Page 35 of Hunted
Cicely and Josh knocked me aside as they tumbled across the floor, nothing but a blur of shifting colors and shadows to my blind eyes.I rolled to my hands and knees and scrambled to my feet.I had to get to Cicely.He was bleeding...
A strong hand wrapped around my upper arm and yanked me to a halt.“No,” Martina bit out.“Stay back.”
“Josh!”Sadavir shouted, the word rough and harsh.I couldn’t track who was doing what now—there was too much motion to sort out what the shifting light and shadows and colors meant.But I assumed Sadavir was going after Josh, trying to break up the fight.
One mass of shadows was darker than the rest, a cluster of black that radiated fear.Dusek, materializing somewhere near where the two men continued to grunt and shuffle—probably still wrestling on the ground.
Sanka’s magic flared and he snapped, “Move.Binding spell.”
Josh screamed again—high, guttural, awful—and there was a thump.Then the room went silent, except for the sounds of harsh breathing.
“What happened?What did you do?”I demanded, ripping free of Martina’s grip and stumbling across the room to where I could feel Cicely’s life fading away.I couldn’t feel Josh’s lifeforce at all.Had Sanka killed him?
“Don’t worry about the vampire,” Robin said, grabbing my wrist and helping guide me to Cicely’s side.“He’s just magically contained.Your faun needs you.”
She wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t already know.
Cicely.A song started to rise in the back of my throat, but I swallowed it down with sheer willpower.No.I wouldnotsing his death.My healing magic reached for him before my questing fingers found him, touching his arm, sliding my hands up to rest on his chest, which barely rose and fell, his breathing was so shallow.
His throat was torn open.Hot blood soaked the fabric of his shirt beneath my fingers.Too much blood.The artery in his throat was damaged.His breathing stuttered under my hands as I began to pour healing magic into him.Seconds.It would only take seconds to lose him.
Ruya...the voice in my mind was barely a whisper, a fading thought.Lov...
“No,” I said, my voice cracking.“Cicley.Don’t you dare!Stay with me!”
My healing magic surged, hard and fast.Desperate to save him, I didn’t bother with control.My aura opened wide, flooding the space with light, and life, and something primal I had never felt before.I inhabited every cell of Cicely’s body, flooding him with health and vitality, knitting the damaged tissues back together, amplifying his body’s ability to produce blood and replace what was lost.
Cicely’s body arched beneath my hands.I dimly heard the gasps of the others around me as I accidentally bathed the entireroomin healing.All of my attention was for Cicley.His torn throat began to knit, too slowly.Josh—or Acacia through him—had done something to the wound.Some kind of vampire venom was doing its best to keep him bleeding and prevent his healing.
But my magic was stronger than that evil parasite’s desire to cause pain.I pushed harder.
I felt the wound fight me—felt the venom in Josh’s bite trying tostay, to fester, driven by Acacia’s poisonous intent.I bled my own energy into the spell, trying to draw the poison from her intent.I gave him warmth, oxygen, heartbeat, my own aura—everythingI had to give.
Time blurred.When I finally sagged back, panting, Cicely was breathing.Unconscious, but alive.Barely.Goddess, that had been so close.Only a few more seconds and he would have been gone.
Sadavir knelt beside me.And he didn’t bother with a translator, voicing just for me and Cicely, the words filled with anguish.“He didn’t want to.Wasn’t him.”Josh, he meant.
“I know,” I whispered, my hand starting to tremble a bit from the aftereffects of terror, emotion, and such rapid and unusually strong healing.Josh hadn’t meant to hurt Cicely.And yet...he had.
Cicely’s voice in my mind was stronger now, shaken, but nearly back to its usual strength.And he used it to comfort me.As ifIwere the one who had almost died just now.I’m okay.It’s okay, Ruya.You saved me.I am whole.Thank you, my sweet mate.
I clung to Cicely’s hand, but I felt Sadavir shift next to me, moving toward Cicely before I could do more.“He’s saying he takes full responsibility for Josh’s actions,” Martina said from nearby, translating for my benefit as Sadavir apparently signed to Cicely.
Robin’s voice was dry as she added, “He’s also gettingveryhandsy with your pet faun, Ruya.It makes me want to smack him for you.But...”she gave an exaggerated sigh.“I’m sure you’d enjoy the scene if you could see them.”
I shook my head at her, remembering the time not long ago when Sadavir had asked permission to hug Cicely in a time of distress.Everyone—including Cicely himself—seemed to insist that the faunbelongedto me.I was pretty sure it said something significant that Sadavir seemed to be treating him like his own beta...but my mind couldn’t focus on that just now.
Josh whimpered from somewhere nearby, his aura still suppressed by Sanka’s binding magic.
Sanka’s voice was curt and low.Full of barely-suppressed frustration.“Damn it.I thought we fuckinghad it.But the charm wasn’t strong enough.”
“No,” Yukio said, ever the cold one.“But itworked.That’s what triggered her wrath.You should keep it up, just to piss her off.”
Robin’s alpha aura swelled outward slightly, and she exuded an air of command that we all felt.“I’ve had enough,” she said, as she stood.
The room went silent.
“We’re done playing around, sitting still and spinning defensive spells,” Robin continued.Her voice was low.Even.Dangerous.
