At first, nothing happened, and she readied herself to run. He groaned softly, licked his lips. His body tensed so fast she didn't have time to blink.
His silver eyes opened, glowing almost crazed in the night. Uneasy, she started to move away, but he grabbed her arm to keep her wrist in place and tore into it. She screamed, the creatures came closer, and sheer will made her close her eyes to envision the hotel room.
The shadow world…she staggered and floated through it, hauling him with her toward a pulsing portal that grew blurry fast. She toppled through it into their hotel room. It was silent aside from her choked gasps. Rhyn was unconscious again, his face marred by her blood.
There was nothing left of her forearm but a mangled mess. Horrified, she stumbled into the bathroom for a towel, wrapped her arm in it, and collapsed, sobbing.
* * *
Rhyn stared at her still body, uncertain what to do. Her breathing was shallow, the scent of her blood making him shudder. He was weak but alive, his body covered with his blood and hers.
His little mortal had come after him.
No one had ever come after him before.
The thought shocked him. He watched blood ooze from her arm. He wasn't a healer, and the only healer he knew was trapped in Hell. Humans had their own kinds of healers.
Gazing at her, he doubted a human healer could help her. He scooped her up, not knowing what else to do. He opened his senses to locate the immortal he wanted, and then willed himself there. It was the only place he knew where someone might help him.
He stood in the gently lit bedroom of his brother, Kiki.
"What the fu --Rhyn?"
Kiki whirled from his position before the hearth, his oriental features set off by electric turquoise eyes. The only brother not to declare outright war on him, Kiki was a distant second to Andre in his tepid support of their black sheep of a young brother.
"Gods, what'd you do to her?" Kiki demanded.
Rhyn ignored the accusation and pulled her away when Kiki tried to snatch her.
"Tell me where to take her before she bleeds out," he ordered.
Despite the animosity boiling at the back of his brother's gaze, Kiki's pragmatism snapped to the forefront. He whipped off his T-shirt and wrapped Katie's arm.
"No one told me you were out of prison," Kiki muttered as he worked. "You hear about Andre?"
"Why else do you think I'm here?"