Chapter 14 #2
Dom’s hand tightened around hers. His lips barely moved. She leaned close.
He rasped out, “It’s still here. Run.”
With an upright jerk she stared around the dark space. Something lurked. Something large.
“There’s something in here with us,” Efrem whispered. He unsheathed his gun. “What’s in here?”
Dom tugged on her arm, his grip weak. “The dawn…the light. You’ll be safe outside.”
The blinds on the second-story windows that banded around the perimeter closed off light. It must be a matter of minutes before the sun rose. Light might weaken whatever lurked.
She rubbed away blood on his abraded cheek. “I got this.”
His wide eyes shifted color to become a glowing pale blue that begged her to leave.
As she ducked forward to grab Dom’s long sword, a roar blasted around them.
A beast the size of a T-rex skeleton she’d seen on display at a history museum shuffled toward them.
It used to have multiple heads. Five headless, smooth, scaled necks waved in the air.
One intact head remained. It sneezed, and spikes shot out its nose.
“What. Is. That?” Efrem gasped. “Get behind me.”
She gripped his forearm. “Do you trust me, Efrem?”
He slowly turned and met her gaze. “You’re my fight or die, love.”
“Run upstairs and open all the blinds. Let the light of dawn in here. I don’t think it likes light.”
He glared. “I won’t leave you down here with that. Let’s run for the exit. This isn’t our problem.”
“It’s our problem now.”
“We’re not one of your warrior kids who can deal with things like that. Our weapons will probably only irritate it.”
They both ducked behind a crate when the beast shot spikes again. Evie darted out to pull Dom behind the crate.
“Damn it,” she muttered. One of the spikes had caught Dom through a calf. “Don’t you dare die on me, Dom.” To Efrem she said, “I’ll distract it.”
“If you get spiked to death, I’ll be pissed.” Efrem checked the magazine on his gun.
“On three. One…go.”
“That’s cheating,” he yelled as he ran for the stairs.
She pulled off her hat and coat. Mary, we need to glow with light. I know we’ve only just met, but anything you can do to help would be great.
With her glamour down, she hoped she glowed bright enough to distract the creature. She took a few steps toward the remaining serpent-like head, which reared back as if blinded.
Excellent.
It roared a hiss-like noise, sneezed, and sprayed spikes in her direction. Although she dodged, one caught her in the foot.
Its one head squinted at her as if looking into the sun. It backed up a step.
It’s working.
Efrem opened several of the oversized windows. The sun’s hues of orange and pinks lit up the sky. The creature shuddered. It jumped around to roar at the light of the sun. Then it dissolved into mist and disappeared.
A choked groan escaped her when the pain in her foot knocked her to a hard sit.
She lowered her head and gasped for breath until she could push down the burning sensation.
The spike had to be coated in poison. It took a few moments to gather her strength.
After a rapid inhale, she ripped the foot-long spike out.
The smell of blood whipped up her nose. Not looking… not looking. It’ll heal.
She gritted her teeth against the curse dying to break free. No need to give Efrem ammunition for the told-you-so speech inevitably coming her way.
It took a minute to manage the impossible task of standing.
Dom was her priority.
“I forgot you have one, too, in your leg.” She ripped out the spike and applied pressure against the gushing of blood. “You have to heal yourself. You don’t have enough blood to spare at this point.”
Dom didn’t respond when she shook him. He was out.
She glanced up. “Help me get him to the car where I can bandage this.”
“Helping him any further is a bad idea.” Efrem crossed his arms.
“He’s coming with us.”
She reached down to pick him up, but Efrem moved her aside to hoist Dom onto his shoulder. “I’ll get him. You can barely walk.”
“I’m fine,” she gritted out as she limped behind him.
“The hell you are. Everything about this was the height of stupidity.”
Efrem practically threw Dom in the back seat. His glare threw more bitter attitude her way than she’d ever received from him.
He tossed their emergency bag at her. “Bandage him quickly. Then clean up your foot.”
Once done securing Dom’s wounds, she climbed into the passenger seat next to Efrem and worked on her foot. Her natural healing ability had already stopped the bleeding, but it was a nasty wound. Poison always took longer to heal.
“Where are we dropping him?” Efrem asked. “I want him out of our car and out of your life once and for all.”
Evie bit her lip and stared at Dom. That creature in there had kicked his ass and almost killed him. Did this happen often? Her heart wept for the solitary pain he must endure. “We take him home. It’ll be okay.”
“Home? As in our home? Since when do we bring home unknowns like this?”
“He’s not unknown.”
“Things like him like to kill creatures like us.”
“That was two centuries ago when lycans fought mages. He helped us before.”
“Why did he help us? What’s going on, Evie? You don’t play with a pit viper unless you’re okay getting bitten. I’m dumping him somewhere.”
“No.”