While everyone busied themselves shackling and disarming the prisoners, I vomited and managed to crawl away from the mess which left me pouring sweat and shivering with cold. My vision blurred in and out of focus. Probably that was a bad thing.
Rider approached cautiously. He sat beside me in his blood-soaked shirt and stroked my hair and told me again and again not to worry, that everything would be fine.
The more he repeated it, the more worried I became. Mostly to make him stop, I asked about his injuries. To my own ears, I sounded like I was talking underwater.
He pulled up his torn shirt and showed me his hairy belly. "Good as new. It'll take more than an arrow to the gut to take me out."
Too bad Leigh and Atlas couldn't say the same.
The nausea started to return. I laid my head down on Rider's shoulder, closed my eyes, and focused on remaining as still as possible in hopes of avoiding another bout of vomiting. I guess I fell asleep.
I woke up to a low, angry voice. "Why didn't anyone tell me she was hurt?" Apparently, Nick had arrived.
"She's hanging on," Rider said. "We knew you'd make your way over here soon. The others have needs, too."
"Nowicki?" Nick's voice laid over me like a warm blanket. "Open your eyes."
"Don't wanna," I mumbled.
Was that a chuckle? Kind of rude to laugh at a girl when she's down.
"My guess is internal bleeding." Rider was whispering as if the person with their head on his shoulder wouldn't be able to hear. "It's not just blood, Nick. Something... popped."
Ew. Acid rose in my throat. I willed it back down.
"Nowicki? Come on, now. Open your eyes," Nick said.
I forced my eyes open. The world spun. I threw up all over Rider and burst into tears. Throwing up hurt. Crying hurt. Everything in the world was pain.
To his credit, Rider just propped me up and steadied me. "Don't worry. Everything's going to be fine."
Nick squatted directly in front of me. His handcuffs were gone. Only angry red welts remained around his wrists. He glowed like an incandescent lightbulb and his eyes sparked and popped. Looking at him made my head hurt.
Over his shoulder, I saw Leigh standing up, rubbing a hand over the bloody hole in his shirt. He watched me with wide, terrified eyes.
When I looked at Nick again, a little tingle warmed the space between my legs. That's it? Dang, I really am hurt bad. "You're going to be in trouble again." My voice sounded like I'd recently had a snack of crushed glass and sand.
"Where does it hurt?"
"Everywhere."
"Can you be more specific?"
"I hit my back."
He shifted to the side of me and lifted the back of my shirt a little. His hands moved slowly across my lower back and up one side. In the quietest possible whisper, he spoke rapidly in a language I didn't recognize. A sensation halfway between pain and tickling radiated through my core and made my limbs twitch.
When Nick drew back and stood, he was so bright I couldn't stand to look directly at him. "Better?" He asked.
I stretched a little to the left and right. Not only was the pain gone, I felt better than I had in... well.. in six months, I guessed. "Yeah. All good." His relief flooded through me. Oh, geez. Not this again.
My gaze fell on the freshly resurrected Leigh and I saw the moment his worry shifted to something much more intimate. He looked distinctly like a guy who desired nothing more than to drop down to one knee and propose.
Oh, geez. He was feeling what Nick was feeling too. I started to kind of wish he'd let me die.
Thunder cracked overhead. The building trembled.
"Nick?" Mx. Landry came from somewhere behind me and put a hand on Nick's arm.
"I'm fine. There's more, right?"
Annoyance burned through me. Worry. Weariness. Rage.
"Over here." Rowan sat on the floor beside Atlas.
Mx. Landry patted their pockets, most likely in search of a cigarette. "Nick. You need to--"
"I'm fine!" Three lightbulbs exploded. Lightning flashed outside the window. A row of intricate dark blue tattoos curled upward along the luminescent skin of his neck.
"Clearly." Mx. Landry withdrew and folded their arms over their chest.
"What about my people?"
I turned to see who was shouting and saw the rakshasa lying on his side on the floor, his wrists bound behind him, an iron chain wrapped around his legs. The other four surviving creatures were similarly trussed up. One of the ghouls was displaying his complete impotence by snarling and snapping his teeth as he strained ineffectually against his bonds. The woman in the rumpled suit lay watching everything, still and quiet beside an unconscious male with wicked long claws and a double row of teeth.
I longed for them to put up a real fight, to give me any excuse to drive my dagger into each one of their skulls in turn.
Nick turned his back on the group of them and strode toward Atlas. "Fuck your people."
The demonic criminal went crazy. Spit flew from his mouth as he screamed. "What gives you the right? Who gave you the authority to decide who lives and who dies?"
Mx. Landry ambled over to where the creature lay and, with their pointy-toed stiletto, kicked him in the gut hard enough to lift him from the floor. In their thick, bullfrog voice, they said, "The people on Nick's side live. Those on the other side don't." They squatted down and leaned closer. "You know, there are a lot of creatures in prison who don't approve of your particular brand of crime. Scary to think what they might do to you, isn't it?"
"This is police brutality," he wheezed.
"We're not police, dickwad."
Atlas groaned and sat up.
A long, deep crack split the concrete floor.
I clenched my fists and ground my teeth. "This is different." I swayed unsteadily toward Rider whose demeanor had returned to the more familiar state of complete terror and whispered, "Last time I saw Nick do something like this, he turned all loopy."
Rider smoothed his wild hair with one hand. It immediately sprang back into disarray. "Was he trying to mute himself? To pass for human?"
"Well, yeah. I guess so."
"He's not doing that right now. Stay low. Be ready to run."
My own fear leaped up and began to battle with Nick's boiling rage.
Nick approached Moose and ran his fingertips over the gushing neck wound. It dried up. The skin smoothed over, even as Nick's hands began to tremble.
Mx. Landry took a few steps toward him. "Nick, that's it, then. They're okay now. Let's go."
The crack in the floor widened. Thunder rolled. Another lightbulb popped. Blue spheres of snapping electricity popped and crackled in the palms of Nick's hands.
Mx. Landry held out a hand, palm up. "Nick?"
His gaze fixed on the trussed up group of traffickers.
I reached for my knife.
Leigh and Atlas inched toward them, snarling.
Rider stilled my hand. "You don't want to do that."
"I really do," I said through gritted teeth.
Leigh beat me to it. He lunged in that direction.
Moose thumped him over the head with the butt of his gun and he dropped to the floor.
Mx. Landry met my gaze and, though their lips didn't move, I heard their voice as clear as day. We've got to get him out of here, now.
That was the undeniable truth.
Fist-size balls of hail began pounding the roof. One of them crashed through the window and bounced across the floor.
He won't listen to me, Mx. Landry said inside my head. Do something.
I assured Rider I was fine and stepped away from him. "Nick?"
He met my gaze and a breathtaking whirl of emotions whipped through me, as fierce as the wind outside. It took everything I had to keep my voice somewhat even. "Trust us to finish up here. You saved us. We're okay. We've got it now."
An arc of electricity shot out of his left hand.
I dodged hard to the right and let it sail past me, but I wasn't quite fast enough to avoid getting my shoulder singed.
Regret and shame flooded my heart. "It's okay, Nick. I'm fine. No big deal. I know you're trying so hard. You're doing great. You always do. But you need to go now. Go where you'll be safe. Let us finish up here."
A silvery tear cut a track along his glowing cheek. "The kids..."
"They're fine." Rowan drew up beside me. "A couple of them were a little roughed up. One had a bloody nose. They're already in the cargo truck enroute to a safe house. They're fine."
Relief smothered everything else.
"Go with Mx. Landry, Nick. It's okay."
The deafening thumping of the hail slowed and stopped.
Leigh wandered over to me in a glassy-eyed daze and brushed my filthy hair back from my grossly dirty face. His wide eyes studied mine.
I slapped his hand away and reached for a weapon.
The whole building trembled. A horrible screeching sounded overhead.
I looked up just in time to see the ceiling buckle and fall straight toward me.