“When we did an autopsy,” Lena cut in, “we found it wasn’t like us at all. Six-chambered heart, three lungs, two sets of kidneys. Imagine a race of these half-breed daemons living among us. It would be like—”
“The ultimate new weapon,” Theron finished for her, his jaw flexing.
Zander barely caught what they were saying. His stomach rolled, and he kept seeing Callia, bloodied and bruised. Heard her screams in that cabin before they’d gotten there. He pushed his hand against the wall to give him something solid to focus on so he didn’t lose it right there and then. “Is she…?” Gods, he couldn’t even say the words. “Was she…?”
“No,” Lena said quickly. “There’s no sign of sexual assault to the female you brought in. We think you got there right after he infected her. The other guardian who came in with you explained what you found—we think some kind of power struggle between the archdaemon and Atalanta. Maybe he was going to impregnate her, but Atalanta had other plans? We just don’t know.”
Relief was quick and consuming, but as fast as it hit, it faded. Zander ignored the half-breed healer’s babbling. “What did you do for the others? The ones you found who were infected?”
“Nothing.”
“Why—?”
“They all died, hero,” Nick said.
Zander’s gaze jumped back to Theron, now holding Casey tight at his side. Tears brewed in Casey’s eyes. Sympathy stretched across Theron’s face.
“No.” Zander turned his back on Theron and refocused on the healer. Panic and urgency rushing through his veins. “There has to be something you can do.”
Lena sighed and dropped her crossed arms. “There’s nothing. I—”
“Zander,” Theron said, reaching for his arm.
Zander shook off Theron’s hand. Fuck that. They were all acting like this was a lost cause, and it wasn’t. It couldn’t be. “Callia’s a healer.”
“So am I,” Lena said, frustration edging her voice higher. “But it doesn’t matter. She can’t heal herself, and my powers aren’t strong enough for this.”
It did matter. Callia was all that mattered right now. Zander’s eyes slammed shut. His mind spun. Images of Callia over the last few days whipped behind his eyelids like a movie. Her taking care of him, her cradling his body in that cave, warming him with her heat, enticing him with her essence. Hurting him. His disjointed thoughts stopped spiraling long enough to latch on to that moment. To what she’d done to him. To what she’d almost done to that daemon who’d tossed her across the cabin.
His eyes popped open. “Her powers are transferable.”
“What?” Lena asked. “How do you know that?”
How did he know? Because he’d seen it with his own eyes. And felt it in his own damn body. “Because she showed me. Her gift is being able to draw pain and illness out of the body. She can also throw it back. You can tap into that. Use your powers to harness hers and extract the poison.”
Lightbulbs flashed on behind Lena’s light brown eyes. “Theoretically, that might work. But how would I trigger it? She’d have to push pretty damn hard for me to pull out the infection. And she’s unconscious. We have her sedated right now, but even without the drugs, mentally she’s out of it.”
“You get her off those drugs,” Zander said, “and I can get her to do it.”
“You?” Lena asked with disdain. “You can barely stand up straight yourself.”
Zander edged away from the wall, swayed, caught himself. A renewed sense of purpose pulsed in his veins, giving him the strength he needed to get through whatever happened next. “I’m fine.”
Lena shook her head, and the contempt Zander had sensed in her before came back full force. She crossed her arms over her chest, dangled the clipboard from one hand. “I really don’t care if you pass out, Argonaut. But I’m curious how you, of all people, can trigger her powers.”
“She has to be good and pissed.”
Lena’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t say.”
“Lena,” Nick murmured, a warning in his voice.
She brushed Nick’s hand off with a flick of her wrist, her gaze locked on Zander. “And I suppose you’re the one person in the world she’s got reason to be pissed at.”
It occurred to Zander this little half-breed was gunning for him, but he didn’t know why, and honestly, he didn’t fucking care. The only thing he cared about right now was getting to Callia and getting her the help she needed. “Yeah, that’s right. No one pisses her off more than me. Now are we going to do this or what?”
Lena’s eyes tightened to thin slits, and she clenched her jaw so hard, Zander was sure her teeth ground together. “Yeah, we’ll do this. But get one thing through your head, Argonaut. When she wakes, she’s not leaving here with you.” Her gaze cut to Theron. “She’s not leaving here with either of you.”
Confused, Zander looked to Theron, who’d let go of Casey and now stood at Zander’s side in a very clear, very defensive posture.
“Lena,” Nick said firmly. “That isn’t our concern.”
“Too bad, Nick,” the female tossed over her shoulder. “I’m making it my problem. I saw the scars on her back. I know what they mean. And I know you of all people know what they mean too.”
“Scars?” Casey asked. “What scars?”
Lena’s fiery gaze swung Casey’s way. “The ones she got when she was punished.”
“Punished?” Zander’s brow wrinkled. He didn’t remember scars. Not anywhere on Callia’s smooth, creamy skin.
“Nick,” Theron warned in a low voice, “put a leash on your female.”
“I’m not of your world, Argonaut,” Lena spouted before Nick could stop her. “And no one ‘puts a leash’ on me.” She turned fully to Casey. “Did your Argonaut here tell you how they treat females in his world?”
“Lena—”
“You should know,” Lena said, ignoring Nick again. “Seeing as how you live there now.”
“Nick—” Theron started.
“She’s got every right to speak her mind, hero.” Testosterone all but bounced off the hallway walls. Nick moved in to stand directly behind Lena in an offensive move none of them missed. “Especially on this. And we both know she’s right.”
“What is everyone talking about?” Casey asked. Her violet eyes searched the group with a level of frustration Zander felt all the way to his bones.
Lena’s features settled into a smug expression. “Males in their world”—she gestured toward Theron and Zander with her chin—“can do whatever the hell they want. But females? They’re under a whole different set of rules.”
“Theron,” Casey said cautiously, looking toward her husband. “What is she talking about?”
Theron’s jaw visibly twitched as he stared at the healer. “It’s an archaic tradition. One that’s not practiced anymore. The cleansing ceremony hasn’t been used in ages.”
Cleansing ceremony.
The blood drained from Zander’s face.
“Tell that to the female in that room with lash marks embedded in her skin.”
Casey gasped.
Lena took one seething step toward Zander. “I don’t care if she screwed around on you or humiliated you in front of the whole kingdom. No woman deserves to be whipped like a dog. Not for infidelity and definitely not for something as sacred as giving life. I’ll help you save her, but after that you’re not touching her. Not ever again.”
Voices kicked up in the corridor as Zander watched the healer head up the hallway and disappear through a door, but he barely heard the arguments swirling around him. Because suddenly the blood screamed in his ears and Cal-lia’s words from the cave—words he thought had been a lie—were all he could focus on.