Page 43 of Insidious Monsters
He nodded. “I can share a little of my life force. She won’t need much. Just enough to kick-start her own energy production.”
Archie held her tighter, blinking back tears. “It won’t hurt her, will it?”
Lothos smiled kindly. “No. It won’t hurt, but I need to act now. Give her to me.”
Archie gritted his teeth and nodded before gently tipping Nandi into Lothos’s arms. She looked tiny and fragile against his powerful form, her dark hair spilling across his bicep and forearm like an inky waterfall, rosy mouth parted in preparation for his kiss.
Lothos carefully brushed tendrils of her hair back from her face, gently cupped her jaw, and pressed his mouth to hers.
I stood and moved closer to Telarion, needing his solid presence and assurance. He gave it to me by pressing his chest to my back and wrapping his arms around me.
“Please be okay…Please.”
“Is he meant to kiss her for that long?” Archie asked.
“She is no longer dying,” Telarion said.
His words were proven a moment later when Lothos broke the kiss. He stared down at Nandi, his chest heaving with each breath.
Nandi opened her eyes and stared at him in horror before pulling back her hand and slapping him hard across the cheek.
Yep, she was gonna be fine.
twelve
“How many bodies?” Devyn asked down the phone.
An image of the Bentley Station carnage popped into my head and I squeezed my eyes to dispel it. “Five dead. Although…you’ll only find pieces.”
“Telarion?”
“Yeah.”
“Like at Crow’s Path Station?”
I’d suspected she’d made the connection between the human disappearances and Telarion after she and Caleb had swooped in to save us from the vipers on the dock only to find them in pieces with Telarion at my back like an avenging angel.
This was the first time she’d openly articulated it, though. The foyer between the outside and the kitchen felt suddenly colder. I stepped closer to the kitchen door, as if the heat emanating from under it could chase away the memory of that awful night.
“August?”
I closed my eyes. “Yes, Devyn. Like Crow’s Path Station.”
I expected some kind ofahamoment, maybe anI knew it, but she absorbed my admission in silence before continuing.
“Okay, I’ll clean it up. Bentley is off the grid, the human PD won’t touch it, and if the dead people are nomads and part of a cult, I doubt they’ll be reported as missing.”
Relief untangled the knots in my chest. “Thank you so much.”
“No. Thankyou. This is a huge break in our case. We know the mystics are dead, but we know who’s after them now. We can start a search.”
“They want Nandi. They want her bad.”
“We can house her here if you’d like. At least until the threat is averted. It’s one of the safest places in the city.”
“Thank you, I’ll speak to her about it.”
“Stay safe, August.”
