I raise my hand as if I might try to wring his fucking neck right through the ward, but Grim grabs my wrist, stopping me. “He’s baiting you.”
“Dami, wait,” Boogey cries, and his voice sounds young, sad. He sounds and looks like the same lonely baddie I thought I knew when I was a child. “I wasn’t trying to hurt you. I just wanted to be more powerful so we could be together, really be together.” He licks his lips, his black tongue slithering along his too-white teeth.
His lie holds a whisper of truth, so I examine him as he continues. “The witch wanted monsters he could use. He thought if he could filter the power through us instead of humans, it would last longer. Neither of us expected just how well the spell would work. I got all the power with none of the backlash.”
“Then what?” I press, wondering what’s taking Calix and Gunnar so long.
“Then I didn’t need the witch anymore.” Boogey steps back from the barrier, his arms falling to his sides. “He was my first sacrifice. I killed him the moment I knew how to do the spell,” he explains, like he can’t believe I didn’t already come to the same conclusion.
In the next second, Grim’s sickle slices through the air, and Boogey’s head thumps to the ground. His body stays upright for a sickening second before it drops like a sack of potatoes. I plant my hands on my hips and glare at Grim. “I had a few more questions.”
“The Berserker is calling me.”
Everything else falls away—Boogey, the fire, the betrayal, every question I thought was important. I suck in a horrified breath and run to the back of the house.
“Gunnar!” I scream his name in a voice I’ve never heard. Every syllable is barbed with pain as it’s ripped from my throat.
Grim is already kneeling on the ground next to Gunnar, who is lying flat on the dirt twenty feet from the back of the building. His face is marred with soot, and I can see some blisters along one side of his jaw, as well as other spots where it looks even more raw. His clothes are singed, but as I search over him, I watch his chest expand with a heavy wheeze before he starts barking out a racking cough. Calix helps him turn to the side and his entire body shudders with the effort.
I fall to my knees, sobbing as I hit his back with weak fists. “Don’t do that, you can’t do that!” He lets out a groan that makes me cry even harder.
“I’ll be fine now. The bastard is dead… He is dead, right?” He lifts his head off the ground, but it falls back onto the dirt with a thud as his eyes close.
“He is dead,” Grim confirms. “If I would have waited any longer to kill him, you would have died.”
“So, you’re okay? You’re yourself again?” I ask hesitantly.
“Yeah, fucking Death saved me,” Gunnar mumbles as his body goes slack.
“I think he just passed out.” Calix chuckles. I look over at him and note he has some burns on his arms and hands too.
“Are you okay? Thank you for saving him, both of you.” I look between them with tears brimming in my eyes.
Chapter 28
“Oh, fuck!” I reach for the side of my lower stomach. The intermittent tightening I’ve been feeling over my belly has ramped up from uncomfortable to downright painful.
“What’s wrong?” Calix inquires. A wide swathe of gore is smeared across his face in a macabre reminder of what we just went through. Gunnar opens his eyes and rolls his head to the side, allowing me to see various burns marring his flesh. Good thing I know he heals fast.
He must see my concern, because he says, “It’s nothing. Why are you bent over and breathing like that?” His eyes roll around in his head a little, proving his injuries are not nothing to worry about and he’s fighting to stay conscious.
I hold up my finger and grumble as the tightening in my stomach intensifies. “What the fuck?” Grim curses. I lift my head and look at him. The only time he swears is when we’re fucking. It’s a rare show of emotion for him.
“Are you…?” Calix doesn’t voice the rest of his hesitant question, but I nod.
“Yup, I think so. Apparently she didn’t want to miss out on all the action. I’m just a little late getting the memo.” I straighten up a little, and my lower back aches with a twinge of pain.
I expect someone to burst into action, but instead all three of them just gape at me, each with varying expressions of horror. “Now’s when we go to the fucking hospital!” I bark.
That spurs them to move. Grim reaches for me, and I know his intention is to blink us there, so I swat him away. “No, no way. We’re driving.”
His eyes are wide. I’ve never once seen this man afraid, and he looks damn near terrified. “I’ll get the car.” Calix is gone the next instant.
“You’ve gotta clean yourselves up. You look like you just left a massacre, which is true, but we can’t go to the hospital like that.” The tightening in my belly starts again. “Ugh…” I groan. It couldn’t have even been more than a minute or two since the last one. Grim moves closer to me, lays his hand on my back, and begins to slowly rub. I don’t know if I want to shove him away or crawl into his arms. “This actually hurts,” I mutter incredulously.
“Oh, Dami, of course it hurts. Did you think it wouldn’t?” Gunnar questions softly after sitting up. He winces, and I feel a little bad for complaining about being in pain after looking at the side of his face, which is still all red and angry.
I still growl, “Shut up.”
