“Red! Now!” Adam shouted.
I jerked as the comforting veil of numbness fell away like shattered glass. Alexis looked at me with a worried expression. Giguhl wound through my legs, a comforting presence. A reminder that despite my own problems, bigger ones needed my attention. I cleared my throat and joined Adam at the couch.
“What happened?” I said in a clipped tone. Adrenaline surged and offered its own kind of comfort.
“We showed up at the address a few minutes after sundown. Persephone and Chiara were directing their people to load up their cars. When we approached, Persephone became combative. Said we needed to leave.”
While she talked, I started counting gunshot wounds.
“I tried to talk to her calmly, but she wasn’t listening. A few minutes later, a gang of vampires showed up on scooters. It was the weirdest thing.”
By that point, I’d counted six wounds. “That was Damiano and his gang. They work for Chiara.”
“We didn’t get a chance for introductions because they attacked us,” Alexis continued. “Luckily they were using mundane guns or I’d be toast. Unfortunately, Erron got the worst of it. He didn’t even get a chance to use defensive magic when the first bullet hit him.”
When I got to ten, I looked up at Adam. “Can you fix this?”
He shook his head, his face pale. Because Erron was a Recreant mage, his ability to heal himself had been stripped by the Hekate Council. Not that he was capable of any magic in his unconscious state.
“How’d you get out?” Giguhl asked.
“I shielded him. With me distracted, the vampires rounded up Persephone and Chiara and drove off.”
“That’s strange,” Adam said. “Why would they attack you guys? Persephone knows you. Surely she wouldn’t think you were there to harm her?”
“Chiara’s goons didn’t know us, though. Maybe they saw us as a threat and decided Persephone needed defending.”
I frowned up at him. “Wait. Are you saying Persephone didn’t give the order to attack? Or Chiara?”
Alexis shook her head. “No. We were talking to both of the females when the other vampires arrived. They didn’t speak to the Domina or the Donna. They just started shooting.”
“We can puzzle that part out later,” Adam said. “In the meantime, Sabina and I need to do a healing spell on Erron STAT or we’ll lose him.”
I looked up quickly. On some level, I knew the healing ritual was our only chance to save Erron. But on another other level, I was worried that I couldn’t do it. Despite being grateful for the distraction from my own worries, my head still felt all out of whack. “Adam, I don’t think—”
He put a hand on my arm and squeezed. “There’s no time, Red. We’ve got to do this or we’ll lose him.”
I took a deep breath and nodded. “Let’s hurry, then.”
Alexis looked out of her depth. Not a surprise since, as a vampire, her own wounds had healed on their own. “What can I do?” she asked.
“Stay out of our way,” I said. “And pray.”
Giguhl carried Erron to the bedroom with the mancy and I following. “What do you need?” the demon asked once he set the Recreant on the bed.
I wracked my brain, trying to remember all the tools I’d need to re-create the healing spell I’d done with Rhea months earlier on Brooks after he’d been attacked by a secret cult. “See if you can find candles, preferably blue and purple. Then go to the roof and see if you can get me some sprigs of lavender and sage.”
“Got it!” Giguhl ran off, his hooves pounding against the floors.
“I’ve got salt in my backpack,” Adam said. He rushed over to grab the container of the special salt he always carried for drawing circles. It came from the Dead Sea and had been blessed by his aunt Rhea in a special invocation. Powerful stuff, which was good because we’d need all the help we could get.
He rushed over and set the container next to the bed. “Red?”
“Yeah?” I was busy stripping Erron’s shirt off his bloodied chest.
“When was the last time you fed?”
I shook my head distractedly. “Back in New Orleans.”
“You need to feed now or you won’t have the strength to carry out the ritual.”
I looked up at him then. “But if I feed from you, you’ll be weak, too.”
He held my eyes, but when he spoke, it was to call out to the living room. “Alexis?”
My stomach dropped. “No.”
Alexis appeared at the door. “What’s up?”
“You got any of that blood left over from this morning?”
“No, why?”
I shook my head urgently at Adam. I didn’t exactly have time for an attack of conscience, yet it reared up like a beast. Adam was the only living being I’d fed from for months. While Alexis and I were in no danger of being attracted to each other, the act of taking blood from another vampire—male or female—was just too… intimate.
Besides, Alexis Vega was not someone I wanted to owe a debt.
“Sabina needs blood,” Adam said.
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I’ll be fine.”
Just then, Giguhl ran through the door, brushing past a shocked Alexis. The demon juggled several candles, sprigs of herbs, and matches. He set everything down on the side of the bed before he clued into the tension in the room.
“Uh-oh. What happened?” he demanded.
“Adam just asked me to share my blood with Sabina.” Alexis looked shell-shocked.
“Oh shit,” Giguhl said, his goat eyes wide. “Can I watch?”
I crossed my arms. “No, because it’s not going to happen.”
“Sabina—” Adam started, but I slashed a hand through the air.
Giguhl scooted close. I looked up at him, an idea forming in my head. It was crazy but far preferable to the alternative.
I looked right into his goat-slit eyes. “Will you help me?”
He stood up straighter. I didn’t have to explain what I was asking. He knew immediately. The room was silent as everyone waited to hear whether my minion would willingly give me his blood.
A broad smile stretched across his black lips. “Abso-fucking-lutely.”
Alexis’s breath whooshed out in a relieved rush. “Thank, Christ!” She disappeared through the door like a death-row inmate given a last-minute pardon.
“Okay, let’s do this quickly.”
Giguhl shifted excitedly from hoof to hoof. “Where do you want to bite me? Neck? Ooh, thigh?”
Maybe this wasn’t such a hot idea after all. “Gross, G. How about your wrist?”
He held his arm out immediately. “Be gentle with me.”
I licked my lips and nodded. Now that I was staring at his green-scaled wrist, it hit me how enormous this sacrifice was. Even though Giguhl wasn’t a vampire, offering someone your blood freely demands an enormous amount of trust. I looked up. “Thanks, Giguhl.”
He blushed. “Anytime, trampire.”
Erron moaned from the bed. Time to get serious. In a fast movement, I slammed my fangs into Giguhl’s wrist.
His blood hit my tongue like liquid fire. It seared a path down my throat and then sizzled through my veins. I moaned over his wrist, struggling against the onslaught of pain. I tried to pull away, but Giguhl’s claw held my head to his arm. Then, as quickly as the pain began, it morphed into pure energy. I tasted brimstone on the back of my tongue and something spicy and dark, like turmeric. I swallowed once, twice more before Giguhl released me.
I pulled away with a gasp. My muscles bunched and strained for action. I felt like I could leap a tall building or fly right out the window and never hit the ground. “Holy hell!”
“Aww, yeah.” The demon smiled a cocky smile. “My shit is delicious, right?”
I stretched my arms out and jumped up and down a few times to burn off some of the adrenaline. “I wouldn’t say delicious exactly, but it’s pretty fucking strong. I feel like I could swim across the ocean and still have energy left to build a house by hand.”
Adam cleared his throat. “Or perhaps save your friend’s life?”
I sobered then. “Right. Sorry. It’s just… wow.”
“Yes, yes. We all get it. Giguhl’s blood is great. Can we get started, please?”
I shot Adam an annoyed look. If it had been up to him, I would have been sucking Alexis’s bitter vein right then, so he had no reason to be jealous that Giguhl’s blood was so powerful. I patted him on the arm. “Don’t worry. I still prefer your blood.”
He pursed his lips. “I’m so relieved.”
Giguhl punched Adam in the arm. “Mancy, please, green is so not your color.”
Adam grimaced and rubbed his bicep. “Shut it, demon boy.”
Giguhl clicked his tongue. “Touchy, touchy.”
I clapped my hands together, feeling better than I had in weeks. “All righty, then. Let’s save us a life.”
The candles were the only light in the room. Our breaths the only sounds. Adam clasped my hands over Erron’s body. His warm hands slicked over my clammy palms. I winked at him with a confidence I didn’t feel and started chanting.
“Goddess Hekate, Mother of Magic and Night Queen, raise your torch, that your light may illuminate the path toward healing. Open our vision and protect your humble servant so he may live to carry out your will.”
We closed our eyes and focused our breathing.
With my third eye, I looked deep inside myself. Below the angry black power that coalesced in my diaphragm. Down to the deeper pool of more powerful energy. The powers of the moon. Hekate’s power. I called up additional Chthonic forces through the floorboards. It pierced the soles of my bare feet and climbed my legs. Curled up my torso and into my chest. Melded with my inherent magic. Grew, swirled, danced up my throat.
Magic surged from me. Everything was tinted a bloody red, but my vision was sharper with black halos around the edges. Probably a result of the demon blood zinging through my veins. My skin tingled where it touched Adam’s. His lids fluttered open. The pupils had overtaken his irises until his eyes looked like onyx marbles.