Page 11 of Lower World
“Use your …” He cleared his throat, discomfort noticeable in his tone. “Umm … ability.”
“How nice of you to call it that.” My mouth twisted in a grimace, and I took a step away from him. Like it or not, he did make a good suggestion no matter how I felt about it. “Release the knife, Alice.”
Dominic turned to glare at me. Scrubbing a hand over my face in frustration, I regretted it straight away. Thankfully my skin stayed on my face, although it did feel like it peeled off of it from the friction. I needed blood, a shower, a few hours of sleep, and preferably for my head to stop spinning and pounding. Not necessarily in that order. All this was the Syndicate’s fault, and we were at each other’s throats for it. I wanted to scream, and maybe break something. None of that changed the fact that I didn’t use my curse on Alice.
“Do it, Brooklyn.” Tears burned the back of my eyes at the blind trust she offered me. I didn’t deserve it, but I’d take it, nonetheless.
Dominic shuffled his feet.
“Alice …” My breath hitched when a red glow bathed their faces coming from the pendant around my neck.
“Magic made it come off your neck,” Dominic reasoned. “It must be reacting to the spell they used on the human.”
“Alice, release the knife.” Power vibrated from my tone, accompanied by a bright red glow from the stone. I held my breath, and for the longest time nothing happened. Just when my lungs started burning, Alice gasped.
The knife cluttered on the floor between us.
“Son of a bitch,” Alice hissed and doubled over, cradling both hands to her chest. “Aww, hurts.”
I reached to pick her up on her feet just as Dominic snatched the breadknife, glowering at it. The shifter was turning it around between his fingers while I checked on Alice. Her fingers must’ve cramped from holding the damn thing this long. In the middle of the squeaking and hissing when I massaged her hands, she was saying something that didn’t register at first. Then her words penetrated my cotton-filled mind.
“So, I think that’s the answer,” she finished, watching me expectantly.
“The answer to what?”
“The wound.” Her chin jutted in the direction of my still-bleeding upper arm.
When I looked down at it, dizziness shoved me sideways, and I listed to the right. Dominic dropped the knife with a loud clutter and caught me before I did a perfect swan dive for the dirty floorboards. The tight grip made me press my lips firmly so I didn’t scream, but a whimper escaped anyway.
“She needs help.” I’m sure he was talking to Alice, but he didn’t look at her. “This is all your fault.”
My mouth opened to tell him just what I thought about that comment when my gaze locked on his. The gut-wrenching fear and panic in his green irises knocked all the air from my lungs. Dominic was so strong and stoic that most of the time I forgot how the situation we found ourselves in affected him. He lost his entire family and dedicated his life to avenging their deaths. If what he told me was true, Alice and I were the first beings allowed past his walls after that tragedy. How must it feel to him to see us hunted and almost killed? All the sass evaporated from me as I held his gaze.
“I’m fine.” When his jaw clenched, I amended, “I’ll be fine. I’m just little lightheaded from all the blood loss.” When he eyed Alice, my head was shaking before I consciously thought of doing it. “No, Dominic. I’ll continue to bleed, and it’ll be pointless.”
I was not feeding from Alice.
No way in hell.
“If anyone paid attention to the little human here.” Shouldering her way between us, Alice craned her neck so she could stare us both down. How that was possible I had no idea, but it worked. “As I was saying, I think I know how to close her wound, but we need to get to a store.”
“What are you on about?”
“Stop snapping at me. I’m a grown ass woman, not a child.” I froze when she poked the shifter in the nose with her forefinger. A deep, threatening growl started in Dominic’s chest. “And stop snarling and growling. I’m not scared of you. Taking care of animals is my life, if you forgot. You’re just a big cat with an assholish attitude. I don’t give a rat’s ass if you look human most of the time.”
My lips folded inward, and my nostrils flared. I tried. The fates knew I tried to hold back, but my chest was tight, and my throat burned. When it felt like my eyes were about to roll out of their sockets, I burst out laughing, slapping a hand over my mouth when the sound came off as a bark. Alice snorted before her giggles joined me. The shifter flicked his narrowed gaze from her to me a couple of times before his lips twitched.
“This is what I get for not leaving the two of you to fend for yourselves.” Shaking his head, he chuckled. “Let us hear it, human, and we need to get off this shit box.”
“I thought cats loved boxes,” Alice chirped, then she chortled when Dominic snapped his teeth at her in a mock attack. “Okay, okay, I’ll stop. I’m just giddy to have that stupid thing out of my hands.”
My chest went tight for an entirely different reason. I’d had this … this feeling of belonging and comradery only for a short time, and it was ripped from me when Veronica was killed. The hole her death left filled slightly, but that only brought a new wave of guilt.
“You and me both, human,” Dominic was saying, his voice pulling me from the piling dread. “What do you need from a store?”
“Salt.” Alice looked smug. “Lots and lots of salt.”
I flinched just thinking about salt and any contact it would have with my open wound. When Dominic grinned like a fiend, though, I squared my shoulders and stared down my nose at him. I’d be damned if I showed the large, arrogant fur-ball that I was internally freaking out already. Pushing away from them, I started for the cracked open doors, almost faceplanting when another wave of dizziness washed over me.
