Kate Evangelista - Til Death

“Let me go, Sloan!”

He ignored the murder in the other guy’s eyes. “I’ll go after her. You stay here.”

“And do what?”

“If we’re not back in ten minutes, get Rainer. Don’t blow your cover now by going after her. She already knows what I am and what I can do.”

Kyle let out a slow breath then nodded once.

Not waiting for verbal confirmation, he darted into the forest, his sword already manifested. Whatever forced Selena off the trail couldn’t be good. The air around him sizzled with energy. He cursed leaving Sebastian in Newcastle. He’d insisted the hellhound continue searching for the Maestro’s lair.

Fifty yards from the trail, he spotted Selena and raced to her. She tripped on a rock sticking out of the ground and stumbled forward. He caught her before she face-planted.

“Where’s Penny?”

“Dillan!” She gulped in a lungful of air and said, “I don’t know. We were on the path and then she ran off and left me.”

He scanned the area, using his energy to feel everything out. Like a rubber band, it snapped back into his body. He cursed his limitations. They might as well be sitting ducks in these woods.

She panted and continued, “I called out to her, but she started running. Then I lost her.”

“You’re never walking behind me again.” He rubbed her arms, using some of his warmth to ease her trembling.

“We have to find…” She stopped, her gaze darting from one spot to the next. “Something’s here!”

Something whooshed past them. They ducked instinctively. A needle the length of a barbeque stick, three times as thick, stuck out of a tree directly above his shoulder. It reminded him of a porcupine quill.

Three more came after it.

Not willing to become a pincushion, he grabbed Selena’s hand, winced at the shock then shouted, “Run!”

They ran side by side. Dillan used his body to block any of the needles that they might not dodge. He set a bruising pace, zigzagging between pines. Selena gripped his hand, keeping up with him.

“Where are they coming from?” she shouted over the blood roaring in his ears.

“I’m not sure,” he answered through the noise. “Just keep running.”

Something sped past him. He stumbled, hitting the ground hard. The barrage of needles suddenly stopped. A burst of pain emanated from his side. He clutched at the wound. Selena slid to a stop then scrambled back to where he landed. Like a trained soldier, she yanked him behind a large pine. Then she crouched at his side and squeezed his arm. He grunted from the electricity that came with the contact as he leaned heavily against a tree. He couldn’t feel his legs anymore when she pushed aside his hands.

Her eyes widened a fraction. “You’ve been hit.”

“It’s just a scratch.” Sweat drenched his face.

“Let me see.” She bent down. He looked down with her. An angry cut bled out just above his hip. A purple haze surrounded the wound, spreading across his skin fast. His already rapidly beating heart sped up even more.

“It burns,” he said. “Son of a bitch, it really burns!” He breathed through his teeth. “The needles must be poisoned.”

Selena grabbed his sword and cut across the wound until blood gushed out. He bit down on another scream as pain spasmed through his body. Flaming pin pricks spread all over his torso. His blood felt like acid eating away at his insides.

As she began to bend over the wound, he stopped her. “What are you doing?”

“I need to suck out the poison.”

He shook his head. “We don’t know if it’ll poison you, too, if you do that.”

“It’s spreading fast. If I don’t get it out, who knows what will happen to you.”

Ignoring his continued protests, she bent over him and sucked at the wound she’d created. Embarrassing heat flooded his face at the touch of her lips on his skin. He hardly felt the succeeding electric shock upon contact. His body shook so hard his teeth chattered. She spit out a mouthful of blood and returned to the wound a second time. Seconds later, his eyelids drooped, but he couldn’t stop staring at Selena. She embodied some wild creature then, saving his life without concern for her own. By the third time she bent over him, the pain subsided.

“It hurts less,” he wheezed out. “How are you feeling?”

She turned aside and spat before speaking. “Nothing. Maybe the poison only works when it’s in the bloodstream.” She studied the wound. The purple haze was smaller now. She bent over it two more times.

About to pass out, he upended his sword so the moonstone at its pommel hovered over the cut. He’d be really weak afterward, but if he didn’t close the wound, he won’t be able to stop the bleeding. “Where’d you learn to do that?”

“Gramps taught me basic First Aid. I figured a snake bite would be almost the same as being poisoned by a needle. What are you doing?”

A soft crackle followed by a small shock entered his body through the gash as he siphoned his energy and sent it back into his body. He channeled as much of the surrounding life force as he dared without sucking any from Selena. Tiny sparks flew out of the moonstone into his skin. She gaped. Her eyes darted from his face to the wound. The blood clotted and the cut closed. Energy zinged through him from his hip to his shoulder blades. When only a welt remained, he pulled his sword away.

“H-how…” She blinked several times.

Dillan’s world spun. He closed his eyes and breathed through his mouth to avoid the coming nausea the power drain brought.

“How’d you know the needles were coming,” he rasped out. His mouth had gone dry.

“I…I’m not sure.” He heard the shrug in her voice. “I just felt like someone was watching me.”

“Like at the festival.”

“Yeah.”

Not wanting to get caught helpless, he forced himself to open his eyes. The world spun a bit, but he managed to blink it away. He returned his sword back to a charm, refusing to show any more signs of weakness in front of the girl who just saved his life. She pulled his sweater down and jumped to her feet.

“I think it’s over. Can you stand?”

“Yeah.” He used the tree for leverage, pushing himself up. The simple move cost him dearly. Besides breathing heavily, the sweat on his face turned cold. “Give me a sec.”

“Do you have a spare pair of jeans?”

“Do I look like the type who brings around spare jeans?”

She pointed at his legs. “That’s a lot of blood.”

“Just get me to a bathroom and I’ll wash it off before it dries.” Not dwelling on how bad the trek back to the amphitheater would be, he pulled out his bandana and handed it to Selena. She looked at him then at the bandana.

“Use that to yank out one of the needles,” he said, still leaning against the tree. “And be careful.”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s poisonous.” She pulled out one of the needles and wrapped it in the bandana then handed it back to him. He shoved it into his back pocket.

“What are you going to do with that?”

“I have to show this to Rainer.”

“Now? We’re in the middle of a field trip.”

Still feeling the effects of the blood loss and the drain from healing himself, he didn’t answer. The tree he leaned against was his friend. He swiped at the sweat rolling down the side of his face.

“We have to find Penny. If whatever those needles came from is still out there, we have to make sure she’s safe. What if she got hit like you did?”

“Let’s get back to safety, and then we’ll put together a search party to find her.” He didn’t have the patience to argue. Selena was his priority. Pushing away from the tree, he hooked an arm over her shoulders and guided her back to the trail.