Warrior (Relentless #4)(161)

“Yes.”

“But you did the right thing,” I said. “You wouldn’t have called me if it wasn’t serious. Tell me where you are, and we can have healers there in a few hours.”

“She won’t forgive me for this,” Jordan said before she gave me the address.

I was dressed and out the door in under a minute, nearly bowling over Chris in the hallway.

“Where’s the fire?” he called as I sped past him.

“Jordan called. Sara’s sick.”

He ran outside behind me, and the two of us roared away from the safe house. I knew the city well, and it was easy to find the address Jordan had given me. Less than ten minutes later, I pulled up to an old firehouse, and my Mori began to flutter wildly when we sensed Sara inside. Relief crashed over me, weakening my knees for a few seconds.

The door opened before I reached it, and a pale-faced Jordan greeted us. She led us up to an apartment on the second floor where Roland, Peter, and another young man stood waiting for us in the living room. I barely saw them, my eyes going to the pile of blankets on the couch.

I pushed past the others and gently lifted the edge of the blankets until I saw Sara. Her face was colorless except for the purple bruises beneath her closed eyes, and she shivered despite all the blankets and the warm apartment.

My hand trembled when I caressed her cheek and brushed a few strands of hair off her face. Touching her was like breathing for the first time in a week, and the persistent pain beneath my breastbone disappeared.

“Sara?” I laid my hand against her cool skin, but she didn’t move. “Sara, can you hear me?”

“She’s been going in and out like that all day,” Roland said. “But this time she wouldn’t wake up. We were going to take her to a hospital, but we decided it was best to call you.”

“I called Tristan. He’s sending the jet.” Chris walked into the living room. “How is she?”

“I don’t know,” I replied roughly. I’d treated countless battle injuries, and I’d never felt as helpless as I did in that moment.

I sat on the edge of the couch with my hand cradling her face. “How did she get like this?”

Jordan came forward. “We don’t know. She was fine until two days ago. She woke up with a headache and said she was too tired to get up. I gave her some gunna paste, but it didn’t help. Then she started saying how cold it was here, and we wrapped her in blankets. She was worse when she woke up today, and she barely ate anything all day. All she does is sleep.”

I frowned. “Two days ago? That’s the day after you went to Draegan’s.”

“Yes.”

“What happened there?” I asked. “Why did you go there in the first place?”

“They went to help me…against my wishes.”

A young man with dark blond hair stood behind the couch, looking at Sara with an expression of worry and affection that made my Mori growl possessively. The man looked familiar, and it took me a minute to recognize the blond biker from Sara’s memorial service. I remembered how grief-stricken he’d looked, and I couldn’t help but wonder what his connection was to her, and how he’d come to be with her on the other side of the country.

Roland came over to stand by the blond man. “Nikolas, this is Greg McCoy, a friend of ours from home. Greg, this is Nikolas Danshov. He’s Sara’s…”

“Mate,” I finished for him.

Greg nodded. He didn’t smile, but his expression wasn’t hostile either. “She told me about you. Don’t you think she’s a bit too young to be mated or whatever you call it?”

“No.” I wasn’t about to justify our relationship to him or anyone else. “Where do you come into all of this?”

He scowled at me before he answered. “My uncle died last month, and I came here to take care of his things for my aunt. I ran into Sara and the others a few days ago and asked them to stay here. I didn’t like her being out there, staying at hotels. She might have these powers, but LA’s a bad place.”

At least we agreed on that. “You’re human?”

“Yeah.”

“Los Angeles isn’t particularly safe for humans either.”

“I know,” he said gruffly.

“What was Sara helping you with?” Chris asked Greg.

Greg rubbed the back of his neck. “Draegan held a blood debt against my uncle. When my uncle died, the debt fell to me. Sara got upset when she found out, and she went to see Draegan without telling me.”

I looked at Jordan. “What the hell were you thinking, going to see a gulak demon? Don’t you know what he could have done to you?”

Jordan flinched and crossed her arms defensively. “I told her it was a really bad idea, but she wouldn’t listen. She would have gone alone if we hadn’t gone with her. Besides, Sara can hold her own against a demon. She killed a ranc and a gulak that night.”

“So I saw. What happened there?”

“We got there around ten. The demon on the door wouldn’t let Roland and Peter in, so Sara and I went in alone. Draegan was playing Glaen with some other demons, and when we found out what it was, Sara said she was going to play him for Greg’s debt.

“She said Glaen wouldn’t hurt her because she’s half Fae. She beat Draegan, and he passed out. We started to leave and his goons tried to stop us, so we took care of them. That’s it. We came back here, and we haven’t left.” Jordan bit her lip. “Is-is she going to be all right?”