But she couldn’t. Shaya—her body unmoving, her eyes open wide, her skin scorched and red and blistered—was already gone.
“Help her!”
“I can’t! She’s dead.” It was too late. Ally closed her eyes against the emotional and physical blow to her system. Feeling hands pulling on her upper arms, making frost jab her bare skin, Ally opened her eyes with a gasp . . . and found Derren standing in front of her, the image of concern.
“Ally! Ally, answer me!”
Instinctively, she shrugged out of his hold, escaping the chill and hunger coming from his touch. Glancing around, she saw that there was no fire. No heat. No fallen trees. The male eyes around her regarded her curiously.
“Are you okay?”
Hearing that familiar voice, Ally glanced at the redheaded female beside her. Not dead but alive. At once, realization hit Ally, and horror slammed into her. “Move! We have to fucking move now!” She grabbed Shaya’s arm and pulled hard as she turned and ran.
“Where are you going?” demanded Zander.
Without breaking stride, she very briefly glanced at him over her shoulder. “Unless you want to burn, run!” Footsteps thudded behind her as the males kept pace with her and—
A blast of fire. A rumble through the ground. Heat racing along her back. Trees crashing.
She wasn’t sure what sent her sprawling to the floor. The impact of the explosion? The reverberations in the ground? Her own instinct to dive away from the danger? She didn’t care, was simply glad of two things: One, she didn’t feel the same pain as she had in the vision. Two, Shaya was alive, albeit shocked and scared.
“Fuck!”
Hearing a harsh exclamation, Ally looked to see Eli and Caleb supporting Derren’s weight as they lowered him to the ground at her side. Resting on his front, he hissed out a breath. Bile rose in her throat as she got a look at his legs, the denim torn and sticking to the badly burned skin.
“He shielded me,” said Kent as his mate called Nick on his cell phone. “Derren shoved me to the ground and covered me.” And took the injuries intended for Kent.
“You can heal him, right?” Bracken asked Ally.
She struggled to a sitting position, startled by Derren’s harsh “No.”
“Derren, let her help you,” encouraged Eli.
“No,” he again ground out, looking close to blacking out. His eyes blazed into hers. “It’ll hurt you. It already hurts when I touch you.”
Yes, and feeling the agony of his injuries would make it worse, but . . . “This is what I do, Derren. Now shut the fuck up and keep still.”
She gently laid her hands on his legs, over the charred denim. A contrary combination of frost, heat, and pain invaded her system, prickled her nerve endings. Ignoring the agony, she pushed healing energy into his body. The moment the loop between them opened, his pain flowed into her. The more soothing energy she gave him, the more it felt like her skin was blazing, tightening, and eating away at itself.
A soft hand landed on her shoulder. “Ally, you can stop now.”
Oh, good. Then she collapsed.
Derren ignored the knock on the door of the guest bedroom, just as he’d ignored the others. Instead, he lazed in the chair beside the bed on which he’d laid an unconscious Ally three hours ago. The sight of her ashen face and the dark smudges under her eyes was making his wolf frantic. She hadn’t tossed or turned even once. She’d remained so still that if it weren’t for the subtle rise and fall of her chest, he would have worried that she was dead.
Another knock; this one louder, harder, impatient. “Derren, open up!” Shaya.
Although it was the Alpha pair’s lodge, he hadn’t let them or anyone else inside the room, mindful of how vulnerable Ally was at the moment. Having her lying there, out cold, while under the same roof as people who might mean her harm . . . it nettled both Derren and his wolf. The animal was very much on edge, pacing and anxious for Ally to wake up.
“She’s my friend, Derren, I want to see her! I’m worried about her!”
If his conscience wasn’t so undeveloped, he might have felt bad for Shaya. Right now, though, he was only interested in Ally. He didn’t truly believe any of his pack would harm her, but his protective instincts wouldn’t allow him to take the chance. While she was vulnerable, he’d watch over her.
A feminine huff traveled through the door. “Taryn’s on her way here. If she thinks that Ally might potentially need her healing skills, she’s going to come up here and there’ll be no stopping her. Unless, of course, I can assure her that I’ve seen Ally for myself and she’s fine.”
Cursing, Derren stalked to the door and yanked it open, finding most of the pack gathered behind a smug-looking Shaya. He knew that she’d played him, but he also knew she was right. Taryn, a powerful healer, would demand to check on Ally if Shaya couldn’t assure her that it wasn’t necessary. He moved aside for Shaya. “Just you.” Ignoring the complaints coming from the others, he shut the door.
The redhead’s expression crumpled into one of concern as she approached the bed. “Has she flitted in and out of consciousness?”
“No. She hasn’t moved an inch.” At least the wound on her head from her fight with Jesse had healed.
Shaya gently took hold of her wrist. “Her pulse is strong. I’m guessing her system has shut down while she recovers. She used up a lot of strength.”