Page 50 of Cold Curses

Lights flashed as an ambulance drew near; there were no sirens, which made its movements eerier somehow. Then three EMTs were moving toward us, two of them rolling a gurney. One of them, a woman with strong shoulders and light brown skin and her dark hair in shoulder-length twists, looked at Lulu, then Alexei, then Connor. If the humans found anything odd about the man sitting naked on the asphalt, they didn’t mention it.

“Shit,” she said. “That you, Keene?”

Connor looked at her, gave a yip.

“I’m Callahan,” she said. “NAC member.” I belatedly recognized the scent of Pack, buried as it was under demon magic. She shifted her steady gaze to me. “And you’re Keene’s girl.”

“Elisa.”

The techs began looking Lulu over, getting her vitals.

“She was hit by a demon fireball,” I said. “This is some kind of magic.”

“Oh?” she asked, and looked back at Lulu. “Give me a sec, Jackson.”

She knelt beside Lulu, put a hand over hers. Then yanked it away again like she had been burned. “Damn,” she said. “That’s…”

“Venomous,” Alexei said, his face even paler than fear should have made it. And I guessed the magic coursing through her had affected him, too.

So this wasn’t just a magical overload but some kind of specifically nasty magic that was dangerous enough to hurt a shifter.

“We need to get her off him,” I said, and the EMTs were moving almost instantaneously, slipping Lulu’s tiny form onto the gurney.

She looked so small and frail, I thought as tears began to spill.

“Jackson,” Callahan said, “get this man some scrubs and a bottle of water.”

“You want to shift?” I asked Alexei, my hand on the gurney rail as they positioned Lulu, covered her with a blanket. I was afraid to break that contact.

He looked up at me with devastated eyes. “If I shift, I will tear the rest of them apart. This gives me some control.”

I wasn’t necessarily opposed to some swift revenge, but spilling more blood wasn’t what he needed.

“Okay,” I said. “Let me know what you need.”

Jackson came back with a water bottle, a blanket, and scrubs for Alexei, then helped lift the gurney into the ambulance. Alexei ignored the blanket and water but pulled on the scrubs and climbed wordlessly into the ambulance with the EMTs.

“You going with?” Theo asked.

I nearly jumped at the sound of his voice; I’d forgotten he was still here.

I wanted to go. I wanted to keep hold of her hand—my sister in every way that mattered—until she woke up and made a juvenile joke about me and Connor.

But that’s not whatsheneeded. She needed me to figure out how to reverse the magic done to her. And I could do that best out here.

“No. I need to talk to them,” I said, shifting my gaze to the bored-looking demons still in those magical cuffs. “But I’ll call the Moms.” I looked at Connor. “Can you call Dan or someone else you trust to keep watch at the hospital?”

Connor made a soft yip, then trotted through the lingering cops into darkness, presumably to the spot where he and Alexei had left their vehicle and clothes.

“Petra,” Theo said.

I looked back at him. “What?”

“Petra can help with Lulu,” he explained. “Mallory Carmichael will want to stay with her. But—and I know this is harsh—we need her out there working on the wards. Now more than ever.”

It was harsh. But he wasn’t wrong. “We aren’t going to be able to keep her away from her daughter. But she understands how important the wards are.”

He nodded. “I’ll ask Petra to visit the hospital. Maybe she can get her cousin to go, too. The doctor.”