Page 17 of Prey

I kiss him and then look down at Ethan. He just looks like he’s sleeping. Grabbing the chair next to the bed I scoot it closer to Ethan and sit down. Closing my eyes, I reach out with my magic. Checking over his whole body.

I don’t see anything.

So, I look again.

And again.

And again.

The fourth time, I finally ‘see’ something. It’s very small. It looks like a black spider attached to his sternum. No wonder the healer couldn’t figure it out. Hell, I almost didn’t figure it out.

Opening my eyes, I look at Kadi. “Black magic.”

He curses and stands, running his hands through his messy hair that has come loose from his bun. “Can you fix him?” he asks.

“I can, but it’s going to require me sucking it out of him. So, I’ll have to kiss him, and he’s probably going to wake up while I’m doing it,” I say, wincing.

“Oh, for fucks sake,” he says, slumping back down into his chair. “He’s going to kill us both.”

“Kadi, what happened?” I knew he was going back to tell Ethan about us. Walking over, I climb onto his lap. Reaching up to play with his hair I softly scratch his scalp while he talks. In the time it takes him to tell me what happened, I have very subtly put calming magic into him, and he isn’t as riled up as he was.

“Did…did you do something to make me calm?” he asks.

I nod. “Just a little soothing magic. No big deal. I need you as clear-headed as possible if I’m going to do this because you may have to pull him off me.”

I stand and walk back over to Ethan’s bed and look down at him. I don’t know why I’m so drawn to him. I thought about him last night when I was with Kadi and now here I am lusting after him again.

I’m a horrible mate.

He is very handsome though. With his long blond hair lying all about him, he looks like the lion he is. Too bad when he wakes up, he’s going to lose his shit. I sit beside him, taking his head in my hands, I press my lips against his and start sucking.

As soon as I press my lips against his, I feel the mate bond.

Well shit. That explains a lot. But no time for all that. Time to suck out the black magic.

I keep working at it, pulling at the spider thing. I shiver. I really don’t want this thing inside of my mouth, but I have to get it out of Ethan. He starts to struggle, and I know I’m making some headway. It’s coming out of his sternum, but it still won’t pull out of his body all the way.

Too late.

Very strong arms push me up and away. I find myself flying out the door into the hallway and crashing back first into the nurse’s station, shattering the whole thing into pieces. Damn shifter strength. I slowly get to my feet, brushing pieces of wood and debris off me.

Dammit, that hurt. Fucker. Kadi comes running out to help me stand and I limp back into Ethan’s room. “Are you okay? Dammit Ethan. You just threw my mate across the fucking room!” he roars.

“Um, about that,” I try to say but Ethan interrupts me and points to the door.

“Get the fuck out of my room, witch. What were you even doing to me anyway? Why were you kissing me? What’s happening?” he says, looking at Kadi suspiciously as if we were involved in some plot to murder him. I roll my eyes.

“Ethan, you’ve got black magic inside of you. You wouldn’t wake up after the wreck and the healer called a witch she knew to come help. It just happened to be Shasta. She checked you over and told me what she’d have to do, and I told her to do it. You’re my best friend and she’s my mate. What was I going to do? Tell her no?”

I cough and clear my throat. Damn my back is hurting. “Kadi, we need to talk privately in the hallway please.”

Ethan glares at me and motions for me to get the hell out. Yeah, yeah, I’m going buddy, keep your pants on. For now.

Kadi follows me to the hallway. I wring my hands and look up at him.

“Are you sure you’re okay, Little Lioness?”

“Just a little sore, but I can heal myself or get Jessa to do it. I’m fine. We have a bigger problem. Ethan is my mate too,” I whisper.

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