Runes of Truth (A Demon's Fall #1)(19)
“I’m going to get some wood, or anything we can use. I checked the cave while I waited for you to wake up, and it is safe. It’s night, and we aren’t going anywhere until morning,” he pauses. “We are at the bottom of the mountain to answer your unsaid question,” Azi says, pulling his cloak around him, and walking out of the cave without another word.
“What happened?” Connor mumbles, sitting up–his gold hair sticking up all over the place, and he has mud all over his cheek. He rubs his face, glancing at his friends and pulling his bag off his back, getting out a drink. Trex is still struggling to come around, rubbing his face with his hands. I try to hide my smile when he looks my way, but he sees it, anyway. I chuckle and look back at Connor.
“Demon portals aren’t made for anything other than demons. When our kind travels through, it knocks us out. It can kill humans if they travel too far in them,” I tell him as he drinks some water and shakes his head at me.
“You could have mentioned that before we went through the portal!” Trex snaps, going over to his brother, and shaking his shoulder. Nix groggily slaps Trex’s hand away as he wakes up, looking around the room and falling back with a dramatic tired groan.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Next time, I will leave you with the souls and let them eat you, you ungrateful asshole!” I snap right back at Trex, and his eyes burn with hate and anger as he stands up to walk over, but Connor slides in front of him.
“She is right, we didn’t have a choice and would be dead if Azi hadn’t opened the portal. Let’s make camp, rather than try to kill each other. We have enough dangers here that are trying to kill us. Remember why we are here, Trex,” Connor suggests, but Trex doesn’t take his angry eyes off me.
“Fine,” he finally says, turning around, and going over to his brother. At least the asshole listens to someone. I take my bag off, pulling out my blanket first and putting it on the ground. I lay my weapons next to it, keeping my daggers on my thighs just in case.
“He isn’t waking up,” I hear Trex say, and I look over to see him shaking Nix’s shoulder, and Connor kneeling down next to them. Shit, he got bit.
“He was bit by a soul on his arm,” I say, standing up, “Nix needs the poison sucked out, and the wound disinfected,” I tell them, and they both shoot their eyes to me.
“Sucked out?” Trex asks with a disgusted frown.
“Boys,” I roll my eyes at them and walk over, nudging Connor out of the way. I go to lift Nix’s arm, but Trex grabs my wrist stopping me. I look up, meeting his dark-green eyes. “Why can’t you use your white rune to heal him?”
“Runes don’t work on the dead, or anything they infect. I know this, I’m certain that he will die unless we get the poison out,” I tell him firmly. I’ve seen it happen so many times in the demon underground. People who went to hell for whatever reason, and escaped with bites, thinking they were free. This is the only way to save people, the only way I’ve seen work. I was lucky demons found me when I fell into the hell, and the souls didn’t get near me. Not that what the demons did was any better, I remember praying for death at times, and the souls could have given me that.
“I can help, I want to help him . . . so let me?” I ask him, as gently as I can make myself speak. He watches me for a second, before letting go.
“If my brother dies, I will hold you responsible,” he growls.
“I get it. I’m pretty sure this is the second time you have threatened to kill me, and yet, here I am. If I was going to betray you, I would have by now,” I tell him, looking down at Nix’s arm, and pulling the sleeve up. The bite isn’t too bad, but the poison from the dead soul is crawling through his veins near the bite, and I can see it spreading underneath the tattoos that cover his arm, right up to his wrist. The bite is in-between his blue and black runes on his arm. I turn it over, seeing his rune name written down the side of his arm, hidden in all the other tattoos.
“He wouldn’t want you to know his name,” Trex tells me.
“I can’t read runes, so I don’t know it,” I tell him, and he gives me a questioning look. I’m sure he has a million questions to ask, but he doesn’t say any of them. The room is deadly silent as I kneel down, getting ready.
“Can you do this? He is my brother; I can do this if you can’t,” Trex tells me firmly.
“I’ve done worse to save someone I like . . . plus, I’ve seen this done a few times. I know when to stop, and when to wash the poison out of my mouth when it starts burning,” I tell him, he doesn’t reply, but he seems to get the idea that I am trying to help his brother.
“Connor, go in my bag, and get the bottle of vodka out. We will need it,” I tell him, and he sharply nods, running over to my bag.
“If he wakes up, and tries to fight me off, you need to stop him. Understood?” I ask Trex, who nods, leaning closer and getting ready. “This will hurt.” I say to the unconscious Nix before covering my mouth over the bite and sucking the poison out. I keep sucking and spitting out the poison, looking at his arm, seeing the veins turning back to normal slowly. It takes about twenty minutes before Nix wakes up with a start, his natural reaction was as I predicted it would be, and he tries to push me away. Trex holds him down, but seems to struggle a bit as his brother goes mad.