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I took a few steps and then leaped, falling on top of the jar.
Astaroth roared and I looked up just in time to see him coming for me. I froze.
Smash it! Smash it!
It took me a second to process Dastien’s words. I rolled off of the jar, grabbing it, and smashed it into the ground.
Astaroth roared and this time my eardrums burst. Blood dripped down my cheeks and I blinked. When my eyes opened again, he was gone. Astaroth had disappeared.
Oh, thank God. I slumped to the ground, panting, not really believing that it was over. That we’d somehow lived. But Astaroth didn’t reappear. He was gone. Like he and his army of demons hadn’t been here a second ago. Only the sulfur and the pain in my side from the demon bite were left.
Eli was still here.
My eyelids were growing heavy as I watched him approach. I was so tired. So done. I couldn’t even lift my head. And my side was on fire. I wasn’t sure I could move.
He pulled the white V-neck shirt over his head and squatted next to me.
He was saying something, but my eardrums hadn’t healed yet.
“What?” I asked.
He lifted me up a little to pull the shirt over my head. “Thank you,” I said, not knowing what he wanted from me. I tried to stay sitting up, but it was taking too much energy. I assumed I was going to owe him for this, but I couldn’t make a deal right now. Whatever he wanted, I’d pay it. But he just stayed there waiting, watching me. Something about the way he was staring at me made me nervous.
He leaned so close to me that if he were shorter, our noses would be touching. He kept his eyes on mine as he started to lift my shirt by my right side.
“Hey,” I shouted, even if I couldn’t hear myself. Just that one word said with a little too much force was more energy than I could spare. My vision started to thin and I fell backwards, but Eli caught my shoulder and eased me to the ground.
He knelt in front of me, pressing a hand to each of my ears. They popped again, and when he moved his hands away, I could hear. Maybe better than before. The leaves in the trees rustled. The wolves panted as they recovered. Dastien growled next to me.
I’d been so focused on Astaroth and Eli, that I hadn’t even noticed my mate was so close, but I couldn’t take my eyes away from the concerned look on Eli’s face. He was scaring me.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“You have a bite,” Eli said. “Which is bad because you’re already tied to Astaroth. And there’s something else wrong with your blood. I don’t know what you did to it in the last day, but this is bad. Very bad. But I can help, if you let me.”
My mouth went dry as I tried to process his words. Samantha’s blood. Half-demon blood. It made sense that her blood would make the bite worse.
“May I?”
I wasn’t sure I trusted him fully, but he’d just saved our lives. All of us. So, I lifted up my shirt. “Okay.”
In human form, the bite was just above my right hip. He placed his hand over it and the skin grew hot. Too hot. “You’re hurting me,” my voice was all whine.
“Hold still. It’s about to get worse.”
It was too much. I started to scream and hit him, but he held strong.
“Dastien!” I screamed as I tried to pry Eli’s hand off of me, but he used his other hand to pin my shoulder to the ground.
Dastien growled, but Eli looked down at him. “If you know what’s good for her, you’ll settle down and let me concentrate.”
I didn’t care anymore. His hand might have just been laying still but it felt like he was ripping out my insides.
I screamed and thrashed. I kicked and hit with everything I had, but Eli never moved. My back was pressed into the ground, but I couldn’t help it. I had to fight him. The pain was too much not to fight, beg, plead for it to stop.
I screamed. And screamed. Until my already battered voice was raw and broken. And then I kept screaming.
Until darkness came for me, sweeping me away.
