Hot Blooded (Jessica McClain) - By Amanda Carlson Page 0,102

removed, I threw them across the room and gathered his soft tissue and organs and placed them carefully back into his chest. Ohmygod. Ohmygod. I was close to hyperventilating. I tried to slow my breathing down. My wolf howled and gnashed her teeth. I took the battered skin and laid it together, trying to force the seams closed, but they didn’t line up exactly right. I hate her so much.

Rourke was out cold again, thank goodness. Selene’s spell, the one she likely gave him to keep him from struggling or getting loose, prickled my fingers as I worked. The spell was weak, since he’d managed to break it briefly, but it was there. I would have to break it to wake him up, but I wanted to see if his skin would start mending on its own first. “It’s going to be okay, Rourke,” I whispered, leaning over him. My fingers traced through his matted hair and down his face. My wolf stilled, both of us waiting to see what would happen.

He stirred beneath my touch as his skin began to knit itself.

He’s healing! My wolf barked happily. He’s too strong for her spells. Thank gods. A normal supernatural may not have healed from these injuries, but Rourke wasn’t a normal supernatural.

“Get off me,” Selene raged. Danny flew backward, landing on the wooden table, exploding it on impact.

I glanced up and saw Selene’s red fingertips swing around. “Ray! Get out of the way,” I yelled. Ray immediately dove for cover, his years of active police duty kicking in. When someone yelled duck, you ducked—or you died. He wasn’t nearly as fast as a supe, but he made it just in time. Selene’s spell smashed into the short boulder Ray had landed behind. It exploded, flinging stones and dust into the cavern. “Stay down, Ray. You’ve done your part. Now get the hell out of here while you can!”

Selene spun around at the sound of my voice, forgetting her human diversion in a heartbeat, which was my plan. I lifted my hands from Rourke’s healing chest, but not before I sent a flicker of power into him, crushing the last of Selene’s spell.

He started to moan.

I stood, stepping over him, putting my body between us.

“Get away from him,” Selene snarled at me, eyeing Rourke with bright lust. Her arms rose, red lines firing like sparks from her fingertips. She appeared to be a little worse for the wear, her clothes torn, her hair disheveled. “He’s mine.”

I was done bantering. I sprang, soaring into the air, landing on the first step of the dais on all fours. I needed to give Rourke as much time as I could to mend. Danny crouched to my left, still in wolf form, trying hard to shake the spell Selene had given him. Quickly, I tried to infuse my power through our bond. I could feel him, and I hoped he could feel me and take what I was sending. My father had said an Alpha could help, but since I’d never done it, I wasn’t sure. I glanced around briefly for Tyler, wondering where he’d gone, and hoped to hell Ray had the good judgment to stayed hidden.

A spell hit the ground inches from my feet.

Selene marched toward me. She took her time. We weren’t going anywhere, and she knew it. She had a captive audience in her cavern of death. Just like she had planned. “I will relish your death like none other.” Another spell lit out of her hands, racing toward me. “I will look back on this day fondly.”

I dodged it easily, bounding up the dais steps to the queenly bed, my nails raking the sheets, shredding them as I propelled myself over to the other side. I laid myself flat as another explosion hit above my head, narrowly missing the lit chandelier. The ceiling shook so hard wax flowed like rain, coating the ruined sheets. Not a great place for a chandelier if you weren’t a sadist.

“You can run all you want, but I will find you,” Selene declared as she stalked closer. “If I’m forced to, I’ll blow this place sky high. This is my least favorite home.” Disgust radiated from her voice. “It’s primitive and unclean. I reserve it for prolonged tortures and punishments only. You will die and I will regenerate.”

“You won’t be regenerating, Selene,” I called. “You’re going to wake up in hell once I’m finished with you. Isn’t that where leather-clad goddesses who sell their souls