I gasped, jerking up as my eyes shot open. My hand was clenched in Dav's shirt, and I was still in his arms. Dav's hand rested on my cheek, easing the slight sting from where he'd been hitting me. I vaguely recalled him calling my name.
"What?"
I looked around and brought one hand up to my mouth to soothe the burning pain. I pulled my fingers away and stared at the red stain. It hadn't been a nightmare. The smell was awful, and I could barely stand the taste in my mouth.
"I'm sorry, I know you're hurt too, but we need you. Bob is close to dying."
My head turned automatically toward the bathroom. I was shocked he wasn't already dead. Several of the males were moving bodies, but his wasn't on the floor by the door anymore.
"He's on the couch."
Velaku crouched down next to Dav, crouching over us. I flinched away from him; would he be angry that I killed Mishtar? He'd claimed that right and I'd taken it from him.
"I'm sorry to ask this of you; I know you don't owe the clans anything. But Bob is the Alpha of his clan, and all the Pacific water animal clans look to his leadership. Not all of them support our pact with the humans; they feel the loss of clean waters and beaches keenly. We need him to keep them in line."
I took a shaky breath and nodded, glad that Velaku didn't seem angry with me at all. I may not owe the clans anything but there had been enough death here. I couldn't let anyone suffer, even if all I wanted was for Dav to take me out of there. "I'll try."
My stomach burned like fire when they helped me up. I panted, trembling as they supported my weight. I look down and noticed that I had a bandage across my stomach. I'd passed out when Dav tightened a pressure bandage on my arm. I reached up and felt my neck, touching a bandage across my shoulder where Elalera had sliced me open.
"I'm so sorry Ellis; you were supposed to be safe," Velaku said. His wings were folded behind him, but drooped low. "My mother did that, didn't she?"
I looked him in the eyes, seeing his anger and pain. I wouldn't add to it. "You didn't make Mishtar act the way he did, and you don't need to apologize. I don't blame her. I just wish I could have saved her; if I'd known I had fangs and venom sooner . . . ."
I shuddered, swallowing hard.
Dav's hand tightened on my arm, and he looked at me with fear in his eyes. "Ellis--"
"He's not breathing!"
I ripped my good arm free of Dav's hold and stumbled over to the couch, ignoring the pain in my body. The group of men surrounding it parted for me. The large whale Carthera barely fit on the sofa, his feet hanging over one end. I put two fingers on his throat, feeling for a pulse. Unbelievably, he still had one. It was going super slow, though, and the blood was barely oozing out of the wide tears in his stomach.
But he still wasn't breathing.
Tilting his head back, I covered his nose and breathed in his mouth twice. I waited, then gave him another breath. Between them, I tried to assess his condition. A hand landed on my shoulder.
"Ellis, stop. He's too injured, too hurt. "
"No!" The fingers tightened, but I shrugged the hand off, giving Bob another breath.
"I can help him. He's healing, look!" I pointed at the marks on his stomach. I'd never seen a Carthera take that much damage and survive, but he was already healing. There was pink flesh and the raw edges of the wounds were smoothing. I just had to keep his heart and lungs going so that he could.
I heard shuffling around behind me, and when I looked up, Dav was no longer behind me. I could feel his fear through our mate bond, but I focused past it. I couldn't let Bob die, not when he'd been trying to protect us. I filled my lungs, pressing the air into Bob's mouth yet again, and then I looked up.
The males of his clan surrounding Bob had pulled in close. They ringed the couch, their bodies pressed tight together in a wall of flesh. They all reached out in some way, touching Bob someplace on his body. I couldn't help but wonder if it was some sort of death ritual as my stare skipped from grim face to grim face.
Then they began humming; each had a different note that rose and fell and yet fit into one cohesive wave of sound. The sound swelled and dipped, reminding me of ocean.
The chant filled the room and drowned out the other sounds. I remained on my knees and kept breathing for Bob, focusing on him to the exclusion of everything else until I felt the bodies next to me shift. There was a tingle that danced across my skin as the legs of the whales on either side of me touched my body, closing the circle. I shuddered as the energy began to build in the room. I'd felt it a few times before when Carthera came to the clinic to be healed but never like this. Never this strong.
It swept through me, making me shake. I barely controlled my body, feeling like something was inside me and I had to do something, had to let it out. The next time I sent my breath into Bob's lungs it felt as if this tingling electricity poured from my mouth and into him. I was frozen over him for what felt like forever before the energy finally broke, and I sat up with a gasp. Unable to believe my eyes, I pulled back and stared in shock as his wounds began to seal, the flesh knitting together visibly as we watched. The humming sound grew louder and the tension in the room rose.
The next moment the silence was so profound, it was like it was a sound itself pressing against my ears. I tentatively reached out, touching Bob's chest with the flat of my palm. A hard jolt shook me.
Bob gasped, his back bowing upward into a hard arch.
His eyes opened as he fell back against the cough and his breath settled into harsh gasps. I looked at his wounds, but only faint pink marks remained. His head turned to me.
"You healed me," he said.
My whole body still tingled. I stumbled back, my eyes wide. "No way, I couldn't . . .." My voice stuttered to a halt.
I sought my mate in confusion; it was too much, the fangs, the poison, this . . . whatever just had happened. Dav pushed into the group of whale Carthera that had surrounded me, pulling me into his arms. "Ellis. Shhh . . .."
I mumbled against his chest, "That was impossible! Magic isn't real, not really real."
Cavel stood near the group of whales that were all watching me, his bloody mate in his arms. "I thought so too, until I met Bashta. I have met our god, been touched by him. The magic of the clans exists, for those who haven't lost the way of how to use it."
I just shuddered in Dav's arms, my mind still unable to really understand. But . . . there was more to life than understanding everything. It was enough that Bob would live.
As Bob sat up, his movement broke the tension and it felt things started up again, people moving and speaking quietly instead of staring at me. I couldn't help but watch Bob as one of his men helped him up. They stayed close to him, touching frequently and making a variety of sounds that were remarkably like whale noises I'd heard on a nature program.
"Thank you," Velaku said to me. I nodded at him, not really needing his thanks but understanding his appreciation.
"All the magic in our pod would have done nothing if there was no one to breathe it into me," said Bob, "and none of my men have the shaman's power." He stared in my eyes. "It would be my honor to offer my clan to you, as a pod brother."
I looked up at Dav, his face impassive even though I could feel his shock through our bond. I looked back at Bob. "I'm sorry; I don't know what that means."
"If you wish it, you can claim kinship to my clan and to my pod. If you or your mate ever need anything, call on me."
I nodded gravely, understanding the honor being shared with me at least. "Thank you." I took a deep breath and my knees began to sag. I grabbed at Dav with both arms. It wasn't until just then realizing that my arm with the puncture wounds no longer hurt. Neither did my stomach or my shoulder.
Dav's arms came around me. "I need to get you out of here; all this can't be good for you. The last thing you need is a migraine from all the stress."
I pulled the bandages off my bare stomach. "It's gone." My fingers traced across the pale white line, all that was left from the furrow the bullet had ripped in my skin. My pulled off the other bandages, my fingertips touching smooth skin unmarred any wound. "Amazing."
Dav's hands followed mine. I looked up in his eyes, seeing something there. I felt for our bond, trying to decipher the feeling. I shivered a little as his slender fingers traced the skin of my shoulder and neck.
I blinked, and then yawned. Velaku chuckled a little.
"Power always comes at a cost," Bob said. "You need to go rest."
Dav lifted me into his arms, and I let him. "My bar has a safe room that we are going to use, and Velaku has the addresses of several more in the area. In the kitchen drawer of each one you will find new phone, if you need it."
"Isiah? Ahsran?" I asked.
I looked around; just then remembering my brother was in the fight too. I felt like things were escaping me, as something else that I'd forgotten to think about hit me every few minutes. "I can't believe I forgot about them."
Isiah pushed away from the wall.
Dav turned me to face him, murmuring quietly, "That is the exhaustion and shock. You'll be just fine."
"We're okay, Ellis." Isiah moved toward us. "You go with your mate; you don't need to see this."
There he was, trying to protect me. That was my job, though this wasn't a mess I could clean up. He was bruised and I could see some tears in his shirt, but he looked okay. I didn't see Ahsran, but I knew Isiah wouldn't be standing there talking to me if his mate was hurt. I cranked my head around, searching anyway. I needed to know, to see with my own two eyes that my family was all there and relatively intact.
