“Hey.” Onvyr would have said more but fell into a coughing fit.
Valentine didn’t move.
“Not yet, human. Your life belongs to me,” Khent growled and chanted.
Cleansing the poison of the four-eyes’ death from his companions, Khent stopped only when Onvyr sighed his thanks.
“Man, that sucked.” The dark elf stared down at Valentine. “Is she okay?” He leaned down to place his ear on her chest. “Her heart rate is steady. Breathing is good too.”
“I know.” Khent could hear it, his senses attuned to the slight female. “Come. We need to head back.”
“What about the mountain?”
Khent glanced up at the bright fire raging over the summit. “Mormo probably won’t like that.”
“Yeah, and there are a ton of dead bodies still up there. Who knows what that demon’s poison did to them? Could it reanimate those magir, do you think? And who were they? Why did that thing kill them in the first place?”
“My guess would be for fun.” Khent had enjoyed the slight skirmish, though he hadn’t found it very stimulating. Or enlightening. “He never told me his name.”
“You sure it’s a he? I’m finding that female species tend to be more aggressive.” Onvyr frowned.
“Not getting along with Bella anymore?”
Hecate liked to use a young woman’s human form when in the house, calling herself Bella. It had taken them a while to realize the human was in fact their patron goddess. It still bothered him that he’d been fooled, but then, so had the rest of his kin.
He gave himself a pass.
“She’s hard to understand.” Onvyr stared up at the mountaintop. “We should call Macy for this.”
Khent sighed. “Yes. Better for MEC to contain this and clean it up, I suppose.” He called their Bloode Witch. After a brief summary, he let Macy know he’d be returning to the house with Onvyr and Valentine.
“Good,” she said. “I need to talk to your necromancer. MEC has some concerns about her.”
Bristling in Valentine’s defense and not sure why, Khent muttered, “Have them talk tomeif they have problems. We’re leaving now.” He hung up on her protests then lifted Valentine and placed her gently in the back seat of the vehicle.
She really was small, curled up and tucked in the back.
“I guess I’m sitting next to you.” Onvyr beamed. “What do you think the four-eyes was? He didn’t smell like a full demon. Well, he did. But he smelledmore.”
“More what?”
Onvyr frowned. “I don’t know. But the squirrel I was talking to before we left told me the demon had been up there before. Hunting all alone. But not like tonight. The dryads said the same thing. And what was that staff? Talk about gross.”
Dryads…Damn. The precious dead fae had likely burned up in the fire. Valentine wouldn’t like that.
She’d probably be pretty upset about it when she woke.
Khent smiled to himself. He’d make sure to be the one to tell her how much she’d lost, and how fortunate she was that he’d saved her life. Again.
On the ride home, he considered the myriad ways she could repay him.
CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN
Val was havingthe best dream. A large man carried her, cradling her tenderly to his muscular chest.
The power in him fit her, a complement to her roiling energy. She didn’t feel so tired, buoyed by a sense of safety she hadn’t felt in…well, in forever.
