Page 102 of Robb

There was a sudden flash, a shimmer, and James’s movement slowed to an entire halt.

It took a moment for Robb’s addled brain to realize that James was no longer, well, James.

Or rather, he still had James’s shape, but he was no longer flesh and blood.

He was pure gold.

Robb stared dizzily at the sight before him, still trying to work out what had happened.

“Robb! Robb!”

Tahnee’s voice cut through the fuzziness in his head, and her touch against his side brought the glow of the mate bond into the center of his consciousness.

He opened his eyes – when had they closed? – to see her beautiful face hovering above him, the silver streaks in her hair glistening in the sunlight, her deep, dark brown eyes full of concern and fear.

Our mate, said the dingo faintly.

“Just hold on,” Tahnee said urgently, and he felt a firm pressure against his midsection. “We’ve just got to stop this bleeding, and then you’ll heal.”

Oh, yeah. The knife wound.

It was all starting to come back to Robb, time moving back to its normal pace and the world becoming almost too loud and too bright, everything that had slowed down in anticipation of death coming roaring back to life.

“Tahnee,” he said – or tried to say, before remembering that he was still in his dingo form.

With an effort, he shifted, a pained groan coming from his lips.

“Tahnee,” he said again, the word barely more than a whisper.

“Shh,” she said, pressing her jacket down over his wound. “Just stay still and be quiet.”

Robb wanted to obey her, he really did – but as his brain caught back up with the situation, so the questions started flooding in.

“Did you just turn James into gold?” he asked.

Tahnee gave him a withering look.

“Well, I don’t think he did that to himself, do you?” she snapped, jerking a thumb in the direction of the golden James statue. But then she shook her head. “Sorry. Just a bit on edge. I’ve never turned any kind of living being into gold before, not even an ant – I had no idea if it would even work.” She paused, drawing in a shaky breath. “I can’t say I’m crazy about having done it. I never – I never thought I…” She paused again, shaking her head. “I’ll think about it later. But it beats the alternative.”

It occurred to Robb, amongst everything else, that Tahnee had almost certainly never taken a life before in any context. It was easy to forget that she was missing the Agency training and experience Robb had received over so many years.

“Are you okay?” he asked, wincing as a fresh wave of pain surged through him. But some of that, he knew, was his shifter healing starting to knit everything back together. He was sure that as long as Tahnee kept most of his blood inside his body, he would live.

Tahnee gave him a withering look, but Robb could see that it was a cover for the mixed emotions she was undoubtedly feeling.

“Don’t you worry about me,” she said. “Just worry about yourself. I’ll get over it.” Her expression grew fierce. “You scared the shit out of me, Robb.”

Robb choked out a laugh, relief making him giddy. “Says the one who came in limping with a broken wing.” His eyes darted over her body, looking for signs of injury. “Are you okay? I didn’t see you get kicked, but it sounded like it hurt.”

“Nothing I can’t deal with,” Tahnee said briskly, before changing the topic in what Robb suspected was a deliberate attempt to deflect from any injuries she might have received. “Should we call your people?” she asked. “It sounds like they’re still fighting over there.”

Now that everything had calmed down, Robb realized that he could still hear the distant clanging of swords and shields, though it sounded a little less energetic than it had earlier. A few yells were identifiable as coming from members of his team, but they sounded more like enjoying the fight yells than struggling for survival yells, so he hoped things were going reasonably well.

“Good idea,” he said, sitting up straight with some help from Tahnee. Digging around in his pocket, he pulled out his mobile, and then winced when he saw that the screen was covered in blood. He wiped it on his shirt in a futile attempt to get it clean enough to read his fingerprint.

Grimacing, he said, “We might have to call them on your phone.”

Tahnee’s eyes sparkled mischievously. “I bet you have all their numbers memorized, right?”