Rapture. Jacquelyn Frank
he saw her crawling over the floor, he felt the world drop out from under him. He dropped to his knees as he skidded to a halt beside her, the dagger clattering to the floor as he gathered her up tightly to himself.
“Where?” he rasped, unable to catch his breath as she clung as hard to him as he did to her.
“The stairs,” she said.
Brendan was off in a flash, running through the doors behind them.
“Gods, let me look at you,” he demanded, dropping his hold a few inches so he could see her. She was burned. Her face was bright red, her hands and chest as well. “What in Light did they do to you?”
“A light. A strobe. Gods, it burned! I can’t see.” She swallowed and coughed, and he wanted to hold her tighter but feared hurting her where she was scorched. “He tried to…shit. Shit, shit, shit.”
She was going to cry like some big stupid baby. Dae did not cry. She fought. She won or she lost, but she never cried.
“Tell me you fought really, really dirty,” he commanded of her.
“Like mud in a pig’s sty,” she said with a shaking laugh that helped thwart the urge to cry. “I think I have penis under my nails.”
Magnus laughed, a hard fall of sound as he hugged her tight again despite his concerns. “See, that’s what I wanted. A fighter.”
“Okay, but please can we keep it to once a day? That was a bit of overkill.”
“Yes, baby, it was. I’m so sorry. I can’t seem to keep any promises for you today. I said no one would touch you.”
“Well, I touched harder. That counts for something.”
“Yeah, it sure does.”
Magnus looked up when Brendan came back through the doors and shook his head.
“Aw, fuck. I can’t believe he got up!” she grumbled when she realized Brendan had returned empty-handed. “I thought I had him good.”
“You blooded him well enough,” Brendan said with a grin.
“Great. Now we just have to get everyone to drop their drawers and we’ll have our man,” she said dryly.
“Okay, let’s get you back to our rooms,” Magnus said softly, rising to his feet with her.
“She should go to a healer.”
“No!” It was a single, terrible word, but it spoke volumes about Magnus’s shattered trust. Brendan wasn’t inclined to push him again.
“I found this. This guy had a damn death wish, using something this strong.” Brendan showed Magnus a battery-operated lamp with a focused beam of light before he shattered the bulb against a wall. “Where the hell does someone get something like this down here?”
Magnus and Brendan looked at each other.
“Hydroponics,” they said together.
“Yeah, that stands for ‘the place with the lights,’” Dae sighed.
“It’s a highly secure area. Very few people have access to it. This could narrow our search immensely,” Magnus told her.
“Great. Magnus?”
“Yes, K’yindara?”
“Can I have the heavy sai now?”
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