is hurt.”
As she said that, Hartt grew aware of the injuries on his body again, as if her words had triggered a reaction in them. The left side of his stomach blazed, joining the throbbing ache in his right shoulder and the back of his hip. They weren’t the only places where he hurt. They were just the worst ones. Someone had gone to town on him, treating him like a pincushion.
He frowned as it hit him, the crest of a wave of fear that left him colder than the blood loss.
“Mackenzie.” He forced her name past his lips, a desperate urge compelling him to speak it, a need that made him wild and made him want to fight, roused darkness and a black hunger for violence.
If Fuery had hurt her…
“I left her alone,” Fuery muttered, the sharp, dark edge to his tone revealing that he wasn’t happy about it either.
It wasn’t like his friend to want to harm a female. The assassin must have hurt him worse than he realised, had injured him badly enough that Fuery wanted to lash out at her. Or maybe it was the fact she had pushed him deep into the darkness that had Fuery agitated and out for blood.
The relief part of Hartt had expected to feel didn’t come. One worry merely transformed into another. Alone. Fuery had left her on the outskirts of the town, injured and struggling to come around from the blow his friend had dealt her. Vulnerable. The vampires in that town had seen them fighting, and if the King of Death hadn’t known he had assassins after him, he did now. The vampires would have reported it to him, and he feared the male would send his men out to search the town.
If they found her…
Gods, he wasn’t sure what he would do.
A deep need to find her and make sure she was safe compelled him to move, a powerful urge to protect her sweeping through him on the heels of it. He tried to push up, gritted his teeth as his shoulder ached so fiercely he felt sick. He couldn’t just lie here while she was out there. The gods only knew what would happen to her. He needed to find her.
Fuery pushed him back down onto the bed and Hartt snarled and bared fangs at him, mustered his strength to fight the male and force him to release him.
“Tell me the words.” His friend’s voice swam in his ears, growing distant again as creeping tendrils of darkness encroached at the corners of his mind.
Kill the male. Teleport back to the town. Protect the female at any cost.
That echoed in his mind on repeat, rapidly becoming a cacophony that drowned out all other thoughts. The tendrils seemed to snake around those other thoughts, dragged them down into the shadows so he forgot them. All that mattered was the female.
He wouldn’t let anyone stand between him and her.
The black scales of his armour were cool as they rippled over his hands, as they capped his fingers with long talons. Talons he intended to use to gut the male who was restraining him, stopping him from reaching her.
Cold washed over him, causing his mind to spin and thoughts to twirl and blur. Pain blazed in his side and shoulder, the heady scent of freshly spilled blood goading him into attacking the male who was moving him. Taking him somewhere.
Further away from the female.
The cold remained as they landed, but the scents of Hell gave way to softer, sweet fragrances that were out of place given the time of year in the mortal realm. Roses. Lilacs. Hyacinths. Tulips. Hollyhocks. The smell of the earth and snow carried on the gentle wintry breeze.
His legs gave out and he sank forwards as another scent hit him.
The tinny, strange odour of magic.
His armour peeled away from his hands and he pressed them to the damp grass, dug his fingers into the earth and just breathed, letting nature flow over him to purge the darkness from his soul. Tears burned the backs of his eyes and his nose as he reached for her, desperate to connect with her in a way he had been able to once, before the corruption had spread too far inside him, had stolen too much of him.
Those tears blazed hot trails down his cheeks as he felt her reach for him, as he sank forwards and relief swept over him, together with a thousand other emotions that were too