Page 77 of Bitten By Bloodmoon
A blast of a witch’s magic strikes my thigh, but I don’t stop running. I’ve got seconds to get this done before their magic overpowers me. Speed is my strength, time my enemy.
I force my body to move faster, searching for any limb to sink my teeth into as quickly as possible. Wrists, hands, necks, thighs, and even one shoulder, until I’ve hit all twelve of them with a shot of my venom. It’s not an instant killer, but it weakens them all instantly, the first ones getting a stronger dose than the last.
Five of the bodies are already lifeless on the ground. A few more are fading fast, but a handful seem unfazed by the venom in their bodies. Magic blasts toward me, hitting me hard in the chest. I fall forward onto my knees as their magic overwhelms me. If they plan to kill me, they better make it fast, and they better have a fucking stake to do it.
I glance over at Lumi, who has also fallen onto her knees. But it’s not the position she’s in that has me concerned; it’s the pool of her own blood circling her.
“No,” I whisper in disbelief.They wouldn’t kill her. Did I do this? Should I have used leverage against one of them instead ofinjecting my venom into all of them? Did they know they were about to die, and so killed the only way to end the curse as well?
“Drop the knife,” Starling whispers to Lumi, her body shaking as she fights the venom in her body.
“Release Nyx from your spell,” Lumi says.
“I can’t. What’s done is done,” Starling says.
That’s when I see it—the gaping wound in Lumi’s stomach, blood pouring from it in a relentless, dark river. Her skin is ghostly pale, her breath shallow, and yet somehow she’s still standing, still holding herself upright through sheer will. Then my eyes catch the glint of her blade, lifted now to her own throat. But there’s already blood dripping from its edge… and no wound on her neck. The realization crashes into me with a jolt. She didn’t just get hurt—she did this to herself. She drove the blade into her own stomach.
Starling drops as do the remaining witches, their magic fading.
Lumi watches them one by one. Only when the remaining one has taken their last breath does she lower her own blade and apply pressure to her wound in her abdomen.
“Are you insane? Why did you do that?” I scream at her.
“Distraction, right? Starling was about to kill you. This is the only thing I could think of to stop her. A blade wielded by the right person can stop a magical creature, were the words you used, if I remember correctly.”
I run to her, scooping her up in my arms. “You’d better hope the witches have some healing tonics, otherwise you’re in for a long ride back to the Bloodmoon pack.”
She chuckles. “It’s a superficial wound. I’m a heavy bleeder. I barely stabbed myself.”
I don’t believe her from the amount of blood I just saw. I run into the healer’s hut, gently setting her down in the nearestchair. There’s an apothecary cabinet to the right of the kitchen that I throw open, searching, searching, searching…
I grab the bottle I’m looking for, which has the healing rune on it. “Drink this.”
She stares at the bottle as she leans against the open doorframe leading to the kitchen, refusing to even stay seated, her hand still applying pressure over her wound. “What is it?”
“This rune means wounds. It’s for wounds. Let’s hope you didn’t hit any vital organs that are the cause of all the bleeding because this tonic won’t help with that.” I’m not even sure how much this tonic will help at all, but since I just killed the nearest healer within a hundred miles of us, this is our only shot at helping her heal for the moment.
She downs the drink without questioning me further. I grab all the gauze I can from the cabinet as I pick her up and help her lie back on the small kitchen table. To her credit, she doesn’t wince or protest as I do.
I apply gauze directly to the wound before I start wrapping it tightly to stop any further bleeding.
“I just cut myself deep enough to surprise Starling. It’s barely a scratch, and I can already feel the magic working to close my skin together.” Lumi sits up, brushing my hands off her body like this is nothing. “It’s you I’m worried about.”
She stares down at my arms, where my veins seem to have turned a dark, inky color. Now that the adrenaline is starting to wear off, I can feel the pain of their magic coursing through my arms, and I know that it will slowly work its way through my entire body to try and kill me like poison.
“I’ll be fine.”
She stares at me wide-eyed. “There has to be something you can drink to help—”
“There’s nothing.”
“How do you know?”
“Because they don’t want anyone to heal from this kind of magic.”
“So you’re giving up? You’re just going to die?”
“No, Riven should be able to help. But yes, I might die before we make it back to the Bloodmoon pack.”
