Page 75

Taking deep breaths, Neri nodded. Her body drooped against Axel’s and tried to get herself back under control.

“Ara, can you heal Hunter?” Ghost asked.

Ara gave a quick nod and walked toward Hunter. She kneeled in front of him and Neri gasped as she watched the talented shifter’s hands glowed a pure white light. Neri wanted to absorb Hunter’s pain as Ara put her hands onto his chest and he grunted at the touch. She didn’t interfere.

With wide eyes, Neri watched as the light flowed through Ara’s hands and into Hunter’s chest, moving toward the cuts and gouges on Hunter’s chest and stomach. As the wounds glowed, bringing them into stark contrast, Hunter jerked against the ties strapping him down to the bolted chair where he sat.

Neri moved closer and cupped Hunter’s face in her hands. She held him still as Ara continued to heal him and watched as she gave a thanks to whatever deity had given Ara the healing powers she had. As the light faded, Hunter stiffened in his chair.

“Hunter, love, it’s us. You’ll fine.”

“They pumped him full of tranquilizer. I’ve cleared it from his system so he should come to any moment,” Ara said.

“Thank you, Ara. Thank you,” Neri said.

Ara stood and rubbed her back before moving to stand near Reaper, who had his gaze on the stairwell. Neri noticed the others placed themselves around the room, investigating the equipment and searching for any documentation they stumbled upon.

“Gather everything you can fit it your packs,” Ghost directed.

There was a fluttering of paper, computers being unplugged and stored, and drawers being opened and closed, but Neri focused on Hunter, who blinked open his eyes.

“Hey there.”

Neri, with sly movements, unsheathed her knife when Hunter pulled at his binds, and cut them off with a quick flick of the blade. She pocketed it before he focused his gaze on her.

“Angel, you’re here. Am I dead?”

“No, love, you’re fine. Zahava and Damian came after you and drugged you with too many doses of tranquilizers. Ara removed it from your system. Do you think you can stand?”

Hunter gasped and his hands slapped his bare skin on his chest and stomach, right over where Ara had healed his wounds.

“Are you feeling any residual pain?”

He glanced up, confused. “What? Oh, that… I thought that was a dream. Someone strapped me down and carved me up, taking chunks out of me. Fuck, I’d take a needle any day.”

“I’ll tell Liv.” Neri gave him a small smile.

Hunter reached for her and kissed her breathless. His hands gripped onto her shirt and only then did she notice he was shaking.

“It’s okay, love. How do you feel?”

A tear slipped from his eye and slid down his cheek. Neri’s breath caught on a sob and she wrapped her arms around Hunter and held him tight.

“I thought I would never see you again. I…”

“It’s always you and me, together. We’ll kill this bitch and her little sidekick and get rid of them once and for all.”

Hunter nodded and stood, a look of determination on his face, until he glanced around the room to find every assassin searching through the room, gathering important items they found.

“How the fuck?”

“Neri’s powerful. She pictured you andpop,” Axel said.

Jade and Noah walked back into the makeshift lab where they kept Hunter.

“They gutted the first ten floors. No movement and no one has been living here at all. The two floors below us look like residences, ten per floor, so twenty apartments total. There is no movement from the apartment but we sense movement upstairs. From the stairwell, there is a secured steel door on this floor and the one above it with a touchscreen electronic deadbolt that will be impossible to bypass.”

“Well, we won’t need to go through the door.”

They turned to Neri and smiled at her.

“Ready for a fight angel?”