A Tangle of Hearts (A Shade of Vampire #44)(9)

“Who’s there?” I shouted as we turned the corner toward the main entrance.

Technically speaking, there was no main entrance anymore. The double doors had been torn to shreds and splintered all over the place. Broken glass was sprinkled everywhere. On top of the entire mess, Field had collapsed over Phoenix, his wings spread out and twitching. He must have been in a considerable amount of pain, but the sight of my unconscious brother hit me with a force to rival their crash into the mansion.

I rushed toward them, leaving Draven to lean against the wall.

“Phoenix!” I shouted.

I rolled Field off of him, quickly glancing over the Hawk’s body. I noticed a multitude of scratches and cuts drawing beads of blood all over his torso and arms. He’d been in a serious fight.

Phoenix, on the other hand, was still. I ran my hands over him in a panic, and stilled when I found the back of his head sticky with blood and already forming a lump.

I gasped.

“What’s going on?” Draven asked behind me.

Groaning, Field raised his head and shook it. He paled at the sight of Phoenix and jumped to his knees, seemingly forgetting about his own pain. He pulled his shirt off, rolled it, and placed it under my brother’s head.

“We need to put pressure there,” he said.

“Phoenix, please!” I gasped, willing him to come to consciousness.

Draven had gone quiet by the wall, probably trying to listen in and understand what was happening. I could barely bring myself to respond to him with my brother limp in my arms.

Motion entered my field of vision where the door used to be. I turned my head and saw Jovi stagger in with a woman leaning against him. She looked young and wore animal skins tightly wrapped around her torso and hips. What I assumed was some kind of red and silver war paint peaked through beneath layers of dirt and shredded grass all over her body.

It was only when I saw the wounds on her leg and shoulder that I realized she wasn’t just a woman but a female incubus—a succubus. The silvery war paint was, in fact, the color of her skin. Her iridescent blood seeped from her injuries, creating quite the contrast against Jovi’s muscular frame. They’d clearly both taken a tumble. What had happened? The facts weren't lining up in my mind with my usual speed.

“What happened? Who’s that?” I heard myself asking everyone and no one.

“What’s going on—?” Bijarki rushed in from another room, soon joined by Vita. His question broke off once he took in the entire scene.

Vita gasped and fell to her knees next to me in front of Phoenix.

“We need some help here,” Jovi grunted.

Bijarki clearly recognized the woman as one of his own kind, and an instinctual frown darkened his face.

She didn’t look thrilled to see him either.

Still, he moved over and took on some of the succubus’s weight, as she reluctantly leaned against both Jovi and him for support. A grimace shot across her face when she tried to move her arm, but Bijarki held her tight, his hand firm around her waist.

Aida’s gasp caught my attention as she joined the chaos and took in the damage. I maintained pressure on my brother’s head, while Aida took Field aside with trembling hands. She pushed him back to lean against a side table that hadn’t been pulverized during his landing. His wings slowly retracted behind him, as Aida tried to ascertain what his injuries were. More cuts became visible on Field’s body.

Vita stood frozen from the number of things going on at once.

“Phoenix, can you hear me?” I called to my unconscious brother. Tears welled up in my throat. “Phoenix, please!”

Draven’s voice boomed out, piercing through our individual panic attacks.

“What is going on here?” he shouted over all of us, and we halted our pleas and gasps and mindless fumbling.

Bijarki kept his focus on the succubus woman, still eyeing her with suspicion.

Jovi was the first to speak. “Shape-shifters,” he blurted, recovering his breath. “They were after a group of women… I had to… We had to do something… The shape-shifters caught two of them, but I couldn’t let them kill this one too…”

Draven’s head moved, as if acknowledging an unknown presence in the room. “Woman? This one?” he asked, his voice cool and even.

“A succubus,” Bijarki interjected, placing an unfavorable accent on the word. She didn’t seem to like his tone either, but she looked too weak to protest.

“We had to help her,” Jovi insisted. “She was stuck in the swamp. One of those freaks was about to pounce on her. I jumped in to get her, and Phoenix tried to distract the beasts. He held his own for a while but then fell and hit his head.”

I stared at him with a mixture of awe and horror as he finished explaining what had transpired.

There was a pause before Draven spoke again. He’d most likely calculated all possible outcomes in that silence while my mind raced with fear for my brother’s life.

“You left the shield to save a succubus? You have very little regard for your own safety, obviously,” he replied.

“Can you save the preaching for later?” I burst out. “My brother is hurt, and he needs help!” I could no longer hold in the tears, and they streamed down my cheeks in rivers.

On hearing me, Draven’s expression softened, and he straightened his shoulders.