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He pursed his lips. “I’m so relieved.”
Giguhl punched Adam in the arm. “Mancy, please, green is so not your color.”
Adam grimaced and rubbed his bicep. “Shut it, demon boy.”
Giguhl clicked his tongue. “Touchy, touchy.”
I clapped my hands together, feeling better than I had in weeks. “All righty, then. Let’s save us a life.”
The candles were the only light in the room. Our breaths the only sounds. Adam clasped my hands over Erron’s body. His warm hands slicked over my clammy palms. I winked at him with a confidence I didn’t feel and started chanting.
“Goddess Hekate, Mother of Magic and Night Queen, raise your torch, that your light may illuminate the path toward healing. Open our vision and protect your humble servant so he may live to carry out your will.”
We closed our eyes and focused our breathing.
With my third eye, I looked deep inside myself. Below the angry black power that coalesced in my diaphragm. Down to the deeper pool of more powerful energy. The powers of the moon. Hekate’s power. I called up additional Chthonic forces through the floorboards. It pierced the soles of my bare feet and climbed my legs. Curled up my torso and into my chest. Melded with my inherent magic. Grew, swirled, danced up my throat.
Magic surged from me. Everything was tinted a bloody red, but my vision was sharper with black halos around the edges. Probably a result of the demon blood zinging through my veins. My skin tingled where it touched Adam’s. His lids fluttered open. The pupils had overtaken his irises until his eyes looked like onyx marbles.
The instant our hands touched, a second wave of power slammed through my palms. I allowed the powers to equalize before I continued chanting.
“We unite to pour healing into this broken vessel. We unite to absorb his pain. We…” I nodded to Adam to pick up the chant. Soon his deep voice added a powerful bass.
“To pour healing into this broken vessel. We…”
The cone of power rising above our joined hands condensed and began to stream into Erron’s body. His shoulders lifted from the bed as his body rose to receive the healing energy. At the same time, a second ribbon of energy—darker, thicker, and tinged smoky black—escaped Erron’s ravaged body and split into two streams.
My stomach lurched against the pain we absorbed from the Recreant. Breathing deeply through my nose, I struggled to control the two opposing flows of energy. Cold sweat covered my skin.
I clenched my teeth against the strain of wielding such massive power. The bullets had forged a destructive trail, slashing intestines and embedding in bone and tissue. Healing those wounds took an enormous amount of energy that left me trembling.
Eventually, the bullets popped one by one from Erron’s skin and rolled to the bedspread. The blood poured out thickly at first but soon slowed to trickles.
Adam’s hands tightened on mine. Dark and light energy flowed through us, around us, between us. Until finally, a single clean stream of energy ran through us into Erron and back again, creating a circuit of healing.
I blew out a long, slow breath from deep in my belly. With it, I released the powers I’d called up from the goddess. As I did so, I said a silent prayer of thanks for her aid. I blinked and found my vision had returned to normal. Adam’s gaze was green again and relieved. A ghost of a smile hovered on his lips.
“You did it.”
“We did it.” He squeezed my fingers one final time before releasing them. Then we both looked down at Erron.
It was hard to tell how many of his more superficial wounds had healed through the dried blood. However, his breathing had deepened and slowed, like a man enjoying a good night’s sleep, instead of the shallow, rapid gasps of earlier.
Tears stung my eyes. Relief, not sadness. “I think he’ll live,” I whispered.
“Thank the gods,” Giguhl said from the corner of the room.
I tilted my head and looked at my friend. “It’s you who needs to be thanked. I couldn’t have done it without you.” I glanced at Adam, too. “Both of you.”
Giguhl shot me a get-real look. “Bullshit. You’re stronger than you admit to yourself. By the way, thank you for asking me to help. It means a lot.”
“Of course. Erron’s your friend, too.”
“No, I meant”—the demon shook his head—“I meant it means a lot that you asked. You could have just commanded me to give you my blood.”
The mood in the room shifted, creating a vacuum that sucked away all the easy banter and replaced it with something more sincere and, frankly, awkward.
“I’ll just go tell Alexis how it went.” Adam shot me a wink before he exited.
I was too busy avoiding Giguhl’s eyes to smile back. “Oh… um… sure.” I self-consciously wiped my hands on my jeans.
The demon cleared his throat and busied himself covering Erron with a blanket. Part of me was relieved he didn’t pursue that conversational path any further. I’d never felt entirely comfortable with the idea that Giguhl was mine to command. I mean, sure, I didn’t hesitate to boss him around when I needed him or when his infamous knack for causing trouble landed one or the both of us in hot water. But I tried not to abuse that power. However, despite my own misgivings, Giguhl rarely complained about being ordered around.
I hesitated. Was that true, though? I thought about all the times he’d bitched when I forced him to change into his cat form because I needed him in a convenient carrying size or when I needed someone tiny to do reconnaissance. I’d always blown that off as Giguhl just being snarky. But maybe I’d been ignoring his distress because it wasn’t convenient to admit that it was unfair.
“Um, G?” I said. I cleared my throat.
He looked up. “Yeah?”
“I’m sorry if I ever made you feel like I don’t take you seriously. You’re… you’re really important to me.”
Giguhl stood up straighter, as if I’d finally managed to shock him. “Thanks.” He nodded and moved toward the door, but just before he walked through it, he paused. “Sabina?”
I looked up. “Yeah?”
He paused. “You, um, have some blood on your chin.”
With that, my red-faced best friend ducked through the door before either of us could embarrass ourselves further.
Chapter 13
Erron’s vitals have stabilized,” Alexis was saying to the computer screen. “We expect a full recovery once he wakes up.”
