Page 39 of Wildfire Witch

SETH

We need you now.Despite the panic thrumming through me at the sound of her roughened voice, I kept my presence steady and calm on this side of the phone call. But I was definitely freaking out on the inside. What’d happened? How the hell did she get hurt with Ceridor protecting her?

“I’m on my way, Nix. Rusty is here with me.” I glanced over at the huge man taking up the passenger seat and most of the legroom, despite adjusting the chair back. He had his head tilted, listening in on the conversation with a shifter’s advanced hearing.

Dirt and dried blood flecked his arms in scale-shaped patterns where it hadn’t been scraped off of him when he’d crawled through the ground in the process of making a tunnel for my car. Most harrowing drive of my life, but the car was intact, and I had towels for him to sit on afterward so he didn’t mess up the leather seat. We’d stopped briefly to buy him a couple changes of clothes, as he was too broad to borrow Ceridor’s stuff and too tall for mine.

“I…I don’t know where we are,” Nix rasped.

“That’s fine,” I said. We would come to her. We’d been tracking Ceridor’s phone location as soon as we’d emerged from the getaway tunnel, watching it blip in and out of service in an erratic flight pattern which was pointed mostly east. “What matters right now is keeping you and Cer stable until we get there. I’m going to ask a few questions and give you instructions. Okay?”

“Okay,” she echoed.

“Are you two safe right now?” I asked.

Her labored breathing filled the line for a few moments too long. She didn’t answer with much confidence. “I think so.”

My insides iced at her uncertainty. A dangerous rumble sounded from the shifter next to me. I gestured sharply for him to quiet down. “Is Cer awake?” I asked.

“No, he’s out. But he’s alive. Benedict attacked us while we…while we were flying.” She grunted with effort. “Ceridor’s on top of me. I didn’t realize he wasthisheavy.”

The dragon side was overtaking Rusty, starting with shifting his eyes into a dragon’s glare. “Benedict attacked them. What the fuck?”

I didn’t know who the fuck Benedict was, and I usually wasn’t one for violence, but I would shank him with an ice knife if he came for Nix once I found her.

“Benedict’s dead. I think.” Nix made another grunt before sighing in relief. “There. Before he died, he bit Cer. There are puncture wounds. We crash landed out in the middle of nowhere.”

“Is she hurt?” Rusty asked.

My hand tightened on the steering wheel. We were basically out in the middle of nowhere too, which helped me focus on Nix. “He must be bleeding. Here’s what you do…” I instructed her how to staunch the bleeding. She put Ceridor’s phone down to rip what remained of his shirt for makeshift bandages, and I used the opportunity to slow and check my tracking app.

Shit.We were heading north on the only main road around, but it would be a good twenty minutes before we were parallel with where they’d landed. Except they were in the middle of a national park, it looked like. We’d have to hike to reach them.

“Is she hurt?” Rusty repeated, this time with a dragon’s bass fury underlying his voice.

There was a scuffle on the other side of the call, and I put the phone back to my ear. “I can hear Rusty growling from here,” she muttered. “Tell him I’m fine.”

“Then you’re up next,” I said with a crack in my calm EMT voice. Holy hell, I hoped she wasn’t too badly injured, with how far out we were. I leaned away from the clawed hand trying to steal the phone from me, glaring icy shards over at Rusty for his daring. “Are you bleeding?”

“A little,” she answered.Fuck. She seemed like the type to downplay her wounds. “I’m a terrible patient, Seth. All I can feel is the pain and heat from my curse. I might have a broken leg and not even know it right now.”

My brows rose. “Ah…I think you’d notice that, dear.”

“I’m ‘dear’ to you now, hmm, cutie?” Before I could even blush, she coughed a few shallow times, and my brows furrowed with concern. “I’m so thirsty.”

“She’s going into shock,” Rusty rumbled.

I adjusted my glasses and considered. She could be, considering the trauma she’d been through. “Are you feeling dizzy, sweetheart?” I asked.

“Did he say shock?” she asked. “I’m fine. I’ve just pushed my limits again. Just bring me some water…it’s Ceridor who’s in trouble. He’s…” she drifted off with a dry sob.

This time, Rusty succeeded in plucking the phone from my grip. I took the opportunity to rev the car’s engine and zoom faster through the lazy traffic around us. The cops could chase us if they wanted. Fuck it, I’d break supernatural law and use Moortide magic to make them forget why they tried to pull us over in the first place.

“Listen to me now, mate. You’ve got that fae all trussed up? He’s going to be fine. What you’re going to do now is you’re going to lie down for me.” He paused for a second as she responded, likely with sass, and he growled back. “Don’t tease me so. Just lie down and see if you can elevate your legs and feet on something, like a rock. We’ll get you a cold shower as soon as we can. Stay on the line. We just want to hear your voice.”

He put her on speakerphone and pulled up the tracking app again, holding it up at eye level so I could glance at it.

“Not much to hear right now,” Nix rasped. Her labored breathing wasn’t improving. “I’m lying down. What now?”

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