Page 25 of Blood Bearon
“Khove!” she shouted, spying the figure lying still under the wreckage that had been meant for her. “Khove!”
Reaching his side, she went for her radio, about to call in backup and an ambulance when Khove coughed, and began to move.
“Khove, stay still,” she said. “Just don’t move. I’ll get us some backup. Some help to get you out of there. Just stay still for me, okay? Oh God, please don’t be hurt bad,” she whispered under her breath.
The wreckage shuddered, and Khove suddenly rose to all fours. Rachel gasped and shuffled back as timber, metal poles and framing, electrical wire and more all slid aside.
“How are you okay?” she said, gaping as he rose to his full height, shedding the downed roof like it was water in the shower. Debris simply sluiced off him, though plenty of ash and dust remained, turning his skin shades of gray and black, mottled after storm clouds.
“That tickled,” he rumbled, giving himself a shake before turning to look at her. “Are you okay, Detective? I didn’t have time to watch where I flung you.”
“Some cuts and scrapes. Maybe a bruise,” she said with a choked off laugh, reaching out to touch him, but stopping inches short, trying to see where he’d been hurt. “Next time, could you perhaps find a mattress or something first?”
“Not a problem,” he said, then coughed. “Next time we go digging in buildings that are about to fall down, I’ll make sure I bring a mattress in a box.”
The pair of them shared a laugh, then Khove sobered. “Seriously though, are you okay, Detective?”
She nodded, and together they walked out of what was left of the building.
“That was pretty stupid of us, wasn’t it?” she asked, looking back at the caved-in roof that had almost killed her.
Itwouldhave killed her, if it wasn’t for Khove. His presence had saved her, and somehow he’d escaped without injury.Majorinjury, she corrected, looking at his shoulder.
“Khove, your shoulder,” she said, reaching up to pull his shirt away from a gash in his skin at the level of his collarbone. Blood had already seeped into the material, adhering it to his skin, but she pulled it free.
“I’m okay, Detective,” he said, reaching up to taking her hand away.
Giant fingers wrapped around her wrist, and Rachel gasped as electricity shot up her arm and went straight to her heart, stunning it and depriving her of breath.
“Detective?” Khove asked. “Are you okay?”
She blinked rapidly, looking up at him. “You didn’t feel that?” she asked, eyes fixed on where his hand grabbed her wrist.
“Feel what?”
She shook her head, sucking in a huge breath. Had she perhaps just imagined it? But no, there was still a tickling sensation where he touched her. She could feel the heat as well. His grip was sowarm. Almost unnaturally so.
“Never mind,” she said with a shake of her head, lowering her hand. “But we should get that checked out.”
Khove dropped her hand and poked at his shoulder with a casualness that she could barely watch. How did that not hurt?!
“Yeah. I’ll get it looked at,” he promised. “But can we please try something other than digging through buildings that are going to fall down on us?”
She started to laugh, then coughed, clearing her lungs of some of the ash she’d likely inhaled when the roof came smashing down and stirred it all up. “Such as?”
“Let’s get cleaned up. Then I want as big of a map of the city as you can find.”
14
“Have we found any pattern to the attacks yet?” he asked, looking over the map of Plymouth Falls laid out on the table in front of him.
It was a huge map, a four-by-three layout of the city that showed him everything in the detail he needed.
“Nothing discernable,” Kaelyn replied, sounding slightly metallic and tinny as her voice came from the speaker on his phone. “The only thing is, and this shouldn’t be shocking, they were some of our largest holdings in town. He didn’t strike any of the small places.”
“Why bother,” Khove muttered, talking both to himself and his Queen. “In a one-for-one attack, hitting the bigger and more profitable enterprises brings him closer to his goal.”
“Exactly.” Kaelyn paused. “How are you progressing with the human police?”
