A bullet whizzed by his head, and Ashmedai hauled him backward.
“No, no, I have to help him! Let me go! Danny!”
“Somebody fucking kill that guy!” Isaac shouted from the other side of the door.
“Valac!” Julian cried out.
Valac’s shadows flew from his body, rushing through the doorway, and screams followed. “I’ve got him.”
Ashmedai’s claws scored across Nicolas’s upper arm as he tore himself away, falling to his knees beside his little brother and rolling him over.
“Danny, Danny, let me see, okay? You’re gonna be okay. I just need to…”
Daniel’s eyes were glassy. Blood dotted his face and trickled from his mouth. One hand covered the side of his neck, and when Nicolas pried his hand away so he could see, his feeble heart tried to deny what his mind automatically knew.
The bullet had torn through the side of his neck. If he’d been half a second faster, it would have missed him entirely. Instead, it had ripped him open. Blood was already pooled around them, and Daniel’s face was gray from blood loss. It soaked into Nicolas’s jeans, smeared on his hands and arms. And it wasn’t gushing from the wound anymore.
“Is he…” Alex started.
Nicolas leaned over him. “Danny. Danny?”
Daniel’s eyes were blank, unseeing.
“No.” His eyes burned with tears. “Please, Danny, please. Please don’t go. It’s not too late. It can’t be.”
Familiar arms wrapped around him. “I am sorry, my light.”
Nicolas sagged against him, unwilling to let go of his brother. “Please, Ash, please do something.”
“My blood will not work now. I cannot heal him.”
It couldn’t be. This couldn’t be how it ended for Daniel. They were finally going to be back together as brothers now that they’d found the Alvarez kids. Nicolas was supposed to leave the guild, and they’d team up with the Sentinels to make the world a better place. It wasn’t supposed to end like this.
His throat ached as he leaned down to hide his face in Daniel’s blood-soaked chest. His ears rang, and he distantly realized he was sobbing, screaming, his hands fisted in Daniel’s shirt and his tears mixing with the blood soaking the fabric.
It wasn’t supposed to happen this way.
Chapter 24
Ashmedai
Ashmedai had never felt sohelpless in his life. Kneeling in Daniel’s blood, he did his best to cradle Nicolas while he sobbed himself sick.
Everyone stood solemnly around them. Ira looked stricken, leaning heavily on Wolf. Julian was crying silently, one hand over his mouth while his shoulders shook.
Talon was the first to find his voice. “The kids. We still need to find the kids.”
“I’ll go,” Luke said hollowly.
“Not alone,” Malachi added.
“No more dark souls,” Ashmedai told them. “The paladins are all dead.”
“Good. Come on, Mal,” Luke said, taking his hand and tugging him along.
Ashmedai ignored them as they passed, focused on the heaving shoulders of his beloved human. They’d talked about exactly this happening. It was one of Nicolas’s greatest fears. Ashmedai didn’t know how to comfort him through this kind of loss. He’d never cared about anything tothis degree, never had a family he might mourn if he lost them.
Your brother is my brother, he’d said. Daniel was meant to be his family. He was one of the few humans who didn’t treat him with fear or disgust. He’d accepted Ashmedai as Nicolas’s partner with no reservations. They were meant to be family, but Daniel had been taken from them too soon. Now their family was incomplete, and Ashmedai would never see that future realized.
