Kendrick laid his hand on the Feline’s chest, feeling his heart beating erratically—struggling for life.
“I know a healer,” Kendrick said quickly. “He can get here soon. Crazy asshole, but he’s got the gift.”
The Feline gave him a wan smile. “I’m not going to make it out in time, he’s not going to make it in, and you know it.” He closed a bloody hand around Kendrick’s wrist. “Lachlan’s a bastard. So are you, but he left me to die.”
“I’ll avenge you,” Kendrick said. “Trust me.”
“Yeah, I know you hate him. Just tell him before you kill him that I’ll be waiting to kick his ass in the Summerland.”
“I will,” Kendrick promised. More sorrow swamped him. “I’m sorry I failed you, my friend.”
The Feline snorted. “Get over yourself. Just do it. I want to see my mate and cub. I can feel them reaching for me.” His mate had passed long ago, trying to bring in a cub that had also died.
Kendrick brushed his hand over the man’s forehead. He hated this part of his job, but he also knew that he sent the Shifters off with some comfort.
“Goddess go with you,” Kendrick said. He lifted the sword, which sang and glittered, and drove it into the Feline’s heart.
“Thank you,” the Feline whispered, and then he was dust.
Tears streamed down Darien’s cheeks, plastering the dirt to them. “He was a good man.” He sniffled and wiped his face with the back of his hand. “For a Feline.”
Kendrick cleared his throat, trying to contain the pain in his heart. “Help me find the others.”
The final two Shifters Darien said had been with him were farther down in the rubble, already dead. Kendrick dispatched them, then bowed his head for a time, resting his weight on the sword, unable to move.
* * *
Addie felt sick when she saw the rubble blocking the tunnel at the bottom of the shaft.
Kendrick was behind there. Zander’s flashlight roved the seemingly solid wall of boulders. A slight indentation at the ceiling showed that the debris had filled in nearly to the top of the tunnel.
“Are you sure he’s through there?” Addie asked Tiger. “Dylan said there were many ways out.”
Tiger touched the rocks and bent his head. “Yes,” he said after a moment. “This is the closest path to him.”
Jaycee, who’d climbed down directly after Addie, clicked off the cell phone she’d used to contact Dimitri. “Dimitri says Kendrick hasn’t come out. The main entrance has completely collapsed. Dylan and his trackers are checking all the side tunnels, but they’re not optimistic.”
“No,” Tiger said. “He is behind here.”
Zander slapped his hand to a boulder. “It’s nothing but rock. We’ll never tunnel in there. Going around has to be better.”
Tiger had both hands on the fill now, his head bent, while Addie watched worriedly. She could barely breathe in this stuffy place, and her wildly pounding heart didn’t help.
“I can see,” Tiger said, his eyes closed. “Heat, moving . . . now it’s gone.”
“Gone?” Addie ran two steps to the rock and flattened her hands against it, as though she’d be able to feel something through it as Tiger did. “What’s gone?”
“The heat. Someone was alive. Now dead.”
“Kendrick?” Addie’s word came out a whisper.
“No,” Tiger said. “Another.”
“Let’s hope it was Lachlan,” Jaycee said.
Tiger shook his head. “Another. A Feline.” He remained frozen for a few more seconds, a giant of a man with his hands spread on the rock, as though listening to what the debris had to tell him.