He shook his head. "The blast pierced my heart. I'm dying, Kateri."
"No!" Tears blinded her as agony tightened her chest. She couldn't lose him. She couldn't. "Don't leave me, Ren. Please. I need you."
Ren savored the words that he'd never expected to hear out of another person's mouth. And to have them come from someone as remarkable as his Kateri ... It was more than he could ask for. More than he deserved. Thank you for saying them. How he wished he could stay with her, but fate had made other plans for the two of them. "You don't need me, my precious. You were fine without me."
"I might have been fine. But I wasn't excellent. Not until you barged into my world, and stood by me while I was under fire. I don't want to be alone anymore, Ren. Just because I can stand alone doesn't mean I want to."
He kissed her cheek. "Don't cry, Waleli.... It's better this way."
Was he insane? How could this be better? "How?"
Before Ren could respond, a huge bear of a man appeared before them. Dressed in tanned buckskin, he was fierce and well-muscled. With his lip curled, he raked them both with a hate-filled sneer. "He sold his life to me, and this is his attempt to get out of his slavery."
"Leave her alone!" Ren growled.
"Oh please, Makah'Alay, don't bother. You have nothing with which to bargain anymore. In a few minutes you won't even have your life"
Kateri went cold as some foreign part of her recognized this man even though she'd never seen him before.
Grizzly.
"Now I've come to claim what little life he has left. He owes me that much."
Kateri refused to let go. "I don't understand. Why would you do that?" she asked him.
Grizzly answered through gritted teeth. "For you." He spat that out like it disgusted him. "He was always stupid."
"No," she said, fiercely. "Ren was never stupid. But you ... You should have taken his offering when he sent Enrique in his place."
Grizzly snorted. "A pitiful replacement." He reached for Ren.
"You're not taking him," she growled, ready to fight to the death for Ren. Summoning every ounce of her father's and grandmother's powers that she could, she blasted Grizzly.
The weight and strength of her attack shocked him. But it was too late. Her powers were too strong now. And by coming for Ren, he'd brought out the grizzly bear spirit in her.
No one touched her family.
No one!
Rising to her feet, she went after him with everything she had. Over and over, she blasted Grizzly as her fury unfurled and unloaded. Not just because he dared to come here now. For everything he'd done to Ren, and for going after and killing her father. He had taken or attempted to take everything from her.
And he'd taken enough.
"You've done all the harm you're going to. The Grizzly stops here."
He laughed at her. "What could you ever do to me? You can't kill me. I'm immortal."
"No, but I can banish you back to the source that birthed you. I'm sure you remember the boiling pain and agony. May you enjoy burning there for all eternity."
He tried to run, but she wouldn't let him. He'd given Ren and her father no quarter, and so she gave him none in return.
She blasted him harder. Faster. Deadlier.
Grizzly screamed as she sent him to the worst imaginable fate for any immortal being.
"What the hell happened here?"
She turned at Sundown's thick drawl.
"And what the hell happened to you, buddy?" Setting his shotgun aside, he sank down beside Ren whose skin now had a scary bluish tint to it. Tears filled her eyes as Sundown reached to check Ren's breathing.
Ren didn't respond.
Afraid he was already gone, that he had died alone while she fought Grizzly, she rushed back to him. "Ren?"
He opened his eyes, but couldn't focus them on her. They danced around as if he couldn't control them at all. "Thank you, Kateri."
"For what?"
"Coming back for me."
That opened the floodgate for her tears. "I would always come for you, Ren," she sobbed. "Through hell, storms, and demons. Nothing would ever keep me from your side. And I can't lose you. Not like this. Dammit, fight for me!"
He licked his lips. "I'm trying. It's why I'm still here. But I don't think they're going to let me win this one."
Desperate to save him, she started going through his pockets.
Sundown scowled. "What are you doing?"
"I'm looking for his degalodi nvwoti. His medicine bag."
Ren caught her hand. "Osda."
"It's not all right," she breathed in contradiction. Locating his bag in his front pocket, she pulled it out, then opened the red deerskin pouch, and started going through it, looking for something that could heal him. She wiped angrily at her damn useless tears. I have to save him.