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“Me?” Ayla said.
“Yes, the infirmary has need of you right now.”
“What? Did something happen?”
The attendant nodded, her almond eyes so wide they were practically circles. “It’s the soldier you treated earlier, Maddox. He’sdying.”
My blood ran cold in my veins as I had one singular thought.
Not again.
Chapter 18
Ayla
For the second time, I found myself bursting into the plastic-quarantined area where Mad Dog lay, and as much as I hoped the shifter attendant was exaggerating, he was obviously in dire straits.
If he looked like death before, now he smelled and felt like it, too. What the hell had happened to him, and how had it happened so fast? I’d cured him just the day before, I was sure of it.
“F-fancy…meet…meeting you…here,” the man breathed, his eyes yellowed and completely bloodshot when they landed on me. Fuck. I didn’t think I’d ever internally sworn so much, but life was especially cursed lately.
“Hey, hey, you don’t need to say anything,” I urged, keep my voice calm as I instantly took the new clipboard a healer shoved into my hands. They’d hooked another IV into his opposite arm, and I saw it was a mix specifically for wolf shifters, made with moon water and other celestial-related things that would help. A lot of the ingredients within were fairly rare, which meant it was only used in extreme circumstances.
I’d say what was happening qualified.
Rapidly reading through the pages, I saw they’d re-run all the tests from the day before, and though it hadn’t been long enough for the results to come back on all of them, there was enough to tell me it was likely my curse again.
“Hold on, Maddox. I’m gonna make you feel better, all right?”
I put my hands directly on his forehead and stomach again, calming myself. I couldn’t let my nerves distract me from some valuable piece of information.
“Here, let me help.”
I nearly jolted at Kai’s voice when he entered the protective bubble. When had he even arrived? Once the attendant told us what was going on, he’d gone to inform the rest of our men, and I’d sprinted toward the infirmary as fast as I could.
“You shouldn’t be here,” I said with absolutely no conviction to my voice.
“I know, but let me help,” he repeated as he put his hands upon my waist.
I was about to hiss at him to stop, but it wasn’t the time. Then I felt our bond open, and pure, reinvigorating energy flowed through me, refreshing me in ways I didn’t know I needed.
My heart picked up a little in my chest as I realized my suspicions were right. I’d never really heard of a non-magic user for a mate being able to work as a… batter for their magic user partner, but it was the only way to describe what was happening. I was rather intimately familiar with what my own pool of magic felt like, but now it was as if there were other streams all around it, pouring into my own reservoir to give me so much more to draw from.
I was certainly going to make good use of it.
Pushing my magic into Mad Dog, I braced myself for another awful scan, waiting for the burn to bite into me, but this timeit was like I hit a force field, my magic bursting out in a bright shock that made me stagger.
“Are you all right?” Kai said, his ketones spiking.
“I’m fine,” I snarled, not at him, but at whatever dark illness was taking my friend. “Just hold onto me, okay?”
“Whatever you need, I’m here.”
I believed him.
Closing my eyes, I sharpened my magic. It was no longer a large, comforting blanket that’d sink into Mad Dog so I could see into his body, no longer a gentle thing I’d push into him. Instead it was a scalpel and bistoury, sharp, ready to cut away the evil inside.
“Youwillconcede,” I said, snarling at whatever malevolence was over the shoulder, pressing my magic in. It fought me—oh, did it fight—but I pressed on, cutting through layer by layer of its opposition.
