Death Untold

Chapter 3

Three

ASHER

The main living area was a hotbed of activity, and Gray and I dove right in, helping Darius, Lansky, and anyone else who had the strength to move furniture and set up the living room for triage. The two EMTs—panther shifters—had beaten us here, and those guys were already hard at work, checking vitals and administering IVs, patching up wounds, wrapping sprains, passing around clean T-shirts and sweatpants and blankets. No one wanted to risk exposure at the hospital—there was too much at stake now, too many questions with answers that humans wouldn’t understand.

And here, at least, we could keep an eye on everyone, pool our resources, and figure out some kind of plan.

While Gray and I helped out the medics, Jael and a few of the more experienced witches who’d already been treated headed outside to set up more wards around the perimeter. Lansky called in a few men from a neighboring pack to help patrol the woods that backed up to the property. In the dining room, someone had set up a buffet of sandwiches and pizzas and Chinese takeout, and the witches who’d already been cleared by the medics were seated around the table picking at the food, the shock from their ordeal slowly receding.

Not one to stand on ceremony, I helped myself to a slice of pepperoni-and-mushroom pizza and grabbed a chair between Haley and the smoky-voiced witch with the yellow eyes.

“Your friends came through for us,” Yellow Eyes said approvingly. Then, reaching for an apple from a bowl of fruit hidden among the pizza boxes, “I damn near forgot what real food looked like.”

“You came through, too, Ash,” Haley said, rubbing the chill from her arms. “In a big way. Who knows what would’ve happened to us if you hadn’t shown up.”

“Come on, Hay. You guys would’ve figured things out.” I licked the pizza grease from my fingers and shot her a cocky grin. “It just would’ve been a little less interesting.”

“A little less bloody,” she said, “that’s for sure.”

“Hey. He had it coming to him.”

“Which one?” she asked, but then she just shook her head and laughed. “Dude. I still can’t believe you took out Benson’s eyeball.”

I shrugged, swallowing a bite of pizza. “It was all part of my bigger… vision.”

“Did you… did you really just say that right now?” Haley asked, cracking a smile.

“Look, Hay, I’m sorry we don’t see eye to eye on this,” I said, “but Benson was a little short-sighted.”

“Really, Ash? Really?”

I grinned at her. “Girl, I could do this all night.”

“Please don’t,” Yellow Eyes said, but she was laughing so hard she had to blot her eyes with a napkin.

When we all finally stopped busting a gut over poor Benson, I blew out a breath, the seriousness of the situation sending a chill down my spine. “The truth is… As far as I’m concerned? When it comes to men who think they can take away a woman’s power, every damn one of them deserves to bleed. Matter of fact, soon as we find the rest of those hunters, I’m gonna take out more than just eyeballs, and that’s a promise.”

I wolfed down the rest of my pizza and grabbed another slice, along with a carton of something Chinese that smelled like spicy chicken and peanuts. I offered it to Haley first, but she shook her head, her brow creased like she was trying to figure something out.

The chopsticks were halfway to my mouth when I felt her eyes boring into me again.

“Darius told us that Gray sacrificed herself to trap Jonathan’s soul in the Shadow Realm,” she said. Her tone held a mix of confusion and awe, even a shade of disbelief. “For us.”

I nodded, and even though I hated remembering the moment Gray had ripped out Jonathan’s soul and vanished before my eyes, I couldn’t help but be proud of her for doing it.

“She thought it was the best way to take him out and give the rest of us a chance to escape,” I said. “Hell, maybe it was. Wished she didn’t have to go there, though. We damn near lost her, from what I understand.”

“How is she even alive?” Haley asked.

“No idea, but I’m looking forward to the story.” I still wasn’t sure what had gone down in the Shadowrealm—Gray and I hadn’t gotten a chance to talk about any of it yet—but she’d beaten the odds and come back. That was the main thing.

“f*****g badass,” Yellow Eyes said, taking a bite of her apple.

“That she is.” I finished off the chicken and rose from my chair, overwhelmed with the sudden need to be close to Gray. To hold her, to take in her scent, to taste the sweetness of her kiss. “Speaking of which, I should probably go check on her. And you badasses need to eat. No more nibbling like mice, unless you want the EMTs to put you on an IV drip.”

“Hard pass,” Haley said, reaching for a plate and a slice of veggie pizza. Her skin was a couple of shades warmer than it had been a few minutes ago, and it looked like the fiery spark had finally returned to her eyes.

Progress. The best kind.