Chapter 21 #2
She’s a shifter. A formidable one. I tilt my head; her magic is weird. It bites at mine. Not with aggression, I don’t think, but almost playfully. I ignore it and the goosebumps that spring up.
A female shifter in my hotel, covered in blood.
Oh heck. If anything happens to her… it doesn’t even bear thinking about.
Female shifters are super rare. There are about ten in Europe. Ten. Wars are fought over them. They are coveted and squirrelled away like precious jewels, and yet, I have one covered in blood, kneeling next to me as she coughs out silver particles. I should heal her first.
But if I do, the black wolf will die. While I know she will not die anytime soon, the indecision wears on me.
A niggle in the back of my head tells me I know this wolf, but I push the painful thought away.
It can’t be him. Surely fate wouldn’t be that cruel?
I sit back on my heels and try to steady my hands, which tremble with fatigue and nerves.
You’re spiralling. Snap out of it. I need to think of triage.
“Please try to heal him,” she rasps.
This is a little more than repairing an open wound. “I will do my best. Come on, wolf, let’s get you better.” I don’t know anyone who could fix this. I mentally roll up my sleeves, take a deep breath, and get to work.
With my heart still hammering, I thread my fingers through the wolf’s beautiful, densely packed fur.
His outer layer is coarse, and the downy undercoat super soft.
I gently probe his wounds. He has chunks of silver sticking out of him.
Like a furry pin cushion. I know if I don’t get the silver out, and he doesn’t bleed to death first, the metal will poison him and cause necrosis.
I can do this. Yes, it is a complicated procedure, but I can heal him. I’m the only one here who can.
This time, I close my eyes. I need all my concentration as I reach out with my magic.
Cautiously, I touch the shifter’s energy with the intention of not disturbing it.
I imagine the pad of my finger brushing a pool of water so softly the tension breaks and the water ripples out. My magic is the ripple.
Gently, oh so gently, I follow the ripples through the tissues of his body, hunting out even the minuscule amount of silver nanoparticles. Destroying any trace of the dangerous silver oxide while also repairing his cells. Each cell vibrates at a slightly different frequency. I must match it.
On and on my magic travels, destroying and repairing until… there is nothing left.
Everything inside of him is normal.
“I did it,” I whisper. I gently stroke him and then turn my attention to Forrest. “Okay. Now you.”
“You are exhausted. I can wait.”
“No, you can’t. Please?” I hold my hand out, and with a scowl, she places her dainty, pale hand in mine.
I do the same thing. This time it is much faster as the silver has settled only in the places where she has breathed it in.
Her nasal passages, trachea, and the delicate bronchial tree of the lungs. “There,” I say with a satisfied smile.
“Thank you.”
“You are welcome.”
“This is your fault. If you hadn’t encouraged him to work for the fae, this would have never happened,” an angry voice snarls. I sigh and lift my head.
“Arsehole, can’t you just, you know, like, not be a prick for five minutes?” Forrest growls at the tall, fierce-looking blond man standing above us.
Another shifter.
“Forrest,” he growls back, his green eyes flashing.
“Fuck you.” She flips him off with both middle fingers and turns away. When she catches my eye, she smiles sheepishly. “Sorry about my brother. He’s a dick.”
I give a small chin lift in acknowledgement and duck my head back down to assess the black wolf. He still hasn’t woken up, and I am worried I have done something wrong.
Forrest’s brother prowls around us, and in response to his aggressive body language, she gently lowers the wolf’s head to the floor and stands.
Using her tiny frame to block her brother from getting any closer, she herds him away from us.
With each step, she pokes him in the middle of his chest. My lips twitch. I like her style.
“Yeah, ’cause he isn’t in any danger while working with you,” she scoffs. “What a load of crap.” Poke, poke. “Next time, use your own guys and leave my friends alone. The fae don’t need your kind of help, arsehole.”
“No fighting at The Sanctuary,” I mutter.
I ignore them as they continue to bicker.
With growing panic, my magic washes over the wolf.
Again, I check him, his blood, his cells, and I can’t find any trace of silver in his system.
I scrape my messy hair back as I think. He should wake up…
any second now. It is then I notice that I’m still stroking the wolf’s beautiful fur.
I am too tired to blush. What a strange thing to do.
I reluctantly pull my hand away. As soon as my fingers leave him, the gorgeous black wolf shifts. It’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it transformation as he changes shape.
Beautiful, rich dark skin and a naked, muscular torso greets my suddenly wide-awake eyes.
I’ve never seen anyone this well-proportioned in useful muscle—ever.
I almost swallow my tongue. Mesmerised, I follow the rise and fall of his chest with each of his shallow breaths.
I force my eyes up his torso instead of down… The wolf’s grey eyes find me. He grins.
Wow. My heart misses a beat. Thank the stars he is okay.
“Hi, Flash.”