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“He messed with me, babe. And I’m the one who’s still walking around.”

She rolled her eyes. “Inside with you.”

Adric touched his quartz and murmured the words that dissolved the look-away spell.

The den was two flights down. Jace could no longer keep up the pretense that he wasn’t in pain.

He shuffled down the stairs, gripping the rail like a lifeline.

Adric stayed on his other side, taking as much of his weight as he could.

By the time they reached the bottom, sweat had beaded on Jace’s forehead. He leaned against the stone wall as Adric opened the door to his den and then helped him into the small foyer.

Jace’s parents had carved the den out of the bedrock long before he was born.

Both of them had been soldiers, but his dad had been an engineer at heart.

In his downtime, he’d built this big, solid home for his mate, their two cubs, and assorted other members of the clan.

Even in the Darktime, everyone knew they always had a bed at the Jones’ den.

He limped into the living room, a large, comfortable space with exposed stone walls and furniture that dated to his parents’ time.

The floor was covered with worn throw rugs and large pillows for their animals to curl up on, and the mantelpiece held a collection of quartz that his soldier mom had brought back from her tours overseas.

Other than replacing the pillows, the only thing Jace had added was the big screen TV on the wall.

He’d had to rig up a solar-powered electricity system, but it was worth it.

Now the only thing that greeted him was Tigger, a testy orange tomcat who’d moved in last year and never left. That was strange. Jace glanced around, nostrils flared, testing the air for his den mates’ scents. With four men besides himself calling the den home, it was rarely empty.

“Everyone is out looking for you,” Adric said. “They should be back soon—I sent word we found you. But I had people searching in a fifty-mile radius.”

He grunted. “Call out the effing cavalry, why don’t you?”

“Shut up and get into bed.”

Suha had gone down the hall to Jace’s bedroom. She didn’t have to ask where it was. She’d patched up his wounds more than once.

With Adric’s help, he hobbled after her and lowered himself onto the edge of the mattress. Damn, he’d swear these cuts had been seared into his gut by Hades himself. This morning he’d thought they were almost healed, but now they felt worse than ever.

Suha placed a small, blunt-fingered hand on his shoulder. “Lie down before you fall down.”

He gritted his teeth and obeyed. But it was good to be home in his own bed. His muscles softened.

Suha scanned the wound with her quartz as he stared at the ceiling. His dad had left the stone walls bare in here, too. The stone was dotted with mica, giving the dark gray rock a pretty shimmer. He could almost hear the walls humming.

“Not bad,” Suha murmured. “They’re healing, especially the shallow one, but deep inside, they’re still open. And you’re spiking a high fever.”

Her voice seemed to come from far away. He dragged his gaze back to her face.

A fever . That’s why he felt so odd, as if he were floating above the bed. He dug his fingers into the sheets to ground himself.

Adric got a chair from the kitchen for Suha and set it next to the bed. “The humans cleaned the cuts out with salt water,” he told her.

“Within a half hour,” Jace added.

“Thank the gods for that.” Suha frowned at her quartz. “But the iron had already spread into your blood. That’s why you still feel—”

“Like shit,” Jace finished for her. “But I’ll heal.”

“With help.” She fixed him with a stern look. “Now relax and breathe.”

Jace scowled. “I don’t need your energy. Save it…” He trailed off as he lost his train of thought.

“I’ll be the judge of that,” the healer returned. “Close your eyes and breathe. Picture your body filling with healing energy…a warm, golden light.”

“I’ll help.” Adric moved to Jace’s other side, but Suha shook her head.

“I know you’re strong, but you’re burnt from being out searching all night. Save your energy for yourself. I’ve got this.”

Adric nodded but remained where he was. He gave Jace’s shoulder a squeeze. “You heard the woman. Close your eyes and let her do her stuff.”

He obediently closed his eyes and focused on the warmth in his belly. At first it seared, the unhealthy fire of last night, but even worse. He went hot, then cold. The humming of the walls grew louder, became an irritating buzz that made him want to clamp his hands to his ears.

He moved his legs restively. “Hot.”

“I know.” Suha murmured something to Adric and a minute later he returned with a damp cloth. Suha placed it on his forehead, and Jace gave a hiss of relief.

The burning changed, became a pleasant glow that infused his wounds with healing energy. The buzzing in his head receded as his own quartz’s crystals hummed louder in response, until his whole body was vibrating with an unearthly music that was both sound and magic.

He drew a deep breath and released it, and let himself float in the soothing sea of energy.

Time passed. Ten minutes, then another ten.

Adric touched Jace’s shoulder, ignoring Suha’s directive to add his energy to the mix.

Jace slit his eyes. His friend squeezed Jace’s shoulder, his normally sculpted, arrogant face soft with concern.

Suha shook her head at Adric, but allowed him to braid his energy through hers. They all knew that he couldn’t remain idle when any of his people were hurting. The vibrations swelled to an ocean of sound, peaceful and yet energizing.

More time passed as the energy ebbed and flowed, washing the pain away. His eyelids grew too heavy to lift.

“There,” Suha said. “That should do it. You’re going to have a couple of scars, but that can’t be helped.” She touched his cheek. “How do you feel?”

He forced his lids to open. Suha’s pretty oval face hovered above him, her large doe-eyes narrowed with concentration.

“Great,” he murmured. “Sleepy, but great. Thank you.”

“Good. I want you to stay in bed for a few days, got it?”

He nodded.

“He’ll be fine,” Suha said to Adric.

He briefly closed his eyes, and Jace realized how worried he’d been. “Thank you,” he told the healer.

“You’ll stay with him?”

“Only until his den mates arrive, and then I have to get home to Marjani. But I’ll check back later.”

“How is she?”

Adric shrugged. A year ago last spring, Marjani had been kidnapped and raped by a den of feral water fada.

All the ferals were dead, and Marjani’s body was healed, but it was going to take a long time before her mind was whole again.

It clawed at all of them, but Adric had taken it extra hard—because how do you get over your sister being hurt like that?

Jace knew the answer: you didn’t. It was always part of you. The regrets, the what-ifs, the fucking helplessness. Because if you’d only known your sister was in danger…

“About the same,” Adric said at last.

Suha pressed her lips together. “I’ll come by to see her later.”

“Thank you.” The alpha’s face was naked with the love and hurt he felt for his sister. “I thought she was getting better, but she hasn’t been outside in over a week. I can’t—” He spread his hands.

Jace roused himself to say, “Tell her…I need a visitor.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Suha said. “Tomorrow, maybe.” She squeezed Jace’s hand. “You be good now, you hear? When I say stay in bed, I mean it. You don’t want a relapse.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

A slim black brow winged up. “And don’t think I don’t know when someone’s being evasive. Say the words.”

He scowled, but she simply gazed back until he muttered, “All right. I’ll stay in bed. For the rest of the day.”

He caught Adric’s smirk and scowled at him as well, but his friend returned, “Listen to the healer, Jace. I need you at full strength to help get the bastard that did this. Now, are you hungry?”

And Jace realized he was. Starving, in fact.

“Just liquids today,” Suha said. “Broth, a yogurt smoothie. We don’t want to stress his digestive system yet.” She gave them both a kiss and let herself out.

With her gone, Jace took a nap while Adric went out to a diner to pick up some food.

Yogurt wasn’t his usual fare, but it was about all he could handle right now.

At least it was strawberry. He sipped the smoothie and watched enviously as Adric wolfed down his own two ham-and-egg sandwiches in rapid succession.

Jace’s den mates returned. They wandered in and out of the room to see how he was doing.

Sam, a burly redhead whose animal was a Bengal tiger, was first. He was followed by Beau, a slow-moving, slow-talking bear, and Horace, a cougar who was one of the clan’s best trackers.

They stood over Jace, shaking their heads and needling him about being caught off-guard by a fae until Adric told them to get the hell out and let him rest.

The last to arrive was Zuri, who’d been directing the cleanup in Grace Harbor. A fellow lieutenant, Zuri was a tall, dark and charismatic wolf who pretty much had to beat women off with a stick. Along with Adric, he was Jace’s closest friend.

Zuri got a second chair from the kitchen and set it next to the bed. “Everything’s calm.” He propped his long legs on the foot of the mattress. “I followed Jace’s trail myself from the bar to the human’s house, and I couldn’t scent a thing.”

“And the woman and her brother?” asked Adric.

“I have Kara watching the house.” Zuri named a young female who had recently arrived from their sister clan in Jamaica. “She’s good at blending in with humans. Even if they see her, they won’t know she’s one of us.”

“Excellent,” Adric replied.

Jace nodded, relieved. He’d been going to ask that Adric see to Evie’s protection. “The woman—Evie—she’s good people. I’d hate to see her and her brother get hurt because they stuck their necks out for me.”

Adric and Zuri exchanged a look.

“You don’t usually go for human women,” said Zuri.

He growled. “Who the fuck says I’m going for her?”

His friend raised his hands, palm out. “Nobody.”

Adric snorted and got to his feet. “Look, I have to go. I could use a shower—bad—and I told Marjani I’d bring her some breakfast.” He lifted the takeout bag. “She doesn’t remember to eat sometimes. Feel better, okay?”

He squeezed Jace’s shoulder and with a nod to Zuri, left.

Zuri stayed another few minutes and then started yawning until Jace told him to go to bed, he’d be fine. The other men were either in bed or in the living room watching TV.

Jace looked at Tigger, who had stretched out between his open legs. “Looks like it’s just the two of us.”

Tigger yawned and kneaded the sheet, narrowly missing Jace’s balls with his claws, and then settled his head on his paws. A minute later he was snoring.