Page 26 of Shadow Blind

Too late to save her now.

He shot a furious glance toward Wolf’s expressionless face. From the savage curses erupting from Cosky, Aiden wasn’t the only one enraged by this breach of trust.

“Son of a motherfucking bitch. You goddamn bastard. You have no right—” Cosky roared. He broke off to take an audible breath and stopped struggling. His voice was lower, but tighter when he spoke again. “She’ll heal him faster with my help.”

Wolf didn’t make a sound. Hell, he didn’t even move, yet the men imprisoning Cosky let him go.

“This isn’t over,” Cosky snarled as he stalked past Wolf. A nerve twitched in his stone-cut jaw. The gray eyes that sliced through Wolf were livid.

Aiden had never seen his brother by marriage so furious.

When the fire swallowing his thigh doubled in intensity, he grunted and settled back. The increased heat meant Cosky had joined Kait. Somehow, when his brother-in-law laid his palms on top of Kait’s hands, his sister’s healing ability increased tenfold. Together, the pair could repair catastrophic injuries—wounds Kait couldn’t handle on her own. Aiden wasn’t sure how their combined abilities worked. He just knew that they did.

But there was a downside to the pair working together. The heat they generated could be brutal. It often blistered their own palms and the flesh of their patient. While the damage invariably healed on its own, and quickly, too, it was exceptionally painful while it lasted.

Like now. Hell, his leg felt like he’d shoved it in a pit of lava, as if his flesh was melting and bubbling away. Sweat rolled down his chest and shoulders. He clenched his teeth to keep the groans inside.

The burning, sweltering agony went on and on. Far longer than it should have for a simple repair to punctured flesh, and a nicked vein. That’s when it hit him. She wasn’t just healing his wound. She was trying to neutralize whatever agent he’d been exposed to. Fuck, she was trying to prevent the insanity from manifesting.

Suddenly, as if a switch had been thrown, the fire vanished. Or, if not vanished, at least diminished. The agony fell from two thousand back to a ten, then eight…five…

Aiden lay there gasping for breath, his BDUs and hair soaked with sweat. His thigh still burned with the flames of hell, but the intensity was lessening by the second. The men pinning him to the ground released their grips and backed off. On the plus side, he wasn’t cold anymore. He forced himself up to check on Kait. A healing that intense must have wiped her out.

He found Kait and Cosky flat on the ice-crusted ground, with Rawls dribbling water over their faces and hands. Aiden grabbed a bottle for himself and took a long swig before pouring the rest of it over his lobster red thigh. The water appeared to bubble for a second after hitting his skin. When it slid off, it took a good bit of the redness with it. He flopped back with a long, beaten sigh.

“They good?” he asked. Rawls would know who he was referring to.

“Good as can be for now, I reckon.” Rawls’s voice grew stronger. Aiden opened his eyes as his former teammate crouched over him. “At least you ain’t bleedin’ out no more.”

Aiden frowned. “I wasn’t bleeding out.”

Rawls offered an unconvinced scoff and poured more water over Aiden’s pinkish-red thigh. A guttural groan came from behind them, followed by a scuffing sound. Aiden propped himself up on his elbows and watched Cosky gently take Kait’s curled hands and turn them toward him. The hiss that escaped his brother-in-law’s tight mouth told Aiden the extent of the damage. A sliver of guilt pierced the exhaustion. She’d been hurt because of him. But dammit…

“I told her to leave it alone.” The frustrated admonishment burst from him as fear set in again. What if he’d infected her?

“You’re welcome,” Cosky said sarcastically, but his voice lacked heat.

He reached out and grabbed Rawls’ open med kit, dragging it closer. After a bit of rummaging, his hand emerged with a tube of cream, which he squirted generously on both of Kait’s hands. After spreading the white cream across both of her palms, he returned to the med kit for gauze pads and wraps. Other than a couple of hisses, Kait lay there placidly, letting Cosky tend to her.

That alone told Rawls how much energy the recent healing had taken. Kait hated being babied. Guilt prickled again. He pushed it aside. Dammit, her exhaustion wasn’t his fault. He’d tried to stop her.

After a few long minutes of silence, Kait stirred. “I’m okay.” She pushed Cosky’s hand away.

Cosky pulled back. After a moment, he shifted and scooted over to Aiden. His jaw was still hard, although the nerve tick had stopped. But the eyes staring at Aiden were chips of silvery ice. He’d locked his rage at Wolf down, but it was still there, simmering below the surface.

“Did you find the stolen drone specs you were sent in to recover?” he asked, his voice grim.

Aiden shook his head, his mouth tightening. “No drone specs. No sign of Kuznetsov, the arms dealer, either.” Bile burned his throat as an overwhelming sense of betrayal crested. “And get this—we were fitted with a continuous feed video camera for this mission. Ordered to keep the cameras running from skids down to evac. Montana said they were testing a new prototype. What a coincidence, don’t ya think? The bastard behind this got a bird’s-eye view of everything, including Squirrel and the others—” his throat closed.

Cosky’s muscular body went rigid. “You were set up?”

“I’m not counting it out,” Aiden said tightly. “Feels like some asshole was testing an infectious weapon and we were their guinea pigs.”

“Yeah. Feels like that.” Cosky shifted, scanning the bodies strewn around the clearing. “Scuttlebutt during the flight was that what happened here is connected to what Benioko dreamed about the other night. And you’re so crucial to the Shadow Warrior’s plans, the old man sent us to collect you in the new Thunderbird. First time it’s been released for duty.”

Thunderbird, huh? Aiden stared at the craft. The name was certainly apropos. But then Cosky’s comment sank in. This Benioko had sent them to rescue him?

He drained a bottle of water and stuffed it back into his pack. “So big bro didn’t foresee my imminent demise and haul ass out here to save me?” It had happened before.

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