His grip tightened, the light from his gaze brightening until it shaded everything around us green.
“That blade landed directly in your heart,” he replied through gritted teeth. “I concentrated all of my power on immobilizing it and the tissues around it so you wouldn’t die right in front of me.”
His aura cracked as he spoke, blasting my emotions with a geyser of rage, relief, and fear. Maybe it was good that he hadn’t used his power on Katie. If he’d touched her with it while he was this upset, he might have accidentally killed her.
I gripped his jacket, both to steady myself and to pull him closer.
“She doesn’t know any better, Bones. It’s up to us to teach her.”
“Not if she keeps trying to kill you,” was his instant reply.
Our first parenting fight. Figures it would be over something life-threatening instead of how late she could stay up to watch TV.
“I should have known better than to zoom up to her when she didn’t know who I was or if I was there to hurt her. It won’t happen again.”
Then I rested my head against his chest, letting out a snort.
“As if we didn’t already know, this proves she’s my daughter. I used to stab vampires first and introduce myself afterward, too.”
A dark sound escaped him, but some of the rage eased from his aura.
“I recall it well, Kitten.”
Crashing noises below had me spinning out of his arms. I only made it a few feet before it felt like I had run right into an invisible wall.
“You just promised to be more careful,” Bones said in an exasperated voice. “Dashing off with a barely healed tear in your heart is the opposite of careful, Kitten!”
Right. It might take days for me to be back to full strength, and Katie was faster and more skilled than I’d realized. If only the logical part of my brain weren’t three steps behind my newly awakened maternal instincts, I’d act with much more prudence.
“You go first,” I said. See? Very cautious.
Bones gave me a short, fierce kiss, then stalked past me, cracking his knuckles as if in anticipation.
“Remember, no punishment for what she did,” I warned him. “She’s just a little girl.”
His predatory smile didn’t ease my concern.
“You only learned the hard way, luv. If she’s demonstrating your tendencies, then there’s only one way to handle her.”
The crashing noise had come from the basement, where one of many rickety spiral staircases led to the building’s dank underbelly. I followed Bones’s lead and jumped down since they didn’t look like they could hold Katie’s weight, let alone an adult’s. This part of the old depository had more dirt than books, and if the commotion ahead didn’t point the way, several sets of new footprints did.
“She’s heading for the tunnels!” I heard Fabian say.
My pace quickened, but my legs still felt wobbly. Damn lingering effects of my heart being punctured with silver. I hadn’t been this weakened after having my whole body pumped full of it.
“You said this building connects to the train station beneath the street?”
Bones nodded, slowing down to drape a hard arm around me, supporting me. He must have caught my slight wobble.
“The train station will have even more tunnels,” I said in growing concern. “We could lose her in the underground labyrinth, which must be why she’s running there.”
Smart girl, I thought, and felt a surge of pride even as I shook Bones’s arm off.
“You’re faster. Leave me and get her. I’ll be right behind you.”
“Katie!” Tate yelled, his voice starting to echo. “Stop!”
Bones raked me with a gaze, as if judging my capabilities, then turned and flew, streaking into the darkness ahead. I tried to fly as well—and promptly face-planted into the ground.
“Ugh,” I groaned before spitting out what I hoped was dirt. Then, with a slight stagger, I got up and began to run in the direction Bones had disappeared.
“If you’d listen to reason, poppet . . .”
Ian’s voice bounced off the walls before I heard a hard, thwacking sound, then an indignant, “Why, you little guttersnipe!”
His voice had held distinct undertones of pain and surprise. Despite feeling like death warmed over, I smiled. Looks like I wasn’t the only one Katie had gotten the drop on.
“Enough.”
Bones’s voice, accompanied by a crack of power I felt though I was a couple hundred yards behind him. I ran faster, almost tripping over garbage and debris in my haste. When I rounded a corner that opened up into a boiler room, I stopped at the sight that greeted me.
Ian’s shirt had a wide gash, revealing a crimson slash on his pale abdomen that was still healing. By comparison, Tate had fared much better. He only had a red-stained slice in his shoulder and more fresh blood coating his forehead.
Bones didn’t have a mark on his all-black ensemble. He stood in the corner of the room, his hand held out as though hailing a cab.