“Tommy,” I said, using my air magic to carry my words. I didn’t want to get too close. If the beast inside of Tommy had indeed won out, he would try to kill me just as quickly as he’d killed the troll.
“I’m okay,” Tommy said softly without looking back at me. He dropped the halves of the troll’s head onto the ground, and they made an awful wet sound. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen anything like what Tommy had done. I’d certainly never seen a werewolf tear a troll’s head in half before. I didn’t even know that could happen.
I looked over at where I’d last seen the other troll and noticed the huge spikes of ice sticking out of its torso. Olivia was not a woman to piss off if you liked the idea of remaining in one piece. She looked over at me and nodded, and I made a motion toward Tommy. She looked his way and ran toward him. I took a step away and went to check on Zamek.
I found him sitting on the ground next to a large hole in the wall. He was rubbing his head and cursing a lot in dwarven. I’m not entirely sure that any species I’d ever met was as good at cursing and swearing as dwarves were. It was as if it was an intrinsic part of who they were as a people. Zamek didn’t do it often, but he certainly made it count when he did.
“You okay?” I asked him as he got to his feet.
“Bastard troll.”
“It’s dead.”
“Good.” He looked past me. “Tommy kill it?”
I glanced over at my friend and found Olivia beside him. “Yep.”
“He trying to control the beast inside of him?”
“That’s my guess, yes.”
“Never piss off a were of any kind. That’s my mantra for getting through life. I forget that he’s not even a millennium old.”
“He’ll be fine.”
Zamek nodded. “I know.” He looked around at the bodies that littered the ground. “A lot of bad guys died here today.”
It was my turn to nod, but I didn’t take my eyes off Tommy and Olivia. It wasn’t that I thought Tommy’s beast—something all weres had inside of them, ready to take control and kill with impunity—would suddenly cause Tommy to snap and kill Olivia. I knew him better than that. But I wanted to make sure he was okay. Tommy was rarely so emotional that his beast had any chance of being set free, but an attack on those he cared about—employees and friends alike—was always going to cause emotions to run high.
I walked toward Tommy, who changed back into his human form. His naked body was covered in the blood of those who had fought him and died. He looked down at himself and sighed.
“I’m sorry,” he said to me as I got close enough to hear him.
“For what?”
“I should have guessed this would happen.”
“Don’t be daft,” Zamek said from beside me. “You can’t guess that crazed assholes were going to try and kill us all.”
“I don’t think that’s what happened,” I said, fully aware of the shock on people’s faces, as they waited for me to explain what I meant.
I was about to say more when a black car came toward us. We all readied for more fighting, until I realized it was a Mercedes S-Class AMG—one of my cars. I motioned for people to stand down as the car screeched to a halt, the driver-side door opening before it had fully stopped. Selene stepped out, her clothes singed and her arms and face covered with soot. She ran around the front of the car, and then I noticed the blood.
I ran toward the car, getting there as Selene opened the passenger-side door and brought Remy out in her arms. “Helios attacked,” she said to me. “Remy . . . Remy . . . he . . . he . . .” She looked down at the broken body of our friend. “He saved my life.”
Remy’s chest moved slightly, and I turned back to the crowd and spotted Grayson running toward us.
“Lay him on the ground,” the doctor demanded, and Selene did as she was told.
“What happened?” Grayson asked. “What did Helios do?”
“Helios arrived, and I went outside to talk to him. He attacked me, almost killed me.” Selene sounded shocked that her brother would ever do such a thing. “Remy attacked him, but Helios stabbed him in the stomach and hit him so hard I think it broke most of the bones in his chest. I heard them snap. Helios blew up your house, Nate.”
“Will Remy live?” I asked. Remy had at last count nine lives left from the original twelve witches who had cursed him. If he died, Remy would just come back, minus one life.
“Remy’s healing is similar to a human’s,” Grayson said. “This will take him months to heal from, if not longer.” He removed a knife from his belt and passed it to me.
I knelt beside Remy. “You there?” I asked.
Remy opened one eye, the other too swollen. “Hurts,” he managed, although the pain to even say one word was etched on his face.
“You know what I have to do, yes?”
Remy made the tiniest of nods.
“You’re going to kill him?” Selene asked.
“Oh, you don’t know about Remy’s power?” Diana said. “He’ll be back in a few minutes if he dies.”
“I thought he was going to die. Like, for good. I cried over his broken body.”
I placed the tip of the knife against Remy’s chest and pushed, puncturing his heart and killing him almost instantly. I sat back on the ground and rubbed my eyes.
“You okay?” Tommy asked me, placing a hand on my shoulder. Thankfully someone had given him a pair of shorts to wear.
“I know he’ll come back, but I still had to take his life. It’s not exactly a fun thing to do.”
A few minutes later Remy coughed and rolled onto his side, spitting blood onto the floor. “That fucking hurt,” he snapped. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fucking, fucker, piece of goddamn shitting fuckhead.”
“You done?” Grayson asked, getting to his feet.
“Cock biscuit.” Remy sat up. “Now I’m done.”
Selene hugged him. “You saved my life. Thank you for that.”
Remy shrugged and got to his feet. “Aw shucks, I’m just a great person all round.”
Diana laughed, placing a hand over her mouth to stop it.
“You genuinely think Helios would have killed you?” I asked Selene.
She nodded. “I saw nothing but hate in his eyes. He said he was going to leave you a message. And then he blew up your house.”
“This can all wait,” Grayson said. “Right now we have people to help. I need all of you to pitch in.”
“Okay, people,” Tommy said. “Let’s help the injured and make sure any of these assholes who aren’t dead aren’t in a position to cause more harm.”
“If you find any of them able to talk, I’d like to have a few words,” Olivia told us all.
“I don’t think you’re going to be that lucky,” I told her. “These people were sent here with one purpose.”
“To kill us all?” Zamek asked.
I shook my head. “They were sent here to die.”
CHAPTER 5
Nate Garrett