No such luck. Oh, he is there all right, but slumped on the floor as pale as a ghost, with two little puncture wounds in his neck. He is dying from blood loss because I drained him. There is only one thing I can think of and that is to get him to a hospital. They will know how to fix him. I grab his hand and jump a mile when CK lands next to me with Devon over his shoulder.
“He seems to be coming to,” he says as he plops him lightly on the bed. “The wounds are closing. Slowly.”
I stare at Devon for a moment and I can see the rise and fall of his chest as he breathes. Okay, good. I look back at Cole and see that the wounds on his neck are also closing and he seems to have regained some of his color. CK picks him up off the floor and lays him on the bed next to Devon. Then we just stare at them.
“Aefre,” CK says. “What the Hell happened to you?” He takes my hands, crushing them, and I can see the fear in his eyes.
“Xanthe,” I say with as much venom as I can. “She did this to me. I don’t know how. But why is it affecting them?” I gesture with my chin to the bed because CK won’t let go of my hands.
“I don’t understand any of this,” he says, and I can see that pains him not to know what is going on.
I suddenly get
a jolt as my overactive brain starts to function properly now that the immediate danger seems to be out of the way. “They are surviving because of their father,” I say. “They are half Dragons twice-removed and it is saving them.”
I pull my hands out of CK’s and go over to the bed to stroke both of their faces lovingly. Then I get another jolt.
Cade.
He was only a Hunter, special for sure, but still just a human.
“Stay here with them,” I order CK and Astral back to the library where Cade is still bleeding on the floor, looking the worse for wear. I crouch over him, putting my hands on him to try and stop the bleeding. I am about to Astral him out to the nearest Earthly hospital when Remiel appears next to me and crouches down with an interested look.
“Hm,” he says, rubbing his chin. “This is fascinating.”
“Do something,” I yell at him. “Don’t just stand there, save him.”
He looks at me with that imperious look he gets when I yell at him and, with a sigh, he touches Cade and runs his hand over him. And just like that…he heals. Man alive, he has way more powers than I first thought.
I breathe a sigh of relief and take my hands off Cade. “Thank you,” I say stiffly, standing up. There will be a price and I am damn sure I know what it will be.
Remiel stands as well and peers at me. “I don’t know what to say,” he says. “I have never seen or heard anything like this before.”
I feel like a bug under a microscope. I don’t like it at all. The fact that he knew all the way from the Dragon Realms that something had happened to me is also quite startling.
“You should go,” I say to him, knowing that CK will have another crack at him if he finds him here and I fear that won’t end well for my sire. Err, ex-sire. That is going to take some getting used to.
“Not without you,” he says softly and takes my hand.
For the second time that day, I get sucker punched and find myself kissing this creature as I struggle to get his body closer to mine. I let out a strangled moan and then I hear a wailing in my head.
It is this wailing that gets me to pull back and not the fact that CK is standing in the doorway looking like thunder. I didn’t even know he was there, godammit. He is definitely going to have to get a cowbell now that I can’t sense him anymore.
The wailing stops as I shrink back from Remiel, who is looking at me with–I gulp–love, and I turn from him, needing to stop seeing those eyes. I breathe in and before I can start to figure out what in Hell is going on, CK launches himself at Remiel and once again they are going at it, exchanging blows that would kill a man.
“Stop it,” I shout with my hands clutching the sides of my head. I have a splitting headache and my mouth still tastes like evil shit. I drop to my knees with a banshee shriek as the pain rips through my head. It feels like there is someone in there with a hammer, bashing in the inside of my skull.
Surprisingly, both men stop their childish fisticuffs and rush to my side right as Cade stands up with a loud, “What the fuck is that noise?”
That noise would be me.
I can hear myself still screaming, but now it is muffled and before my eyes roll back up in my head, CK catches me.
“Aefre,” CK says, rubbing my wrist.
“Scotch,” I mumble and Remiel hands it to me.
Our fingers brush and I snatch my hand away as some part of me wants to grab him and never let go. I gulp it back and ask for more. At least I now taste like a fine 30-year and not crap. Ergh, why did Remiel and Xane want to keep on kissing me with me tasting like that?