Page 34 of Hell Bound

I paused and actually took stock of my body. Burning and stinging all over told me I was far more scraped and bloody than I’d realized.

When I tenderly probed the backside of my arm, my hand came away dripping with blood.

“Shit, Lilith, why didn’t you say you were bleeding?” Pyp’s voice was higher than I’d heard it yet, her red-tinged eyes burning again. She’d gone from a tenor to a soprano and every head whipped to her.

“Bleeding? Whe—” Deasley’s words were cut short by a looming presence that appeared out of nowhere.

“Move.” The single world held enough command I almost stepped out of the way myself. Lucifer stopped me, though, grabbing my wrist in a gentle but unbreakable hold.

When he was sure that wasn’t the source of my injury, he tugged me forward.

Where the hell had he come from? I hadn’t even seen him approach from the head of our group, but suddenly he was less than a few feet in front of me.

“Where?” he clipped.

“M-my arm.” My energy had been flagging even since they caught up with me. Now I was betting it wasn’t so much from my forest dash, but from blood loss.

Lucifer eased my wrist around until he could get a clear view of the wound.

He grumbled something in a language I couldn’t understand, then snapped, “Killian!”

The only demon still in his wolf form bounded over, tongue lolling. If he wasn’t a vicious predator, he would have been the cutest puppy!

I wasn’t sure if that was from delirium or not, but staying upright was becoming more and more difficult and now I wanted nothing more than to ride the happy puppy.

“Give me the pack.” The large wolf sat beside Lucifer, presenting him with his back. Slung across it was a satchel, the strap custom fit for the gigantic beast.

Lucifer released a buckle and yanked it free, flipping the closure back so he could rifle through the contents.

“I hope you have bandaids in there. The big ones.”

He didn’t acknowledge me at all, just continued to dig until he found what he was looking for.

It was a glass jar with some kind of… goop?

It was snot. That’s what it looked like, a jar of yellow-green snot.

So when he tossed the lid to the ground alongside the discarded bag, I held up my good arm to ward him off.

“Uh-uh, I don’t know what that is, but you’re not putting that shit on an open wound.” He’d already snagged my wrist again, and my attempt to escape failed miserably.

Again.

“Lil, it’s okay, it—”

“Be still, succubus. You’ll worsen your injury.”

“Kiss my ass, I said no!”

“Lilith, if you—” Pyp’s words died in her throat as Lucifer swung a fire-filled glare between her and Deasley.

“All of you, away!” His bellow scared the shit out of whatever creatures dwelled in the dark forest. The ambient noise died away, leaving only the sound of crunching footsteps as the rest of the wolves spread out, creating a perimeter around us.

Except for Killian. Happy Puppy didn’t move an inch, just tipped his head to one side and looked from me to Lucifer.

Did he understand anything that was going on, or was he just not scared of Lucifer like the others were?

“If you don’t remain still and let me apply this salve, I will pin you to the ground to do it. You have other cuts, and it will hurt, Lilith. So you tell me, what will it be?”

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