Page 43 of Mated
But no one gets the chance to attack.
Red light flows over the ground around us.
I look over as burst after burst of ruby fire sails into the cat’s body. Caine draws back, his face flowing into lines of pure un-adultered rage. The energy in his hand builds and builds. My fur raises on end.
He fires the blast and it takes the cat clear off his feet, slamming him into a tree yards away. The shifter crashes to the floor and stays there.
I lay on my back, stomach bleeding and breath sawing through my nose, and shift in a rush of bone cracking, nauseating pain. Too many shifts too close together always leaves me feeling like shit afterward. And with my injuries, this time is no different.
My head falls back to the ground.
Shit.
Gage appears out of my peripheral, his emerald eyes brilliant in the low light. “T?”
I wave him off. “I’ll heal.”
He claps a hand under my back and helps ease me to my feet. I peer around at the others.
Lilah’s eyes spin with gold light as she walks slowly closer to the demon that just saved my ass. Again. “Caine?”
Even I have to admit, there is something darker about the demon now. More deadly. He peers at her from solid red eyes with no pupils visible.
Ruin slams his arm across Lilah’s body, keeping her back. “Don’t.” His own midnight gaze has turned to small suns in the dimness beneath the trees.
Caine’s jaw tightens, and I know he wants to say something. And in his current mind state, that would be a bad fucking idea.
Limping over, I snare him by the shoulder, not really holding him back. More like keeping his focus. “Easy,” I mutter to the demon. “Until we know what was in those darts … You don’t want to hurt Lilah, right?” I hate playing on his one weakness. But if he will listen to anyone, it’s her.
He looks past me, and some of the anger fades fast. “No. No, I don’t.”
I nod, squeezing a bit. “Good man. Why don’t you have Gage give you the once over? Just so we can clear you?”
His jaw flexes, but he turns around and walks several feet into the trees. “Come on, fire Fae,” he calls to Gage, using the same jab he has always used for the Fae warrior lighting up like a damn firefly. “I want out of the blasted trees and into some air conditioning.”
Gage makes a sound of agreement or maybe disgust. Together, him and Horan follow the demon at an even pace and soon the little glowing orb trails after them.
I watch them go.
“Hey, T. This one of yours?”
I spin.
Ruin is crouched over Daisy’s fallen form.
Shit.
I run.
Sliding in the leaves and earthen debris, I wind up on my ass beside her. She slowly trickles back to human in a wash of dark mist and retreating fur.
Her arm is broken badly and her leg too. The skin is shredded and already stained red. She will have to have the bones reset and fast or they will heal all kinds of fucking wrong.
I start to reach for her when my eyes dip just past her fallen form.
Feet away, partially hidden in the shadows, is the dead form of a large black cat.
I glance at the other down shifter and swear in a fluent stream.
