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My breathing shattered, and bile splashed up my throat.
I speared into the place my mates' souls met mine, yanking on Arkan's and Joseph's bonds, sending panic and a frantic call for help.
"I need … I need…" X whined, sounding nothing like himself.
His desperation hit me so hard, I wobbled between one step and the next. Me—he neededme.A fist reached through my ribs and squeezed my heart.
"Taj," I sobbed. "Stop. Just—for a second, just stop."
Taj threw me a glare like I was crazy, but he paused at whatever he saw on my face, and halted on a staircase landing. There was a huge red statue of Dev watching over us, and for some wild reason it gave me courage, like my devil was right here with me.
"Shhhh," I murmured when X tried to speak again. Keeping my hands away from him—there was nowhere safe to touch without brushing an open wound—I leaned forward until my lips met his. It was the softest brush, all I dared, but X sobbed and leaned closer, a tear burning through the blood on his cheek.
"Didn't … tell him … anything," he rasped.
"I don't care what you told him as long as you're home," I croaked, kissing him one more time before forcing myself to stand back. I couldn't give him more, couldn't feed the lust he needed to heal, but I could offer this, these two small kisses.
I gave Taj a nod, and blinked my eyes clear so I didn't crash down the steps. I thought I'd be overjoyed if X ever came home, but I spent so long preparing myself to find his body, to have the graphic details of his death thrown at me by Eidolon, that having him back … I didn't know what to do.
I didn't know what to do.
22
Ark and Joseph found us struggling down the corridor to my room. It would have been nice to have a guard help us, but of course they were all too busy screwing each other because X had lost control of his power.
Taj had pointed out the obvious, and asked why X couldn't feed from them to start healing.
"Can't," he'd choked out, and sounded so pained that Taj didn't press for an explanation.
"What happened?" Arkan demanded now, blazing down the black hallway in a billow of darkness before his body formed in front of us. "Where did you find him?"
I shook my head, my throat tight. "He found us. Ark, he—lookat him."
X's eyes fluttered, the dark sapphire barely more than a sliver. "Hi," he breathed, glancing from Joseph to Arkan—and passed out.
"Shit," I gasped, trying to support his sudden shift in weight.
"Here, I'll help," Joseph offered, his voice forcibly calm but pain clear in his eyes as he helped me support X's drooping right side. "Someone needs to call for the medics."
"Not yet," Arkan disagreed, something icy and dangerous in his voice. "The timing of this is too coincidental; I want no one but us to know. If anyone asks about the cause of the…"
"Giant demon orgy," I supplied, dredging up humour.
"That," he agreed. "We'll blame it on Eidolon. For now, I want no one to know X is home. Let's get him inside your room, Avie. I want to know why he's here now, when we just captured Lou."
I gave Arkan a wild-eyed look as we carried X into my living room, locking the door behind us. "You think he was sent back to us on purpose?"
"Eidolon must be scared Lou told us something valuable," Taj growled, guiding us towards the sofa. "Which means she did."
"That island," I murmured, my stomach twisting into a knot of nausea.
"No," Arkan ordered when we moved towards the sofa. "Let's get him into the shower so we can see how bad his wounds are. I'll get salve and bandages from the hospital; Taj, if anyone asks, Avie stabbed you and the supplies are for you."
Taj nodded. "Sounds about right."
I was so worried that I didn't even protest at taking the blame. "How can we get him up the steps? Ark, can you—?"
"It'll hurt," he replied, sadness weighing his blue eyes. "But it'll be fast. Here." He opened his arms for X, and bound him in shadow, vanishing.
