I snarled as I turned on a heel to grab for the naturi wrestling with Tristan. But I never got there. Vises wrapped around my wrists, jerking my arms over my head. I was dragged backward into the center of the clearing before being pulled into the air.
Looking up, I found the two missing naturi. There was one holding each arm as they pulled me higher in the air. Given their enormous iridescent wings, I assumed they were members of the wind clan. Where the hell humans got the image of six-inch, half-naked pixies with a golden trail of magic dust I’ll never know.
“I guess Rowe missed the Fire Starter,” giggled one of the naturi in English, for my benefit.
The other gave an inelegant snort, tightening her grip on my right wrist, her long nails digging into my flesh. “She wasn’t so hard to catch.”
I tried to jerk free of their grip, but their fingers were like metal shackles that tightened until I was sure my bones would soon break. Narrowing my gaze on my two captors, I summoned up my powers, preparing to set their lovely wings on fire, but something else grabbed me, shattering my concentration. Twisting as best I could, I looked down to see what had grabbed my right ankle. A long, thick vine had wrapped around it and was snaking up my calf.
“If he is so fond of her now, won’t he love her more if we make her taller?” chuckled a third, saccharine-sweet voice to my left. I looked around to find the earth naturi standing on a tree branch, her shoulders propped against the tree trunk as she did her best “Tarzan meets Jane” impression. Out of the corner of my eye I saw her wave her hand, a second vine wrapping around my left ankle a moment later.
“Or he might love her twice as much if there are two of her,” suggested the first wind naturi. Meanwhile, the wind naturi continued their ascent, and the vines attempted to pull me back down to earth. A scream erupted from my throat before I could stop it. My body was being stretched and pulled in two separate directions. Their nails dug into the soft part of my wrists, sending tiny rivers of blood down my arms while the vines tightened around my ankles. I vainly attempted to twist in their grip, but neither the naturi nor the vines loosened their hold.
Closing my eyes against the rising pain as my shoulders threatened to dislocate, I focused on the creatures I could feel holding my arms. Heat built in my limbs, crawling up to my fingertips. My eyes flew open and I directed the fire at their wings. The tissuelike substance went up in a bright ball of orange flames before jumping to their lithe bodies. They instantly released me and we all plummeted back down to the earth.
There wasn’t time to scream. Pain ripped through my body as I came to a sudden halt. Something plunged through my back and tore through muscle and organ before finally punching through my chest. The world swam. The darkness crowded my eyes for a moment, and I fought back against the wave threatening to consume me. Clenching my teeth, I looked down, ignoring the fact that my feet were dangling in the air, to find a piece of wood sticking out of my chest. I had been staked from the back by a branch. The naturi had staked me. The only reason I was still alive was that she’d managed to miss my heart, barely. Blood was pouring out of me at an alarming rate, soaking into my clothes and running down my legs.
Discovering that I was still alive, the earth naturi screamed in frustration. A second later the vine tightened around my ankles and resumed its attempt to pull me back down to the earth. I screamed as the branch pulled on muscles and tore at organs. My weight finally overwhelmed the branch and it broke, sending me back to the earth with a heavy thud. The impact sent a shock wave of pain through my tortured body, further loosening my hold on consciousness.
A gunshot cut through the night then, and I heard something fall near me. The air carried with it a puff of earth and wind. The naturi. Either Danaus or Tristan had shot the naturi. One less thing to worry about, but it didn’t matter. I was running out of time. I couldn’t lift my arms to try to push or pull out the branch. I couldn’t move.
My eyes fell shut, riding the next wave of pain that threatened to swamp me. I had to think of what I needed to tell Danaus or Tristan. Someone had to tell Jabari, Sadira, the Coven, about the attacks. Someone had to tell Knox that I was gone and that he needed to watch over the nightwalkers in my domain.
“Mira!” Danaus barked my name.
My eyes fluttered open again and I saw the hunter kneeling next to me. One of his hands was cupping my cheeks, tilting my head so I could look up at him, but I couldn’t feel it. My entire world floated in a sea of pain.
“Tristan?” I roughly whispered.
“I’m here,” he said, suddenly coming into my line of sight. He was a mess of cuts and scratches, and bloody matted hair.
I closed my eyes, trying to find the strength to continue talking. Some of the pain was beginning to recede, and that worried me. The branch was still embedded in my body. “Naturi?”
“They’re gone. Dead.”
“Wolves?”
“Mira, we have to get this stake out of you and get you somewhere safe to heal,” Tristan said, a soft waver running through his voice.
“Wolves?” I knew they were coming. Even with the last of the naturi dead, they would continue to come and attack, clinging to the last command shoved into their brains.
“Damn it!” Tristan snarled when the air was once again filled with the forlorn cries of the approaching wolves. “Hunter, take care of the wolves. I will help Mira.” I saw Danaus nod at Tristan before carefully lowering my head back to the ground, then disappearing from my line of sight.
Tristan moved behind me and knelt behind my head. Over the pain, I felt him grip my shoulder, his thumb sweeping back and forth a couple times in a gentle caress. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, then jerked the branch out of my body. Every muscle in my frame clenched and I screamed again. I hadn’t thought the pain could get any worse. My thoughts were scattered to the wind, swirling around me in ragged fragments.
“…losing blood…need to feed…” Tristan’s words were coming to me in bits and pieces. I tried to focus. There were things I needed to tell him, but I couldn’t concentrate, couldn’t remember anything that had seemed so important just minutes ago. Or was that hours? Time was slipping away from me.
Danaus’s name suddenly popped up in Tristan’s diatribe about me needing to feed. I fought back the wave of pain and managed to open my eyes. Tristan was still behind me but was leaning over so I could look him in the face. He was pushing something into my back, keeping the pain screaming through my body.
“Danaus?” I murmured.
“Fighting the wolves,” Tristan confirmed. “When he comes back, you will feed from him so we can get you somewhere safe.”
That’s what I thought he had said. “No,” I choked out, letting my eyes fall shut again.
“Mira, we have no choice. My blood won’t help you.”
I licked my lips and gathered up my energy again. I was in no mood to die, but drinking from Danaus seemed like a very bad idea. Even as I appeared to be facing my final hour, the hunter didn’t seem the type to give such a donation. “No…dangerous. Bad blood.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“His blood is dangerous…Don’t feed from him.” I didn’t have the energy to explain it, but I was still conscious enough to know that until I knew what he was, drinking from the hunter was a bad idea. While there was a chance his blood could heal me, there was also a good chance it could kill me faster than the hole in my back and chest.
“Mira—”
“No, Tristan,” I bit out around clenched teeth.