Tan

Different emotions warred in Tan. Devan had called him—yay, trust! Truly, a wonderful thing indeed. On the other hand, he’d called sounding like the grave was trying to wrestle him down into its dark depths, and that scared Tan. Raw pain, fear, the roughness of an uncoordinated tongue, that’s what he’d heard from Devan. It didn’t spell anything good, that combination.

He’d never run down the stairs so fast in his life. If it was just fetching Devan, he probably could have done it from his workshop, but Devan was surely on his horse. He’d need to get Dan, and that meant the portation circle. The horse couldn’t navigate the stairs.

He flew into place, all while saying assurances to the man he was fairly sure was on the verge of passing out. Devan’s words slurred more and more, and there was a thud on the other end that sounded not good. Tan skidded to a halt inside the circle, then slammed more magic than necessary into activating the portal, hurtling himself to Devan’s side in a split second.

The first look at his knight, clinging to Dan’s side as if that was the only thing holding him up, chilled Tan’s blood. He’d seen porcelain dolls with better color.

Without a word, he grabbed Devan around the waist, Dan by the mane, and activated the portation spell again. Devan leaned against him, his weight almost doubling Tan in half, truly unable to stand on his own.

They were back at Tan’s castle in the blink of an eye, as it wasn’t that far—scary thought. The woods were within sight of his castle’s borders and he liked that thought about as much as a stick in the eye. Tan would revisit that later. He called out orders as he moved, throwing a spell on Devan to make him lighter and something he could carry.

“HANS! I NEED YOU NOW! Thing One, take the horse to the stable and care for him better than you would your own child.”

Thing One had been sweeping the yard but dropped the broom and hastened to obey. “Yes, Master!”

Hans appeared in the doorway with a harried look, apron around his waist. He took in Devan and blinked. “Oh dear. What happened?”

“I don’t know. I’m taking him directly up to the guest room. Grab both the black box of potions and the red one and meet me there.”

“Of course, Master.”

Tan tried to move quickly up the stairs, but even his lightening spell could only do so much. Devan was not a small man. The cumbersome weight draped over Tan’s back was difficult to maneuver in the tighter corners of the stairs. At least the spell took most of the burden off so Tan didn’t throw his back out.

Fortunately, the guest bedroom was right at the top of the second floor stairs. Tan pushed his way inside, laying Devan down as carefully as he could, then yanking off chainmail and shirt, trying to see the extent of his injuries.

Devan was conscious, of sorts. His golden-brown eyes were open but unfocused, breathing labored in the extreme, and sweat poured down his temples and along his broad chest.

Drawing black light to his finger, Tan used it like ink and wrote a quick divining circle on the man’s chest. “Reveal.”

Shit, definitely poison, and from some sort of blood-sucking creature? He’d have to do a more in-depth analysis to know precisely what type of creature. The spell did reveal the poison type, at least, something he had an antidote on hand for.

Hans, bless his stubby little legs, raced in with both boxes.

Tan didn’t even wait for him to put them down. He snapped open the lid of the red box, grabbed the vial labeled For the Bitey Things, and immediately unstoppered it. He had to lift Devan’s head a little to pour it down his throat, trying to make sure every drop went into the knight.

For an eternally long moment, Tan waited for the potion to take effect. It felt like an eternity passed without results. Then Devan’s next breath sounded clearer, and the next breath after that was even better, so it was working.

For shits and giggles, Tan grabbed another bottle and poured a second dose down Devan. Just in case. He wasn’t taking chances with his knight.

Only then did he take both boxes from Hans and say, “I need bandages, a washbasin, and the strongest soap we have. Help me wash and dress the wounds.”

“I’ll be back in a moment,” Hans promised before speeding away.

Tan wrestled the rest of Devan’s clothes off—for purely medical reasons. Really. He had to get those sweat-soaked clothes and boots off if the knight had any chance of resting easily. He dumped them all off to the side of the bed for Hans to deal with later.

Hans came back with the requested items and they each took a side of the knight, washing out the puncture wounds. They were deep, incredibly hot to the touch, and of an angry red that seemed determined to take over healthy skin. Just seeing the wounds made Tan murderously angry even as his heart squeezed in a sympathetic ache. Gods above, that had to be painful to endure. Tan paused in cleaning to fetch a healing potion and coax that down Devan too. He’d need it for wounds this deep.

The wounds were looking a bit better after washing, but Tan slathered them with a cooling potion to keep infection at bay, and then wrapped them with clean bandages. He noted not only the wounds on Devan’s arms but the ones on his jaw and cheek as well. It was almost like someone had tried to get a grip on the side of Devan’s head and failed. Whatever this thing was, it had tried to tear Devan’s head off.

The ring’s settings were such that physical combat was allowed—for obvious reasons—but apparently Tan needed to make some adjustments. Nothing should have gotten that close to killing his knight.

Wounds wrapped, he put the supplies away in the boxes once more, then drew the covers up over Devan. As he did, he realized Devan’s eyes were focused on him, clear and direct.

Thank fuck.

He lifted the uninjured side of Devan’s head to put a pillow underneath it and then kept his hand there, cradling the knight’s face.

“What did this to you?” The menace in the question was audible even to his ears.

Devan’s eyes closed wearily for a moment. “I don’t know what it was. It looked human, sort of. But it wanted to tear my throat out and feed from my blood. It was unnaturally fast, I stood no chance against it. If not for your ring’s protections, I’d have been its next meal.”

Tan was glad to hear his ring had done its job but, dammit, Devan shouldn’t have been at death’s door, either. “Whatever this thing is, I will hunt it and avenge you.”

That brought a soft smile to Devan’s face and his eyes closed. “No complaints here. Do I get to watch?”

“If you’d like.”

With a hum of agreement, Devan turned his face further into Tan’s palm and fell instantly to sleep.

Oh gods. The cuteness. Tan’s heart nearly exploded from the cuteness. He had no idea Devan could be cute, and he had no immunity to it.

It was fine, he didn’t actually want the immunity. He was good.

Although he’d like to know what the fuck Devan was doing in the woods by himself with that thing, but he could follow up on that later. Right now, he had a call-to-quarters to issue.

Tan didn’t want to disturb Devan while he rested. He also didn’t want to leave him for fear that he might unexpectedly turn for the worse. In the end, Tan compromised by putting a monitoring spell on the knight before leaving the room, quietly, although making enough noise to not register on the stealth level.

Look, no one with sense tiptoed around a war-trained knight. They registered ‘stealth’ as ‘enemy approaching’ and would punch a hole through your throat before their eyes were even open. Terrible way to start a courtship, with Tan trying to breathe and Devan apologizing for his reflexes.

Tan retreated to his workshop on the third floor, known as The Lab. He kept that one for major workings. This was the only place he actually kept semi-organized. There were things in here that really, truly, should never mix. He also needed a clean space to write sigils out on the floor.

He went straight for his standing mirror next to the window and slapped a palm against it.

“Fa. Niran. You hear me?”

Neither sibling gave an immediate response. Fa probably wasn’t awake at this ‘early’ hour of the day, night owl that she was. Niran was ever in the middle of three things and likely had to untangle himself first.

Finally, half the mirror came to life and showed his sister’s image. Fa’s black hair hung in knotted tendrils over her face, and she had one dark eye open, the other glued shut from sleep. She had the look of someone who had literally rolled over in bed and answered, black covers draped over her head as she peeked out from under them.

“Tan?” she murmured in a sleep-thick voice. “Emergency?”

“Yes. Wake up, Sister, I need you.”

She put more effort into sitting up, then flopped. “Coffee.”

“I’ll give you a minute.” He had to. She was useless at this stage.

Niran, on the other hand, was all chipper energy as he appeared in front of the mirror. It must be potion-making day, as he wore a leather apron and gloves up to his elbows, his black hair pulled back with a band to keep the bangs out of his eyes. From behind the goggles, dark brown eyes blinked in worry.

“Tan, you look distraught.”

“My knight almost got killed today in Hunter’s Woods,” Tan answered bluntly. “Some blood-sucking thing damn near ripped his head off.”

“Wait, Hunter’s Woods? That’s barely a stone’s throw from us.”

“Also worrisome but not as important. Devan almost dying before I could get to him, that’s the important part. Focus, Niran.”

Niran, good big brother that he was, focused. “Was it really that bad?”

“I had to pour two antidotes and a healing potion down his throat before I could even bandage severe wounds. Does that answer your question?”

“Shit. This is Devante Salvino, right? First Knight of Goodwine?”

“That’s him.”

“Nothing should have taken him down that quickly. Man’s First Knight of the Realm for a reason. He’s one of the best fighters in the country.” Niran gave a firm nod. “I see the problem. I don’t like that this thing borders all of our lands, either. I’ll pack up and come over. The three of us can hunt this down.”

This was why he loved his brother.

Fa sipped at coffee she had gotten from somewhere—knowing her, she had a portal spell directly linked to the kitchen—and blinked big eyes at Tan. “Is Devan handsome?”

“Deliciously so.”

“I’m coming too.”

And this was why Tan and his sister got along so well. They both understood the priority: hot men.

“I’ll be waiting. Prepare for something with fast reflexes. If Devan struggled with this thing, we’re going to be in for a fight.”

They gave him nods and ’byes and closed the connection.

Tan blew out a breath. Shit, what a day this was shaping up to be.

He took a coin out from his pocket and slapped it on the table, pointedly looking away from the coin for ten seconds. When he looked back, he heard the faint gargle of panic but saw no sign of the courier. He did, however, have a goblet of fine ale sitting where the coin was, and that’s what was really important.

Picking it up, he took a healthy swallow.

For the upcoming conversation, he absolutely refused to go into it without alcohol in his system. He was too upset about what had happened to Devan to be calm.

Now, what kind of torture could he visit upon this creature that had dared to lay hands on his precious knight? Tan had a few very dark spells at hand. One of them could eat a person from the inside out, the nerves being the last thing touched. Maybe that one? It didn’t appeal, though. Seemed too merciful.

For this, Tan might need to get creative.