Hot Blooded (Jessica McClain #2) 0

There was a ferocious howl and Danny bounded into the room in all his glory. He was huge and striking, with a dark brown coat. He skidded to a stop between Selene and Ray, snarling fiercely.

“Make no mistake, you will die, human, but first I will take this animal—” Danny lunged, hitting her shoulders. They went down in a snarling heap.

I jumped up, grabbing Tyler by the arm. “Selene will kill the two of them without hesitation. She doesn’t care about them. Go over and be a diversion, keep her attention. She heals quickly. After I pry these pins of out Rourke so he can start to mend, we’ll take her down together.”

He left without a word. I dropped to my knees, my hands working quickly to extract the silver needles embedded into his sides. They held open his chest cavity and were set deeply into flesh and bone. I had to yank hard. Oh, baby. Sweet Jesus. My heart lurched into my throat and I struggled to breathe.

Once the pins were removed, I threw them across the room and gathered his soft tissue and organs and placed them carefully back into his chest. Ohmygod. Ohmygod. I was close to hyperventilating. I tried to slow my breathing down. My wolf howled and gnashed her teeth. I took the battered skin and laid it together, trying to force the seams closed, but they didn’t line up exactly right. I hate her so much.

Rourke was out cold again, thank goodness. Selene’s spell, the one she likely gave him to keep him from struggling or getting loose, prickled my fingers as I worked. The spell was weak, since he’d managed to break it briefly, but it was there. I would have to break it to wake him up, but I wanted to see if his skin would start mending on its own first. “It’s going to be okay, Rourke,” I whispered, leaning over him. My fingers traced through his matted hair and down his face. My wolf stilled, both of us waiting to see what would happen.

He stirred beneath my touch as his skin began to knit itself.

He’s healing! My wolf barked happily. He’s too strong for her spells. Thank gods. A normal supernatural may not have healed from these injuries, but Rourke wasn’t a normal supernatural.

“Get off me,” Selene raged. Danny flew backward, landing on the wooden table, exploding it on impact.

I glanced up and saw Selene’s red fingertips swing around. “Ray! Get out of the way,” I yelled. Ray immediately dove for cover, his years of active police duty kicking in. When someone yelled duck, you ducked—or you died. He wasn’t nearly as fast as a supe, but he made it just in time. Selene’s spell smashed into the short boulder Ray had landed behind. It exploded, flinging stones and dust into the cavern. “Stay down, Ray. You’ve done your part. Now get the hell out of here while you can!”

Selene spun around at the sound of my voice, forgetting her human diversion in a heartbeat, which was my plan. I lifted my hands from Rourke’s healing chest, but not before I sent a flicker of power into him, crushing the last of Selene’s spell.

He started to moan.

I stood, stepping over him, putting my body between us.

“Get away from him,” Selene snarled at me, eyeing Rourke with bright lust. Her arms rose, red lines firing like sparks from her fingertips. She appeared to be a little worse for the wear, her clothes torn, her hair disheveled. “He’s mine.”

I was done bantering. I sprang, soaring into the air, landing on the first step of the dais on all fours. I needed to give Rourke as much time as I could to mend. Danny crouched to my left, still in wolf form, trying hard to shake the spell Selene had given him. Quickly, I tried to infuse my power through our bond. I could feel him, and I hoped he could feel me and take what I was sending. My father had said an Alpha could help, but since I’d never done it, I wasn’t sure. I glanced around briefly for Tyler, wondering where he’d gone, and hoped to hell Ray had the good judgment to stayed hidden.

A spell hit the ground inches from my feet.

Selene marched toward me. She took her time. We weren’t going anywhere, and she knew it. She had a captive audience in her cavern of death. Just like she had planned. “I will relish your death like none other.” Another spell lit out of her hands, racing toward me. “I will look back on this day fondly.”

I dodged it easily, bounding up the dais steps to the queenly bed, my nails raking the sheets, shredding them as I propelled myself over to the other side. I laid myself flat as another explosion hit above my head, narrowly missing the lit chandelier. The ceiling shook so hard wax flowed like rain, coating the ruined sheets. Not a great place for a chandelier if you weren’t a sadist.

“You can run all you want, but I will find you,” Selene declared as she stalked closer. “If I’m forced to, I’ll blow this place sky high. This is my least favorite home.” Disgust radiated from her voice. “It’s primitive and unclean. I reserve it for prolonged tortures and punishments only. You will die and I will regenerate.”

“You won’t be regenerating, Selene,” I called. “You’re going to wake up in hell once I’m finished with you. Isn’t that where leather-clad goddesses who sell their souls are thrown? The Underworld is itching for you to begin your work-study program and I’m here to make sure you to fulfill your duties. I’m sure the demons are rubbing their greedy little hands together as we speak.”

“I am not going anywhere near the Underworld,” she sneered as she came to a standstill below the dais. “I owe the demons nothing. The winged devils failed to do their job, so the deal is void. The demons have gone back on their agreement, so I am free of my debt.”

“I think you’ve overlooked a loophole in your contract, Selene. Tsk-tsk.” I lifted my head above the mattress. “You should’ve hired a good lawyer and paid attention to the fine print.”

“There was no loophole!” she raged as another spell raced from her fingers. The mattress exploded as I leapt down the steps, rounding the back of the dais.

“I incinerated your pets with my blood as they fed on me,” I taunted. “They turned to ash.” It was more like thick resin, but ash sounded more dramatic. “They didn’t pop back home to regenerate, they just… died.”

“Impossible.” Her fury shook things. Equipment lining the walls and chairs rocked in place. Selene was finally showing her true age. “What you say is impossible. Even I could not kill a beast from the Underworld on this plane.”

“Do you see any around here?” I mocked, glancing around as I lifted my head above the dais. “You’d think, with the steep payment of your soul, they’d be here.”

“Bitch!” she screamed, lunging for me, the rest of the bed exploding, sending cotton and splinters from the demolished headboard in every direction. I dodged the mess and ran, still heading away from Rourke. She turned, snarling, fingers waving again. “I will boil your body from the inside out.” Her voice held more madness than I’d heard before. She was becoming unhinged. That could only help me. “I will deliver pain and agony unlike any you ever thought to imagine. You will beg me for mercy.” Her porcelain features were harsh, making her look like the scary doll in the attic come to life.

My wolf snarled, readying for a fight. “You’re the one who’s going to beg, Selene,” I replied, scanning the cave above me, searching for my next move.

I spotted what I was looking for and smiled.

I love you; you know that, I told my brother. You get the hero award tonight.

Feeding a vamp actually wasn’t that bad, he said. Once you get used to it. I felt his emotions roil in my blood. He wasn’t lying, but it had taken everything he had to do it and I loved him for it.

I’ll get Selene to come this way. She’s losing her mind. This hasn’t gone according to her plan. You guys do the rest.

He nodded. Next to him Naomi’s stood, her face a mask of hate, all of it focused on Selene.

“After you die a painful, agonizing death, I’m going to take your mate to bed,” Selene announced, all her energy focused on me, just where I wanted it. “I’ll start by running my tongue over his chest—”

“That sounds lovely, but the party’s over, Selene,” I replied. “And the only one who will be licking Rourke’s chest will be me.”

I turned toward my brother and sprang, hitting the wall and bouncing off a large boulder. Selene turned toward me, coming forward just as I knew she would, her face contorted in a blind rage right as something whizzed through the air.

And pierced her right between the eyes.

25

One of Aunt Tally’s darts, the orange one specifically, stuck straight out of Selene’s forehead.

She had collapsed on impact. It was a sleeper. And it had worked.

Then Naomi was before me. “We need to work quickly. That spell won’t hold her for long.” Dried blood matted her face and hairline. Cuts and contusions covered her skin, mending quickly, along with a weird mark peeking out on her shoulder where her shirt had torn. “Come,” Naomi urged. “We need to kill her once and for all. Let’s disassemble her body to begin. It might not be enough, but we must try.”

Tyler jumped, landing easily next to us. “I need to check on Danny,” he said. “He was turning back to human last I saw.”

“I’m right here, mate.” Danny strode toward us. He had a remnant piece of one of Selene’s sheets tied around his waist. He looked awful, pale and exhausted, but I was happy to see him alive. “Let’s get on with taking her apart, then. I’m ready to be done with this. Not quite the adventure I had hoped for, but I’ll take it as a win.”

“Are you completely healed from her spell?” I asked, scanning his body to make sure.

“Only thanks to your power and my wolf,” he said grimly. “Without it I would’ve been a goner. That Goddess packs a serious punch. It made the goat spell seem like a bloody tummy ache.”

I nodded. I could feel his relief in my blood. I was relieved too. “Before we do this, I need to check on Rourke,” I said. “He’s healing, but he’s too vulnerable. Then I will kill her personally. If for some reason we fail, I can’t leave him”—I won’t leave him—“at her mercy again.”