Call of the Siren(62)

“About freakin’ time,” she said when they landed, jamming her hands on her hips for emphasis. “I was really worried.”

“Sorry,” Ronin muttered as he set Dagan to his feet and quickly healed the knife wound in his side. “Got caught up in the fight.”

“Everything okay?” she asked, her forehead crinkling with anxiety.

Dagan chuckled. “Not to worry. Taeg looked to be kicking plenty of demon ass in his air form.”

“Good.” Her face cleared, but then she got a look at Lina. “Hold on. Put her down on the ground.”

The note of fear in her voice put Dagan’s guard up. His heart palpitating, he knelt on the ground and softly deposited Lina onto her back, then smoothed limp locks of hair from her face. When she moaned and shifted, one of her shaky hands absently lifting to wipe the sweat from her brow, he breathed a sigh of relief. This was definitely an improvement over her prior comatose state.

“Oh my God,” Maya whispered, slowly taking several steps backward.

“What’s wrong?” Ronin asked, his brow furrowing as he knelt beside Dagan and felt Lina’s throat for her pulse.

“She—”

Before Maya could utter her response, Lina moaned again and her eyes fluttered open. This time there was recognition in her gaze when she looked first at him, then Ronin. “Wha—what are you doing here?”

“Thank the devil,” Dagan murmured.

Lina glanced around, taking stock of her surroundings. He could see clear as day the moment she realized they’d saved her. But to his surprise, it wasn’t relief or gratitude that transformed her face, but rather a look of horror.

“Oh, no.” She sat up and scrambled backward with her hands and feet. “No. Get away.”

“What’s wrong?” Dagan asked, exchanging a puzzled look with Ronin.

When Ronin rose and tried to go after her, she only scuttled further away. “No, stop!”

Ronin froze and turned to lock gazes with Dagan, who slowly straightened to his full height.

What the hell was going on?

“There’s something inside her,” Maya said, her tone laced with apprehension.

Dagan’s gut clenched. “What?”

Maya hugged her arms to her chest, looking uncharacteristically sick to her stomach. “A-a magical device of some sort.”

“A bomb,” Lina croaked, her voice cracked and bloated.

Dagan turned back toward Lina, who now rested her back against the trunk of a tree. Her whole body shook, and she slid her legs back so her feet touched the ground, wrapping her arms around them.

“A what?” Ronin made to move toward her once more, but she shook her head, a drug-induced spasm momentarily causing her features to crumple with pain.

“Please, don’t come any closer.”

Ronin cursed and ran a hand through his hair. Dagan couldn’t blame him. He’d never felt more helpless, except perhaps the time Mammon had kidnapped and tortured Keegan, Taeg, and Ronin.

“What do you mean, a bomb?” Dagan forced himself to remain calm as he asked the question. All he wanted to do was panic. Pace the clearing toward her. Something.

“Belpheg, the dark fae.” She closed her eyes when her body was racked with another convulsion, remaining silent until she’d gotten herself under control once more. “He surgically implanted some sort of magical device in my stomach. That way if you tried to save me, he could detonate it.”

Comprehension dawned on Dagan with a growing sense of horror. “He turned you into a bomb?”

“Yes,” Lina said dully.

When Dagan glanced back at Maya, she gave him a glum nod. “I see a magical device glowing inside her stomach. It’s small, but I can see even from here it’s filled with energy and extremely powerful.” Maya’s gaze flitted to Ronin and she swallowed hard. “I’m sorry.”

Holy fuck.

His whole body tensing with emotion, Dagan turned to his brother, but Ronin’s face was aimed at the ground. From the way his fists clenched, it wasn’t hard to read his body language. He was pissed and worried and probably feeling every bit as helpless as Dagan was.

“There’s something else at her side, too,” Maya volunteered. “Smaller, but also glowing.”

“Tracking device.” Lina rested her head against the tree trunk, her eyelids fluttering shut. “Courtesy of Sam. Belpheg has been tracking your movements through me for the past couple months.”

What the hell?

Dagan asked the obvious question. “Why?”

Lina shook her head. “I don’t know what his master plan is, but he’s obviously got one, and it involves the four of you.”