“What the hell were you three doing out there?” Malum’s angry voice interrupted my musings. He looked furious.
Bronze muscles rippled, and his shaved head was on fire as he stalked across the grass toward us with Scorpius and Orion following behind.
“We were executing a winning plan,” I said with a grin, and Vegar gave me another high-five.
Luka mumbled under his breath, “The dumbest plan in history.”
Malum grabbed the demons by the shirt fronts and started yelling in their faces. Scorpius looked pissed beside him, and Orion stared at me with wide eyes.
I rolled my eyes and limped away from my teammates to where four powerful men were embracing Sadie.
She pushed out of their arms and grabbed me just as I collapsed.
“You’re the prettiest, most impressive woman in all the realms,” I whispered as I lost consciousness from blood loss.
Sadie held me tightly and said, “I know.”
Then everything went black.
Chapter 34
Aran
SOFT KISSES
Metamorphosis—Day 46, hour 1
“AHHHHHH!” I screamed as I arched my back off the makeshift cot.
I was lying in a sticky puddle of blood. Everything itched. My clothes were crusted to sweat-soaked skin.
Zenith and Vegar lay on the floor beside me.
Each of us was on one of the makeshift bloody mattress pads from the first competition. They were marginally better than the floor.
Our room reeked of copper and desperation.
The demons panted loudly and swore through gritted teeth.
I moaned brokenly.
Malum snapped, “Help her, Luka!” His head was bent low, face scrunched with concentration, as he knelt and stitched up Vegar’s wounds.
“I’m trying!” Luka yelled back frantically.
Everyone was panicking.
Orion was on his knees, stitching up Zenith.
Scorpius sat between his mates with his jaw clenched as he struggled to hold the demons still. Every few seconds, he released them, reached over, and grabbed my arm like he wanted to make sure I was still there.
I didn’t have time to dwell on the bizarre gesture.
I whimpered as the pain intensified.
Orion made a pained noise and looked over at me with wide, concerned eyes.
“One breath at a time. Breathe slowly,” Luka said gruffly as he concentrated on stitching up the gash on my thigh. His movements were smooth and precise.
I made a point of inhaling as fast as I could. Just to spite him.
I didn’t like when men told me what to do, it was a trigger.
Luka crinkled his eyes and looked down at me like I was an idiot.
A scream bubbled up my throat.
I bit down on my lower lip until my teeth poked through and stabbed my chin.
The stabbing, pulling sensation of the needle was pleasurable compared to the absolute agony raking down my back.
It was the shower all over again.
Absolute.
Torture.
And I had no clue why my spinal cord was fracturing inside me.
Luka finished closing the gaping wound on my leg. “I need to do your chest,” he said gruffly as he pointed at the gash that traveled across my collarbone.
I couldn’t remember if it was from a sword or a talon.
Swallowing another scream, I gave him a shaky nod.
Sweat poured down my forehead, and I wanted to yell at him to fix my back. But unless he had a doctorate in dark enchantment, he couldn’t do anything to help me.
Some burdens weren’t meant to be shared.
I said nothing.
And suffered.
Luka pointed at my collarbone again like he was waiting for permission.
Zenith groaned loudly beside me and slammed his feet against the floor as Orion stitched his arm. Scorpius reached over and touched my shoulder.
Vegar whimpered.
Malum glanced at me, silver eyes wide with worry.
Crack. My spine snapped.
Everything went dark.
Cold water splashed across my face, and I sputtered with outrage as it filled my nose. It was frigid compared to my clammy skin.
“Stay conscious,” Luka ordered.
I blinked through watery lashes.
Instead of leaning across me to get to my neck, Luka threw his powerful leg over my hips.
I froze.
He straddled me and leaned forward.
I choked with surprise.
The apex of his thighs was nestled against mine, and he’d put on a new sweatshirt, but it was soaked with sweat and blood. It clung to his muscled upper body like a second skin.
I held my breath.
His fingers danced gently across my collarbone.
There was a loud ripping noise as Luka tore apart the top of my sweatshirt so it was hanging open to expose my collarbone. He leaned closer and flexed his thighs for stability as he stitched up the gash.
He had nimble fingers for a large man.
Crack. Things shifted in my back, and I swallowed vomit as my limbs shook.
Involuntarily I flung my hips forward and curled my shoulders back to alleviate the pain. My core rubbed against Luka.
“Sorry,” I choked out. “Can’t help it.”
The tops of Luka’s cheekbones turned a faint pink, but he didn’t look up from his work. He silently fixed my broken pieces.
I grunted.
Squeezed my eyes shut.
Whimpered.
Luka made a sound of concern.
Again the pain exploded. Again I slammed my hips forward and arched my back as I squeezed my eyes shut. This time, I rubbed against a solid object.
Half-delirious, I mumbled, “Why. Do you have a weapon?”
Luka choked, and I peeled open my eyes.
I looked further down, and my eyes widened.
“That’s not a weapon,” I whispered like an idiot.
Luka didn’t take his eyes off my neck where he was working. “No, Your Highness, it’s not.”
It was my turn to blush.
I was an idiot. Calling a man’s dick a weapon was the type of stupid shit Sadie babbled about happening in her romance books.
I would never recover from this.
“Why are you suddenly calling me Highness?” I gasped between whimpers of pain because I was desperate to change the topic and move on from being an embarrassment to all of womankind.
Scorpius’s grip on my shoulder tightened.
Things were moving inside my skeleton. The sensation was tortuous and wrong.
I prayed for death.
Luka didn’t answer. He climbed off my hips and started working on my arm.
I didn’t ask again.
Hours later my back finally stopped trying to send me into cardiac arrest, and Luka finished up stitching what felt like my millionth wound. He rummaged around, putting the supplies away.
He’d rolled up his sleeves, and his forearms were coated like he’d dipped his arms into red paint.
I couldn’t move.
My body weighed three hundred thousand tons.
A dull throbbing sensation echoed through my limbs.
I was liquid. The excruciating sensations had fried my neurons, and I’d melted. There was nothing left of me.
I moved a little and froze. Dozens of stitches pulled.
A horrible sensation washed over me; when I moved, it felt like my organs were going to spill out from my skin.
Or maybe it was all in my head?
Vegar thumped his fist against the carpet and moaned loudly.
“Stay still,” Scorpius snapped as he held him down with one hand, his other still holding onto me.
The two demons were littered with even more cuts than I was.
“‘Your Highness’ is fitting because you’re bossy and stubborn. You refused to listen to reason, and your plan was the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Luka whispered as he cleaned up his supplies.