Goddamnit. There weren’t enough of us to handle this. With Theo down, Ryder keeping Theo alive, Hiro guarding Nix, and me using my powers of illusion, that left Damien.
The struggle warred within him. He could see from the images I was continuously feeding him that Michael was getting closer to the far edge of the barrier. Theo’s blood spilled in an ever-growing pool as the silver lodged in his stomach kept him from healing properly. Rini was crying, and Theo had mercifully passed out. The blue light continued to radiate from Ryder’s hands. Hiro was past the reach of my powers, and I fucking hoped that meant Nix was safely ensconced in my bulletproof Hummer.
I pushed an idea to Damien, realizing that we needed to take a chance. Counting down, I prepared myself to drop my illusions. Three. Two. One. I sucked the magic that was spread throughout the clearing back into myself, giving everyone their eyesight back. Michael was so close to the barrier; as soon as he saw the murderous Gargoyle, now over his aversion to killing the man who’d been slowly destroying our family, he turned and fled as fast as he could run.
The crash of Damien’s body hitting the magical force field shook the ground just as I reached Ryder and helped him haul Theo gently off the ground. Rini helped as much as she could, seeming to get herself under control now that she had a mission to complete: getting everyone the fuck out of this clearing.
The resounding growl that came from the Gargoyle was chilling, even to me, and I watched as he struggled to push past the barrier. Fucking hell. It must be spelled so that no shifters can cross in their alternate forms. The fucking bastard was getting away. My Puca hopped around angrily in my head, so upset and ready to charge after the villain, that I had to pull him back—hard.
“Damien. We need to go.” The words were tight as I fought my instincts to give chase.
Rini must have realized our internal battles because she quickly broke away from Theo, finding the inner strength to go to Damien. Placing her hands on the sides of his face she whispered to him. “We need to save Theo, and we need to save Nix.” Stroking the sides of his face with her fingers, she calmed him down enough to help him shift. It wasn’t done in any kind of romantic way, but touch was the strongest form of communication in our alternate forms, and it was what broke through his anger-induced state and helped bring him back. Breathing deeply, he forced his wings to fold away and his ears to return to normal. While he was still working to retract his fangs, I thought he would be able to cross the barrier now.
Anger and self-loathing seeped through the mental connection; while I didn’t blame Damien in the least, it didn’t sit right with me that the fucking bastard had escaped. Damien wanted to go after him, but I was sure he was long gone, and now we needed to take care of our own. I would be damned if I lost two members of my family tonight. No. Priority number one was to get Theo home and healed while we waited for Nix to regenerate. Everything else would have to wait.
Two
Ryder
Sweat beaded on my forehead as Damien held down an unconscious Theo. If he woke up during our prodding, we needed to make sure he wouldn’t move and cause himself more damage. There had been enough bloodshed in the last two weeks to last me a lifetime. Blood generally didn’t bother me—I was pre-med after all— but the blood of a loved one fell into an entirely different category. I’d been using my healing powers for so long tonight that my hands were starting to shake as I worked to repair the damage done by the bullet.
Fuck. The metal was poisoning him from the inside out, burning everything it touched. I was glad that Theo was passed out for this.
The handgun fired a single shot, and even though the weapon would be considered a low-velocity firearm, the close range of the shot made Theo’s wound fatal. If the shot itself hadn’t been fatal, the silver would have tipped the scales. Not only was having something so poisonous in his bloodstream for so long deadly, but the silver didn’t allow the wound to heal without extensive work.
I took a shuddering breath, totally worn out from the amount of power I was pouring into Theo as I healed him bit by bit. Aside from the obvious entry point, the bullet hit his stomach, damaging his pancreas in the process. Worse still was the fact that it had nicked his inferior vena cava which was the cause of his excessive bleeding. I had worked to staunch the bleeding as much as I could from the moment I landed next to Theo in the clearing, but it wasn’t going to be enough if this bullet didn’t come out soon.
Hiro was standing to my right with a pair of slim metal forceps, carefully digging into the abdominal wound to extract the piece of silver. Grabbing hold of it, he pulled it out little by little, allowing me time in between each slide of the bullet to knit my friend back together again, starting with the vein and working my way forward. If we pulled the bullet out quickly, he could lose too much blood before I could repair the damage. He’d already lost so much in the clearing. Clearing my mind, I focused on how my hands heated while the healing power of my alternate form flowed through me. I kept my hands about an inch off of the bare skin of Theo’s abdomen, trying to keep my hands to the side of the wound to give Hiro plenty of space to work.
With a wound this extensive and critical, we worked this way for over half an hour and were just finishing up when Killian walked into the room, looking as ragged as I felt.
“How’s it going?” Killian asked. He had been sitting with Nix, waiting for her power to surge back into her body and for her to awaken.
“Pretty boy’s probably going to kick my ass for leaving him with a scar, but the Kraken will live.” I tried to joke, but I knew everyone picked up on my wariness.
There was nothing I could do for the sea monster in regards to the small puckered scar. The small round area would be a reminder on his skin of this day, but I hoped when he looked at it he saw himself as a hero. He had fucking saved Rini.
Exhausted, I fell back on my heels and let my hands drop to my side. My friend, my brother, would live; the silence that surrounded all of us settled heavily on our shoulders.
Anything from Nix? I knew it was probably masochistic of me to ask because I hadn’t felt any sparks alerting me to her powers returning, but I had to know if maybe I missed it in my focused and drained state.
No. Killian’s thoughts were gruff and hard.
I sighed and reached up to rub my eyes with the palms of my hands. Hiro’s hands landed on my shoulders, and he started to massage my sore muscles. Holding my hands over first Nix and then Theo for so long had caused a deep ache, and his fingers were working magic. I couldn’t help the appreciative groan that slid up my throat.
His quiet, smooth voice was the first to break the silence, at least out loud.
“Come on.” He helped me up. “Let’s get you cleaned up.” I could tell how weakened the extensive healing had left me. My muscles protested as I stood but I motioned to Theo’s unconscious form on the couch anyways.
“I really should keep an eye on him.” I hadn’t been able to take my eyes off of the rise and fall of his chest, reassuring myself that my powers had worked. I loved Theo like a brother, we all did. We were a family, all of us guys, and now Nix was a part of that also. I couldn’t imagine losing either of them, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel until they woke up.