Page 102 of Griffin Undone
A soft, wet sound left her lips. “Maddox?”
The word was no more than a whisper, but I caught it. “Gone. He’s dead, Kitty Kat.”
Her eyes closed again. Blood trickled from her nose, mingling with the mess already marring her face. I reached up, ripped the sleeve of my T-shirt from my arm, and used the material to wipe up what I could as I murmured to her, mouth dry and uncooperative. Kat wasn’t listening.
“Kat!”
“Your blood won’t be enough, not this time.”
I jerked my head up to see a massive bastard of a shifter stalking across the room, power emanating from the electric-green eyes that shone through the shadows. For a single moment those eyes sparked a familiar memory, and then the shifter knelt next to me and the sensation disappeared. Watching the stranger rip a long gash across his wrist, all I felt was alarm. I dug my feet in and shoved my body backward, away from the threat.
The male’s hand gripped my knee before I had moved an inch, forcing me still. He raised his slit wrist to Kat’s mouth.
“No!” Male and animal roared our denial, bringing the shifter’s head around, though his hands stayed where they were.
“Quiet,” the stranger said, and time stood still—there was no other way to describe it. The shifter knelt, eyes on me, hands on Kat, and even his blinks took forever. A desperate need to protect my mate raced in my blood, in my mind, but my body refused to obey. Straining hard, I forced my gaze to drop, to seek Kat’s face, my eyes moving in increments of time too slow to measure. I heard her swallow, once, twice, heard the air fill her lungs with excruciating slowness, heard it empty, but I couldn’t see it and my own lungs screamed for air. Kat’s breathing became the lifeline keeping me sane, keeping me alive, keeping me straining.Breathe for both of us, Kitty Kat.
Then the shifter was gone and time sped up in an instant. I held Kat close, her body in my arms, and the shifter…
I looked up, into the shadows, and saw green, green eyes shining back.
“What did you do?” I asked hoarsely.
“Saved her life.” He casually licked the tear in his wrist. “Wouldn’t move her just yet. Give her some more blood—and have your healer look at her. Quick.” The male’s eyes flashed like a cat’s reflecting the light as he turned his head toward the front of the building. The faint sound of company coming whispered through the room. The stranger blinked, looked at me, blinked again. “Take better care of your mate.”
And then he was gone. I didn’t see him move, didn’t hear anything, but the presence had disappeared as surely as if he had.
Kat moaned faintly, and I forced the mystery shifter from my mind.“Sun! Where’s the Aomai?”
I was feeding Kat from my wrist, finally getting her to drink, when Sun and the warrior, Azrael, appeared between the boxes. I barely glanced up from Kat’s face. “Where’s Grim, damn it?”
Sun knelt beside Kat. When he reached for her cheek, I jerked her away. “Where’s the healer?”
A strange look crossed Sun’s face. “He’s on his way. What happened?”
I sat there on the concrete until my ass went numb. Azrael went to fetch Grim, who finally showed up with apologies. After examining Kat, he declared her in need of her mate, food, and rest, not necessarily in that order.
“Are you saying she’s fine?” I demanded.
“I’m saying she will be, griffin,” the Aomai assured me.
“How can she be fine?”
Grim tilted his head as if contemplating how to form an answer. “Considering the amount of power she expended outside, and what you described in here, I don’t have a clue. Your blood shouldn’t be enough to heal her.”
It hadn’t.
I swore the male frowned before he dipped his head, his cloak sliding down to cover the expression.
“Kat should be dead. She wasn’t ready, may never be ready to use power like that again. Small amounts, yes, that will help her become stronger, but what she did tonight…” Grim shook his head slowly.
“You mean turning half those Anigma soldiers into confetti isn’t allowed anymore?” Sun asked.
“Not unless you want her dead.”
“Or you want me to kill you,” I warned the prince.
Sun’s hands went up, laughter underlying his words. “Okay, I got it. No confetti.”
