She peeled back the curtain covering the window on the other side of the door. “He’s gone.”
“He’ll be back. He’s after the manor. He made that clear.”
“From what I saw, that’s not all he wants.”
I groaned as I lowered my head into my hands. “That’s what Ryker said too.”
“You have to tell him about this.”
She was right. He would lose his mind, but I couldn’t keep this from him.
We’d vowed to be honest with each other, and while I could keep this from him, it would only lead to more lies and secrets between us. It would devastate our relationship if it ever came to light, but what he’d do with this information petrified me more than Gaius.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Ryker
“What happened?”I demanded as I fell to my knees beside Tucker.
I couldn’t see any wounds, but the pool of blood beneath him was growing.
FUCK!
Not Tucker. I can’t lose Tucker.
We’d come too far and endured too much together for it to end like this. Panic fueled my frantic movements as I searched for an injury. Tucker’s eyes bounced around, but the rest of him remained unmoving.
His fingers didn’t twitch, and while he seemed to be trying to say something, no sounds emerged and his lips didn’t move. His sea-blue eyes were frantic when they landed on me; desperation radiated from them.
Ianto dropped to his knees on the other side of him. “I think one of those things got him in the back.”
Placing my hands against Tucker’s side, I tried to gently turn him over, but he was as stiff as a board and difficult to move. With some help from Ianto, I got him onto his side; his arms didn’t move as they remained rigid at his sides.
What the fuck?
But the mystery of his frozen state would have to wait as I discovered the gaping hole in his upper back. One of those things had driven their stinger into him and most likely injected him with their poison.
“Keep holding him,” I commanded Ianto. The giant’s hands tightened on Tucker’s shoulder as I unbuttoned my shirt. “Is the poison lethal?” I demanded of Farley.
“I don’t know.”
My eyes shot to the poltergeist who hovered over Tucker’s frozen body. The creature had his hands up by his face as his eyes remained riveted on my friend… my brother in arms, blood, and life.
“What do you mean you don’t know?” I snapped.
Farley looked up at me, and while I never thought I’d ever see such an emotion from a poltergeist, sorrow filled his eyes. “I’ve never seen anyone survive a cordou attack. After they’re stabbed, they’re eaten.”
“Shit,” I snarled.
Dropping my shirt on the ground, I pulled my dagger free of its sheath and cut away Tucker’s shirt. It took some time, but I managed to pull the material free from inside Tucker’s back.
When I succeeded in tearing the shirt away and spotted the black veins flowing away from the hole, my heart plummeted. They spread across his back as they followed his blood flow up to his shoulders and down to his waist.
He still didn’t move when Ianto maneuvered him so he was face down on the ground. Ianto grasped his head and turned it so Tucker wasn’t breathing in dirt.
Leaning forward, I placed my hands against Tucker’s back and pushed the black in his veins toward the large hole the cordou had created. There was too much blood to see his spine, but I suspected the wound went that deep.
I kept my focus on getting the poison out of him, but I was well aware of the scars crisscrossing his back. I’d been with him when he received most of them; if he’d survived the ophidians, hewouldsurvive this.
