Page 70 of Till Death

“Son of a bitch!” I burst away from the demon who’d freed him, ignoring its delighted snarl and calling on my power to try and wrangle Cole back.

Not that I had a way to redraw the trap. Not right now.

How I expected to hold him…I had no idea. But I had to try. I unleashed the tight grip on my power and sent it out toward him, hoping for a miracle.

“Cole, you have to listen to me. You have to stop,” I called after him. “I’m trying to help you, but I can’t do that if you’re running around. Cole, please!”

It wasn’t the first time I’d begged for him, and I knew it wouldn’t be the last, either.

There was no getting through to him, not anymore. The wild look in his eyes attested to it; the Cole I thought I’d seen before had disappeared entirely and in his place was a creature I didn’t recognize anymore. A sob broke off in my chest.

Cole launched himself forward, the powerful muscles of his legs tensing and sending him as far away from me as possible. Straight at Andre. He charged my vampire friend and rather than thinking, I reacted. Twisting my body to throw myself between the two of them despite knowing I’d be too late to make a difference. At the last minute, Cole shot off, and instead of killing Andre, the half-demon love of my life ran off and disappeared.

Rather than land gracefully, I slammed into the ground mouth first and tasted blood when my top teeth split my lower lip.

I opened my mouth to call out after Cole when another demon landed on my back and the only thing left to do was roll over. It lunged for my neck and I caught its jaw at the last minute, my hand whipping out swiftly and my light burning until the creature howled in pain. Throwing all my energy into a single move, I twisted its face until I heard the snap of bone.

That one is for Cole.

Had they attacked us so ardently for the sole purpose of retrieving him? Impossible. Why would they focus their attention on a Halfling?

Nothing made sense anymore.

The demon fell, dead as a doornail, and I tossed it aside as another one lunged. I slammed my fist into it in the same movement, using its momentum against it, and a small sigh of relief escaped when it fell to the side. My chest heaved and it felt like iron bands constricted tighter and tighter around my ribs with each beat of my pulse.

First Sean, and now Cole.

When were we going to catch our lucky break?

“Jade! We need you over here, doll. Like, right now,” Wyatt called out.

Swallowing the need to scream, swallowing all of my worry and frustration, I made my way toward Wyatt and Lisa, hoping the buckling floor beneath us wasn’t a sign of worse things to come.

I was wrong.

CHAPTERTWENTY

Ihurried to Wyatt’s side, wondering if it was the best idea for Andre to be the one applying pressure to Sean’s head wound, currently gushing blood like a fire hydrant. Not that I thought Andre would steal a sip or two to replenish his power stores, but still, it gave me pause.

The floor continued to buckle and crack, and steam escaped from the fissure in the middle of the room.

Definitely not good.

Eli kept up the good fight and launched one of the demons over our heads while I bent beside Sean.

“What do you need?” I asked.

“The blood isn’t stopping,” he said, his eyes wide with worry. “We’ve got to get him out of here.”

Sean groaned. He shook his head back and forth and every ounce of color leached from his face. Tamara was at his side a moment later, elbowing all of us out of the way, including Andre.

“You’re only going to make it worse,” she snapped.

“You are, too.” Marla followed a moment later, Arianna only a short spell behind them. The three of them turned their focus from the fight to healing, although their powers pooled together slowly.

Too tapped out to do much good.

“Is he stable enough to move?” In this situation, I was useless.

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