Page 36 of Ashes

17

TANNER

When we arrive at the cabin, we find Mack stretched out on the couch, pants rolled up, Nova bent over his leg trying to clean a nasty as hell spell burn.

“Lucky I grabbed this on the way out.” I hold up my medical bag. The only thing I managed to take from the carnage of our final few moments in The Hollow.

“What happened?” Nova rushes over to us. “Are you three all right?”

“We couldn’t fight them off any longer,” Kole says, adrenaline making his voice grate like sandpaper on his tongue. He shudders. The veins in his arms are bulging.

“Nico?” Nova asks, concern shimmering around her—even if she doesn’t want it to.

Kole shakes his head. “By the time we got inside, he was gone.”

I interrupt, looking at Mack. “We had to leave, Mack. I’m sorry. I don’t know what they’ll do to the place.”

“You think I care about that?” he asks, pushing himself up onto his elbows. “As long as you’re all right.”

“We’re fine.” Luther says before promptly wobbling on the spot.

I tuck his arm around my shoulders and steady him. Depositing him in an armchair, I fetch him some water. “You need to get your core temp down.” I nod for him to drink it.

Luther pulls off his shirt. Beads of sweat cling to his skin. He leans forward onto his knees and drinks the whole glass in one. I refill it and gesture for him to drink another.

“We weren’t followed,” he tells Mack. “Borrowed a car. Masked it.”

Mack nods. Masking is a restricted incantation—for use by police and SDB only. At this point, however, his and Luther’s careers are pretty much down the tube anyway.

“Cellphones?” Mack asks, wincing as I sit on the coffee table and start to examine his leg.

“Did ours in the car,” Luther replies. “Yours?”

Mack moves his gaze to the two cells sitting next to me. “Done.”

“Good.” Luther holds out his glass for a refill. I oblige. He drinks it quickly, wipes his mouth, then says, “Then we just have one thing left to hide.” He raises his eyes to the ceiling. “This place.”

“Luther…” Mack tries to sit up, but I put my hand on his knee and shake my head at him; the spell burn is deep and nasty. Blackened flesh around the edges of the burn shows an infection will take hold if it’s not cleaned up properly. “We don’t have the power—”

“Between the four of us, we can do it.” Luther glances at Kole, who’s still simmering with whatever the hell affect Nova’s blood had on him.

“No.” Mack sounds more like Snow than himself. His eyes flash. “We can’t.”

Clearing her throat, as if she’s afraid to interrupt, Nova says, “Isn’t that what you did to The Hollow? Why is the cabin different?”

“We only shielded The Hollow,” I explain gently. “Shielding creates a force-field. Like an invisible wall people can’t cross. Masking is different. It’s literally a case of making it look like something doesn’t exist anymore.”

“It’ll give off too much energy.” Mack winces and sucks his cheeks in as I start cleaning his leg. “The Bureau will be looking for spell signatures. They’ll see it.”

“So, we cast a wider area. Wide enough that it’ll take them forever to pinpoint the cabin. Or at least long enough for us to figure out our next move.” Luther’s temperature is returning to normal. He shivers violently and pulls his shirt back on. I can’t be certain, but I’m sure I noticed Nova watching as he moved across the room shirtless.

Mack is shaking his head, still against the idea, when Kole says, “We can do it, Mack. You saw what I did back there. I’m still—”

“High?” Mack says, raising his eyebrows.

Kole’s eyes darken. “No. It’s different from that.” He pauses, clearly not able or willing to get into whatever is going on in his head and body since he sunk his teeth into our girl. “My powers have quadrupled. I’m strong. And if we add Nova…”

“Nova?” I ask, spreading thick anti-burn gel onto Mack’s leg.

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