He sprints toward me, and I aim the dart gun, letting that shit off before he can get more than a few steps. It pierces his shoulder, but unlike the movies, I know it won’t take effect immediately.
I’m going to have to fight this crazy bastard.
Bane slams into me, and I hit the ground with a grunt, and stars spark in my vision. I recover quickly enough to throw up my arms and avoid the slam of his fists. When I get my opening,I toss his ass off me and regain my feet before shoving my boot into his ribs.
Unfortunately, pain and Bane aren’t acquaintances.
It does nothing but piss him off.
He lunges for me with a roar that sends a fucking chill down my spine and my head snaps to the left and blood spews out of my mouth. I follow up with a blow of my own that bounces right off him.
How do you beat someone who is impervious to pain?
The answer is: you can’t.
I’m just buying time and staying alive until the effects of the tranq can kick in.
I won’t lie. The fighter in me loves it. Bane is the perfect opponent, and if he weren’t always trying to kill me, I’d make him my sparring partner.
Pain explodes through my shoulder a moment later, when Bane drives me into a tree and dislocates it with a vicious punch that knocks the wind out of me. It’s enough of an opening for Bane to take the knife he left behind and press the blade to my throat. I feel it nick my skin, and then he leans close and growls, “She’s mine.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Aurelia pop free of the bushes. She’s got leaves and branches stuck in her disheveled hair and a look in her eyes that would give the devil nightmares. I see too late that she’s clutching a large branch in her hand as she storms toward us with her eyes on Bane.
“Aurelia, don’t you dare,” I command with my heart sinking into my stomach. “Stay back!”
Ignoring me, she lifts the branch with a warrior’s scream and brings it down on Bane’s back. He goes down, and neither of us breathe as we wait for him to stand again.
When a full minute passes and he doesn’t, she drops the branch while I’m left gaping at them both.
“Sorry,” she says, not sounding sorry at all. “I couldn’t wait for the tranq.”
“You want to tell me what the fuck that was about? Where was he taking you?”
Aurelia tells me how she doesn’t remember anything after passing out in the river and then waking up in a cave on the leeward side of Maia. She tells me Bane’s warning about the cabin not being safe and then she drops the bomb that Seth woke up. I don’t think I hear much after that because of my relief that Zeke’s alter is okay after all. Aurelia tells me that they were heading back to the cabin but stopped for the night when Bane woke up again for no reason at all.
Apparently, he does that now.
“Shit, okay. Well, the tranq won’t last the night, and that was the only one I had. We need to get him back to the cabin before he wakes up.”
“But your shoulder…can you carry him that far like this?”
“It’s not that far, and we don’t have a choice. If it’s as you say and Bane can wake up at will, then we can’t risk it. You’ll have to pop my shoulder back into place.”
Aurelia shakes her head while backing away. “No. No way. I can’t do that. I don’t know how.”
“You have to, baby. Please. For me?”
Aurelia chews on her lip, inhales, and then nods. “Okay. Tell me what to do.”
I run it down for her and then lie on my back and force myself to relax. Aurelia gently takes my arm and extends it but pauses with worry in her eyes that she might hurt me further.
“It’s okay, Goldilocks. You can do it.”
Nodding, she moves my arm the way I showed her, and I shout a curse when I feel the joint slide back into place. When enough of the pain fades, I rotate the injured arm to test it out and then exhale my relief.
“Thanks, baby.” She looks like she wants to pass out, so I make her sit while I quickly examine her. There’s no time to be thorough. “Are you hurt?”
“No.”
