Ben had jumped from the balcony as soon as he’d seen the woman’s hand going for the lock on the sliding glass door. When she’d climbed over the balcony railing, his heart had been in his throat, and when Tommy’s boot had come down on her hand, he’d wanted to scream in frustration. Did Hades really expect him to just watch this woman die?

Without thinking about it any further, he positioned himself directly underneath her. That way if she did fall, then at least he could soften the blow so she didn’t seriously injure herself.

When her scream rang out like a bell through the night air, a chill went down his spine. It was like he watched everything in slow motion. Her body jerking before the cracking of bones sounded, followed by her foot almost catching on the balcony below, only to find that the foothold wasn’t stable. She and the planter her foot had landed in began to fall toward him, leaving him prepping for the impact.

The emotions running through him, plus the adrenaline from everything that had just happened, brought his fury form as far to the surface as it could go, at least until he died and Hades kicked his soul out of hell. The extra strength and agility that he had naturally only increased as his fury strained against the limits of his mortality. When the woman landed in his arms, she seemed to roll out of them, not knowing he was there, and into the bushes that surrounded him. Before he could question what had happened, he realized he was still glamored. No one could see him.

Quickly, he teleported to the parking area a few feet away and removed the glamor so anyone and everyone could see him. Ben took off at a full sprint toward the woman, arriving before she’d even really opened her eyes.

“Are you okay?” His voice was tight with worry.

Eyes that were a swirl of brown and green peeked out from heavy eyelids. “Help me,” she whispered.

“Don’t worry, I’ll get you to a hospital. Just rest.”

Her eyes snapped open at that. “No hospital.”

Ben frowned at her. “You need medical attention. You just fell from a third-floor apartment.”

“He’ll find me,” she said as her eyes traveled up to the balcony she’d been hanging from moments earlier.

He looked up and found Tommy watching them with a white-knuckle grip on the metal frame of the balcony. Ben knew that the other man wouldn’t stop until he killed this woman, and if he didn’t want her death on his conscience, then that left him with only one choice.

“I can take you somewhere safe, if you want?” he asked softly.

She nodded and hissed in pain at something as she tried to move.

“Allow me,” he said as he scooped his hands under her and picked her up. He walked them over to the parking lot where he had left his car, having followed Tommy to the apartment complex earlier in the day. Getting the door open was going to be a challenge, but not impossible. He really wished he had one of those cars that he could just unlock with a press of a button, but he liked to think of his car as vintage, so there were no buttons to get in, just the one key that he had in his pocket.

He decided to take a risk and use the speed gifted to him by the fury within and let go of her legs with one hand so he could grab the keys from his pocket. Before her legs had even started to slide down his body, his arm was already coming back into place. He unlocked the car and was able to open the door using a similar trick. It would deplete his energy reserves faster since he wasn’t a full fury yet, but it was worth it.

The woman grunted as he laid her down on the back seat.

“Hold tight, this is going to be a helluva ride,” he said as he tried to buckle some of the seatbelt around her.

By the time he was in the driver’s seat, he could see Tommy running toward them at full tilt. His engine revved to life, and he squealed out of the parking lot, probably leaving rubber behind as they made a swift exit. He glanced in the rearview mirror and saw Tommy running after them for a while, before he slowed to a halt, fists waving in the air and probably cursing up a storm.

This might not have been the decision his fury family would have made had they been in the same situation, but for him and his half-sister, Cin, humans weren’t disposable. As soon as his sister entered his mind, he knew he would need to text her. She could at least get him in touch with the siren brother who was gifted at healing, Hal. She was part of their family, and though he was making progress in getting them to trust him, it was slow. No one there loved him like family other than Cin, and to an extent, her adoptive sister, Aster.

Ben shoved the thoughts from his mind as the car skidded on the tarmac as he rounded a corner. His place wasn’t too far from where they were, which probably had something to do with why Hades had assigned him the case. The old deep-purple sedan swung this way and that as he wound his way through the city, eventually coming to the apartment he rented. He parked the car close, but as discretely as possible, before reaching in and picking up the woman from the back seat. She was falling in and out of consciousness, which worried him. Without a moment of debate, he wrapped the shadows around them and teleported them to his living room. It would be easier to explain it away to her than to try to explain to strangers why he was carrying an unconscious woman around.

He gently set her down on his couch, pulling the throw that was bunched up at the end over her, before he turned and texted Cin.

Within moments, she responded, and a few seconds later, both she and Hal were there in his living room as well.

“She fell from the third floor of an apartment building. I don’t think she hit her head, but she’s not staying conscious. When she was conscious, she refused to go to the hospital, which is how we ended up here.” He took a breath when he finished speaking, and it seemed like not that much had happened when he summarized it, but it felt like the world had started to cave in on itself when he saw her falling. The sensation was strange and got under his skin in a way that made him uncomfortable.

Hal simply nodded and grabbed a glass of water from his kitchen area. Ben didn’t know how exactly the other man was gifted with healing abilities, and when Hal seemed to pull the water from the glass and turn it into a floating orb, he had to take a seat. The siren worked the water over the skin on the woman’s head so it almost looked like a helmet, before spreading it out and allowing it to travel the length of her body and then returning it to the glass.

“Good news, she doesn’t have a head injury. I suspect whatever made her jump from a third-floor balcony has sent her into shock, and her body and brain have decided that they need rest before she can be up and about again. That being said, she does have a sprained ankle and probably a few bruised, or possibly broken, ribs and two broken fingers. I can look further to find out the extent of the damage, if you want?”

“Okay.” Ben nodded. “Can you fix them?”

The other man nodded, and then Cin jumped in. “Woah, there, boys. I know you like to be knights in shining armor and all, but let’s think about this for a moment. This woman just fell from a substantial height and was somewhat conscious when you approached her, yes?” she asked, looking at Ben. When he nodded, she continued. “Okay, so how are you going to explain her walking away without a scratch? Just going to tell her you’re a fury and had a siren heal her? That sounds crazy to someone who doesn’t know the paranormal world exists. She might jump from your balcony when you tell her that.”

“She’ll have to get through the clutter first. Mia already got on my case about it, so I know there’s no way a human could make it out there and jump before I was able to stop them.”

She waved the comment off. “You know what I mean. She will need something plausible for how she survived, let alone survived with few injuries. I can’t imagine what it would do to her if she woke up without a scratch and the last thing she remembered was landing on the ground in severe pain.”

Ben’s heart sank. He’d hoped to get her healed and tucked away in a hotel somewhere so he could go after Tommy. Playing nanny to a woman with broken ribs was not what he’d had in mind. He could lose the trail he had on Tommy, or worse, Tommy could hurt someone else in revenge. He couldn’t just abandon her, though. Reluctantly, he said, “That makes sense, but I can’t lose my mark.”

“She saw you, right? Spoke with you?” Hal asked.

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Okay, so you’ll be here to ground her when she wakes up. Let her know she’s safe, and then you can tag out and Cin or I can step in.”

“Thanks for volunteering me, big brother,” his half-sister said, scowling at the other man.

“That sounds like a decent plan. Thank you both for your help. Can you at least heal her fingers? Maybe just leave them badly bruised or something?”

“Sure thing.” Hal worked quietly for a few minutes with the water focused around the two purple fingers. When he was done, he said, “Call me when you need to switch shifts,” and then teleported out.

“One thing before I go. I didn’t want to bring this up in front of Hal because I know he would disagree with how we normally function. You literally saved her life, didn’t you? The broken ribs are from you catching her?”

Ben’s heart raced. “Yeah. I couldn’t just watch her die.”

“You know Hades hates when we interfere in the lives of mortals. If she was supposed to die, he’s going to know, and boy, oh, boy, is he going to be frustrated with you.”

“She looked so vulnerable, but strong. I couldn’t let her fall and die like that just because she was trying to escape her crazy stalker.”

“Yeah, well, good luck explaining that to the big guy. And good luck explaining what happened to her when she wakes up. I’m going to get out of here, but call me first, okay? If she’s been stalked and attacked, I can’t imagine being watched over by a guy as big as Hal is going to make her feel safe. You and I might know he’s a big puppy dog, but she doesn’t, and at first glance, he’s intimidating.”

He nodded.

Cin gave him a quick, fierce hug and a light pat on the cheek before she jumped out as well. It was just him and the mystery woman left. The mystery woman with a sprained ankle and possibly a broken rib or two. Great. He knew a thing or two about human physiology since he was mostly human, at least for the moment.

Ben grabbed the pillows off his bed and gently placed them under her feet so that they were elevated, before adding a bag of frozen peas to the ankle with a big purple and blue bruise spreading over it. He pulled the throw a little higher before going to sit in the armchair. She’d wake soon, and he needed to be close by when she did.