Sun—yeah, the same perv who planted a love-bonding sigil in mylaundry—materializes with a smirk that makes me want to punch him and kiss him at the same time. “Baby, you didn't think we'd let you die tonight, did you?”
“You owe us a date for this, though,” Kun appears beside his brother, both of them rocking the whole horned-devil aesthetic—crimson eyes, killer smiles, and bodies that belong on the cover of “Supernatural Hotties Monthly.” Incubi 101: looking like a snack while plotting to eat you alive.
“Get the hell out of my way!” Ezra snarls, scrambling up and shooting blue energy from his hands like some clearblood Iron Man wannabe.
The twins vanish with that poof-into-smoke trick they love so much, their laughter echoing from everywhere and nowhere. Perfect chaos. Exactly what I need to charge up another Gaudian Pulse without getting my head lopped off.
Ezra goes full lighthouse, clapping his hands overhead and flooding everything with white light. Suddenly I'm watching a twisted National Geographic special: a wolf taking Renningtondown like the last gazelle at the watering hole, a vampire turning some clearblood into a juice box before his fancy armor can power up. And there's Chad, sprinting toward us like his ass is on fire.
“Brynn!” he shouts, because apparently yelling my name helps me not die faster?
I feel Ezra’s breath ghosting my cheek. “Too late,” he hisses. A gleaming blade springs from his sleeve. I hear Sun and Kun’s frantic footsteps pounding closer.
“Dammit!” Chad snarls—and then boom, a Gaudian Pulse slams into both of us. My solar plexus sears with pain, heat blooming across my gut. Paralysis drags me down; I crumple into the grass as shadows crawl over my body. Ezra’s spell sputters out of light. He’s down too.
“Get him!” Chad bellows.
I can’t lift a finger. I only hear the skitter of bare incubi feet, leaves crunching under their weight. Then, miraculously, Ezra staggers upright, sweat glistening on his skin. SoItook the full blast.Chad, you absolute ass.
With a roar, Ezra fires a counterpulse that sends the twins skittering backward, and bolts. But the forest’s hunger is real; I can feel its claws itching at his heels. I hope it will swallow him before he ever sees the road.
“Brynn!” Chad drops to his knees beside me. “I’m sorry. I had to.”
I want to scream, “Go screw yourself!” but my lips refuse to cooperate.
“Remember, Brynn,” Kun’s mocking voice drifts over the trees as the brothers vanish into the darkness, “you owe us that date!” Their laughter echoes—Ezra’s probably their target again. Good.Someone needs to put those bastards down.
“Blink once if you can hear me,” Chad mutters, cupping my face.
I don’t feel his touch, only an ice-cold void in my chest, but I manage to force a blink.
“Good,” he says. “You’ll be upright soon. You took the brunt of that pulse, but I had no choice.”
Yeah, thanks for the reminder, jerk.
“It knocked Ezra out of the fight but didn’t finish him. Hopefully your boyfriends handle him quickly.”
Boyfriends? I’d tear his spine out if I could. Great—now I’m talking like my sister again.
“The surviving clearbloods withdrew,” Chad reports, all business. “We lost three men. We took out seven of theirs. Not bad.” He shrugs, as if reporting the weather. “They’re desperate to reclaim their dragon. That much is clear.”
His palms press against my shoulders, sending uncomfortable heat through my frozen muscles.
“Ch...Chad...” The word manages to scrape past my lips.
The paralysis is wearing off. My blood feels like it's on fire, pins-and-needles cranked to eleven as my fingers and toes start twitching like I'm having a seizure.
“There we go,” Chad says, watching me twitch. “Recovery's already starting.”
I force my tongue to form words. “Need to... tell you... something.”
He leans in like the sucker he is. Summoning every scrap of returning strength, I swing my leaden arm and crack my palm across his cheek.
He chuckles. “I'll give you that one,” he says, fingertips touching the angry red handprint. “But only once.”
The sting in my palm is worth it.
14
