Page 64 of Trapped for Her Blood

Axe returns in a flash and the smell of burning hair and flesh hits my senses well before I register that he’s carrying something.

Not something—someone.

Axel’s arms contain a body, charred beyond recognition, wrapped in silver chains that are burning Axe’s arms too.

“Holy shit!” Psycho says.

Zuben releases me. “Put him down. Now. We must get the chains off.”

“To my cave,” Axe says gruffly. “I will carry him as a bear.”

He lays down the body, and the burn victim screams in agony, the most horrifying sound I’ve heard since…

“Ryker!” I reach out, but stop short of touching his burned flesh. My heart is racing; I can’t breathe. I tug at the chains, but they burn my fingers too, and I pull my hands back.

“Thought she was human,” Psycho says. “Are those chains covered in acid or some shit?”

With a roar and the sound of crunching bones, Axe transforms into a bear. Zuben and Psycho avoid the silver chains as best the can, as they quickly drape Ryker’s burned body over Axe’s furry back.

Ryker cries out in pain, but somehow manages to grab Axe’s fur to hold on, and Axe stars to run.

Zuben scoops me up with one arm, and we run too, not as fast as before, but faster than I could ever imagine moving on my own.

Chapter Twenty

Ember

“Take him to the water!”My voice echoes through Axe’s cave as we enter. “The burns! Please help him!”

Zuben sets me down, but holds me tightly, preventing me from running to Ryker.

He looks into my eyes. “First step, precious one, we must remove the silver from his body. And while I understand your instincts, his burns are too severe for cold water to even soothe him. He will heal just as quickly without water.”

“Then get the chains off him!” I twist in Zuben’s hold, looking for Psycho, hoping he’ll help, but I realize he’s no longer with us. Figures.

Ryker remains on Axe’s back, moaning in pain and the scent of his burning flesh is so acrid, it’s hard not to choke.

Zuben leaves me and, using the furs for protection, lifts Ryker’s body off Axe’s back. Axe’s back is badly burned too.

Zuben lays Ryker down, and I rush to his side, my knees landing hard on the stone, but that pain is nothing.

“Where’s the end of the chain?” I scan Ryker’s body, unrecognizable. “How do we get it off him?” Thick silver chains and ropes have Ryker half-mummified. I reach for the ones wrapped tightly over his eyes, but pull back my hand in pain.

Zuben kneels beside me, holding one of the wolf pelts. “The silver burned you. Has someone fed from you?” He turns around to look at Axe, still in bear form.

“Ah, I was unobservant not to have noticed earlier. That explains why he was able to retrieve the body from beneath the sunlight. Interesting. I wonder how long the effects of your blood will last.”

“Who the hell cares right now?” I glare at him. “Help Ryker!”

Zuben nods as if my words pulled him out of deep thought, and he uses the pelt like an oven mitt to tug at the silver, but the chains are wound very tightly. “Wherearethe ends?” he asks, repeating my question. “Did they weld these shut?”

He keeps working on the chains. I grab a pelt too and try to help, but it’s awkward with the fur, and I can still feel the heat from the metal as I struggle to shift the links of chain.

“Hey, let me.”

I look up to see that Psycho has come back and he’s holding bolt cutters.

“Where did you get those?” Zuben asks.