Take Me Down
“Where are we going?” I asked Val, unable to make out any of the scenery of the pitch-black back roads.
“The Hideaway.”
“Why?”
“Because, Lover Boy back there needs a doctor, and it’s not exactly like we can take him to the E.R.”
“What are you talking about?” I knew the two had been in a car accident. Hell, Val had literally torn the deployed airbag right out of the steering wheel. But he, at least, seemed to be fine…
“Not sure if you noticed, but he was shot,” the ruffian acknowledged, so offhandedly you’d think it was a simple as stubbing your toe.
How could I not see that? The black material of his jacket made it a little less obvious, but upon closer inspection, the blood marring his entire bicep became evident. When…?
The Reaper from the overturned car.
I assume he had missed. Blaine hadn’t so much as flinched—
“The bullet went through,” my mate muttered. “I’m fine.”
He looked anything but. His eyes kept fluttering dazedly, as if battling to hold them open, and his breathing was labored.
“I just need to rest…”
Val accommodated the Cadillac with the bend in the road, the shift in direction sending Blaine to topple into me.
With the remnants of the drugs still in my system and the fact that my wrists were killing me, I couldn’t muster enough strength to prop him back upright, leaving me with no choice but to let him collapse into my lap.
“I’m sorry,” he muttered, nearly breathless.
“For what?”
“For not being there…”
“Blaine?” I swept the hair from his ashen face, not getting a response, even as I shook him. “Blaine? Val, pull over!”
Rumbling into the gravelly shoulder of the road, Val threw the car into park and climbed out to join us in the backseat. He checked his vitals, not appearing to like what he found. “It’s not from the gunshot,” he huffed. “Though I doubt that’s helping him any.”
“Then what is it?”
“How much energy did he use back there?”
“Energy?”
“Magic. Even for how strong he is, he still has his limits, especially without the mating ritual consummated. Plus, he used up a bunch of energy earlier.”
Energy? Magic? In all my stupidity, I’d just assumed his power was somehow infinite. “I… I don’t know.”
“Shit.”
***
The Hideaway was still fifty-plus minutes from wherever it was we currently were. And since Blaine didn’t require a doctor to remove the bullet, Val decided it wasn’t apparently worth the drive. Instead, he pulled out his cell and started relaying our predicament to someone on the other end of his phone call, simply replying “yes,” “no,” and “not an option.”
“Let me see what I can do,” replied a soft feminine voice on the other end of the call. “I’ll call you back if I find anything.”
“Where’re we going?” I demanded.
“My place, I guess,” said Val, turning onto another abandoned back road.
“Can I borrow your phone?”
The Mage didn’t really have room to argue, because despite Blaine still lying unconscious in my lap, I managed to reach forward and snatched the cell right out of Val’s hand. “Help yourself,” he muttered.
I ignored him, trying desperately to remember Reese’s phone number. The damn thing was programmed into my cell, so it wasn’t like I’d made the effort to memorize the digits, but I was pretty sure this was it.
Or not…
Apparently, I’d just woken up a rather perturbed old man. It was, after all, past midnight, so I couldn’t exactly blame the poor guy. I made a second attempt, and wound up calling a 24-hour donut shop. Seriously? Did enough people really need bear claws at three in the morning to warrant this? I hung up and prayed the third time was the charm. All it took was a questioning, “hello?” from me to get my answer.
“Jesus Christ! Kat?” Reese sighed. “Where the hell have you been? I’ve been calling your phone for hours! And you weren’t answering your door either. I thought… Wait, whose number are you calling from?”
I collapsed into the backrest with relief.
“It’s a long story, but I’m alright,” I assured. “I need you to go back to wherever you checked in, if you’re not already there, and just lay low. Can you do that?”
“Yeah, but…what happened? Are you hurt?”
I could hear the panic in his voice, even now, and tears swelled in my eyes. If this was what he sounded like after I assured him I was okay, what had he been like before? “Reynolds found me. Or more, his men did. But I got away.”
Since Reapers now knew where I lived, it didn’t seem like much of a stretch that Reynolds would have spies scoping out my aunt’s house, especially now. And if Reese showed up… I shook my head, not willing to venture down that rabbit hole. Imagining him being tortured for information—all because of me—I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself.
I told Reese as much, opting to leave out that last bit, and made him promise me to keep an eye out, to make sure nobody was following him, and to stay hidden for the time being.
He did.
And his assurance was the only good news I had as I hung up, because Blaine groaned ever so softly beneath my hand. I hadn’t even realized I’d been absentmindedly stroking his hair. The guy looked like death warmed over. Val echoed the sentiment upon pulling into some dingy motel off the interstate, seeing his brother still unconscious and paler than ever. Parked right in front of Room 108, he turned off the engine and climbed out of the car. Just as he opened the back door to where I’d been seated, familiar chestnut brown hair came into view, washed out in the hideous long-tubed fluorescent lights overhead as the fixtures sputtered on and off.
The young man seemed to notice me at the exact same second, because the ice bucket in his hands almost slipped from his grasp.
Reese?
He didn’t say anything at first, his eyes shifting up and down from my face to…
Blaine was in my lap.
Blaine Freaking Ryder was in my lap!
Val cast me a look that seemed to say, “What the hell’s with you?” as he tried to calculate which way would be easiest to haul his brother out of the backseat… and off my freaking lap! He finally looked over his shoulder at Reese. “You two know each other?”
I wasn’t sure if it was the look on my face or something else, but the Dark Mage did a double take.
“Ah-ha,” he crooned. “The magician.”
I shot him a warning look, not the least bit in the mood for any of his bullshit. Not right now.
He seemed to sense as much as he turned back to Reese and said, “Mind giving us a hand? Or is that bucket all you can handle?”
The fact that I was clearly annoyed—and not scared of Val—was the only assurance to Reese that it was okay to approach the Dark Mage. He set his recently filled ice bucket on the hood as Val instructed him to grab Blaine from the other side of the backseat as Val heaved him upright off of me.
Apparently, dragging an unconscious/seemingly-dead man out of your car and into your room was a perfectly normal occurrence in these parts, because a couple of guests walked past us and didn’t pay any mind as the guys hauled Blaine into Room 108. With my legs unsteady beneath me, I took my time hobbling in behind them, arriving just in time to see them toss Blaine onto the mattress.
Since neither Val nor Reese seemed to be a particular fan of the Crown Prince, they didn’t exactly treat him with care. They lobbed him like he was nothing more than a sack of potatoes, watching him hit the edge of the box spring only then to topple off onto the floor. Reese pinned a hand to his mouth, at least attempting not to laugh, as Val outright snickered.
I stepped between the chuckling pair and gave them both a swat in the chest, immediately regretting it. My wrists silently screamed at the action. The slightest movement pulled and stretched the scorched skin, bringing me to the brink of tears. It should have at least begun to heal, but the charcoaled flesh and burning blisters were just as savage as they had been the moment Nick removed the silver manacles.
Recovering from their amusement, Reese and Val returned Blaine to the bed, taking better care this time as they set him closer to the center of the mattress. A cell phone sounded off outside, and Val cursed, realizing it was his.
“Sooo, how’s your night been?” asked Reese, attempting a half-smile upon the Mage’s departure.
“Oh, the usual. Kidnapped, drugged, nearly killed. And let’s not forget the gunfights, interrogation, and brutal mutilation by Hellhounds.”
Reese’s mouth dropped.
Yeeeeah, I kinda, sorta, maybe left out a few details on the phone, and his inability to find the right words hardly came as a shock. “So, you’re staying here, too?”
He managed to nod.
Now that I thought about it, it wasn’t that surprising both he and Val were here. The only nice place to check into around Evermore that wasn’t a Bed & Breakfast was the Grey Wolf Resort. It wasn’t overly expensive, but it would still take a hit to your wallet, leaving you with some less than stellar alternatives. I supposed the Moonlight Motel really wasn’t as bad as it looked from the outside, and it was infinitely better than the fleabag down the block. I was pretty sure you required a rabies shot before you were allowed to check into that monstrosity.
Reese’s gaze fell to my wrists and then to the unconscious Mage. “Kat, what the hell’s going on?”
“Hey, what do you know about Transference?” asked Val, poking his head back inside the room.
“…That it’s a three-syllable word?” I offered.
Reese chuckled. “I think he means Demonic Transference.”
“Oh, right. That.” I fake-laughed, thumping myself upside the head. “How silly of me.”
“It’s when two demonic creatures exchange energy between each other, essentially trading their essence. It can be given or stolen, depending on the situation,” clarified Reese.
“You up for it?” Val asked, looking to me.
“Up for what?”
“Giving Romeo, there, some of your mojo,” he said, gesturing to his brother.
“I…I can’t.”
“Now is not the time to be coy, Doll Face. If he dies, well…I’ll let your imagination fill in the rest.”
I rolled my eyes. “I say I can’t, because I literally can’t. My runes aren’t working.”
“Come again?”
“I was dosed with Devil’s Pod. My magic is dormant.”
“Shit.” Val returned to his phone conversation, making mention of stuff I had never even heard of, so I eventually tuned him out.
“Why would you need to give him your energy? What happened?” Reese asked me.
I recapped as much as I could manage to wrap my own head around when he leaned in and kissed me. I froze. “What was that for?”
Reese took a hold of my left hand, careful not to touch the skin on my wrist. “Dr. Madsen called me on my drive back. He thinks he found someth—”
The Dark Mage interrupted again, sticking his head back into the room. “Have you bitten him, by any chance?”
“Excuse me?”
“Blaine. Have you bitten him?” By the look on my face, he didn’t really need an answer. “That would be a no,” he said into his cell as he headed back outside. Low murmuring continued, and he sauntered back into the room not a moment later, hanging up the phone.
“You find something that’ll help him?” I asked.
“Yep, you’re gonna bite him.”