by Helen Scott
I leaned closer and bit whatever flesh was within my reach, my mind too swamped with agony for me to pay attention. For a moment, I thought she’d stopped, that it was over, but then her fist connected with my side, and all the air in my lungs whooshed out of me. Before I could manage to take my next breath, she had flipped us over and was on top of me, her hands going to my wounds and making me scream. Part of me wanted to just pass out, let the darkness have me, but I wasn’t sure if the ghosts would help me again or if I would die in the space between realms.
If I was more adept at traveling through the darkness, I could just poof myself out from under her and move across the room or something. I wasn’t, though, and with my luck, I would have ended up in the middle of the guys’ fight with the agents of Hel.
“Are you working with Hel?” The question wheezed from me between screams as I tried to take back some control.
It was enough to make her pause in her ministrations of pain. “Of course not. Were you dropped on your head as a child? Why would we work with someone who wants to rip the prize from our hands?”
“But there were agents of Hel here . . .”
“Yeah, and I was protecting Derek from them until you showed up. I knew you’d come for him. I assume they are all dead now?”
I shrugged, and it seemed to end our small conversation since she wrapped her hands around my throat. Panic flared within me. Even though I knew there were better methods for getting someone to release their hold on my throat, all I could do was scratch at her hands and arms and flail like a fish out of water. The darkness began closing in around me, and this time, I wasn’t in control of it.
“I’m just going to knock you out so I can get some blood. Don’t worry.” She sighed. “We need you alive, after all. We tried the blood of a dead descendant, and it didn’t work very well, so at least your life is safe for now.”
My senses flew away from me as I began to feel as if I were watching her through a tunnel. I could feel each and every shadow around me, along with the remains of the dead. Some were deep underground, others not so much. I had lost my sense of scale and had no idea how far away any of the things were, but I had no choice. I had to use the darkness to get out of her grasp. I tugged it around me and slipped into the space between realms.
Immediately I felt as if I could draw breath again. The pressure of her hands on my throat was gone. I tried to move just a little ways over and move back into the human realm, but it didn’t work. I couldn’t seem to find the same call to leave the dark space I had found myself in as I had to enter it. The ghosts found me then, each putting a hand over my heart, and though I wanted to stop and ask them how they came to be there, I couldn’t leave Derek unattended. If crazy lady killed him because I had disappeared, then I would never forgive myself.
Two of them took my hands and pulled me along. I should have been scared, reacted the same way I do during horror movies, but I knew in my gut that they wouldn’t hurt me. The room rematerialized around me, and I realized that they had taken me to an area where the barrier between the human realm and the space between was thin. Not only that, but they came through with me.
Derek was still in his chair, and the woman from the diner bathroom was pacing back and forth. A moment later, all my senses returned, and I could hear her screaming in frustration. My judge looked at me with a mix of fear and confusion. I could see him glance between me and the two ghosts that apparently came with me. As though my thoughts reminded them they were there, they pulled away from my hands and floated forward. Their ethereal forms were not even half as solid in the human realm as they were in the space between. I could barely even see them. It was almost like looking at a trick of the light.
They passed by Derek, one on each side, but neither of us had realized that they were going to do that, so I was trying to hobble over to him while he screamed around his gag. Once they had passed, his head whipped from side to side as though he were trying to see where they were.
The woman screamed as she saw them. Their filmy presence wrapped around her as her voice screeched, filling the room with an ear-splitting sound. I felt tired and weak as I watched, but my job wasn’t over. As I limped toward the chair, the pain in my leg sent lightning bolts up through my body, making each step harder and harder to accomplish.
I neared Derek when I collapsed onto the floor. Looking up, I could see him watching me. The skin around his open eye was red and dark purple, with dirt and blood smeared on his face. His swollen eye was a whole different story. The skin around it had puffed up like a balloon and had turned a painful-looking black color. A cut just under his eyebrow made the whole thing look even worse. I pulled myself to the same side as I had been before and continued to work on the ropes.
As soon as his hand was free, Derek started untying his other hand, and I slumped against the floor. I tried to look at the flame inside myself, and for the first time, my own yellow and white flame, the one that usually burned so strong and bright, was small and low, flickering as though it were blowing in the wind.
A cold chill raced over my skin, and as I opened my eyes I didn’t even remember closing, the woman from Alpha launched herself at me through the ghosts that had encircled her. Before I could scramble away, she grabbed me by the shoulders of my jacket and lifted me up before slamming me down onto the floor. The room spun, and her face surrounded by her locks of spun gold hovered over my vision before everything went dark.
Chapter Fifteen
Hunter
When Poppy’s flame flickered, it was a kick to the gut. The last thing I wanted was to be right and for Poppy to fail. I couldn’t just watch her life be snuffed out, though, so I wrapped the shadows around me and pulled myself to her side. Honestly, I had expected my battle brothers to be there, already mourning their loss even though she wasn’t gone yet.
They weren’t there, though.
Instead, what I found was an unconscious Poppy next to a man who I assumed must have been a judge they were trying to save since they were so far from the hotel where I had left them. No one had told me the plan or invited me along, and that just pissed me off. I didn’t have time to think about it at that moment, though, because Poppy was bleeding out in front of my eyes.
I fell to the floor next to her. She looked as if she’d been in a war zone. Before I could touch her, two spirits appeared out of nowhere, evidently standing guard.
“I mean her no harm. I’m one of her hellhounds,” I said with my hands raised by my shoulders.
When they faded away again, I assumed that meant they believed me, and I lunged forward, ripping my belt from my jeans and looping it around her leg, forming a makeshift tourniquet as I tried to staunch the flow of blood.
“What the hell is going on?” the man in the chair asked as he finally got the gag out of his mouth.
“Nothing I can explain right now. Just stay there, and someone will explain as soon as she’s stable.”
“Who the hell are you people? First this crazy chick knocks me out and ties me up, and then this other crazy chick comes in here, and the two of them start beatin’ the shit out of each other! The first chick, who’s covered in blood, disappears. I shit you not. I swear, man, some of the crap I’ve seen today you would not believe.”
Knox and Emmett chose that moment to rush into the room. Their faces paled when they saw Poppy, and there was a flash of guilt on Knox’s face as he made eye contact with me. The only thing that stopped me from laying into them was the fact that they were both covered in blood. Black blood. The kind of blood that came from fighting with an agent of Hel. What on earth had happened?
“One of you get him out of here and patched up,” I said as I gestured to the judge.
“Woah, man, I’m not goin’ anywhere with you.” The judge held up his hands and backed away from Emmett, who was steadily approaching him like a cat cornering its prey.
“Listen.” I stood as I spoke, trying not to let my temper get the better of me. “When you saw her, y
ou felt something, right? A punch to the gut? Some kind of instinctual knowledge that she was important to you?”
“How in the hell did you know that?”
“That’s what we want to explain to you, but the only way we can do that is if you go with Emmett,” I said, standing between my queen who was slowly dying and my battle brother who looked as if he’d just fought for his life and come out on top.
“Fine. But after that, I’m leaving.”
I nodded. Whatever it took to get him out of there. Besides, based on Poppy’s actions so far, if the guy really wanted to leave, she wouldn’t stop him.
I turned away from him and felt the faintest rustle of wind. I knew Emmett had used the darkness to move them both to the hotel. “You go, too,” I said to Knox.
“Not a chance. She’s my queen, too,” Knox said with a stubborn set to his jaw, which when combined with the arms folded across his chest, it meant he really wouldn’t go anywhere.
“Then just go into the other room and keep watch or something. Just give me a few moments alone with her.”
Knox nodded and left. I saw him walk down a hallway and then turn right into a beam of light. Once I was confident we were alone, I let my guard down. I let myself feel everything I’d been denying since Poppy showed up. She was like a force of nature, and there was no use denying her what she wanted; at least, if she really wanted it. Slowly, I’d felt my heart making room for her. It wasn’t that I was forgetting Katherine, but more that I was accepting some of my feelings for the woman in front of me.
One thing I rarely shared with people was that I had a slight healing ability. I was sure Knox and Emmett had seen it in action at some point, but it had been so long since we were in a serious fight that they’d probably forgotten about it, and I sure as hell wasn’t about to share it with the new guys. I barely knew them. I hadn’t even told Poppy yet. I had my reasons, but now I doubted them. I doubted myself and the control I had over my emotions.
As I knelt next to her, I brushed some of the strands of dark hair away from her face, being careful to avoid the bruises and scrapes. I took a deep breath and pressed my lips to her temple, letting some of my energy trickle through. Her eyes sprang open, and glowing red orbs fixed on me. Black seemed to bleed out from her irises until the whites of her eyes were completely covered.
Her face turned toward me, completely blank. It was as if she weren’t even there. There was no recognition in her red eyes, just a hunger that made me ache to satisfy her. The longer I stared at her, the harder it became to only let a trickle of my energy go. There was an ever-increasing pull that I couldn’t resist. It took hold of me, and I couldn’t have moved away even if I wanted to. My mouth met hers, and I could feel the energy draining out of me. Instead of a trickle, it was as if she had turned on a tap. Everything flowed out of me and into her.
I knew I had to stop it somehow or I wouldn’t even be able to get myself out of the abandoned store, but I had no idea how. Resistance seemed pointless, and if I gave in, I wasn’t sure what would happen. Her scent enveloped me, citrusy and fresh but with an undercurrent that was sensual and floral. She was the perfect day, the one just on the edge of spring and summer, not too hot, but hot enough to relish the sunshine. I couldn’t help it. I gave in.
Her sweet lips were pressed to mine in an instant. When her hand came up and wove through my hair, I was surprised. We held each other like that for a moment as our mouths moved against one another. I swept my tongue over the line of her lip, and she opened for me like a flower. I delved in, sweeping my tongue against her own and drowning in the sweet taste of her. There was nothing more I could give. She had taken every scrap of energy I had, and now our kisses were just based on pleasure.
Part of me wanted to pull back, to retreat again to the safe place where I kept her at arm’s length, but the other half of me demanded I get closer, that I seal this fragile bond we had and forge a chain of steel instead of paper. Her delicate tongue explored my mouth in a way that left me breathless. I couldn’t imagine what her mouth would feel like on my cock. Scratch that. I could imagine, but I shouldn’t. I shouldn’t even be kissing her like this. What would Katherine think?
The thought sobered me up enough that I could pull away without feeling as if I were being kicked out of heaven, which was especially funny for someone who spent most of their time in the Underworld. When we separated, we were both gasping for breath. Her eyes were still a luminous red, and her face still a blank mask, but occasionally, as I watched her, I saw a glimmer of knowledge in her gaze.
“Poppy?” I asked, carefully cradling her head as I laid it against the floor.
There wasn’t even a hum of recognition in her.
I pulled further away and began to look at her leg. The cut had been so deep, I was surprised she had survived. The wound still gaped even though the blood flow had slowed to a trickle. As I examined it, I pulled out a few large splinters, which had me concerned about what I couldn’t see. Either way, we needed to get the wound cleaned and strapped up so it could heal. If we left it the way it was, then her leg would be deformed for the rest of her life. It was one of the few downsides to healing so quickly. Our bodies often healed perfectly, but there was the rare time when it would heal too fast and the broken bone or cut would be fused that way, the skin gaping at an odd angle for the foreseeable future unless we were brave enough to slice it open and cut away the malformed flesh to force it to heal correctly.
“Knox!” I yelled as time became more important than ever.
He appeared by my side immediately, lines of worry creasing his already pale face.
“We need to get her back to the hotel. I don’t have the energy to transport her. Do you?”
He nodded and scooped up her once-again unconscious form. It was as if as soon as I had pulled away from her and stopped the energy flow, whatever had been making her active before vanished. I would have to tell her about the kiss and apologize once she woke. I had thought she was fully aware, but now I wasn’t so sure, and that made me more than a little uncomfortable.
Knox just nodded and disappeared with barely a hint of shadow swirling where he had been standing not a moment before. I dragged myself up off the ground and gathered the darkness around me tendril by tendril. My energy was sapped, but I couldn’t stop yet, not when the queen needed me.
When I arrived in the hotel room, all hell was breaking loose as Nolan and Cass exchanged words with Emmett and Knox. The new guy just sat in a chair by the window, watching it all as if he had gone insane. Poppy was on the bed, and her leg was slowly starting to bleed again.
“Do you really think now is the time for this?” I asked, my tone sharp. “Your queen is bleeding on the bed, and none of you are paying attention to her, more interested in telling the others how much you care, but not actually showing it. I don’t care who, but someone needs to get me more clean towels, scissors, tweezers, a magnifying glass, water, gauze, and duct tape.”
Without a backward glance, I grabbed some of the professionally folded washcloths from the bathroom and began cleaning her up. Seconds later, there were fresh towels that had appeared from somewhere, along with all the other materials I asked for. I carefully cut away her jeans from her injured leg. They were already ruined, so I didn’t feel bad. When the denim material fell away and I saw the edge of her black lace panties, I did feel slightly bad about cutting those, but I knew in the long run, it would be harder to get them off once we had her leg all closed up.
“Who wants to hold the magnifying glass?” I asked while I soaked up some of the blood.
Knox appeared by my arm with the odd-shaped glass disk, because of course it had to be him. As he held it above her wound, I adjusted it to the right height so that I got the most detail. After flooding the area with water, I was able to see a few more chunks of wood and remove them before they were covered in blood again. Finally, after what felt like hours’ worth of work, we had the whole thing as clean as possible.
; “Would you mind helping me close?” I asked Knox.
He set down the magnifying glass, and I lifted her leg, beginning to wrap the gauze underneath. With Knox pressing the skin together and me wrapping as fast as I could, I felt as if we had everything under control. Once everything was covered, I used the duct tape to hold it in place. Not the prettiest or most hygienic, but I worked with what I had. Now, my only hope was that she woke up.
Chapter Sixteen
Poppy
I felt as if I had been hit by a truck. My whole body ached, and it was becoming way too common to wake up feeling like that. I tried to move, but my body felt frozen, restricted.
“Easy, angel.” Knox’s deep voice washed over me like slipping into a hot bath.
I relaxed a fraction and opened my eyes. “What’s going on?”
“You were in a fight with someone, and according to Derek, you were kicking ass most of the time, and then you, uh, had a weird episode and we had to restrain you to make sure you didn’t hurt yourself.”
Images flashed in my mind as I tried to make sense of what he was saying. For the most part, I remembered the fight and a brief trip to the space between realms. Derek featured prominently in my memories, his rich umber skin gleaming, slick with blood and peppered with bruises as I untied his ropes. After that, everything went black. There were flares of color, though. Blue, purple, and red. They were the colors of my bonds with the original three heads of Cerberus. Finally, a flare of green and teal, making the set complete.
“What kind of an episode?” I asked Knox warily.
“You kind of turned into a bit of a succubus and drained our life forces so you could heal,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck and avoiding my wide eyes.
“Say what now?”
Emmett and Knox undid the restraints around my wrists and ankles as they both looked at me for a moment. I hadn’t even noticed him standing there at first, but now I couldn’t take my eyes off him. The lines of worry seemed to be etched on his face permanently. “You almost died,” Emmett whispered, and cuddled me to him.