Possessing the Witch. Elle James

chill. His soaked trousers were torn and ragged, as though they’d been through a shredder. No shoes, no jacket, his hair, longish and tousled, was hanging in his face.

      Selene ripped the coat from her back and covered him, pulling it up to the wounded shoulder. Blood oozed from a deep gash. Not a gunshot wound, but the vicious bite of a raging animal. She tore the hem of her blouse, wadded the material into a pad and pressed it into the gash, stemming the flow of blood.

      His eyes opened and he gasped. A low growl rumbled in his throat and his hand reached out to grab her wrist in a fearsome grip, pulling her hand away from the injury. The strength of his grasp hurt, cutting off her circulation.

      Selene bit her lower lip, pushing back the pain. He didn’t know what he was doing. “Shh...I’m here to help. We have to stop the bleeding. Let me help.” Tears stung her eyes as his grip tightened. She stared into his face, trying to read his expression, the shadows blurring her view.

      If he squeezed much harder, he’d snap her bones. Such strength in an injured man was extraordinary.

      She sent soothing thoughts into his consciousness.

      Deme skidded to a halt behind her. “Let her go,” her sister said to the man.

      “It’s okay, Deme. He’s delirious, he doesn’t know he’s hurting me.” Selene sucked in a breath and let it out slowly. “Please, let go. I need to stop the blood. Do you understand? Otherwise you’ll die.” Please, I only want to help.

      His eyelids drooped. “Tired. Can’t hold on.”

      “That’s right, let go.” Selene peeled one finger loose, then another. “We need to get you help.”

      “No hospital,” he whispered. Then his hand slackened and dropped to the ground.

      “About damned time he passed out. I was going to have to knock him out so that you could help his stubborn ass.” Deme dropped to her haunches and pulled her cell phone from her pocket. “I’ll get an ambulance here.”

      “No!” Selene’s response came swift and sure. From where, she didn’t know. All she knew was that this man wouldn’t want to go to a hospital, no matter how injured he was. “Help me get him back to your vehicle.”

      “Are you kidding? He must weigh close to two hundred pounds. There are stairs and...”

      “Please. We have to get him out of the cold and bandage his wound before shock sets in or it won’t matter.” She pressed the wad of material to his shoulder. “Give me your scarf.”

      “But it’s my favorite.”

      Selene held out her hand.

      Deme unwound the scarf from around her neck and reluctantly handed it to her, a frown creasing her brow. “You don’t even know this guy. What’s so special about him?”

      Selene didn’t answer, instead wrapping the scarf around his shoulder and knotting it over the wound to apply more pressure. Then she stood and grabbed him beneath the injured arm.

      Deme took the uninjured side.

      The man growled again, guttural and animal-like.

      “Get up,” Selene said in a strong voice any drill sergeant would envy. “Get up!” With her sister’s help and the efforts of the half conscious, half naked man, they got him to his feet and led him to the stairs.

      After nearly losing him twice, they got him up the steps and onto the street above. Selene leaned him against a light pole to help hold him up as Deme ran for the vehicle. She pulled up beside them and they guided him into the backseat, bumping his head and shoulder in the process.

      A low roar ripped through the car, startling the women.

      Deme stared across at Selene. “No man should make that kind of noise, I don’t care how delirious.”

      “Just get him in.” Selene lifted one of his legs, shoved it in and closed the door quickly. She climbed into the passenger seat and twisted around to watch him.

      Deme eased into the driver’s seat and stared into the rearview mirror at the man. “Sure you don’t want me to drop him off at a hospital emergency room?”

      “No.” Selene’s jaw set in a hard line. “Take me home.”

      Deme shook her head, her lips pressing into a thin line. “I’m not leaving him at your place.”

      “You have to.” Selene shot a pleading glance at her sister. “I’m his only hope.”

      “Look, Selene, you don’t know this guy. He could be a mass murderer or a rapist. He could be the person who jumped the woman from your vision.”

      “He’s not.”

      “How do you know?”

      “I just know.”

      “He was in the same area, Selene.”

      “He didn’t hurt that woman.” Selene’s words were low, intense.

      Deme stared into her sister’s eyes for a long, hard minute. “Okay, then.”

      Selene breathed a sigh as the SUV pulled away from the curb and headed back across the river toward her apartment. Why she’d insisted on taking him to her home, she didn’t know. He’d insisted no hospital. Why?

      Selene stretched out her mind to read into his thoughts, but the more she pushed the more frustrated she became. So many questions spun through her own thoughts, she couldn’t see into his.

      The man in the backseat moaned. He’d lost a lot of blood and from the looks of him, had gone into the river, a very unsanitary place. If he didn’t die of exposure, the bacteria from the river water might kill him.

      “Could you hurry?” Selene urged.

      Deme shook her head, but the SUV’s speed picked up. A red light ahead made her slow the vehicle enough to look both ways before blowing through.

      In what seemed like an interminable amount of time, but had been less than ten minutes, Deme pulled up in front of Selene’s shop.

      “We’re here, now what?” Deme cast a glance into the backseat, where the man lay semicomatose. “How are we going to get him in the basement? Assuming I agree to this plan of yours.”

      Selene bit her lip. “I don’t know. But we have to.”

      Deme reached into her purse and pulled out her cell phone. “Cal can be here in fifteen.”

      “No.” Selene put her hand over Deme’s phone. “I’d rather we kept this to just you and me.”

      “What? You and me carrying a large unconscious man into your basement apartment?”

      Selene nodded. “Yes. And I don’t want Cal to know that he’s even here. I don’t want anyone else to know. Not even Gina and Aurai. Especially not Brigid.”

      “We’re your sisters. Why keep it from us? Look, just let me take him to the hospital. Let them handle him. They have big strong burly orderlies that—”

      “No.” A deep voice cut into Deme’s words. The back door to the vehicle opened and the man got out.

      Selene ripped her door open, but not in time.

      One second he was holding on to the door, the next he’d crumpled to the ground.

      Her heart beating hard against her ribs, Selene dropped to her knees. “Are you all right?”

      “I don’t need your help,” he said.

      Deme stood over them both, her fists planted on her hips. “Like hell you don’t.”

      “I won’t go to a...” He lay still with his eyes closed, his breathing shallow, almost nonexistent.

      Selene slid one of his arms around her neck. “Help me get