Page 43 of Dark Desire
He kicked the headless corpse off him and collapsed back down into the dirt as I sprinted to his side. Falling to my knees, a choked cry erupted from my mouth at the state of him. Open gashes across his torso and a gaping hole in his side showed the movement of his guts that made bile rise to my throat. I ripped my coat off and pressed it into his side to slow the amount of blood he was losing at a rapid rate. His face was battered and bleeding, and from the dark bruising, it looked like his ankle and a few of his ribs were broken.
“Zoran!” I cried, holding the coat to his side and pressing my hand to his forehead. “Can you hear me?”
“A-m-” he coughed and wheezed, blood pooling in his mouth as he turned his head and spat it onto the ground. “Am-broz.”
I frowned because I had no idea what he was trying to say. “It’s okay. You’re going to be okay. I’m so sorry!” I looked over his body with pure horror as fresh tears sprang to my eyes. If he was any other supernatural, he’d be dead by now, but the only hope I was clinging to was that he was half-demon. Surely, he couldn’t die from these wounds.
“Say… it. P-please,” he wheezed, his head turning to stare up at me. Those inky black eyes met mine and I felt a deep connection I’d never experienced before.
“Say what?” I whispered as I stroked his cheek tenderly.
“My…n-name. A-mbroz.”
I smiled through my tears. “Ambroz. You’re going to be okay, Ambroz,” I whispered as he groaned with what sounded like a mix of pain and satisfaction. And then he passed out.
I leaned back on my knees, panicking about what the hell to do. I needed help. My magic was too weak to get him back to the church so I could tend his wounds and I needed a light witch who knew healing potions. I was so out of my depth. A bulge that radiated magical essence in his jean pocket caught my attention and I pushed my hand in gently to pull out a crystal. I could feel its powerful energy in my palm and knew for a fact it was enchanted. I held it tighter and gave it a rub, unsure what I would gain from it.
A green swirl appeared in front of us, and a man stepped through, half-dressed with unruly light brown hair, rubbing his stunning multi-coloured eyes.
“Z-dog, do you ever fucking listen? I said between sunrise and sun-” he abruptly stopped talking when he saw me on the floor, kneeling over Ambroz’s battered body. His eyes drank him in and then snapped to me. A sudden bolt of magic was flung at my chest and I was levitated into the air in invisible binds. “What the fuck did you do to him?”
“I-I didn’t!” I panicked, my breath sharpening at the added pressure of his magic. “It was another demon! Look behind you!”
The man narrowed his gaze and then peered over his shoulder at the mangled corpse of the headless demon.
“Are you Zoran’s friend? He needs help!” I cried. “Please. I used too much of my magic tonight. I can’t help him.”
The man faced me again and then slowly lowered me to the ground. He kept me in a bind as he knelt next to Ambroz and looked over his injuries. “Fucking hell. The nutter has a bloody death wish.”
“Please help him,” I begged, my voice wavering with emotion. “Is he going to die?”
The warlock shook his head. “Nah. He’ll heal. But he’s going to need some help from us both.” He stood up again and released me from the magical binds. I exhaled in relief from the pressure and hearing that Zoran would be okay. “So you’re the infamous Darcelle Knightsbridge. Or should I say Darcelle Raine?”
I froze, my face paling. No one had called me that since I was a child. “How do you-”
He chuckled, folding his arms across his chest and shaking his head. “Ah, fuck’s sake. He still hasn’t asked you, has he?”
“Asked me what?”
“Never mind. Let’s get this liability all fixed up and you two can have an overdue catch-up, yeah?” He threw a ball of fire energy at the demon’s corpse, setting his body alight before he flicked his wrist, and Ambroz’s body lifted off the floor, hovering between us. “I’m Leif, by the way. Zoran’s one and only friend.”
“Darcie,” I answered, finding this man’s calm and unbothered attitude somewhat comforting. The fact that he wasn’t freaking out like me had to be a good sign that Zoran would be okay. I led us back towards the church, keeping my hand on Ambroz’s chest because touching him seemed to ease my anxiety a little. When we strolled through the graveyard, Leif whistled and nodded.
“Impressive. Love what you’ve done to the place,” he bantered, sensing all my wards and charms. I smiled a little. “Though you couldn’t keep this one out, could you?”
His devilish smile made me pause. “You helped him get into my church, didn’t you? I’ve been going crazy trying to work out how he got past them and still tried to kill me.”
“Guilty.” Leif lifted his hands in the air with a cheeky smile. “And I sincerely apologise for being an accomplice to attempted murder, but in our defence…we did think you were an old witchand slayer who murdered his father, trapped him as a raven for centuries and tried to hide from your own soulmate.”
I stopped walking as Leif lowered Ambroz down on my sofa. “That’s why he wants to kill me?!”
“Again,” Leif said, waving his hand between me and the demon. “This is between you two. But to summarise, until two weeks ago, he had been a bird for centuries. He’s antisocial, hot-headed and isn’t a big talker, so you might need to take the lead on this one. Do you have any bandages, herbs, or ointments?”
I swallowed and nodded, dashing upstairs to get everything he’d need. I sat on the sofa, feeling helpless as I watched the warlock work, blending healing concoctions to help speed the process up. I frowned when I realised he was using light magic, but before he paralysed me, he’d used dark.
“Are you a light warlock?”
He lifted his head as he finished tying one of the bandages around Ambroz’s stomach. “Both.”
