Amused by Nick's acerbic nature that could make light of a very dangerous situation, Kateri blew air across her wrist that was stinging even with a guard on it. Her fingers were numb and she was sure if she survived to sleep again she was going to have nightmares about ghostly fanged things screaming at her as they died.
This is hopeless. She didn't say it out loud, but she felt it. She was sure they did, too.
None of them could move forward toward the caves. She was so exhausted from fighting that all she wanted to do was lie down, and let them have her. In fifteen minutes, it wouldn't matter anyway.
It'd be too late.
Fifteen minutes.
Strange how, as a student, especially in a boring class she hated, fifteen minutes had seemed an eternity.
Now ...
It wasn't even enough time for her brief life to flash before her eyes.
She ducked as something that reminded her of a flying monkey went over her head, spitting at them. It was acidic saliva she realized as it hit the rock a few millimeters from her hand and dissolved it like sugar in hot water.
Jess stood and shot it three times. It recoiled as it was hit, but it didn't kill the beast. "Didn't your mama never teach you no manners? You don't spit at no lady." He knelt to reload. "Flipping animals."
"Demons, Jess," Nick reminded him.
"Damn flipping demons." He narrowed his gaze at Nick. "Holy water work on them?"
"Only some. Remember, I still take Communion on Sundays and was an altar boy as a kid."
"Yeah, that ain't right."
"Couldn't agree more." Nick shielded her just as she would have been hit by another wave of flying uglies. Then he stood to open fire, literally, on the ones who'd almost killed her.
Nick would have teleported them into the caves, but since he knew so little about them, and absolutely nothing about their interior, he could slam them into a wall, and kill them by attempting it. Not to mention, they would be trapped inside, which made it easier for the demons to kill them.
She nocked another arrow. But what she really wanted to do was crawl into a hole and wait for all of this to end.
C'mon, Kateri. This isn't just about you. She glanced around at the men who risked their lives to protect her. Jess with his new baby. He didn't want to be here. But here he was without a single complaint. Nick who, well according to him, was only living to piss certain entities off. Sasha who had a crush on someone he wouldn't name, but who'd sworn that if he lived through this, he was going to ask her out. Fear be damned. Cabeza who would say nothing about his life.
Most of all, Ren. He'd given her his heart ... the only part of himself that still belonged to him.
The one part he'd never given to anyone else.
In that heartbeat, she saw herself as a young teen in the cemetery with her grandmother on Memorial Day. They always went there to put a red, white, and blue rose on the grave of Kateri's grandfather. And her grandmother, who was tougher than nails, who never shed a tear for anything, would stand there and cry for the husband she'd loved so dearly.
"How will I know when I love someone like you did Grandpa, Grammy?"
"Oh baby," she'd said, brushing Kateri's hair back from her face, "that's an easy answer. When you know you'd be willing to lay your life down to save theirs without thought or hesitation. When five o'clock comes, and they're not home like they said they'd be, and you panic and can't breathe for fear they're not coming through that door ever again. When the thought of laying them in ground hits you so hard, you can't breathe for it. Most of all, when something good or bad happens to you, and they're the first one you want to share that news with. That's how you'll know it's love, baby. There won't be any doubt whatsoever."
Kateri had never fully understood her grandmother's explanation. Not until she looked into a pair of shockingly blue eyes that carved one man's name into her heart and soul, and made her realize that her life that had seemed so perfect and happy, had one thing missing from it.
Ren.
And if she didn't seal those gates, the things it held back would come for him.
Hoping she lived to regret this blatant act of stupid, she headed for the caves. She thought she was running alone, until Nick grabbed her an instant before a ball of fire exploded next to her.
More demons came at them, cutting them off.
Crap. It was no use. All she'd done was move them from cover and left them exposed to die.
I'm so sorry.
"Need a hand?"
Her heart pounded at that deep, familiar voice as Ren appeared next to her. "You're here!"
"Where else would I be?" Ren frowned as he surveyed the madness they were knee-deep in. "Why are you under such heavy fire?"
Nick gave him a droll stare. "Oh, I don't know. But we're really enjoying it. Fear has such a wonderfully romantic scent to it that they ought to turn it into cologne and deodorant. Eau de Ew. Let's all just take a minute, and bask in it."
While he could be annoying, Nick had moments of profound sarcastic humor.
Cabeza cleared his throat as he appeared beside Jess. "We have five minutes, people. Then, it's going to get a whole lot worse."
Ren held his hand out to her. "You ready?"
"Absolutely."
She placed her cold hand inside his that was so warm, it sent chills over her. The strength of him was electrifying. And if she had to die tonight, she was glad his would be the last face she saw.
Ren flashed her into the cave effortlessly. Having spent centuries here, he knew every inch of this valley like the back of his hand, and he knew exactly which cave held the mural they needed for the Reset.