Then he went stiff as a board.
“You smell it?” he hissed.
“Blood.” Ko nodded, throat clicking. “And infection.”
“Bio bomb?” I grunted, and they shrugged in unison.
Ko headed for the cluster of luggage, his long strides eating up the distance before he came to a dead stop, his eyes locked on something at his feet.
And then I saw her. A girl, half-hidden among the baggage, her body limp and still. Her long golden curls splayed in a lumpy fan above her head, half-covering a brown duffle bag that looked stuffed enough to burst at the seams.
My heart gave a strange, jarring thud. She looked fragile. Delicate. Like something that might shatter if you breathed too hard. Her injuries were obvious: Bruise at her temple, split bottom lip, one ankle red and swollen, and a nasty welt on her jaw.
And shoe prints, fuckingshoe prints, were all over her.
“Cruor,” I muttered under my breath. “What happened to her?”
Cas was beside her in a heartbeat, crouching down with a speed that would’ve been impressive if I weren’t too busy trying to process what I was seeing. Koa knelt, too, his movements slower, almost hesitant. I stayed standing, knowing one of us should be ready to move in a hurry.
Or shoot the hell out of something.
“Hypoventilation. She’s breathing too slow and shallow,” Cas said in his doctor voice, flat and dead calm. “Heart rate fifty-eight bpm. Not good.”
“And these marks on her.” Ko swallowed hard. “They’re fresh. Whatever happened, it was recent.Veryrecent.”
“Which injury is infected?” I craned my head to look for myself. “Can you see?”
“No,” Ko grumbled. “Need to get her inside and take a look.”
“How infected do you think we’re talking? Like,septic? Because I ain’t looking to puke right now—”
“Four days ago I watched you eat gas station sushi off of a garage floor,” Cas scoffed. “You can handle it.”
I shuffled closer, my boots crunching in the gravel, and something stirred under the girl’s mass of hair. In a flash, I had my guns in my hands, thumbing off the safeties, and Ko pulled his favorite dagger from his ankle holster. Cas held up his fist, a signal for us to hold positions. As we did, a fuzzy charcoal-gray head poked its way out of the girl’s curls.
“That’sthe dire?” I murmured. “Apup?”
Cas swept the girl’s hair aside. The wolf had stuffed itself inside the duffle bag, curled up in a ball with only its head sticking out. It looked up at me with eyes that were an unsettling shade of blue, and a low growl rumbled in its throat. Weak, but unmistakably protective.
“This just keeps getting better,” I said, trying to keep my tone light despite the knot forming in my gut. “Why isthathere?”
“Why isn’t it foaming at the mouth and attacking?” Cas muttered.
The pup’s gaze never wavered, its hackles slightly raised.
“Never mind that! Who woulddarehurt our bride like this?” Ko growled.
“We don’t know if that’s who she is,” Cas pointed out.
“Who else could she be with all this luggage?”
“I don’t know. A new live-in maid? We have no idea who she is, where she came from. What if this is all a set-up? What if—”
“Whoever she is, she needs help. We’ll figure out the rest later. I’ll carry her.” Ko was already reaching for the girl, but stopped when the dire pup growled at him. “Someone get the wolf.”
“Z, grab the animal,” Cas said.
“Why me?” I glared at him. He had a knack for barking orders without so much as aplease, and I had a knack for not taking it lying down. “I’m not exactly the wolf-whispering type. Why can’t Mount Koa do it? Mr. Muscles is practically begging to scoop up the injured princessandher fuzzy sidekick.”
