Slowly, the fight wore on, and we backed him toward one of the storage rooms.
Seeing our plan at the last second, he decided to bolt toward the stairs, risking giving us his back as he ran hell-for-leather.
But four legs were faster than two, and I leapt as he reached the first step of the stairs, my much-larger wolf body taking him down with brutal efficiency.
Galyna ran to my side, but it was too late. My jaws had clamped around the back of his neck, and with a great, wrenching twist, I tore the assassin’s head from his body.
Crimson blood coated the floor, the walls, even my fur. But the second it was done, I dropped the head and ran back to Elodie’s side.
To my surprise, Fiona and Olivia were already there, kneeling beside her.
Fiona had shifted, the first time I’d seen her fully take her djinn form, and it was startling, my wolf wary. But not wary enough to keep us from shoving in and lying down beside Elodie.
Touch was comfort to wolves. And while there were a great many things I could fix, I had no medical training. Few of us besides our pack healers did, because a simple shift in either direction could fix most flesh wounds.
She smelled wrong. There was a taint to her sugary perfume, the normally decadent vanilla and hazelnut candy was sour, rancid, as if whatever they’d done to her was rotting her from the inside.
No, not just the inside. My wolf whined, nosing a festering cut on her arm.Poison in her bloodstream.
Panic filled my wolf. We couldn’t lose her, not before she was even ours.
But Olivia lifted her arm, closing her eyes as she pushed prickly green magic from her fingertips all around the wound. Her skin blanched at the effort, but Fiona was there to hold her up.
Olivia’s eyes fluttered open, voice strained as she spoke. “It’s a strong poison. Something based in manchineel, altered with magic. We need arrowroot, as much as you can get here quickly. I’m keeping the poison contained so it can’t stop her heart, but I can’t hold this level of power forever.”
I shot to my feet and ran, taking the stairs in great bounding wolf strides, not even glancing at Galyna or the headless body she’d pulled aside to search.
The healer’s cottage wasn’t far, but there could still be other attackers roaming the town. I didn’t give a fuck.
If Elodie’s life depended on getting the arrowroot, she would have it. Anyone who tried to stop my wolf would be shredded limb from limb.
I didn’t shift back when I reached the door, because someone inside swung it open.
Reka, our elderly Hungarian pack healer, waited just inside the door, expression hooded as she scanned the street to see if I’d been followed.
With shaking hands, she threw the door shut and bolted it behind me as I abruptly took skin again.
Eyes averted from my nudity, Reka turned toward her workbench with a stiff spine. She knew well that only dire need would have me abandon lockdown protocol. “What do you need?”
“Arrowroot. As much as you have.”
Age-worn hands worked efficiently as she put two unlabeled tubs of whitish powder into a plain sack and shoved it into my hands. “Go with the Goddess.”
“Thank you.” I managed the slightly garbled words as I shifted back, scooping up the sack between my teeth and putting my four legs to good use.
I was gone less than five minutes start to finish, but the situation had deteriorated in just that short amount of time, andmy heart stuttered at how pale Elodie was. She nearly matched the marble in the glow from the open panic room, and for one split second, I thought I was too late, the rise and fall of her chest was so shallow.
Fiona snatched the bag from my teeth, yanked the top off the first tub of arrowroot, and held it up for Olivia to use.
But she shook her head weakly, keeping her hands locked around the cut on Elodie’s forearm. “Scoop up as much as you can and pack it all around the wound. Whatever’s left, we need to mix it in water and dribble it into her mouth. We can’t risk choking her, but the faster we get it into her body, the better.”
I shifted back, my wolf reluctant to relinquish control while our mate still wasn’t safe, but I bolted into the panic room, filled up a water cup, and jogged back with a straw clutched in my other fist. Fiona made quick work of packing arrowroot powder into the jagged wound in her forearm and dumped a sizable amount of arrowroot into the water. I stirred it around quickly, then shoved it into her hands as I lifted Elodie from the floor enough to get the liquid down her throat.
She was so cold in my arms. So lifeless. Panic was a dagger to my throat, my breath coming in shallow pants as I willed her to hang on, to open her eyes, to stay with me.
For what felt like an eternity but was probably mere minutes, the three of us worked on her nonstop. Olivia shook with the effort of the magic she held, eyes shut and teeth gritted as she poured every ounce of power into her friend, while I held Elodie up so Fiona could spoon-feed the milky arrowroot mixture into her mouth.
Bootsteps on the stairs told me people were coming, startling me out of my concentration, but my wolf was calm—the pack bond in my chest tugging toward the newcomers.
