His muscles shook with the aftereffects of the shift. “Regulus! Get your ass over here.”
The vampire was at their side before Peter even finished the sentence. “What is it?”
“The blood of the stone,” Sameen said as Peter helped her to her feet. “The practitioner told Cade what he needed to save Mara. Find the blood of the stone. It’s Paddy. In a way.”
Regulus wrapped an arm around each of them and they moved so quickly, Peter’s stomach lurched and Sameen buried her face against his neck.
“Never…again,” she moaned when the vampire set them down and knelt next to the dying man.
“I second that.” The idea of another man’s hands on his mate had his wolf clawing to be let loose, but this wasn’t the time. Not when Eli was in the center of an elemental storm like nothing he’d ever seen, and Livie was dodging stones and balls of flame trying to get to him.
Liam, Farren, Tierney, and Ewan bounded into the room, all in wolf form, with Caitlin just behind them. “Oh, my God.” The air elemental raced to Mara, who was curled over her daughter, blood still trickling from the wound in her back, with Cade’s wolf scanning for any incoming threat. A ball of fire hit his flank, and he yelped, but didn’t back down. Caitlin called on her air to dampen the flames, then conjured a spinning shield from her element to protect the four of them.
The wolves went after the practitioners one by one with Eli in the center of the room, the symbols inked on his skin in constant motion. His eyes were closed, his mouth open in a silent scream, and Farren’s wolf howled as she reared up on her back legs and pawed at his cheek. He didn’t respond. Didn’t even flinch.
“Eli is going to die if we can’t get the elements to combine.” Sameen cupped Paddy’s cheek. “But Paddy…he won’t. Not if Regulus can seal the wound and get him into the center of that vortex.”
“What? Sameen, there’s no way Paddy’s going to make it.”
“I concur,” Regulus said. “He has lost too much blood. The only way he will go on is if I turn him, and,” the vampire leaned close to the old man and sniffed, “he is not human. I do not think turning him is an option.”
“Trust me, please. Seal the wound and get him close to Eli. He’ll do the rest.” Sameen turned to Peter and held his gaze. “I know who I am now, Peter. Iamthe conduit. Or…I was. I failed the Thirteen every time because they could never get Earth to be stable inside me. But the baby…she held all four elements. And now…they’re free with nowhere to go. Paddy doesn’t have the blood of the stone. Heisthe bloodstone. It’s the stone of balance. He can channel the elements in to Eli. Safely.”
Caitlin shouted, “‘The one ya’ seek hides in plain sight.’ He wasn’t afraid to die tonight. Because he knew he wouldn’t. Get him over there!”
Regulus bared his fangs and pierced his index finger as Peter slid the athame from Paddy’s gut. The vampire dragged his bloody finger along the wound, and it sealed in seconds. “If this is my end, ancient one, I will be very pissed off.”
Paddy blinked up at the vampire and smiled, his lips bloody and his skin deathly pale. “Trust your elder, vampire.”
Elder?
Peter gaped as Regulus hauled Paddy to his feet and took off, the two of them nothing but a blur.
“How…?” Peter asked. He kept Sameen tucked against him and tried to stay low as they dashed for Cade, Mara, Caitlin, and the baby.
“She burst into flames,” Mara sobbed, rocking her daughter gently as the infant wailed in her arms. The fine hair matted to her head glowed and occasionally set off an errant spark, and Sameen reached out and let the baby take hold of her finger.
Almost immediately, the little girl stopped fussing, and her skin went from bright red to a healthy, newborn pink. Sameen’s eyelids fluttered, flames glowing in the depths of her irises for a brief moment until she blinked and Peter found only the pale brown orbs he’d come to love.
“What…?” Mara asked, choking back a sob and staring down at her daughter’s peaceful face.
Before Sameen could answer, Eli screamed, and they all turned to the center of the room. The symbols for the elements on his chest glowed pure white, and Paddy stood facing him, a great ball of energy growing ever larger between them.
Regulus held Farren’s wolf back, and she snapped and strained against him, trying to get to her mate, while Livie, Ewan, Tierney, and Liam stood over the bodies of the last of the practitioners. All of them dead save one.
“Celia,” Sameen whispered. “No!”
Chapter Nineteen
Sameen
How could Celia still be alive?
Paddy and Eli were locked together now, each man’s hands clasped around the other’s forearms. Farren howled and whined, desperate to get to her mate, and the rest of the wolves watched with a mixture of awe and horror at the scene in front of them.
Sameen and Peter were the only ones who seemed to notice Celia was moving. Not quickly. Not without immense pain if her expression were anything to go by. But the witch was most definitely alive.
“If she escapes,” Sameen whispered to Peter, “I’ll never be free.”
