Blade Song - By J.C. Daniels Page 0,87

I worried. The leech…”

Jude—

Immediately, my brain screeched to a blank stop and my heart started to race. Panic, thick and hot, churned inside me. I could hear Es, but only vaguely. The heat in my palm was too much and then she was there. My blade. Damn it, I could fight this time.

Fight what—somebody who is trying to sneak into your mind?

“Kit, damn it, calm down!”

I swung out and felt the blade connect. Somebody—a woman—shouted. Something hot glanced off my hip.

A thunderous snarl echoed through the room.

None of it mattered.

Had to fight.

Had to get away—

“Kit…”

I struck out again. Blood. I smelled blood.

“Kit.”

Hands caught my face.

Wet hands.

The smell of blood—thick with magic, alive with it—flooded my senses and somehow snapped me back to myself.

Dazed, I struggled to think past the panic.

“Damon, you need to let me calm her down.”

“Es, the next one of you to try and throw magic at her is going to be digging my claws out of their gut, you understand me?”

Damon. Damon’s voice.

I blinked and blinked, struggling to focus my eyes. Red. That was all I could see. A wash of it—

“Kit.” Something under that red moved…

Oh, hell.

It wasn’t red.

It was blood.

His neck. His chest. Healing, slowly, but covered in blood…because I had sliced into him.

“Damon?”

A harsh groan escaped him and then his lips touched my brow. “Yeah. It’s me, baby girl. You’re okay. You hear me? You’re okay. Nothing hurts you when I’m here, got it?”

A hysterical laugh bubbled up out of me. Okay? I’d just damn near lost my mind and torn into somebody who could kill me as easily I could breathe. And he’s telling me that I’m okay?

No. I really, really wasn’t.

Damon kicked Kori out.

She went, bleeding and grudgingly. I didn’t know what had happened and just then, I didn’t care.

The mother wouldn’t leave. She brought me a cup of tea. “Drink it. Please. It’s just a special mix of mine—no magic—” She gave Damon a narrow look. “But it will calm your nerves.”

I didn’t think that was possible. I could smell chamomile, strawberry leaves and other familiar things in it, plus other herbs that I couldn’t identify, but nothing would calm me down tonight. To make her quit hovering, though, I took a sip. “Somebody needs to explain what happened,” I said after I tried the tea.

“As your cat said…he found you in the water.”

I swallowed and looked at Damon. He was holding me in his lap. His blood was drying on him, on me, but just then, there was nothing either of us could do about it. I had to know what was going on before I went insane. “Did I…?” I licked my lips. “I fell asleep. I remember being tired. I must have fallen asleep.”

Damon stroked a hand up my back. “I came in. You were under the water. Your eyes were open. I tried to pull you up and you fought me, Kit. You didn’t let me pull you up and you felt a hell of a lot stronger than I think you are.”

Shuddering, I shook my head.

He rubbed the back of my neck, staring at the wall in front of us. “I yelled for Es—I…” He paused, clenched his jaw. “She was in here almost right away and I was still trying to pull you out of the water. She hit the drain and said something…”

“I could feel an unnatural pull on your mind,” Es said quietly.

Damon shrugged. “She did something. I felt the magic, but I don’t understand it. I was able to get you out—you weren’t breathing. Starting pushing on your chest and then you started coughing up the water.”

Closing my eyes, I buried my face against his chest, wishing I could just…stay there. Blood and all. Right here, I almost felt safe, as long as I didn’t have to think.

But Damon’s stock in trade was being an asshole and he wasn’t going to let me hide, it seemed. “It was him, wasn’t it?”

I cringed.

“Kit. We can’t fix this until we know what happened,” he whispered against my temple. Gentle, soothing strokes up and down my back.

Tears leaked out of my eyes.

“I fell asleep. And he was there. I told him to get out and he was just being…himself.” The panic tried to crowd in.

“Stop.” Damon gripped my shoulder. “Listen. Fight it back, you stubborn little bitch, you hear me?”

I saw his eyes—green eyes, that smile. Wake up…hands shoving me down.

“Kit. Where’s your fucking sword?”

My palm itched. I popped my wrist.

“That’s it,” Damon whispered. “Call