Page 101 of Remnants
A gust of wind knocks him and Dane back. “Something’s off.” Jackson strolls up next to them, his head tilted as Raegan slowly turns to face us.
Her face is blank. Empty.
Cold fingers trail up my spine, my breath hitching.
That fucker didn’t…
“Rae?” Dane gets back to his feet, holding his own glowing hand out to her. “Say something.”
She smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. It’s a mockery of the oneshe wears, hollow and cold. A crack at our feet gives me the split second notice that she’s sending her gift through the ground, aimed at the other three standing together. I dive at her, snatching her off the ground to break that contact. I growl through the sharp pain that burns my chest and arms while adding distance between us and the others.
“Come on, beautiful. Fight him,” I grit out through the pain.
She palms my face and mind-melting, white-hot boiling erupts beneath my skin. Roaring with the blinding pain, I drop her and cradle my face. It’s like a wildfire in my head. I can’t think. Can’t see. Can’t feel anything but the intense pain flooding my senses.
Sizzling, molten agony drives into my sides, bringing me to my knees.
Piece by piece, my head heals, even as my torso and organs are simultaneously being brought to ruin.
At last, I open my eyes. My vision is sharper. Clearer. The reeking, rancid scent of death permeates my nostrils, coating my throat and twisting my stomach. Which—I touch my side where it had hurt the worst and run my fingers across the golden scales. Healed. I don’t even remember when the pain stopped. Or why she stopped.
Damn it, the others.
Standing, I break into a run when I see them. Jackson’s hand is fisted and shaking while Dane runs at Raegan from behind. She swings at him, even as I’m sure Jack has her oxygen suspended, and it reminds me of how Royce’s puppets never seemed fazed by pain. Aiden jumps between them, a metal shield covering his forearm that splinters and drops to the ground in pieces when her hand brushesagainst it.
Aiden takes those seconds to move Dane out of reach.
“Are you sure it’s working?” Dane asks Jack, panting. He doesn’t get a chance to answer before streaks of red spider through the sand at them. “Oh, fuck!” He and Aiden run, but her gift moves without hesitation.
I have no fucking clue if she can still get to them if I pick them up off the ground, but it’s the only thing I can think of at the moment to get them out of harm’s way. I scoop up Dane first, throwing him over my shoulder even as he curses me out. Worst case, I’ll see if I can outrun it.
Her gift pinches my heel, and then I’m airborne.
I pitch backward midair, Dane’s weight throwing me off, so I’m hanging awkwardly. Jackson’s hand is splayed toward us, his chest working as he keeps us and himself aloft. The fist he’d been using on Raegan is loose. I’d bet he had to stop in order to save us. He flies to us, Raegan chasing after him.
“Let him go.” He points to Dane, then the top of the cliff. “I’ll bring them up there to find Reid. Keep her away from it until I get back.”
So she doesn’t bring the entire cliffside down with her gift.
Right.
“Activate the rest of my gift,” I bark at Dane, annoyed that I haven’t mastered that skill yet on my own.
He slaps his hand against my back, and the rest of my scales and protective skin fills in the areas she hasn’t touched. I release him and Jack drops me on my feet.
Raegan slams into me without warning, her entire body alight and causing a cascade of buzzing pins against my protected skin and scales. I lean into her heat, grabbing her arms and holding her tight. What scraps remained of my clothes are gone, hardly having made it through our first encounter and certainly not surviving the second.
“I've got you, beautiful,” I tell her, my deep timbre strained as she struggles against me. “So give me all of it. Because I’m not letting you go. Not for a fucking second.”
I crush her lips to mine, hoping…praying she’s somewhere in there still and can break free. If I can somehow reach her…if I can make herfeelsomething…
The kiss is like lava being poured down my lungs and burning through to my gut. I’ve never felt more human, more in pain, and more afraid than I do now. I need to get her back. It’s the only thing that matters to me now.
Not my flesh and not the world around me.
Just her.
My tongue is a slash of heat against hers, challenging her, pushing her. I press her closer, holding the back of her head and spearing her with my mouth as my other hand grips her ass and grinds her against me. She doesn’t stop moving, doesn’t stop seeking an exposed or untouched bit of skin that she can attack.
