Chapter 8 Beyond the Hunt #2
“What are you two seeing?” I griped, scooting forward as far as I could around the ammo boxes and duffles full of gear.
“Just look.” Cas gestured toward the pile of bags, a disheveled heap that seemed out of place amid the manicured landscape.
“Great, now I’m getting bad vibes,” I muttered.
“Stay sharp.” Cas’ hand was on the door handle.
Big bro lived at crisis level readiness twenty-four seven, but when he ratcheted up to DEFCON 3, shit was about to get real. The playful banter slipping away like water through my fingers, I doubled-checked that the pistols holstered at my waist were locked and loaded.
“Just suitcases.” I rolled my eyes.
He didn’t dignify that with a response. Instead, the second Ko brought the SUV to a stop, he dove out, Ko right after him, and neither of them took their eyes from the pile of luggage.
With a sigh, I bailed, too, and the first thing I noticed was the thick stew of magic that made my nose wrinkle. Foul and noxious, like burnt hair mixed with decay. Worse than when we’d crawled through New York City sewers after a pair of gator spirits.
“Dark magic,” I muttered, even though I knew my brothers recognized it as well as I did. There was another interesting smell, too. “And dire wolf. Oh, goodie. Target practice.”
Cas stood scanning the sprawling estate as if searching for something or someone, mentally mapping escape routes and assessing vulnerabilities. It was what he did, what we all did, when something didn’t add up.
Then he went stiff as a board.
“You smell it?” he hissed.
“Blood.” Ko nodded, throat clicking. “And infection.”
“Bio bomb?” I grunted, and they shrugged in unison.
Ko headed for the cluster of luggage, his long strides eating up the distance before he came to a dead stop, his eyes locked on something at his feet.
And then I saw her. A girl, half-hidden among the baggage, her body limp and still. Her long golden curls splayed in a lumpy fan above her head, half-covering a brown duffle bag that looked stuffed enough to burst at the seams.
My heart gave a strange, jarring thud. She looked fragile. Delicate. Like something that might shatter if you breathed too hard. Her injuries were obvious: Bruise at her temple, split bottom lip, one ankle red and swollen, and a nasty welt on her jaw.
And shoe prints, fucking shoe prints, were all over her.
“Cruor,” I muttered under my breath. “What happened to her?”
Cas was beside her in a heartbeat, crouching down with a speed that would’ve been impressive if I weren’t too busy trying to process what I was seeing. Koa knelt, too, his movements slower, almost hesitant. I stayed standing, knowing one of us should be ready to move in a hurry.
Or shoot the hell out of something.
“Hypoventilation. She’s breathing too slow and shallow,” Cas said in his doctor voice, flat and dead calm. “Heart rate fifty-eight bpm. Not good.”
“And these marks on her.” Ko swallowed hard. “They’re fresh. Whatever happened, it was recent. Very recent.”
“Which injury is infected?” I craned my head to look for myself. “Can you see?”
“No,” Ko grumbled. “Need to get her inside and take a look.”
“How infected do you think we’re talking? Like, septic? Because I ain’t looking to puke right now—”
“Four days ago I watched you eat gas station sushi off of a garage floor,” Cas scoffed. “You can handle it.”
I shuffled closer, my boots crunching in the gravel, and something stirred under the girl’s mass of hair.
In a flash, I had my guns in my hands, thumbing off the safeties, and Ko pulled his favorite dagger from his ankle holster.
Cas held up his fist, a signal for us to hold positions.
As we did, a fuzzy charcoal-gray head poked its way out of the girl’s curls.
“That’s the dire?” I murmured. “A pup?”
Cas swept the girl’s hair aside. The wolf had stuffed itself inside the duffle bag, curled up in a ball with only its head sticking out. It looked up at me with eyes that were an unsettling shade of blue, and a low growl rumbled in its throat. Weak, but unmistakably protective.
“This just keeps getting better,” I said, trying to keep my tone light despite the knot forming in my gut. “Why is that here?”
“Why isn’t it foaming at the mouth and attacking?” Cas muttered.
The pup’s gaze never wavered, its hackles slightly raised.
“Never mind that! Who would dare hurt our bride like this?” Ko growled.
“We don’t know if that’s who she is,” Cas pointed out.
“Who else could she be with all this luggage?”
“I don’t know. A new live-in maid? We have no idea who she is, where she came from. What if this is all a set-up? What if—”
“Whoever she is, she needs help. We’ll figure out the rest later. I’ll carry her.” Ko was already reaching for the girl, but stopped when the dire pup growled at him. “Someone get the wolf.”
“Z, grab the animal,” Cas said.
“Why me?” I glared at him. He had a knack for barking orders without so much as a please, and I had a knack for not taking it lying down.
“I’m not exactly the wolf-whispering type.
Why can’t Mount Koa do it? Mr. Muscles is practically begging to scoop up the injured princess and her fuzzy sidekick. ”
“Ko’s got the girl. You’ve got the wolf. Just. Do. It.”
I let out a dramatic sigh, the kind that could’ve won an Oscar for Most Put-Upon Brother in a Supporting Role.
“Now I’m a babysitter. Perfect. Just what I always wanted. Can’t wait to put this on my moon-damned resume.”
Sliding the safeties back on my pistols, I re-holstered them, then knelt down, trying not to startle the pup. It growled again and dragged its body out of the duffle, standing protectively over the girl.
“Noctem maledicta,” Ko mumbled as we all stared at it.
Fur dirty, marred with scars, and matted with dried blood. Ribs far too prominent. Less than half the weight it probably should be. Plenty of teeth, though, sharp and strong, that it bared at me as I crept closer.
“Oh, c’mon, fuzzy,” I groaned. “We’re helping you and your mommy, and you’re giving us attitude?”
It growled louder this time, a snarl that would’ve been frightening if it wasn’t so pitiful. Poor thing had been beat all to hell, just like the girl. And for much longer than just today. Infection didn’t set in instantly. Starvation took time. Scars happened after injuries.
Rage swelled in my chest, spreading in little fractals through my veins—
“Focus, Z,” I heard Cas from a great distance. “Not here. Not now.”
After a moment, I nodded and stretched out my fist for the wolf to smell. It glared at me, then bared its teeth again.
“I’m trying to be a hero here, wolfie! I don’t need lip from a walking dust bunny!”
Despite its size, I figured it was too weak to do too much damage if it bit me, so I scooped it up, cradling it in my arms. It was like holding a furry sack of bones that was all legs and tail. In seconds, its head lolled against my shoulder, body trembling and eyes cloudy with pain.
“It’s a boy!” I called out after a quick peek.
“Congratulations,” Cas said through his teeth.
“Listen, fuzzer, we’re trying to help your friend here.
Can you tell us what happened?” I waited, but he just stared at me.
Something was off with him. Dires could talk to anyone, but this guy only seemed confused.
“Perfect. A mute dire wolf. Because this day wasn’t already a fang-rotted dumpster fire. ”
Yeah, this was supposed to be an arranged marriage. A deal, a duty, some political game we were forced to play. But staring at the girl’s battered body and the fragile pup in my arms, I had a feeling things were about to get a whole lot more complicated than any of us had planned.
Ko lifted the girl as he stood, his movements careful, almost reverent. The pup growled again, but it didn’t fight when I held him tight to my chest, careful not to hurt him, but needing him still while we figured this out.
Then a single word from Ko, and the whole world fell apart.
“Beloved?”
#
Koa
I cradled the girl closer and felt the weight of responsibility settle onto my shoulders. Unlike Cas, I knew this girl wasn’t a maid or a plant. She was our bride.
Which meant this wasn’t just another assignment anymore. It was personal. Someone had made it personal when they hurt her.
Even if she was only our pretend wife, she was ours, and nobody touched what was ours.
My thumb brushed against her cheek, a gentle attempt to rouse her from unconsciousness. Her eyelids fluttered, like the wings of a bird in distress, and then, suddenly, they were open.
Dove-gray, they met mine, and the world around us melted away.
“Beloved,” I whispered.
“What did you say?” Cas moved closer, his broad shoulders squared like he was about to charge into battle. His stern face softened as he leaned down, his green eyes locking with hers as he gasped, “Beloved!”
“Beloved?” Zane shrieked. “Are you two fucking around with me? There’s no beloved in our fang-rotted, moon-damned reality!”
I didn’t answer, couldn’t tear my gaze away from her face. My thumb kept stroking her soft cheek, careful of the red weal running just above her jaw and the bruise forming on her temple.
“She is our beloved,” Cas told him, never taking his eyes from our girl’s.
Shifting the wolf pup in his arms, Zane joined us with a disbelieving huff. The moment his eyes met hers, his perpetual smirk faltered.
“Beloved?” he breathed.
The truth hung in the air beyond all doubts. Three dhampirs, bred for war and survival, stood frozen around a battered girl who couldn’t have weighed even a hundred pounds soaking wet. And yet, there it was in her soft eyes: the undeniable pull, the instant connection that none of us could ignore.
Beloved.
Lucian hadn’t been lying that day in his office. Dhampirs didn’t find beloveds, not in the way vampires did. It was a fairy tale, a myth we’d longed to believe in, but never really dared to. But here in my arms was the proof of it.
She stirred weakly, her voice barely above a whisper as her eyelids began to drift down again.