Embers (Dark in You 4)

Again, her demon urged her to rise and fight, but she simply couldn’t. Instead, she could only watch as the archdemon and incorporeal battled hard.

“I will have my freedom, Thorne, you cannot—” Once again, the incorporeal’s hands snapped to its head as it let out yet another high-pitched scream. The sound went on and on and on, until Harper thought the windows would smash. A blizzard suddenly whipped up around them, ruffling her clothes and tossing her hair everywhere. It would no doubt have also sent objects sailing around if they weren’t frozen in place.

Knox merely flapped a hand as if swatting at a fly. Just like that, the blizzard seemed to shudder and then abruptly die off. “When will you learn that you stand no chance against me?”

The incorporeal once again screeched, knees buckling under the strain of whatever mental pain Knox was causing it. The girl’s body bucked as the incorporeal lunged out of her … which was what he’d been waiting for.

A raw dark power buzzed and pulsed in the air just before flames instantly erupted out of the ground—vivid flames that were red, gold, black, and deadly. The incorporeal dove straight back into the kid’s body to escape them. Eyes wide and afraid, it stared at the flames of hell as they inched around it, barricading it in. “You can truly call on them.”

“There’s no way out of this,” Knox told the incorporeal. “I can do this all day.”

Panting, it hissed. “But your mate cannot. Do you not see what is happening to her? She is freezing from the inside out. Soon, her heart will fail and rupture into tiny pieces.”

Harper knew the incorporeal wasn’t exaggerating. She could feel her heartbeat beginning to falter. Could feel the cold invade and surround the organ. Her vision was starting to darken around the edges, and a deep sleep beckoned her.

“You could save her, but only if you move now and make her warm. At a guess, I would say y

ou have mere seconds before it is too late for her.”

No, kill it, Harper insisted, but Knox instantly pyroported to her. At the same time, the incorporeal surged out of the child’s body. The hazy vapor flew over the flames and rocketed out of the front door, fading as it did so.

Knox crouched in front of her, eyes glinting with panic. “Baby.”

You should have killed it. Then darkness swept over her.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

For a second, Knox didn’t move out of sheer terror. His mate was curled up on the floor, shivering violently, teeth chattering, arms wrapped tight around her body. His demon let loose a deafening roar. “Shit, baby.”

Knox lifted her and held her close, shocked that her skin was so cold it was uncomfortable to touch. Her system seemed to literally soak up his body heat—he could practically feel the warmth leaving him.

With a single thought, he reined in the flames of hell before they could do further damage or harm the little girl within them, but he never moved his eyes from Harper. She was gulping in breaths like she’d just surfaced from the ocean after being submerged for too long. Each shaky breath fogged the air.

He stroked her face. “I need you to breathe for me, baby. Relax. Slow it down.”

She clumsily tried fisting his shirt but seemed barely able to move her fingers, as if they were too numb.

“I’ll get you warm, you’ll be fine.” But she didn’t look fine. Not at all.

There was a loud, birdlike screech just before a black harpy eagle soared inside the café and landed on the floor. A billow of smoke swirled around it, blanketing it for a mere moment, and then Larkin was stood in its place.

She glanced around, taking in the frozen people, the little girl unconscious on the floor, and the block of ice encasing Tanner. “Oh, God. Tanner called me and—what the fuck happened to Harper?”

“The incorporeal happened.” With a quick wave of power, Knox freed Tanner from the block of ice. The hellhound blinked, as if surprised to see that time had passed. “I need to get Harper home, Tanner,” said Knox, urgency in every syllable. “You and Larkin need to take care of the situation here.”

Concern lighting his eyes, Tanner said, “Consider it done.”

Knox unfroze the rest of the café and then pyroported his mate to the walk-in closet of their bedroom. Although he wanted to put her straight into a hot bath, he knew he needed to slowly increase her core body temperature first.

Snatching a fleecy blanket from a top shelf in the closet, he stalked over to the bed and lay her down. He then quickly shed their clothes, which wasn’t easy when her jeans were stiff with cold. Her eyes fluttered open. She tried to talk through blue lips that were dry and bleeding.

“No, baby, don’t talk. Just get warm.” Lifting her, he held her tight, sharing more of his body heat even though her icy skin made him flinch. As he pulled the fleecy blanket around her, she huddled inside it, chin dropped down to her chest.

Flipping back the coverlet, Knox settled in bed with her tucked close to his body and then dragged the coverlet over them both. She burrowed into him, placing her hands on his chest as if to greedily absorb more of his warmth. Her hands and feet were like blocks of ice.

Under the blanket, he rubbed at her skin, hoping the friction would warm her. Inside him, his demon roared and raged. Knox’s own fury was tangible. The fucking incorporeal had tried to kill her. Tried to freeze her from the inside out. Tried to take from him the very thing that had brought life to his existence.

He’d known she’d taken a hit from the incorporeal, but he hadn’t known it was fatal, assuming Harper would have told him if it were. But she hadn’t. And she’d almost died right in fucking front of him and his demon but, so focused on toying with the incorporeal, they’d been completely oblivious to just how seriously hurt she’d been.