The Lost Souls (The Holy Trinity #2.5)(42)

“I will kill you!” he roared, leaping to his feet and lunging for her.

Her eyes, full of fear, widened, and that was the last thing Nico saw.

Pain radiated throughout his skull…

And the world went black.





Chapter Twenty-Three


“Hockey,” Mira said, sounding and looking exasperated. “I think she’s hungry. We’ve tried everything else.”

The baby—the little girl whose name neither Hockey nor Mira knew because Nico had holed himself up in a corner of the trailer, not speaking to anyone—was crying incessantly, had been for hours now.

“There’s no formula,” Mira continued. “I think…” She trailed off and closed her eyes. When she opened them, she lowered her voice an octave. “I think she was breast-fed.”

Hockey didn’t doubt it. No Romani baby had ever been formula-fed. If a mam? had problems with her milk, a wet nurse would step in. And if the baby refused to feed, every woman in the clan would work tirelessly around the clock to ensure the baby was fed.

Hockey glanced behind him to where Nico sat. Unmoving, unblinking, he seemed to be in some sort of shock, oblivious to the world around him.

Shaking his head, Hockey looked back to Mira.

“We’re going to need to find some formula,” he said quietly, “and I don’t think Nico is up to the job.”

Not that he blamed Nico. Hockey wasn’t up to the job either. Nobody was. What had transpired only hours ago had shaken everyone. Becki was gone, dead. She wasn’t coming back, and Hockey wasn’t sure if he’d allowed her death to truly sink in yet. His fear was that if he did, if he allowed it to permeate his brain, to take over, then he wouldn’t be up for much of anything, let alone trying to find baby formula. It wasn’t just the baby he was responsible for now. It was Mira and Nico too. He could and would set aside his own grief to make sure the three of them stayed alive while under his care.

Blowing out a breath, Hockey kneeled down in front of the bed Mira was sitting on. “You did the right thing,” he said solemnly. “You know that, right?”

Pressing her lips together tightly, Mira nodded.

He could see the guilt, the regret, the remorse in her expression, but he wasn’t going to insult her by commenting on it or by pushing her to talk about it further. Becki was as good as dead the second that thing had sunk its teeth into her. Curse or no curse, none of them had any idea how to break a dark magic curse. In his grief, Nico had been grasping at straws.

But goddamn if dark magic hadn’t blindsided the world. Hockey had heard stories before—nature’s punishments gone awry, and because of such, entire villages had been wiped out by dark magic—but those stories were from long ago and only garnered from other stories that had been bastardized as they were passed down the line from generation to generation. Hockey had no idea how dire the consequences of messing with nature’s gifts could truly be.

But none of that mattered at the moment, not when there was a hungry baby in his care.

Slowly, he got to his feet. “I’ll go,” he told Mira. “Keep a gun on you in case…” He trailed off as he glanced back at Nico, who still hadn’t so much as blinked.

“In case you need it,” Hockey finished.

Mira looked up at him. “Be careful,” she whispered.

He wasn’t going to make any promises, not in a world where a promise could be ripped to shreds within seconds of making it. So instead of promising her, he went back down on his knees and cupped her face between his hands. Crushing her mouth to his, Hockey kissed her.

He kissed her like he loved her even though he didn’t, not yet anyway. But he could…someday. And it wouldn’t be a one-sided love.

It would be mutual.

“I don’t know how safe this park is,” he said, pulling away from her. “We’re only fifty or so miles from where the Skins attacked, so if I’m not back by nightfall, you leave. Get Nico to tell you where my clan is, and I promise you, Mira, they’ll protect you.”

“He killed a man,” she said. “You heard him. He can’t go back there.”

Hockey shook his head. “I’ve thought about that. Blame it on Becki,” he said. He didn’t want to pin a murder on Becki, but from her history with Tobar, it was a plausible outcome and right now, Hockey didn’t have time for grief or guilt.

“Tell them it was Becki who killed Tobar and that Nico took her and ran to protect her.”

Her big eyes filled. “I’m not leaving here without you,” she said weakly.“You will,” he said forcefully. “And you will do everything you can to keep surviving because that’s who you are, Mira. You’re a survivor.”

? ? ?

Four hours later, inside a picked-over drugstore in a nearby town, surrounded by a pack of hungry Skins, Hockey knew his time on earth had come to an end.

“You’re so pretty,” a female skin purred as she rubbed her cheek against his. “Pretty like a girl with your perfect skin and long hair.”

He’d been outnumbered and overpowered, his magic rendered useless when they’d pinned his hands behind his back.

“What are you waiting for?” Hockey yelled, struggling fruitlessly against the male holding him.

Hockey had never seen such a thing—Skins not instantly attacking but playing with their food instead. They were far different than any others he’d encountered. They were housebroken, so to speak. Someone had taught them self-control. They were calling one another by their first names, and some of them were even wearing clothing.