “You’re not dying. You’re just healing. Very slowly.”
It sure felt like I was dying. If I’d been human, I would probably already be dead. I touched the wound. It was still tender and bloody but not the gaping hole of before.
I glanced up at Liam. He looked exhausted, like he’d had his insides flipped out and then reassembled on the outside.
“I couldn’t heal you all the way, but I’ve stopped the bleeding and you should be stable enough until your body can heal itself,” he said.
He glanced in the corner of the room where Brax sat beside the wolf, stroking its fur. It moved slightly, making a pained whimper.
“Sondra was hurt pretty badly. Neck injuries are difficult to heal. If she’d been any lower in the pack, she probably would have died,” he said softly.
I released a breath.
“What about Caroline?” I was almost afraid to ask.
He nodded to where Peter had gone after arguing with me. Caroline remained motionless.
She should have been waking up with the demon’s taint gone.
