“Don’t do that.” Ylli was watching him over the back of the seat. “Damn it. Noah.” He rolled his eyes despairingly as he disappeared from view, except for the curved shadows of his wings. He was back a heartbeat later, reaching over with a handful of napkins. “Here.”
Noah took them and mopped at the blood that was running down his chest.
“And here.”
Noah looked up again to see that Ylli was holding out a jacket that looked like Kristan’s.
“Cover up and try to sleep,” Ylli said.
“Yeah, okay.”
Noah wasn’t tired, but he took the jacket and tucked it over his lap. The touch of a sleeve made Jonas whimper and stir. Noah put a hand on his shoulder and closed his eyes. Behind his eyelids, the world was black and full of flames, and he could hear screaming echo in his memory. It wasn’t Elle’s voice, though, so it was nothing but noise.
“Noah.” For a moment, that soft voice did sound like Elle, but when Noah opened his eyes, it was Lindsay there, looking down at him. “We’ve stopped to pick up some clothes and supplies. Do you need anything?”
“A drink.” Noah didn’t have to be awake to answer that much. He hadn’t thought he’d fall asleep.
Jonas snuffled softly, and it took Noah a moment to locate him, down on the floor by his feet. That was probably for the best.
“I meant something like aspirin.” Lindsay sounded exasperated, but he was smiling, and that was better than medication.
“I’m fine.” Noah let his hand sneak out to touch Lindsay’s. “I should be doing this.”
“I don’t plan to share your nakedness with any more people than I already have.” Lindsay took his hand and squeezed it. “Dane and Ylli will be staying with you, Zoey doesn’t want to be left alone with naked men, and I need Kristan to help me with sizes.”
“Okay. Are we hidden?” Noah was desperate to stretch his legs and—now that he thought of it—he was just as eager to take a piss.
“Yes. We won’t be long.” Lindsay squeezed his hand one more time and ducked out of the van.
Noah nudged Jonas with his foot. “Come on. You have to stay with me.” He wasn’t letting Jonas out of his sight.
Jonas was surprisingly competent, for all that he was obviously impaired. Noah had rescued him on principle, but he was starting to see that Jonas really had been—if only recently—Moore’s victim in all of
this. He shooed Jonas out of the bushes behind the sprawling, gray megastore and back toward the van.
Jonas kept switching between all fours and walking upright, depending on what caught his eye, but he stayed close until he caught sight of a squirrel and stopped.
“Are you hungry?” Noah watched Jonas gauging the distance between them and the oblivious squirrel. He expected Jonas to pounce, but Jonas looked back at him instead.
“Yes. I can have it?”
Well, that was good. Noah didn’t want to worry about Jonas deciding to eat something inviting, like Ylli. And there was no telling the diseases he’d pick up if he were allowed to eat wild animals while his feral magic was broken by his collar.
“No, you’re going to eat like the rest of us.”
Jonas’s shoulders slumped and he grumbled the rest of the way back to the van. Dane, sitting in the open doorway, snorted at the sight of him.
“Let me guess. No squirrel.”
“Exactly.” Noah was briefly surprised at that, then realized he shouldn’t be.
“I don’t blame him.” Dane dropped the pieces of the leaf he’d been shredding and rubbed the green stain off of his hands. “There’s some fat ones around here. Better than fast food.”
From anyone else, it would have been a joke. From Dane, it made sense.
“I don’t think Zoey would survive naked men and eating raw squirrels in one day.” Noah looked around. “Where’s Ylli?”
“Getting oil for the van.” Dane pointed to the gas station. “Apparently, we’re a troop of boy scouts today. To other people, that is.”
“Let no one say Lindsay doesn’t have a sense of humor.” Noah couldn’t help smiling at that. He sat in the doorway of the van next to Dane, ignoring the grit and rough carpet chafing his ass. Damn new skin.
“Get back here!”
Noah’s head came up when Dane snapped. Jonas was skulking toward a gull picking at an empty burger wrapper.
Jonas just sneered at Dane and shook his head before going back to stalking the bird.
“Jonas,” Noah said. “No.” That would definitely make Jonas sick, and Noah was not having a man half again his size puking raw seagull on him all the way back to Detroit.
Jonas dropped to all fours and came back to crouch at Noah’s feet. He did take the time to peer over Noah’s knees and growl at Dane.
“Damn dog.” Dane shook his head. “Moore can’t let a single thing stay good if she can ruin it.”
The dog. Something clicked in Noah’s head. And the girl. Lourdes, the girl. Jonas, the dog. They were vague figures in the sprawling milieu of magical beings, but Noah knew what there was to know of their reputations.
“Why did you let me rescue him?”
“To piss Moore off.” Dane shrugged and bared his teeth at Jonas.
“Right.” Noah put a hand on Jonas’s head and shoved until Jonas couldn’t see Dane anymore.
“Can you think of a better reason?” Dane gave him an arch look.
Compassion. Logic. Kinship.
“Not really.” It was a small victory, but Noah would take it. And he’d take the warm, languid day that nature had conjured up to soothe his pains.
Jonas was suspiciously quiet. Noah had raised too many of his siblings and cousins to let that slide, even though the hot sun and the last of the drugs were making it hard to find the energy to care. There was only one thing he could think of that would be keeping Jonas busy right now.
“Jonas, don’t eat dirt.”
“Not.”
“What...” Noah gave in and moved to see what Jonas was doing.
“Ants,” Dane said, chuckling. “Full of protein. Jonas, share.” He reached around Noah and held out his hand.
“Nu-uh.”
“See, this is why we don’t get along.” Dane gave Noah a wounded look.
“Well, at least one of us isn’t hungry anymore.”
Noah let his head rest against the van door, and leaned back, closing his eyes and turning his face into the sun. He and Dane were worse for wear, and Dane and Jonas were still trapped in their collars, but that wouldn’t last. They had lost Cyrus, but they were stronger than ever, more focused, and—most importantly—together.
Chapter Sixteen
Lindsay had never bothered to give the basement of the house in Detroit more than a cursory inspection, but apparently Noah and Kristan had paid more attention, because that was the first place both of them had suggested to work the magic required to take the collars off Jonas and Dane. It wasn’t roughed in; the floor was packed dirt and the walls were bare cement. Once he was down there, he realized that the earth would draw off excess magic that might be released when the collars came off, the way the cave had done when Ezqel fixed Lindsay’s magic, and Dane’s.
Dane, Noah, Ylli, Kristan and Jonas were already down there, preparing for the first attempt. When Zoey had said she needed to double-check her computer for data she’d gathered from the lab, Lindsay had followed her upstairs.
“They’re not regular technology,” he cautioned as they came back down. “Those figures are runes, you don’t want to mess with the magic in the collar if you can help it.”
“The computers at the lab had schematics.” Zoey turned her little computer toward Lindsay to show him. “Are those the runes you’re talking about?”