Page 106 of Dark Embers

“She is, but Tobias is badly wounded.” He shoved his foot into one of his shoes. “We have to get to them immediately.”

Sloppily dressed and jittery with anxiety, we both rushed out the door, no longer caring who might see us or what they’d think. Arya needed us. Nothing else mattered.

Chapter 38

Caesar

My breath steamed in the cold evening air as Shea and I raced down the alley. But the outside temperature wasn’t what chilled me to the bone.

I bent over Tobias Dracul, whose body was lacerated in hundreds of places, wearing nothing but his smart clothing, which also bore countless holes. The dragon prince was moving with a wounded slowness in a pool of his own blood.

“Damn, what did they do to you?”

Tobias groaned, as if attempting to respond. But his eyes were closed. I knew the boy didn’t have much time left.

“We have to get him back to the Dome,” I said, setting my jaw as I tried to think of the best way to transport Tobias.

“Arya, omigod, are you okay?” Shea squealed as she threw her arms around her best friend.

“I’m fine, but Tobias…” Arya said, beginning to weep.

Something small shimmered dark silver in the moonlight from the pool of blood to Tobias’s right. I reached into the goop to pick it up.

“Lead.” Looking around, I saw several more identical pieces scattered throughout the alley floor. “Lead pellets. Dozens of them.”

The realization of what that meant made me lightheaded. All the little lacerations on Tobias’s body weren’t cuts at all. They were wounds where lead pellets had struck him.

I raked my hands through my hair, not caring they were covered in the boy’s blood. “We’ve got to get him to Maya right away. If his body is full of lead, he won’t live much longer.”

Nearby, Arya continued to weep bitterly, pulling my attention from the dragon prince. Shea was still holding her, running a soothing hand down the back of her hair. Ashlyn Summers was close by with Nikolai Candida keeping a comforting arm around her. Niko and Ashlyn were in their smart clothing, showing that they’d shifted to face the vampires in battle as well.

“Are you three hurt?” I asked, knowing just by their postures that Tobias had suffered the worst from the fight.

Arya didn’t respond—likely couldn’t. Her eyes were trained on Tobias as she cried.

“He saved my life,” Niko said distantly. I’d been in enough fights to understand how easy it was to relive violent memories. The distant look in the boy’s eyes disappeared and he looked up at me. “Tobias dove in front of me when they shot their cannons. He shielded me.”

“Once we get back to the Dome, I’ll get reports from each of you,” I said. “But we can’t linger. The vampires could return at any moment.”

My spine tingled, that very real possibility making every shadowy corner a hostile threat that I refused to turn my back to for too long.

“Shea, get the girls back to the Dome as fast as you can,” I ordered. “Niko, I’ll need your help to carry Tobias.” The dragonprince was too close to my size for me to carry him alone, and attempting to do so would only hurt him more.

Shea nodded without complaint, taking both girls by the wrist and rushing them out onto the street and toward the subway entrance. Niko and Ashlyn stared longingly at each other until Ashlyn was out of sight, then the boy came to my side to help me with his friend.

I tucked my hands under Tobias’s back, gesturing with a nod of my chin for Niko to take his feet. “I’m sorry, kid, but this is probably going to hurt.”

Angling Tobias's back upward, I scooped my hands under his arms. Tobias groaned at the movement, and his head lolled backward, the whites of his eyes showing before they closed.

Niko grabbed onto Tobias’s battered legs.

“On three,” I said, my heart pounding.

Moving an injured person could be extremely dangerous, depending on what kind of wounds had been inflicted. I hoped we weren’t causing any more damage—at least nothing irreparable—but we didn’t have any other choice.

“One… two… three!”

Together, we hoisted Tobias up off the ground. I had anticipated the boy’s weight—Tobias was six feet tall and quite muscular from the different exercises and defense training sessions his father had put him through since he was a child. But still, my muscles shook from the effort. Niko said nothing, but the strain on his grieving face told me his struggle was worse.

---