His bad leg felt like it was on fire. He had nothing left. Nothing to resurrect, not even if their enemy decided to turn around and reengage.
“Josiah!” Molly fell to her knees beside him. She met his gaze, then closed her eyes briefly. “Thank God. You scared me when you collapsed.”
He rested a hand on her knee. She’d been out in the weather longer than any of them and was soaked to the skin. Her lips had turned blue.
Lauren crouched by Anson’s unconscious form while Maria and the other women checked Richard over and examined the other bodies. Quietly, Molly introduced Sylvie and Delphine to Josiah.
“I don’t understand what I’m looking at,” Maria said. She turned in a circle, staring from body to body. “What am I seeing?”
That drew everyone’s attention. Steven asked, “What is it?”
“They all feel like him. But he left. He was here… right? And then he left?”
“Yes,” Josiah said hoarsely. “I saw what he looks like now.”
“I know,” she replied. When she looked at him, her gaze was hard and shining from visions, her voice sober. “And he saw you too—he saw every one of us. So none of these bodies can be him.”
“Perhaps they’re part of his family,” Lauren said. “Family members can carry the same kind of energy.”
Horror swept over Maria’s expression. “That’s what happened. That’s what he did. He bred.” Then she looked at Josiah. “All this time we thought we were looking for one adversary, but now there’s a whole family of them.”
Richard said roughly, “That may be, but we’re not going to find or fight them anymore tonight. We have to get out of here.”
“Do we put them all in one big grave before we go?” Sylvie asked. Her eyes darted around. “Yes? No?”
Steven rested his hands on his hips. “I think we should leave them. They fought and killed each other.”
“That won’t fly,” Molly told him. “The Volvo in the ditch belongs to a friend of mine. An ex-friend.”
Pebbles on the cold, wet pavement scraped the bare skin of Josiah’s back as he struggled to sit up. Quickly, Molly put her arms around him to help, and he leaned against her strong, slender form.
“We set fire to the Volvo,” Sylvie muttered. “No wait, that won’t work. They’d still be able to read the VIN. We could always bury the Volvo with the bodies.”
Richard barked out an abrupt laugh. “Lady, I don’t know what planet you’re from, but none of us can dig a pit in this forest that would be big enough to hide a car and six bodies.”
“I can do it.” Sylvie gave him a sly, sidelong glance. “If you wanted.”
“Don’t even go there!” Delphine jogged over to the Volvo. “I think we should try to get this car out of the ditch. If we can start it, we’ll just drive it away. Right? There’s nine of us, and our SUV is fine. We leave everything else the way it is, and we go.” She looked around the group. “Come on, everybody who isn’t injured and laid flat on your back, get over here and push.”
“Let’s get Josiah and Anson in the SUV first,” Lauren suggested. “They should be out of the rain.”
Henry, Steven, and Richard carried Anson’s lax form to the SUV while Josiah got to his feel with Molly’s help. “I can make it there under my own steam,” he growled.
“Touchy,” she muttered. She hovered beside him as he limped to the car and eased into the passenger seat. He had to lift his bad leg in with his hands. Afterward, he sagged back, and she leaned in to look at him nose-to-nose.
“I’m still pissed at you,” he told her in a tight whisper.
She nodded, eyes darkened as she stroked his face. Her fingers were icy.
He moved when she did and clenched her to him while she buried her face in his neck. He said telepathically,
Her muffled laugh shook her shoulders until suddenly he wasn’t so sure it was laughter anymore.
His mental voice turned husky as he pressed his mouth to the side of her wet head.
He’d had his chance to kill Grigori. He missed it, and he wouldn’t try again. Nothing was worth risking either his life or Molly’s, or their unborn child. Nothing.