“Anything to make it stop.”
As he went to work, I carefully gathered her into my arms. She came willingly, which was a surprise, burrowing her face into me and fisting her hands up in my shirt.
She belongs here.Something inside me tightened to a painful degree.She belongs right here.
“Three broken ribs.” Chance tut-tutted. “Your right ankle is fractured. Oh, and your cheekbone, too.”
“My poor girl.” I laid my cheek on her head. “I bet you made your attacker regret it.”
“If she didn’t, I did,” Kerry growled. “Kas gave him a good working over for damaging his merchandise, but I made sure that Robideaux won’t be doing nothing but healing for a good, long while.”
I glanced at his hands on the steering wheel and— Yep. His knuckles were busted open and bloody.
I wanted to reprimand him for the disaster he could have caused, as well as the time it cost us, but I didn’t. I figured either he wouldn’t care about a lecture, in which case it would be a waste of my breath, or he’d get mad. Since his anger was too expensive to risk, I let it go.
As Chance’s power flowed over her, Mira’s bruises faded and her breathing eased. She tolerated me holding her for a few more moments, then moved away. I let her go, but felt like I’d lost a piece of me.
Patience. Just keep showing her she can trust you. Someday she’ll believe it.
At least, that was my hope.
“Better?” Chance asked with a smile.
“Much.” Mira smiled back.
The spear of jealousy that ripped into me was a shock.
She can smile at another guy, idiot. Especially one who just ended agonizing pain.
“Are you hurt?” Chance looked at Gigi, whose face was buried in Jax’s neck.
“No.”
“Did they … Did theymolestyou?” He had the balls to ask the question I couldn’t.
They both shook their heads, and I could breathe deeply again for the first time since we were run off the road.
“Kas said not, and I believe him.” Kerry, busy pulling into traffic, hadn’t seen their response. “He castrated one of his raiders a few years ago, and rape hasn’t been a problem since.”
“What about these bracelets?” Chance nudged Mira’s with the toe of his shoe.
“Don’t touch them!” Kerry barked. “Not with bare skin, at least. They’ll dissolve into dust in an hour on their own, anyway.”
“Sounds pretty chintzy. Cheap ones, huh?”
“Once you get to a party, favors usually don’t last long.” Kerry shrugged, then seemed to realize what he’d said. “Never mind. You don’t need to know.”
“Yes, we do!” Gigi sniffed, but sat up. “I’m tired of being so ignorant!”
I understood the kid’s hesitation to shatter his friends’ innocence. I didn’t particularly want to know, either, but we needed all the weapons we could add to our arsenal.
“All right.” He sounded like he’d decided to test us. “When greater demons have parties or whatever, they give the highest-ranking guest a treat to consume.”
“And nephilim are those treats?” I knew the answer, but asked anyway.
“And other things.” His eyes met mine in the rear-view mirror. “It has to be a pretty special guest to rate a neph, even down to Fifths.”
“By consume, you mean—” Gigi couldn’t seem to finish the sentence.
