Page 184 of The Lost Ones

“You mean you’ve never actually fought one before?” Kai asks.

“Nope they’re actually super rare you never normally see them out of . . .” Kysen’s explanation is interrupted by Levi’s heart wrenching bellow of pain before he collapses onto the floor.

I’m next to him within a split second. The others not far behind me. I take a deep breath and try and keep my cool. I can’t help him if I lose my shit right now.

Freak out later.

I scan his prone form looking for the injury that has done this to him. His dark shirt is wet with blood and when I lift it up I spot the distinctive teeth marks of the fuckers we just killed.

“Fuck, shit, fuck!” Kai curses as he spots the wound.

“Et nolite in frigore venenum propagationem, habitus!”Kysen suddenly cries and the bright almost illuminous green magic covers the wound not healing it but the rapidly moving black veins that were stretching out from the jagged edges of the large wound.

“What did you?” Jax asks, his voice harsh but not accusing we all trust Kysen by this point.

I listen as I gently move the hair off of his sweaty forehead and carefully around his horns. His face is contorted into a grimace of pain and he’s so pale. Scarily pale but his heart is beating and he is breathing even if its shallow.

“I put a stasis spell on the wound to stop the spread of the poison. It won’t last for long though but by all the other accounts I’ve read about he should be dead already so he may just be strong enough to fight it for a bit longer.”

“What about the Bond can we use that to heal him. It’s worked before.” Hunter says, running a hand through his long hair. His eyes flashing with worry.

“Because of the kind of poison it is and the fact that he should be dead already, you won’t be able to get through the Bond to him at least that’s what we were told you can try but we’re running on borrowed time right now.”

Me and the guys share a look.

“We trust you.” Kai says seriously.

“The only thing I can think of that will heal him enough that it might open up the Bond line again is a potion we learnt at the academy. It wasn’t associated with healing this poison because normally supernaturals die within seconds.” He grimaces, “the next town should have all of the ingredients we need. Please tell me one of you has a healing ability?”

“I do.” Maverick says.

“Thank fuck for that. I’ll make the salve that needs to go on the outside of the wound and then you need to infuse it with as much of your healing magic that you can. Once the black poison lines have started to retreat then you should be able to reach him down the Bond line and heal him fully.” Kysen says. “This is pure guesswork I can’t promise you that it will work but it’s our best shot.” He says brutally honest and I appreciate it.

“Right lets get this done then. Maverick you stay with Kysen and Levi. Everyone else with me, we’ll split up into two groups so we can get the ingredients quicker.” Hunter orders automatically taking charge and I’m grateful to have something productive to do other than sit here and worry.

My gaze drifts to Levi again and I bend gently kissing his forehead.

“I’ll be back soon and you’ll be fine.” I whisper against his skin. “Please don’t die, Levi.” I plead barely making any sound.

“Kysen can you write a list of things we need to grab and if possible any names of shops. I want to get this done as quickly as possible and us wondering around aimlessly will not help.” Hunter says.

“Sure.” Kysen says getting up and moving towards his bag, he pulls out a pen and piece of paper and starts writing quickly.

“Shit what about the horses?” Jax curses.

I’m so preoccupied with Levi that it hadn’t even crossed my mind that the horses were let loose when the snake dog thing turned up so they weren’t sitting sacrifices to the disgusting things. My mind drifts again but I try to pay attention to them knowing that its important.

Hunter

“Hunter should be able to call him back especially since he’s an alpha wolf.” Kysen says absently still writing away.

“How?” I ask, I want to get going, I can practically feel time slipping away and I out right fucking refuse to lose Levi.

Not now that we’ve found Sage and he’s started to let go of that rigid control that used to hinder him rather than help him. I will not ever let one of my brothers go without fighting tooth and fucking nail to prevent it first. They are all struggling right now, we’ve been trained for this sort of thing but it makes no difference how much training you’ve had when there’s a real possibility that you could lose a member of your family it takes you a minute to get your mind back on task.

Levi knew that I could handle it and help rally and focus the others if anything happened to him that’s why, although I want to fall apart I can’t I promised him.

My worried gaze lands on Sage. She is so different from any other woman I’ve known before. It’s clear to see that’s she struggling as much as we all are but she’s not letting it break her and she’s as determined as we are to help him.