Chapter 12 #2
I shake my head and struggle out of Leaf’s hold, but when I put weight on my feet, I wince and fall.
He snatches me up again, and my leg is caught in one massive hand.
“You’re bleeding, Mei,” my dragon grumbles. His thumb strokes gently over the arch of my foot.
I hate that I’m starting to love the way he’s saying my name.
I said I was leaving. That I was done. The part of me that was absolutely committed to that action, I suddenly can’t even remember. It just evaporates as Leaf gently tends to my cut feet.
“Look,” Ronit says softly. “We can use each other. Let’s find these creatures, defeat them, and get what we want. But you can help us hunt them, and we can help you fight that…whatever it was.”
“That’s Deux.” I say, furious now that I don’t have to be scared.
There’s something about the way Ronit says things with absolute command that has me wanting to walk exactly the opposite way that he says I should.
I grit my teeth and snarl, then remember I’m still in my other form and shift back to the human version.
“Deux?” Ronit says with a lack of interest.
“Yes. Take note of him; he’s an ambush predator, he will come after us again. Smell the decay in the air, that’s him. Do you remember the sound of his voice? The way he moves? Don’t forget it.”
“Noted,” Ronit says absently.
Leaf grunts. “We need Diablos to look at your feet.”
“They will heal,” I say dismissively and struggle, but he tightens his grip until my ribs ache. I snarl, but he growls louder and ignores me as he starts walking.
“Leaf-”
He snaps his teeth and lets out a low, throbbing growl that has me sitting perfectly still in his arms.
“You sent me away. I could have helped,” he explodes in a harsh mutter. “I am the Leviathan.”
I bark a laugh that just enrages the Leviathan. “He would have killed you.”
“You don’t know that,” Leaf snaps. “You don’t know what I am and what I can do. I ruled the oceans for eons. Everything fears me.”
I open my mouth to argue with him, but maybe I was too quick with my assumptions.
This is weird. I’m all ready to shout and fight with them, but they aren’t fighting with me.
What game are they playing now? I don’t know how to deal with them like this.
I rub my chest where a flutter of nerves is dancing wildly.
“So, what’s it going to be, Strega? Are we a team or not?” Lirin chirps.
I grind my teeth, hating that he’s the one who is asking me to stay. Like echoes of desperate days when I would have given anything to have heard that from him, back when I was innocent and full of hope.
“Fine, we can be a team.”
“Excellent!” Diablos says loudly as he approaches. “Good work keeping her alive, Sirens.”
“I do not want your approval, red one,” Reed says archly.
Of all the sirens, Reed is the one I understand the best. His feelings mirror mine more often than not, and yet, he keeps a lot to his chest. He’s the loner of the group and sits quietly, his feelings simmering, unnoticed.
Diablos chuckles. “You seven are the most prickly creatures I have ever met. But I am really glad that’s all over with. Now, you can go and hunt down-”
“Healing first!” Leaf bellows in a sudden shout that startles me.
Diablos gulps. “What?”
“The Healer needs her feet healed.”
I wasn’t sure he knew of my title.
“Yes, yes, of course. Take her back to your house, rest up. I think a week should do it. Then I will send you the details of your target.”
“Don’t you disappear, you sulphuric jackass,” Leaf snarls.
I gape, listening to the enraged dragon. He’s a lot more eloquent than he let on.
“What do you want now?” Diablos asks with an exasperated sigh.
“What is Rowanee?” Hartley asks, interrupting Diablos’ snarling mutters.
I stiffen and fight my way free of Leaf’s hold.
My throat is tight, too tight. “It’s another one of my names. I don’t like it. It is…not a good name.”
“My apologies, Mei. I won’t use it again,” the human says with utmost respect.
His immediate capitulation is a relief.
“Thanks.”
I said thanks. Like a real person. Like a human. Maybe I can learn to live on this planet.
My mind fills with the memory of Deux. Not while he’s here. In fact, I’m not sure the two of us can live in the same universe as each other.
“Fair warning. He’s going to come again. You should go somewhere safe. He will have caught your scent. Deux likes to kill anyone associated with me.”
Hartley hisses.
“We will go visit the Labyrinth.” Diablos sighs. “Hold on to each other.”
We fall, and then I’m standing on solid ground. The smells are familiar. It’s their home by the ocean. I will never admit how much I have missed being so close to the tumultuous body of water.
Not ever.
Diablos pats me on the shoulder. “The offer stands and…” he hesitates. “Be careful.”
Then he and Hartley are gone, and it’s me and the sirens and their dragon.
And we’re supposed to be not killing each other. I’m not sure what we’re meant to be doing, but it all feels strange. I reach out and bump into the kitchen table, but it’s clearly been fixed or replaced.
“Do you want to eat?” Canto says awkwardly.
I hesitate. It feels strange to accept this offer of them feeding me again.
“Yes.”
He leads me into the house with his almost silent footsteps and pulls something from the cold box they call a fridge.
A moment later, I’m hoisted up onto the bench, where someone looks at my feet and gently cleans them, and Canto shoves a spoonful of something frozen and sweet into my mouth.
I moan, more by the action and the memories than the taste.
The spoon clatters to the floor, but nothing else happens, so I relax again.
Canto feeds me again, spoonful by spoonful, until I’m yawning and struggling to stay awake.
Leaf picks me up and goes to the couch, sitting with me on his lap. I struggle to get free, but he refuses to let go, but then I’m falling into nightmares, anyway.
Dreams of mates who hate me and monsters who hunt me.