Rapture Untamed (Feral Warriors #4)(53)

Goddess, she still lived.

As he sank down beside her, their gazes collided.

Hers, shattered, clung to him. "The Daemon...?"

Pamela Palmer Rapture Untamed

"Nowhere in sight." Her gaze slid over him, pinched with misery as it returned to his.

She swallowed hard, a sheen of tears bright in her eyes.

"I thought..."

Had she been afraid for him? A nearly overwhelming need to gather her into his arms took hold of him. But before he reached for her, she turned, her gaze flying to the corpse in the yard.

His hands fisted at his sides as tears welled in her eyes, and he knew a terrible jealousy.

"Niall?" he asked tersely.

She nodded, struggling to her feet. "The Daemon killed him." As she started for the corpse, Jag stared at her back, feeling angry, deserted. Bereft.

He turned away. The Therian bastard hadn't deserved to die, but Jag wasn't going to stand there and watch her mourn him.

Tighe strode toward him cradling Delaney's unmoving form in his arms.

Jag's gaze jerked to Tighe's face and knew at once the woman remained alive. Anger and frustration burned in the tiger shifter's eyes, but no devastation. No grief.

"She's unconscious," Tighe said, confirming Jag's observation.

"I knocked her out, Tighe," Olivia said behind him. "The Mage..." She gasped with pain, and he turned to find her curling around her arm. Limbs were a bitch to regrow. He'd regrown his share of them, as he was sure she had, too. No one fought for centuries without losing a few. The pain, sharp as hell, came in waves as the bone pushed through, re-forming the lost hand. The whole process didn't take long, but she would suffer.

Then she'd be fine and could fully grieve for her lost lover.

The thought burned the insides of his skull.

"The Mage enthralled her," Olivia continued when the burst of pain had apparently passed. "Be careful when she wakes. Ewan, too."

Tighe nodded, his brows pulling together in concern. "Can you walk through that? We need to get out of here. Back to Feral House for some serious radiance."

Jag stilled. No way in hell should he be taking Olivia back to Feral House. Not in her Daemon-strong condition. But he needed the radiance, needed to go back. And leaving her out here alone would raise all kinds of questions.

He wasn't leaving her out here alone. No way was he leaving her...at all.

Shit.

If he stayed close to her at all times, taking her back there should be safe enough. He could stop her if her feeding ever got out of control.

He prayed to the goddess it never came to that.

Hawke joined them, Ewan slung over his shoulder like one mammoth sack of grain, Kougar silent at his side.

"What about Niall?" Olivia choked on the name. "I can't leave him here."

"I'll get him," Jag told her.

She met his gaze, a hollow look in her eyes that twisted inside him, angering him more.

There was no logic to his anger, he knew that. Niall was dead, and she'd paid him little enough attention when he lived. But logic had nothing to do with his feelings for this woman. Hell, he didn't know what he wanted, if he even wanted anything at all. All he knew was her grief made him feel like slamming his fist through something.

Because he couldn't stand seeing her in pain, even if that pain was all for another man.

Olivia curled around her left arm on the drive back to Great Falls and Feral House as pain tore through her wrist in wave after scalding wave. She felt as if someone were taking a hatchet to her, cutting off her hand over and over again.

Jag sat beside her in the Hummer, driving, his free hand gently gripping her thigh.

Tighe and Delaney sat behind them and, in the far back, Ewan lay tied and unconscious.

The blood had long ago drained from her face, and her skin felt clammy, sweat mixing with the rain that had already soaked her through. Shivering with cold and the aftereffects of battle, her stomach threatened to send up the lunch her system had long ago devoured.

But it was anger that tore at her mind.

Niall shouldn't have died. She'd let herself become so focused on the damn Daemon, she hadn't seen the Mage sneaking up on them. If they hadn't lost Ewan so quickly, maybe...maybe...she wouldn't have lost Niall at all.

Pain ripped through her again, braiding with the anger. An anger she knew she had to push aside. She'd tried to save him. She'd done her best.

But she could handle the anger so much better than the alternative. On the edges of her consciousness, just beyond the fury and pain, lay another monster waiting to devour her. The grief, the horror, of watching Niall die.

She couldn't deal with that now. Wouldn't.

Another wave of agony tore through her limb, and she grabbed Jag's hand with her good one, curling her fingers around the back of his as she sucked in a hard breath and held on. His fingers curled around hers, giving her an anchor. A lifeline.

As the wave of agony passed, she began to feel her new appendage. With a shudder, she hazarded a glance down. The one thing she'd learned from prior experiences was never to watch her limbs re-form. The pain doubled when she saw the bones sticking out and growing before her eyes.

What met her gaze now relieved her. The bones were all there, the muscle knitting as she watched. One more growth spurt, maybe two, and she'd be done.