Gemini’s wolf carried the other demon child, clenching his jaws tighter when it stirred. It still lived. I growled at it. Man, I hated these things.
Aric leaned down on one knee when we reached the path. “You may not want to watch this,” he said without glancing up.
I knelt beside him to assure him that I didn’t want to leave him, and that I’d had my fill of being scared. “I’ve seen this much, Aric. I’d rather know what to do. In case more are out there.”
He nodded.
And ripped the demon’s head off like he was cracking a lobster.
The demon child’s innards spilled like tiny maggots. Aric tossed the body onto the hard ground. Almost instantly the parts dissolved in the sun. I cringed. “Do they need sunlight to die?”
“No. Just air once you decapitate them. I did it out here because the added breeze helps.”
As the leftover bits of demon child floated away in the light wind, the stench around us was cut by half. In the silence that followed, the urge to explain myself compelled me to speak. “I didn’t know how to kill it. Sorry I wasn’t more helpful.”
Aric shot me a halfhearted smile. “You didn’t die. That’s good enough for me. But the general rule of thumb is, when in doubt, destroy the brain or heart.” He brushed his hands on his black sweats. “If you can’t, rip off the wings to render it flightless until you’re able.”
His voice sounded more didactic than warm, lacking the usual affection I’d grown to adore and crave. So I kept discussing the demon child because I didn’t know what else to say. And if we stopped talking, I feared we’d never speak again. “He was fast. It took us a while to catch him.”
Aric stood when I did. “I suppose they’re born fast to increase their chances of survival.”
“Have any ever survived?”
“Not that we’ve heard.” He wiped his large hands against each other. “Yet anyway.” The demon child screeched like a mini-pterodactyl and wriggled inside Gemini’s mouth like a mound of snakes. “Do you want to kill it?” Aric asked him.
The wolf turned his massive four-hundred-plus-pound body to where Taran stood with her arms crossed. Gemini, the human half, had his arm draped around her. She curled against him when she saw the little booger start to flap its bat wings. “I’d better do it,” Koda said, jogging up to us.
The wolf tossed the creature in the air and rushed back to merge with Gemini. Koda yanked it out of the sky when it attempted to flee, tore it in half like a French roll, dropped it on the ground, and walked back to Shayna as if he hadn’t just ripped evil in two. It took a lot to ruffle a werewolf’s feathers. A Wird sister’s feathers? Not so much. Aric should have done the honors. Shayna’s skin mimicked the color of my butt.
Aric’s eyes widened as the air cleared and his gaze shot down to my foot. “You’re bleeding,” he growled.
Blood soaked through my tattered running shoe, staining the white laces crimson. My survival instincts naturally forced me to ignore pain. Though that didn’t mean my injury didn’t throb, especially when the white leather chafed against the bite marks. I shrugged. “Yeah. The little evil bastard bit me when—”
Aric yanked me in his arms and growled some more. “Emme. Celia’s hurt!”
My tigress circled my arms around his neck, allowing me to cuddle and draw in the scent of water crashing over stone. “It’s no big deal, Aric. I’m fine. I just need some antiseptic.”
Aric sat on the edge of the porch, draping me across his lap. His strong chiseled arms curled around me. My cheek fell against his bare chest and our bodies melded and relaxed into a state of tranquility. The breeze lifted strands of my long hair, teasing his smooth skin and carrying the scent of budding tulips to my nose. His wolf murmured something softly. My tigress responded with a gentle purr. It was all so beautiful, sensual even. Until Koda pulled my sneaker and sock off in one hard tug.
Gasps, muffled shrieks, and rumbling chests dragged me back into reality and kicked me in the face. The demon child’s serrated fangs had sliced my instep and peeled the thin layer of skin away from the bones. Veins spluttered like tiny hoses, releasing my body’s precious fluid in squirts. Blood dribbled between my toes and discolored my nails.
Okay. Maybe I needed more than a little Neosporin.
The 3-D view clenched my stomach like an iron vise. Bile bubbled against my throat, and the stinging pain I’d shoved back returned with a nauseating vengeance. I no longer had a foot; I had a mangled piece of meat with digits at the end. I curled farther into Aric, focusing on his strong, clean scent and not my raw flesh. “Son of a bitch,” Taran muttered. Soft cotton enclosed my foot. “I’ll hold pressure. Emme, start healing.”
Emme’s soft healing light brightened Aric’s golden skin. My eyes centered on his dark pink nipple, stiff from the soft wind, I supposed. He growled again. Okay, maybe just tense from the anger surging through his well-muscled physique. Concern for him beat back the preoccupation with my injury until it no longer mattered. After all, Emme’s gift would mend me. But in no way did it spare Aric from worry. “Shhh,” I whispered in his ear. “I’m okay, wolf. I swear it.”
And I was. Against Aric’s body, I definitely was. His presence allowed me to abandon the disturbing images of the day and erased the thoughts of my skinned flesh and oozing vessels.