House of Leights (Secret Keepers, #3)(67)

The pair stepped up on either side of the blond girl, who remained calm, even though she was about to be operated on without any pain relief.

Daniel brushed her hair to the side. “I’m going to need you to tilt your head as far as you can.” He demonstrated what he wanted, and when she immediately followed his instructions, he leaned closer.

“I will tell you when I’m about to cut.” His voice was very graveled. “Try not to move.”

From my angle, it looked like Callie rolled her eyes. “I’ve been cut before, Daniel. I’ll be able to handle it, don’t you worry.”

Her assurance did not lessen the worry he wore. His hand remained steady, though, as he brought the deadly blade to her neck. “Cutting now,” he said.

It seemed like he’d only lowered the knife for a split second before he was lifting it again, blood noticeable on the tip. Callie did not move, but she had closed her eyes. Daniel handed the dagger to Xander, before he ushered Emma and me forward.

“Are either of you okay with blood?” he asked.

I shrugged. “I’ve never had a noticeable problem with it, but I’ve also never performed surgery on someone.”

Emma grimaced. “Honestly, I’m not great, but for Callie I’ll do whatever.”

“I’ve cut just over the top of the device,” he explained. “But it’s not coming out easily with the blade and I don’t want to cut her any more. I need someone with long nails to lift it and then pull it out.”

Emma waved her fingers at him. “My nails are always short. Long nails annoy me. So I can’t help.”

Her relief was very obvious. Meanwhile, I had a nicely manicured set of teal nails, so I did not have the same argument. Daniel pulled a small cloth from his pocket, which he used to dab at Callie’s neck, and then gestured for me to step forward. I was too short to see, so Chase wrapped an arm around my center, lifting me up higher. Which, of course, had my concentration at about minus fifty, until I remembered that Callie could be bleeding to death.

The cut was about an inch long, and not very deep. Blood seeped slowly out of it; Daniel mopped it up every second or so. “Can you see the tip of the tracker there?” He pointed toward a glint of dark metal.

I nodded.

“Can you get your nail under it and flick it out?”

My initial response was no. I was totally not equipped to deal with this, but … I knew I had to woman up. For Callie. And for the rest of us.

After giving myself a very quick pep talk, I tilted my head back to Chase. “You okay holding me a little longer?”

He just grinned, and I shook my head at him before turning back to Callie. This time I did not hesitate. “I’m going to get it out now, okay…” I told her. Daniel had stepped around to take Chase’s place, holding her to make sure she didn’t flinch. Pretending that this was not someone’s neck, I gently slid my finger across her skin, and when I reached the cut, twisted my hand around so my nail was in a scooping position. It was difficult to get under the device without embedding it further into her skin. I dug deeper, knowing I was hurting her, because she made one low whimper.

Hurry up, Maya. Screwing around was making it worse, so I sucked in a huge breath, and then flicked my nail down and under in one movement, closing my thumb on top. She made another noise, but I was blocking most of that out, focused on using the two nails as tweezers, to pull out the small tracker.

It came with only a little resistance and I managed not to vomit on her, even though I sort of wanted to. As soon as it was out, Callie wilted, and Daniel supported her while he pressed the cloth to her neck.

“You’re going to have to hold it on there,” he said, eyes locked on his mate with intensity. “The plane has a medical kit. I’ll bandage you up once we’re on board.”

“I’m fine,” she said, trying to laugh but failing. Her head turned to me. “Thanks, Maya.”

I shrugged. “No problem, I’ve been dissecting my dolls for years. Plenty of experience.”

Chase lowered me to the ground – I had completely forgotten he still held me. They were strong, these Daelighters. Lexen took the bloody device from me, incinerating it with a flame that appeared in his hand. I wiped my fingers on my already filthy and bloodstained jeans.

“Time to go,” Lexen said. “Jero, can you wait for us back home? Make sure that everything stays in order while I’m gone.”

The brothers exchanged an extended look, and I was betting there was a lot being “said” in that stare. Eventually though, Jero just nodded his head and turned to walk toward the mouth of the cave. Lexen continued watching him for an extra beat before he refocused on us and directed everyone toward the transporter.

One by one we stepped into the ball of light. We were on our way to the land of sand and sun. And possibly the end of the world.





20





It turned out that Xander’s plane had four bedrooms, a lounge and bar, plus three or four bathrooms. Basically, his plane was the size of most people’s houses, or bigger, actually. It also turned out that flying private was much faster than commercial. On my last commercial flight, boarding had been delayed by twenty minutes, then we sat on the runway for two hours, and then they lost half the luggage.

Nothing like that for the billionaire boys. They got the red-carpet treatment. Chase and I buckled into two squishy armchairs, preparing for takeoff. My hands were clenched tightly on the side of the chair, because I might be in more comfortable seats, but that didn’t mean I was any less scared of the process.