Liv’s chin rose.“I’m fine.”The words trembled, but she wasn’t lying.The display of sheer courage was just a little humbling—a civilian, facing horrors that would drive the regular nine-to-fivers into screaming until their throats gave out, and not retreating an inch.Worse, with a potential’s sensitivity, she could sense the underworld and its predators—which might be how she was still alive, but probably also soaked her with high-grade anxiety every day of her life, tension she didn’t notice because it was so incessant.“You… we need to get you to a hospital.”
Did she actually sound concerned?Erik bit back a terrible, harsh bray of almost-laughter.“Won’t do me any good, but thanks.”You’re what I need.It lingered on the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed it just like he’d taken down the pain, the desperation, and the mounting rage when Jake’s trail—and hence, hers—faded and flared maddeningly.
Ignatius couldn’t be dead, could he?Withsarnakieverywhere, the car burning, and aliraito protect, the old man might have taken one too many hits.
Mourn later.Do your job now.Erik could find Jake because he knew all his little brother’s tricks, but the shadowbeasts might not be able to.And now, with both a younger and elder Son alive and in attendance, she was safe.
Or at least, safer.
Now, suddenly, he was aware of just how hurt he was.Erik swayed, and she stepped close, grabbing his other arm.Her bare palm met filthy, blood-streaked skin, the armor patches in his sleeve torn free.“Come on.”Still pale as milk, she was also surprisingly strong, or maybe he just wanted to obey.“You need to sit down.”
The touch roared through him, aliraiwillingly putting her hands on a Son.Without the muffling of sorcery, unconsciousness, or clothing it was a raw, unfiltered jolt, and his chin tipped up as his eyes closed.
“Do we have a first aid kit?”She pushed him into the room’s single chair, which creaked alarmingly under his weight but held up.“Band-Aids?Anything?”
“I’ll be fine,” Erik mumbled, but she wasn’t listening.
“He just needs a chance to breathe.”Jake’s chin had set and his hands were tense.“Go in and get changed, ma’am.We’ll move once the sun’s up.”
It was the best course of action.Erik sagged in the chair, beginning to believe he was still alive—and that shewas, too.Jake was a bit battered, but he’d had time to bathe in that glow; she was putting out a lot of power for an untriggered potential.
The sooner she met the Flame, the better.
Still, she lingered, her hand still on him.“Wow,” she breathed, softly.
She didn’t mean it as an invitation, but his body responded anyway.Which gave Erik an entirely new set of problems.
“See?”Jake sounded almost kind, for once.“We heal fast.All he needs is time.”
Erik’s blood-crusted eyes refused to open.He wanted to surge up out of the chair, find the rest of the creatures hunting her, and murder them with all the savagery he could possibly muster.Kill, kill, and killagainuntil the world was cleansed and she was safe.
But that persistent softness against his arm was a shackle; he didn’t dare move for fear of disturbing it.She was probably seeing the bruises fading in fast-forward, rips in skin and muscle closing up from the inside out, bits of glass or tiny rocks from when thesarnakidragged him over pavement forced free.The deep ache in his chest refused to quit, though—it had been close to piercing his heart.
Very close.
“Erik?”she persisted.“It looks like it hurts.”
“Fine,” he rasped.“I’m fine.”And if you ask again, beautiful, I’m not sure what I’ll say.He could handle getting stabbed with asarnakiclaw-spear, but she was about to undo him.
The touch faded, yet the glow remained.Without the Flame she was so much more vulnerable, sleeping or waking.
The bathroom door shut with a click.The shower chugged to life a few moments later, and he hoped there was at least a fragment of decent soap in there.When he could force his eyelids up a fraction, irritated at the blood-crust, he found his little brother halfway between him and the bathroom door, shoulders tense and chin level.
“They knew our route,” Jake said, flatly, as if he expected a challenge.“Or they were watching every possible road.”
Which was a sobering realization.If Jake kept thinking like this, he’d make Elder status in no time.
“Looks that way.”Now Erik could relax a little, so he let himself sag, muscle by muscle.The chair didn’t creak again, but if it broke he might just sprawl in the pieces and try for a catnap.
The room was full of the heavy, heady fume of cleansing sorcery.Looked like Jake had been attending to theirliraipersonally.It shouldn’t have irked him; Erik should have just been happy to have found them and doubly happy she was cared for.
Jake was right.This was a lot of effort for the Mad God’s underlings to go to, even for such a high-value potential.A temple had been breached, Ignatius was missing, Control wasn’t answering, and if a Younger wasn’t suspecting his Elder—and vice versa—then neither of them were doing their job.
The walls here were paper-thin, other rooms full of activity despite the hour.Faint mortal sounds ran through the building—showers running, low voices, moving bodies, and the hum of conscious normals.Some were no doubt due at work before dawn; others were done with a long, hard, cold night.The snow was showing no sign of letting up.
“It’s not me,” Jake said, harshly.“If it was, you wouldn’t have found us.”
Which wasn’t entirely true, but there was no point in saying as much.“I know,” Erik said quietly.But you have no way of knowing it’s not me.And this close to dawn, you’d be smart to wait for dark again.If it was you, that is.
