His heart in his throat, Lore retracted his wings and moved deeper into the ruined temple?—
And he stumbled to a halt. Pain and anger broke free at the sight before him.
Nia hung from a branch, one wrist tied to a bough, her head drooped to the side. Blood soaked the side of her pink sweater. An angel lay sprawled a short distance from her, wings spread. Snakes were everywhere, sliding over his prone form. He wouldn’t die from a snake bite. But she would.
Lore flashed to her. The snakes hissed and scattered away, driven off by his power. He slipped his arm around her. She appeared pale in the wan sunlight flickering between the treetops.
“What do you want done with him?” Race called out.
“Keep him there. I’ll get to him.” He shoved his wrath deep into his gut and mentally snapped the vine. She fell into his arms. Tears stained her cheeks, causing tracks to form on her dirt-smeared face. Beneath all the dirt, a palm print marked her cheek.
His jaw clenched as rage seethed to break free.
Her heartbeat remained far too sluggish.
No, no, Nia, stay with me!
Gently, he laid her on the cleared ground, summoned a dagger, slashed his wrist, and did something that would definitely get him de-winged and thrown out of the Celestial Realm.
He no longer gave a shit.
Blood oozed. With a thought, he kept the wound open, letting his shimmering, silvery-red plasma seep into her mouth. Her eyes remained shut, her throat still.
“Come on,habun, drink,” he whispered, gently stroking her throat.
Race hunkered opposite him. “That’s some power she’s got there, keeping the snakes away.”
“Onlyaftershe was bitten,” Lore muttered as he fed her more of his blood and gently massaged her throat again. His gaze lowered to the bloodied slash on her sweater.
Twice now, she’d been hurt, and all because he’d failed to protect her?—
The pulse in her throat grew stronger. She coughed, swallowing more of his blood, lips smeared red. Her eyes flickered open, revealing dull amber irises… They met his.
“Lore?” She blinked, then tears flooded her eyes. “He…he left me here to die.”
“I am so sorry,habibti.” His own eyes burned, and he had to force out the words. “I’m here now. How do you feel?”
“I don’t know… Lethargic.”
“Venom would do that.” He put his wrist back on her mouth, but she shook her head and pushed his arm away, revealing the bloody wound on her wrist from the vine. “You have to take more. It will neutralize the poison.”
“Yes, do, Nia,” Race said. “I still have awoodendagger we need to work with.”
Lore frowned.
She blinked at Race, then her gaze came back to his, and a flicker of hurt shimmered before her eyelids lowered. Her lips fastened on his wrist, and she sucked his flowing blood again.
Lore wanted to draw and quarter Jehoel.
As her pallid hue faded, leaving only her luscious honey skin, Lore scanned her again. The dark venom scuttling through her blood had been defused. He lifted her sweater and t-shirt and laid his palm on the dagger wound on her ribs. While his blood would heal that injury, too, it wasn’t fast enough for him. A silvery light swept over it, leaving behind only smooth skin.
“How did this happen?” He gently stroked her healed flesh.
“He made me stab myself because I kicked him.” She sat up, dislodging his hand, and pulled down her bloodied shirt, her attention on the snakes slithering and hissing around them at a distance, kept away by his protective powers. She hastily drew her knees up to her chest; then her wet eyes met his. “He said I wasn’t supposed to live this long, and he would do what you were meant to. Is…is it true?”
While they needed to have that conversation, this wasn’t the place for it. “Let’s get you out of here first.”
Her mouth compressed, her pain from betrayal strangling him like a noose.
