“Shhh. I’m not going to hurt you,” I told him, taking off my shirt so that I was in my bra and jeans, and wrapping it around him to staunch his wounds. His growl turned into a whimper and my throat tightened withemotion.
The man in the canary suit was dead, his clothing now a rich red. I hoped this meant there would never again be another fighting operation like this one, but I knew people like Canary existed everywhere. All I could do was my one smallpart.
“SLOANE!” Logan growled from the doorway and I lifted the dog quickly, trusting he was too injured to attack me. A low growl rumbled in his throat but died out quickly, his head lying limp against my arm. I gingerly took steps around the bodies that were now gaining strength, trying to ignore the pain in my knees, my blurry vision, and what it all mightmean.
My muscles protested as I walked up the stairs and into the hall, where I saw that the guard had been removed and the door was wide open, Gear standing in front of it with Keegan’s shotgun in hishands.
“Hurry!” Gear shouted, and took a look over hisshoulder.
We all piled into the alley; at the end I could see the bright yellow bus waiting, back door wide open. Nadine was standing in the back, urging us forward. A car alarm was going off nearby and it didn’t take my sensitive dragon nose to detect smoke. As we reached the back of the bus, Nadine pulled us up one by one—pausing for a moment, looking at me with confusion, when she saw the bloody half head of a dog in myarms.
“Mittens isn’t gonna like this,” she said, and hauled us both up. I hadn’t even thought that far. I just knew I couldn’t leave him there to die. As I stepped up into the bus and looked out onto the road I saw a car was up in flames; faint sirens were growing louder in the distance. It all made sense now. Nadine had been tasked with the distraction. The car looked nice, a bright canary-yellow BMW, turning black with the extreme heat of the flames. It was that bastard’s car. I don’t know how she knew, but Nadine had blown up the asshole’s car who’d hurtDom.
Speaking of Dom, he was dripping blood everywhere, panting on the back seat, looking up atLogan.
“Danny! He got hit with a spell when he was fighting the sorcerer. He’s not healing,” Loganshouted.
The second the door closed with all of us inside, Roxy peeled out, turning the corner and causing the bus to rise up on two wheels. Isaac was sitting quietly, holding his staff, breathing in and out slowly as if in a meditative trance. Keegan was looking for clothes forDominic.
“Danny!” Logan shoutedagain.
Danny looked green, sickly. The sorcerer took a deep breath and nodded to Logan: “My powers have been bound. I can fix it, but … need time.” He was out of breath and collapsed back into thechair.
“We don’t have time! He’s bleeding out!” Logan screamed, pressing a cloth onto Dominic’swounds.
“Don’t say that!” Logan suddenly screamed at Dom. They must have been mentally communicating. I left the dog on the bench and stood, fighting a wave of nausea. I was still out of sorts from throwing so much purplemagic.
“Can we go to a hospital?” I suggested, walking up to stand beside Logan. Keegan was pacing the aisle, looking frantically from Danny toLogan.
Logan shook his head. “They won’t give two shits about a dying lion. Even a vet couldn’t handle this. It’s a magical injury, and he can’t shift to human—he’s too severelywounded.”
Finally, Isaac opened his eyes. “Pull over,” he said, with a deadlycalm.
We all stared at him. We were passing a wild patch of land, thick with forest. There would be no help for Dom here. Roxy keptgoing.
“Pull OVER!” he shouted, slamming his staff down on the floor of the bus with a thunderous crack. Roxy slammed on the brakes, careening the vehicle to the dirt pullout. Once the bus reached a full stop, Isaac stood, no longer looking weary from being tossed into a wall by that femaledruid.
The druid pointed to Logan. “Get him outside.” Then pointed to me. “Shoes off. This is your firstlesson.”
I didn’t argue. I leaned forward, tearing off my shoes and socks. I would do anything to help heal Dom, and I was assuming the druid had a plan to heal the lion shifter. As I ran to the front of the bus, following the crimson trail of Dom’s blood, I saw that Nadine had hopped over the seats and was tending to the injured pit-bull. Her medic case lay wideopen.
Thank you.I sent a silent prayer that the dog would make it. I didn’t know why I’d felt so deeply for the poor creature. He shouldn’t have to die like this. The second I hopped down onto the hard soil, the ache in my skull eased; the final bits of blurriness to my vision fled. I didn’t want to admit it, even to myself, but it seemed the Earth did have a healing effect onme.
Isaac walked to the edge of the trees and held both palms out. Keegan had exited the bus and was standing beside Logan, who somehow was carrying the heavy, limp lion shifter. Keegan stared at the druid’sback.
“Come on, druid,” Keegan roared—I could hear his wolf close to the surface. “You gotta tell us what your plan is. He’s bleedingout!”
Isaac looked over his shoulder at Keegan. “Nwyfre,” he stated. The foreign word stirred something within me; a wind picked up and tickled at the edges of myskin.
“What?” Keegan growled. He looked ready to pummel the gooddruid.
“Life force, Chi, prana. Nwyfre,” Isaac stated, as if that explainedeverything.
Isaac then turned to face us fully, holding open his arms and motioning for Logan to deposit Dom into them, but not before tossing Keegan his staff. The alpha caught it with ease, and other than a short pulse of orange, it did nothing in his hand.Luckybastard.
Dominic had lost consciousness, his head lolled to the side, tongue hanging out. Logan shared a look with Keegan and Keegan nodded. The moment the weight of Dom’s unconscious lion body fell into Isaac’s arms, he grimaced and his face darkened. “He needs a mountain hemlock.Now.” And with that, he was off, running through the dark forest with only the light of the moon and the headlights from the bus to direct his path. How he ran with the weight of an unconscious lion in his arms, I’ll never know. I took off after him, my bare feet padding on the soft mossy forest floor. What in the hell was this crazy druid upto?
Logan and Keegan were right behind me. I ran barefoot through the green overgrowth, zigzagging in and out of the thick trees until suddenly Isaac stopped before a large … Christmas tree. That’s what it looked like to me, bushy and with the typical pineneedles.
