I couldn’t take any more pain, but I also couldn’t let Sawyer think I was dying.
‘Sage. Walsh. Stitches,’was all I managed as the cuffs lit up and shocked my arms, causing me to whimper again.
‘Oh thank God! They found you! Demi, that’s amazing. I’m so sorry you’re hurting, but Walsh is a trained field medic. He will take good care of you while I can’t be there.’There was relief and sadness in his voice. I knew as a pre-med student he was probably aching to do the stitches himself, but also that he just wanted to protect me.
“What the fuck was that!” Sage looked at the cuffs on my wrists with wide eyes.
I looked up at her, wondering if she really wanted to know. “Every time… I try to shift or do anything magical, including talking to Sawyer, it electrocutes me.”
Her eyes widened and she and Walsh shared a pitying look.
“Well, don’t do that anymore. He’ll be fine now that he knows you’re with us,” she assured me.
Walsh scoffed. “He won’t be fine until she’s in his arms and every last vampire in connection with her kidnapping is burned alive.”
I was about to respond when we all heard it. A twig snapped to the left and we all went stock still, not uttering a single word. The only sound that could be heard was the snapping of Walsh’s bones. He tore off his deer furs and shifted while I sat up from Sage’s lap and grabbed for my shotgun. Sage sprang into a standing position and pulled a giant katana sword from behind her. I’d never seen her actually protect anyone from harm. I mean, I knew she was studying security at Sterling Hill, but seeing her hold that katana in a crouched stance, I wondered how badass she would be in action.
Three cloaked figures stepped into the moonlight; dark hoods obscured their faces. I stood on wobbly feet and held my gun up, resting it on my good shoulder.
“We’re Paladin traders, just passing through. We don’t want trouble,” I told them as my thumb fidgeted with the hammers on the shotgun, only to find they were already cocked back from when I almost shot Sage.
One of them pulled back their hood and terror ripped through me. It was a woman. A woman with translucent pale skin and a network of… blackglowingveins. It was hard to describe what I was looking at, but it wasn’t a person. It was a creature. She had the stereotypical pointed dark fey ears and black eyes, but everything else about her screamed something else.
“The demon speaks,” she said to her friends, and my blood went cold. That’s what the Ithaki called me.
My blood, they must smell whatever I am in my blood.
Walsh’s wolf peeled his lips back and gave a low growl, while Sage stepped in front of me protectively. The fey opened her mouth to speak, but instead of words, a black blob flew from her lips and opened like a net about to catch a fish.
What the fuck?
It was headed right for Sage, sickly black and…alivelooking. As it arced through the air I could see it…moving. The rope in the netting wassquirming.
I didn’t think, I just reacted. Stepping out from behind Sage, I jumped in front of her just as the net reached me. With a smack it slammed into me and molded around my form like shrink wrap, oozing onto my skin like a glove. A sickly feeling fell over me and I panicked, pulling the trigger of the shotgun. It blew out the tip of the net, which only caused the blackness to clamp down on me harder.
A hiss shattered the night air, and I looked out through the netting that was now over my face to see I’d blown the dark fey’s left arm clean off.
Score.
“Put your arms out like a starfish!” Sage barked at me randomly, and I did as she asked, wincing as the net clamped down and tried to force my arms at my side.
Sage pulled her katana and held it low, near my feet. I was confused until she brought it between my ankles and then sliced upward, shredding the net that held my legs.
“Nooo!” the fey shrieked and my gaze flicked to see her holding her bleeding shoulder stump, the place where I’d blown her arm clean off. But that didn’t seem to be what bothered her, because her gaze was on Sage cutting the net. She cried out in pain as if Sage hurting the net hurther. The two other fey had been seemingly frozen in shock at my shotgun blast, but they now rushed forward and Walsh leapt from the shadows in wolf form, taking one of them down to the ground.
“Incoming!” I warned Sage of the fey running at us as she hacked away at the black net, trying to free my good hand, the one that held the shotgun.
She spun just in time to confront the black, hooded figure. He pulled a matte black sword, something I could barely see in the dying firelight, and they traded blows back and forth. I scrambled to free my arm and wiggle out of the squirming net, horrified to see that it left black trails of ink on my skin. That smell… was thatblood?Was this net fucking made of dark feyblood?
Bile and panic rose up inside of me as I scrambled to reach into my jean’s pocket where I’d shoved a few shotgun shells. This fucking net was clinging to me like a squid, wet and suctioning, but my bigger worry was the one-armed bitch walking over to me with murder in her eyes.
I opened the gun with shaking fingers and shoved two shells inside, snapping it shut just as she reached me.
Pulling the hammers back, I raised my arm, ready to blow her head off.
She looked at me, black blood spurting from her limbless shoulder, and grinned like a crazed maniac. Her teeth were razor sharp, and translucent. She was basically my worst nightmare. Why was she grinning at me? Maybe she wanted to die.
She took one more step and I pulled the trigger.
