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A part of me was desperate to return to the house and check on Phillip, but I couldn’t trust however long this miracle might last. I didn’t know what caused it. I wasn’t confident I could replicate it, and if I couldn’t kill Eros with an arrow to the heart, we’d be right back where we started.
So I ran.
I ran as fast as I could through the immobilized window of time, all the way to the airport. It was lucky I remembered which direction the airfield was in all the fucked-up chaos. If I hadn’t been so terrified, I would’ve internally celebrated another victory. But fear ate away at my insides every second it took to get to that damn place.
In only a couple minutes but what really felt like hours to my pulse, I reached the outer fence of our designated location, near an onramp for one of the parking structures. As I slowed in front of the several-level lot, time started again. I dropped to a knee, sucking in thankful gulps of air. A heavy exhaustion overtook my body and weighed it down like my strength had been all but sapped entirely.
It didn’t matter. No matter how tired or anxious I was, I couldn’t be happier the two of us were alive. It was pure luck we survived.
Phil.
Closing my eyes, I thought of my partner who I left back at the house to whatever fate he’d been dealt. I’d never shake the guilt if he didn’t make it out of that fight alive. I’d never forgive myself for not going back.
The other Hunter beside me grunted, and I opened my eyes to Sloan moving into a crouch on the ground, completely on guard and confused. Then he was in front of me, checking my face, my arms, my legs, my chest, my back. Everywhere within eyeshot was examined by Sloan’s anxious eyes. With a relieved sigh, Sloan’s forehead landed on mine, taking me by complete surprise.
“You’re not hurt.”
I smiled gently and covered his hand on my shoulder, squeezing to reassure the other Hunter acting nothing like himself. “Not at all. Wait a minute, shouldn’t I be the one saying that to you?”
Sloan pulled away slightly and cradled my face inside his hands. “I’m not important.”
“I beg to differ—” I argued angrily, but my tirade was abruptly cut short by a soft, barely-there kiss.
At first, I couldn’t figure out what was happening. It wasn’t anything close to the heated kisses I’d shared with my overly passionate Austrian. And it definitely wasn’t anything like Sloan’s previous kiss. So I wasn’t quite sure what the meeting of lips would classify under. And really, it was totally out of place. Why would Sloan kiss me here, after we’d nearly been killed by a seriously sadistic Fae assassin?
Sadly, I wasn’t ignorant. The kiss wasn’t familial. It wasn’t something shared between friends. No, that baby was as intimate as kisses got, despite it only being a brush of his lips over mine. Which was the entire reason it flummoxed me to the point where my face was one-hundred percent showing it.
I stared lamely at the other Hunter as he pulled away, his expressive eyes directed away from my face.
“What just happened?” he asked, ignoring my outright befuddlement.
“Don’t ask me. I have no fucking clue,” I commented, searching the area around us to hide the intense blush reaching my cheeks.
Nice, V. Way to play it cool.
“But we’re here, aren’t we? That’s all that matters.” I swallowed around the painful lump in my throat, fully aware that the ‘we’ I spoke of didn’t include Phillip.
I went on despite it being harder and harder to speak. “I even stabbed an arrow into the arrogant bastard’s heart before I got the fuck out of there. Pretty awesome of me, if I do say so myself, because most wouldn’t think that far ahead. Most would be off their asses with confusion.”
The other Hunter’s look was despondent, meaning an arrow to the heart wouldn’t kill the fucker.
Of course it wouldn’t. Why would it ever be that easy?
“You didn’t possibly decapitate him while you were at it, did you?”
Shit.
“No,” I said with a great, heaving sigh. “No I didn’t.”
“It’s on us for not mentioning how to kill Eros. Like you, only decapitation can kill him. For obvious reasons, neither of us have gotten close enough or depleted him enough to manage such a thing.” Sloan checked his pockets. “I need to consume the poison’s antidote.”
“Already gave it to you. And the reverse serum. Uh, and pretty much anything I found in your pockets, times two,” I remarked sarcastically.
“And you?”
I peered down at my body, confused. “Me? I’m not really injured or anything.”
“You were injected with the serum, right?”
