no… Adam, please…” I reached for Dawn, but she was too far away. “You can’t kill them. Not Stefan, please. Not Akil. They don’t deserve to die.” I blinked, trying to battle the fog of unconsciousness. Adam had gone. I swung my head around and saw him guiding Dawn through the body-strewn battlefield, her little hand clasped in his. Dammit. She’d tear them apart as she had Val. Adam had his perfect weapon right there. Nothing would stop him, not with Dawn by his side. All demons would die. Even the good ones.
Maybe I could find my feet, somehow stumble across the cooled lava field, around the bodies and craters, and get to Stefan before Adam. I hauled my sorry ass onto leaden legs, teeth gritted against the pain radiating from my middle. I dared not look down at the wound. Somehow, seeing the blood would make it all the more real. Clasping Stefan’s coat close, I sucked in a deep, smoke-filled breath and fell into Coleman’s arms.
“Easy, I got you,” he muttered, scooping an arm around my waist and supporting me as we hobbled in the wrong direction.
“Wait. Akil… I need to get to the front…”
“Muse, you’ve lost a lot of blood. You’re in no state to go marching off to save a demon who’s immortal, right?”
“Yeah, but—”
“I’m sure he can look after himself.”
Not if he didn’t know she was there. Who would Adam go for first, his own son, or Akil? Maybe he wouldn’t kill them. Maybe he’d concentrate his efforts on helping them, using them, until he saw his chance. That sounded like an Adam thing to do. It would give me time.
* * *
I MIGHT HAVE BLACKED out because the walk from the burned tree to the militia camp was a blank. I woke to a pair of soft brown eyes scowling at me. Ryder looked about as beaten up as I felt. “Hey, aren’t you meant to be wounded?” I grumbled.
He chuckled and slammed me on the shoulder in some sort of macho display of affection. “Says the lil’ firecracker with a hole in her side. I got a new scar. A crazy kid once told me scars are like armor. Get your lazy ass out of bed. We need you.”
Someone had patched me up while I was out. Bandages hugged my chest. They’d pumped me full of painkillers that would burn out of my veins the moment I called the fire. Without the healing properties of my demon, I wouldn’t have made it off the battlefield. Judging from the supply of body bags, many wouldn’t. “Shit, Ryder,” I groaned. “Adam has Dawn.”
“I know. With her help, he’s sweeping the demons back. Guess she’s making up for the people she killed.”
I sat up in a makeshift cot and waited for my head to stop spinning. The sounds of battle still boomed outside the tent. “He’s going after Stefan.”
Ryder’s lips twisted. “We got a city full of demons and netherworld scenery popping up all over the place. Stefan’s on his own.”
“He was your friend, Ryder. He still is. You were right. He’s still Stefan. He got me out of trouble tonight. Without him, I’d be on the side of the demons right now, probably laying waste to all of you. I could have killed him. I almost did, but he showed me what I needed to see. He’s Stefan. He’s back. And Adam’s going to kill him. You can’t let that happen. We can’t let that happen.”
Ryder closed his eyes and rubbed a hand across his forehead. He glanced at the people around us as they busied themselves with the wounded. “Muse, I can’t stop Adam. You know why. My kid…”
“So you’re going to let a good man—a friend—die? Can you live with that?”
His scowl burned when he settled it on me. “Fuck. No. I can’t.”
“Good, neither can I. Get me to the front line.”
He ground his teeth, twitching a muscle in his cheek. “We’ve got Humvees if you can get us through the lessers.”
I shoved to my feet, grimacing as my stomach pitched. “Not a problem. I’m the freakin’ Mother of Destruction. Those bitches will get in line or die.” I wobbled, and Ryder grabbed my arm to steady me.
He grinned. “Let’s go raise your kinda hell.”
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
Every bump, dip, or ditch the Humvee trundled over just about rattled my teeth out of skull. The field was littered with half-buried debris. Jaw clenched against the throbbing pain, I clung onto the light rack over