by May Dawson
"Jerk face. I prefer the full title you bestowed on me."
"I could still tell you were more than that." I chewed on my lower lip. "That you were this good, kind man—"
Jacob raised his other hand. "Let me stop you right there. I'm afraid you've confused me with someone else. From day one."
His voice was warm with amusement, and even though he was embarrassed, he also seemed slightly pleased.
Despite his interruption, I continued, mischief in my own voice. "...Who wouldn't summarily execute a demon that I invited."
"You're impossible, Princess."
"And you love it."
We emerged from the shadows of the trees onto the bank of the lake. The deep blue waters shimmering in front of us always calmed my soul a little; when nature was so beautiful, it was hard to believe that the world was such a dark and strange place.
Jacob glanced back at the trees. "I've got lookout."
"Thanks." I rubbed my fingers over the still-sore tattoo, looking out over the lake; the sun reflecting off the water made me squint. "Nimshi? I'm not a big fan of your tattoo. Come explain yourself to me."
"Technically," a mischievous voice said in my ear. "It's more like a brand than a tattoo."
I twisted, looking for him, but there was no one there. "Where are you?"
"I'm on my way," he promised me. "But we can communicate like this."
"How handy. They should really invent something like this. They could call it a cell phone. And no one would need a brand."
"I think it's stylish."
"So you survived," I said.
"Yeah. I guess I should have mentioned there were two kinds of poison on the dagger. One fast-acting, one with a bit more punch that takes a little longer to develop."
"Is Zuriel dead?" That might be good news for us, since Lord knew we already had enough enemies. But I worried how Jacob would take it. He glanced toward me, his face that determinedly-netural expression that I knew too well, and then returned to looking at the woods.
"I wish," he said. "I was going to kill him when he went down, but he realized what was happening and zoomed out of there in a blaze of fiery angel showmanship, like they do."
"Why does Zuriel want you so badly?" I asked.
"The angels want to wipe out the demons."
"Can't imagine why." Jacob muttered.
"You can hear him, too?" I asked.
"He's a loud talker. I can hear him all the way from here." Jacob shook his head. "Guess he and Ryker certainly are brothers."
"I thought maybe his voice was just in my head." I said.
"Ellis, I'm hoping I can come for a visit," Nimshi said. "Zuriel did get a hit in. And I'm having a bad day out here."
"It's not going to be a better day here," Jacob warned.
"And yet," Nimshi said, "Jacob's the one that... suffered... in the demon's case. Why are the other two taking this so personally?"
"There's this whole thing where they're brothers?" I said.
"What am I, then?"
"A demon," Jacob said. "That's all you are to us."
"Why is he there, anyway?" Nimshi asked. "Ellis. Help me."
"I'm trying," I said. "And Jacob is helping, too. He's keeping an eye out for—"
"Levi," Jacob said urgently. He came over to me, slinging an arm over my shoulders and squeezing me into his side.
"Hey!" Levi waved to us from down the bank; he must have come out to check the wards. He walked up the hill to us. “What are you guys doing out here?”
“Came to check the wards,” Jacob lied smoothly. “But obviously, you already got them all.”
“You’re slow,” Levi said.
We were worse than slow. The three of us headed up the bank together. Jacob leaned back slightly to give me a look behind Jacob’s back, a raised eyebrow and a quick shake of the head. He wasn’t happy he’d just had to lie for me.
Nimshi just kept making trouble for us.
17
"Thanks for everything," Ryker said to Zane, as the two stood on the front porch. "You going to stay for dinner?"
"I'll stay a while, but I’ve got to head out soon. I've got a date," Zane said. He grinned at me as I climbed the stairs. "We're not all lucky enough to have a fated soulmate."
"Ask Ryker how lucky he feels right now." I crinkled my nose at him.
Zane laughed like I hadn't meant it.
"I'm always lucky," Ryker said. He slid his arm around my waist, squeezing me gently, and I wasn't sure if he had missed me or if he just didn't want any outsider to see the cracks in our relationship.
"What's for dinner?" Levi asked as we headed into the house.
"Lasagna. Salad. Broccoli for Jacob so he doesn't cry about warrior food." Ryker said.
"Fat hunters can't outrun the vamps and geists." Jacob said.
"I don't run," Ryker shot back.
Levi and Jacob headed down the hall to the kitchen, but Ryker stopped, turning to face me. "I am always lucky, you know. Thanks for fixing me up back there."
"No problem," I said. "It's what we do."
The smallest grin played over Ryker's handsome mouth, making me think of the many other things we did.
"How are you doing?" he asked me softly. "With your mom and Ash?"
"Fine," I said. "It's weird. But I'm fine."
"Pretty much the story of our lives. It's all weird, but we'll make it." He pressed a kiss to the top of my head, quick and chaste. "Together."
I cocked my head, staring into his sparkling green eyes, a bit bemused. I wanted to tease him about being sweet to me. But I also didn't want him to stop.
"Go tell your mom dinner is ready. It's hot out. We can eat in the dining room."
"Sounds good," I said.
Ryker nodded and let go of me. I felt cool in the air conditioning without his arm around me, and I shivered slightly as I opened the French doors.
Mom sat beside the bed, leaning forward. She was reading to Ash from a paperback. She always did faintly different voices for each character when she read dialogue, her voice a rich, rolling cadence like a natural storyteller, and it reminded me of when I was a kid. She'd read us every Harry Potter book. Once on summer vacation, she'd even read her slightly-risqué beach read out loud to us when we were teenagers, all of us giggling over the awkward bits.
She glanced up at me, holding her place in the book with her finger. "Do you know how hard it is to find a normal book in this place?"
I pulled a face. "I can imagine. I think they're all in Jacob's room."
She sighed, setting the book on the nightstand. "That nice EMS boy came in. He doesn't seem optimistic that Ash will ever come out of this coma on her own. That she could ever breathe on her own anyway."
"Yeah," I said. "I have this fear now that even if we could bring her back, she would try to breathe and wouldn't and we would just watch her die all over again."
"Bring her back?" Mom repeated carefully. "You think you have a way to wake her from her coma?"
I sighed. It was a big subject and I wasn't sure how to find all the right words. I started to tell her, "Ash hasn't gone into Heaven yet. Her spirit is still in the Far..."
My voice broke, surprising me. I hadn't cried much lately; I'd found myself tougher than I ever used to be.
My mom was up in a second, crossing the room to hug me. "It's going to be okay, Ellis. But I have so many questions..."
"Me, too," I said. But I told her what answers I had.
An hour later, with dinner plates pushed aside, I could almost feel Ryker's despair. My mother was fixed on what our next steps were to bring Ash back from the Far and resuscitate her body. She was relentless.
Suddenly I realized just how annoying I might be.
"It's not that simple," Ryker protested.
"It's the simplest thing there is," Mom said. "You have the opportunity to save my daughter. To save Ellis' sister. And you're choosing not to take it. Simple."
"Well, apparently mother and daughter are
similarly difficult," Ryker said. He tried to catch my eye, but I found myself looking down at the table, feeling embarrassed. I wanted my guys and my mom to like each other. The two most important parts of my life weren't getting along.
"I'm going for a walk," Ryker said, standing from the table.
"You don't want pie?" Jacob asked.
Ryker always wanted pie.
Ryker exited the dining room without answering.
"It's apple," Jacob said, to no one in particular.
“I’ll take his share,” Zane said.
“Aren’t you going to eat on your date?” Levi asked.
“What’s your point?” Zane asked.
"I'm going after him," I said, getting up, too. "I can't."
By the time I reached the hallway, the front door slammed shut. I ran after Ryker.
I had no idea what I was going to say. Every time I said something, I just seemed to make things worse anyway.
But I had to try.
18
I slipped out the front door and almost bumped into Ryker, who stood planted on the front porch. He held out an arm, glancing over his shoulder at me. "Go back in the house, Ellis."
"No," I said softly. "We need to talk."
"Go back in the house," he said urgently.
My heart dropped, afraid that the angel had found us. I looked over his shoulder.
A man staggered down our driveway. His head was low, so I could only see his dark curls, not his face. His tall, narrow body was bent over, and he wound back and forth as he walked. At first, I thought he was drunk, and then I realized he was injured.
"Nimshi." I pushed past Ryker, intent on Nimshi, only to have Ryker grab me around the waist.
"Not a chance," he said. "He must have taken down our wards. He's no friend of ours. Go back in the house. Get the others."
"You get the others." I stomped on his toes—it wasn't my nature to hurt him and I would apologize later, but desperate times called for desperate measures—but his grip on me barely loosened.
He dragged me back toward the house just as Nimshi took one more step, looked up, and fell. For just a second, his eyes met mine, dark and desperate. Then he sprawled across the gravel.
But I heard his voice in my ear. "Ellis."
Ryker jerked back. His eyes searched mine, as if he were trying to make sense of what he'd just overheard, as if I might be keeping yet another secret from him.
Guilty.
Might as well compound my sins.
I finally managed to jerk out of his grip and ran down the stairs.
Ryker threw the front door open and shouted, "Levi! Jacob!"
Then he bounded down the stairs after me.
I was already racing down the driveway to where Nimshi had fallen.
He'd been cut deeply across the shoulder; he had bandaged himself roughly, but there was blood seeping through the bandage. He lay with his head in the gravel, and I tried to get his head up onto my lap, turning him over so he would be more comfortable. In the process, my hands were covered in his blood.
"I'll bring him inside," Ryker said roughly. He was already leaning over us both, and he grabbed Nimshi under his arms, throwing him easily over his shoulder.
"Don't hurt him," I said, scrambling to my feet.
Levi and Jacob were on the porch, swords in hand.
"I'll go put the wards up," Jacob said, already realizing what must have happened.
"I've got some questions for you later," Ryker said to him, his voice harsh.
Jacob merely rolled his eyes before jumping off the porch and sprinting. We had to get those wards back up before Zuriel found his way here.
My mom came out the front door, curious, and gasped as she saw the blood on my shirt and my hands.
"It's not hers," Levi assured her.
I'm not sure that was as comforting for her as Levi intended it to be.
"Not in the cell," I barked after Ryker. "He's hurt."
"You choose, Firestarter," Ryker said. "Hurt in the cell or dead on the lawn."
I was about to run after Ryker, but Levi rested a hand on my shoulder. "Look, I don't like this, but Ryker won't hurt him and neither will I. It's not how we operate."
"This seems like a pretty one-off situation," I said.
"We'll get him patched up," Levi promised me. "We didn't hurt him last time, did we?"
"And look how that turned out!" Ryker shouted back over his shoulder. He turned down the stairs to the basement.
"I'm going to go help him," Levi said, even though we all knew he really meant he was going to go help Ryker find his better self.
"Who is that?" Mom asked.
I couldn't easily sum that one up—the guy who tortured Jacob, half-demon possibly in search of redemption, their brother, the fourth member of my harem who we needed to go into the Far—so I just said, "Nimshi."
19
I followed Ryker's powerful back down the stairs. Nimshi hung limply over his shoulder, and as they went down the stairs, his hands almost brushed the steps. Ryker carried him past the dojo and into the hidden room. Ryker ducked to enter the lower, barred ceiling of the cell, which stood in one corner.
Ryker carefully slung him off his back, rolling him out onto the mattress in the room. He knelt next to him.
Zane pushed his way past me. "Want me to check him out?"
"Thanks," Ryker said. He stood up to one side.
Zane looked up, his fingers pressing over Nimshi's throat to take his vitals. "You guys inviting demons in now?"
"It's a strange new world," Ryker said grimly, glancing at me. "We do things differently now."
"Stupidly," Zane said.
I crossed my arms over my chest, staring them both down, even though they ignored me.
"He'll live. Demons are hearty," Zane said, straightening. "Unfortunately. You need to get that blood loss stopped. That wound's still oozing. He's going to lose too much blood to be any use to you."
Ryker raised his eyebrows. "You going to help, or are you heading off on that date you were talking about earlier?"
"I'm a Hunter," Zane said. "There's only one way I get a demon's blood on my hands. You're on your own."
His shoulder slammed into me as he strode past, studiously ignoring me. The girl who was covered in that demon's blood. There was a quick clatter on the stairs of his feet going up, leaving us all behind as fast as he could.
"I like your friends," I said.
"Yeah, I'm sure I'd like yours, too." Ryker said. "Get me the med kit."
I headed back into the office, where a row of monitors hung from the ceiling and chairs were pushed neatly into the tables we sometimes used for brainstorming a plan. Along with rows of weaponry hanging from a peg board , an expansive medical kit in an oversized bag hung from the wall. There were more supplies in here, too, from the many times the guys had to patch each other up after a Hunt.
I slung the bag over my shoulder and carried it back in. Ryker was already cutting away what remained of Nimshi's shirt.
"I'll help him," I said. "You don't have to."
Ryker shook his head.
"Aren't you worried about getting a demon's blood on your hands for anything but killing?" I asked tartly.
"I'm not in this to win Hunter of the Year, Ellis," Ryker said shortly. "I'm trying to keep you and my brothers alive. Find our way on our fucked-up, divine mission. So, no, I don't care about getting his blood on my hands. However that has to happen. Give me the quick clot."
I unzipped the bag and handed over one of the bags of quick-clot to him. He ripped it open, spilling some on his hand in the process—I saw him wince as it burned his skin—but without hesitating, he poured it into Nimshi's wound.
"Can you thread a needle for me? I'll get him sewn up." Ryker pressed his fingers to Nimshi's throat, looking for his pulse; he left bloody fingerprints behind as he swore. "Zane could have mentioned that he seems to be going into shock."
"I'll get an IV started," Levi said from beh
ind us. He came and knelt next to me, grabbing Nimshi's wrist. "Got to get his blood type."
"How did you guys learn all this stuff?" They always amazed me. Usually in a good way.
"The joys of being a Hunter." Levi said.
I took a step back, out of the way, as they worked over their long-lost—and unwanted—half-brother. Levi bit down on his lower lip, his long blond hair brushing his shoulders as he carefully inserted the hep-lock into Nimshi's arm and taped it down. He ran out of the room and came back in carrying a bag of blood and an IV stand. He hung the IV bag and then attached it to the hep-lock.
Meanwhile, Ryker sewed Nimshi's shoulder up. However he felt about Nimshi, his stitches were small and careful. When he was done, he covered the wound with a pad and wrapped it in gauze.
"You know, I could help," I said.
"I'm not watching you make out with the unconscious demon," Ryker said. "That's weird even for us. And I'm not leaving you alone with him."
"Ryker, come on."
"He's going to be fine," Ryker promised me. "We'll get to talk to him. I'm sure curious what he's going to have to say."
"I'm not leaving him," I said. "Just like I wouldn't leave you."
"Just like you wouldn't leave me?" There was heat in Ryker's voice. "Well, thanks, Ellis. It's nice to know you wouldn't leave me. It's not like I spent months imprisoned in an asylum with abusive guards so that I'd be there as your welcome committee. It's not like we've fought our way through plenty of shit together. It's not like you owe me anything more than you owe the demon who tortured you. Totally equal footing here."
"I don't owe you anything," I shot back.
"Stop," Levi said, his tone commanding. "I'm done with both of you. You two go talk it out. I'll stay here with Nimshi."
"There's nothing to talk out," I said.
"Go up to bed together," Levi said. "I care about you both too much to watch you keep having the same goddamn stupid fight. You can figure it out. You just need to put the time in."
"We fundamentally disagree on a few things," Ryker said.
"I'm with Levi," Jacob said from the door. "Oldest brother here. We all know I'm in charge."