“He’s not wrong,” Blade muttered under his breath. He glanced up at Scotty and mouthed, “This is bad.”
Oh, gods.
“Can’t…can’t believe I didn’t see the trap.” Mace groaned again.
“S’okay, buddy,” Blade said, calmly and confidently, in a great imitation of the deep, reassuring paramedic voice his dad used with patients. Patients he liked, anyway. Shade was more than happy to let evil demons suffer. Scotty had always appreciated his form of vigilante justice.
Blade slid his healing hand over Mace’s ribs. “Bone crushers are almost impossible to detect.”
Scotty glanced over at Skoll. “Please, tell me Nathan gave you a map of all the ward and trap locations.”
Jon answered from where he’d remained on the trail, keeping watch as they tended to Blade. “It’s at the cabin. We’ll have to be careful until we know where they all are.”
Closing his eyes, Mace swallowed sickly. “Think…I’m gonna pass out.”
“Stick with us, man.” Jaw tight, tendons in his neck straining, Blade poured more energy into Mace’s injuries. “This’ll only hurt for a couple more minutes.”
Hurt? Scotty had been the beneficiary of Sem healing several times in her life, and it didn’thurt. It was straight-up torture. The worse the injury, the worse the pain. Her stomach churned with empathy for what Mace was going through.
“Are all Seminus demons able to heal like that?” Skoll asked.
“No.” Scotty gave the standard spiel for Blade. At this point, she knew almost as much about their species as they did. “All Sems are born male, and during their first transition, they develop one of three abilities. Blade’s ability can heal injuries, but not his own. Mace has a different ability. He can’t heal, but he can tweak bodily functions in others. Like, he can trigger the release of endorphins or slow down a heartbeat. Blade’s brother, Rade, has the rarest gift. He can get inside your head and make you see things or snip memories.”
Rade’s gift was seriously scary.
“I’ve heard about Rade,” Skoll said. “He—no. No, no, no!” He lunged to his feet. “Fight music.”
Ear-splitting screeches filled the air, and a chill shot up Scotty’s spine.
Demons.
Jon cursed and ducked, barely avoiding being brained by a hatchet. By the time the weapon hit a tree with a lethal thunk, he’d already launched in pursuit of the hatchet’s owner.
“Dammit.” Skoll took off after Jon, a machete in one hand, a throwing star in the other. So much for being careful.
“Go,” Mace breathed. “They need help. I’m better. I’m fine.”
His colorwasbetter, and most of his visible wounds had at least partially healed. But he was in no wayfine.
“I’ve done all I can,” Blade said to her. “You stay. I’ll go.”
He stood, but she grabbed his wrist before he could take off. “Be careful.”
His dark, intense eyes locked with hers, a familiar promise swirling in their depths. His response would, unfailingly, be, “Always,” a counter to Mace’s perpetual, “Never.”
Blade didn’t disappoint. “Always.” With an almost cocky wink, he took off after Jon and Skoll.
Mace wrapped his arm around his midsection, cringing as he shifted his weight. He was pale with shock and blood loss, his lips nearly white. She had never seen him this anemic.
“I don’t need a babysitter.”
“Maybe not.” Gently, she brushed a sun-kissed dark lock of hair away from a half-healed cut on his forehead. “But you do need blood.”
Most Seminus demons didn’t drink blood, but Mace’s birth father, Wraith, had passed on his vampiric needs to both Mace and Talon. Neither required blood to survive, but feeding increased their strength and helped them recover from injuries.
Mace threw his head back against the tree and closed his eyes. “I could use a hit.”
In a couple of quick motions, she rolled up her sleeve and held out her wrist. “Take it.”
