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Chapter Ten
“Lie down, Ms. Owens. I can’t tell if you’re all right unless you stay still.” The woman who stood over me had tawny brown hair in a messy bun that sent tendrils around her face. “I’ve sent for Relda. She’s our healer. My skills are in first aid only, but I need to look at that burn on your side.”
“Oh, mistress, please let Relda look at the injury.” Eddie had tears in his big old demon eyes as he looked up at me. “I can’t stand the thought that my mistress has been harmed and I could have prevented it.”
Eddie had shown up two minutes after Liv had disappeared. I’d kind of fallen to my knees because that burn hella hurt. Eddie had found Evan and I there and quickly gotten us to this clinic in the Under.
“Everyone slow down. I need information before anything happens.” I wasn’t dying, though I wouldn’t turn down some vamp blood at the moment. “What happened down here?”
The nurse leaned against the exam table, obviously giving up on getting me on it. “The whole of the Under shook, but it was a spell of some kind because there was no geological activity. We keep track of such things, and our scientists claim everything was calm according to their instruments.”
“When I tried to take Master Trent and Fenrir through, I was unable, mistress,” Eddie explained. “I was only able to transport myself out a few minutes ago. When I couldn’t bring anyone else out, Master Grayson concluded something was wrong. Should I go and find him and tell him you were attacked? You were attacked, weren’t you?”
Yes, by a witch, and that meant I had to wonder why that witch had been able to get through our witches’ wards. “It was Liv. How would she affect the Under? I thought we were safe down here.”
The nurse held her hands up. “I don’t know any more than you do.”
She was awake, which meant she couldn’t be one of those vamps I talked about earlier. She seemed pretty human, but some witches were excellent at hiding their nature. “How long have you been down here? What’s your name? You should understand that you’re not going to touch me. I can take care of myself, so stay back until I figure out what’s going on.”
“Are we safe, Momma?” a soft voice asked from above. “You said it would be okay to have the Hunter here. You said she wouldn’t want to hurt me. You don’t hurt my momma.”
I tipped my head up and felt my eyes widen. There was a kid hanging from a bar above my head, a tiny girl with raven dark hair and massive black eyes staring back at me. Long dark hair hung around her pale face like a waterfall cascading down. She couldn’t be more than five or six.
“Luna, you’re fine.” Evan stood beside me. “She’s not going to hurt you. A witch tried to kidnap her so she’s cranky, but she’s definitely not going to hurt your mom.”
“Luna, you’re supposed to be taking a nap.” The nurse looked up, her hands on her hips and a definite mom frown on her face.
“I got scared.” The little girl started to drop, and I tried to catch her. “Everything shook, and I could hear the uncles were worried. Did the Hunter lady make our nest shake?”
That’s when I heard a popping sound and suddenly a bat was flying around the room trying to evade my hands. She flew up to a higher bar on the ceiling and wrapped her dark wings around her tiny body.
“That was a werebat.” I was shocked and a little in awe. “I’ve never seen one before. I thought they stayed in their colony, far away from any kind of civilization.”
The prey animal werecreatures were rare. Most had gone extinct long before due to predatory creatures finding them way tasty. But there were a few deer herds and a few droves of werepigs, and I’d heard there were some werehorses out there. The bats were rare, with only two known colonies, and they were found in rough terrain far from any city.
“Luna’s colony was wiped out after Myrddin took over,” the nurse explained. “King Daniel had placed protective status on all prey werecreatures, but Myrddin wanted help from a couple of weresnakes and he allowed them to hunt as much as they liked. They could easily live off normal bats, off what we call non-sentient creatures. But they liked the hunt.”
Assholes. “Why don’t you write those names down for me.” I winced as I moved toward the center of the room. “Hey, Luna, sweetie. I know I look scary and stuff, but I don’t hurt anyone but the bad guys. And I’m being irritable toward your mom because I got hit by a fireball. It sucked.”
She dropped to the floor and looked up at me. Now I could see that unlike a lot of other werecreatures, Luna had a distinct look about her. Her nose was flatter and upturned and her ears were pointed. Even in her human form, Luna wouldn’t be able to live in the human world. “A fireball?”
I nodded, dropping to one knee so she didn’t have to stare up at me. “Yup. A big old fireball, and then she lobbed another one my way, but I was better at ducking that time. Singed my shirt.” I held up an arm to show her.
I wasn’t better at ducking. Liv had thrown off that shot or she’d been so shaken by the news Evan had delivered that she couldn’t aim properly.
A part of me wanted to believe the former. I’d almost gotten to her. There was a part of Liv still there in her cast-iron breast armor. I had to find that part and bring her back to me. Or find a way to hold her down until I could locate that piece of her soul and shove it back in her body.
Luna slipped into a robe her mother held out for her. Mom obviously knew to keep one around for her tiny werebaby. The mom didn’t look like a were to me. If I had to bet, I would say she was human or something close.
“I think that would hurt,” Luna said. “That witch sounds mean. Our witches are nice.”
I hoped so. I was worried because Liv had gotten deep enough into the wards to shake the ground beneath us.
“They are nice, and Relda can help with that burn of yours. It has to hurt.” The nurse was dressed in comfy clothes and had a lovely British accent. She turned Evan’s way. “Are you all right?”
“I’m good, Rose. Kelsey kind of threw her body in front of mine,” Evan admitted.
The doors to the clinic flew open, and my massive wolf boy slid into the room on four feet, Trent and Gray running behind him. His big old paws hit the slick floor, and he did that all four paws went different directions thing that I always find hysterical.
