*****Trigger warning, wound care for traumatic injury*****

Val had two thoughts as she rematerialized in her sibling's house. One, that had been easier to do than she expected with two companions in her weakened state. Two, it had all been worth it.

Val collapsed on the kitchen floor and fell back, the twins crying out in alarm. She could feel the hot jet of her blood gushing under her hand on her neck. She knew that it was not good, arterial most likely, and it was filling her throat.

"It's okay munch...kins," Val coughed out. "You're safe."

She tried to comfort them, but her limbs were heavy. She was tired, so very tired. They were warm against her as they clutched on and cried. It would not be long now, she realized, as her senses began to dim.

"Val? Val!" Ama called nearby.

Good, Val thought, she would keep them safe for her now. They would be okay now; she had delivered them safely. She drew up an image of Alexander handing her coffee and Zack smiling as she pinned him to the mat. Holding onto the images, she felt complete as she let go and succumbed to the blackness.

"Z! Bachon!" Ama called frantically.

Ama ran up to her sister's supine form and jammed her fingers into the wound on her neck to staunch the flow of blood. Ama called out to her sister and rubbed her sternum, trying to elicit a response from her as she looked across her body. She looked down at the two small faces streaked with tears, small fists clutching her sister's clothing as they shook her and begged her to wake.

There was blood everywhere and Ama was confused as to why her sister had not healed herself. Self-healing was a skill all demons possessed. This meant that whatever happened was either so sudden and overwhelming to prevent the time needed, or something was blocking the process.

"Shit," Bachon said from the door.

Bachon stood there in shock, gaping at the group huddled on the floor.

"Get my bag!" Ama yelled at him.

Bachon shook his head and focused. Turning on his heel, his footsteps thundered away as he rushed to do her bidding.

"Z!" Bachon roared. "Get your ass up now!"

Bachon came rushing back into the kitchen, slamming to his knees, and ripping the bag open. His hands trembled violently as he handed Ama some forceps and gauze before grabbing scissors. Ama worked to pinch off the artery and started issuing orders.

"Blood sweep first!" Ama ordered.

Bachon nodded and put down the scissors, running his hands down an arm. He found the mutilated flesh from the bite on her forearm and snagged a tourniquet from the bag. While he cranked down on the windlass, he looked at the kids and tried to smile in what he hoped was a comforting way.

"Z!" Bachon yelled over his shoulder. "Where the fuck are you?"

Bachon continued working around Val's body but found two small barricades unwilling to move. He reached out to the little girl, intending to pull her back, but stopped at the sight of his hands. So much blood, he thought as his ears began to ring and a hot flush made him lightheaded.

"Bachon! Focus, no passing out," Ama demanded.

Bachon snapped back to attention, forcing the bile down his throat. Z finally stumbled into the kitchen and looked at them with bleary eyes. He took in the scene with a blink and became hyper-focused.

He rushed in and snatched first Lily and then AJ and took them kicking and screaming out of the kitchen. Pulling out his phone, he speed dialed Meg as he restrained them with one arm. He made shushing noises at them as the phone took an eternity to start ringing.

"Hello," Meg finally answered.

"Meg, something happened. We need you here now, for the kids," Z said urgently.

"Where is here?" Meg asked on alert.

"Our house," Z told her.

Meg and Lammia both appeared next to him in an instant. Lammia knelt and held out her arms to the children and he let go as they lobbed themselves at her. Meg investigated the kitchen and nodded before looking at Z.

"Go help," she ordered. "We can take care of them."

"Go ahead sweetlings, tell us all about it," Lammia crooned as she rocked them back and forth.

Dismissing them, Z swiveled and rushed into the kitchen to see Ama putting a plastic seal over a hole in Val's upper chest while Bachon cut away her clothing.

"We have to check the back," Ama told Bachon.

He looked at Val bewildered, unsure how to follow the instructions without hurting her more. Ama took Val's good arm and lifted it above her head before grabbing his hands and placing one on a shoulder and the other on her hip.

"Roll," Ama ordered.

Bachon obliged and held her as he continued to look on with dismay. Ama did quick work of checking Val's back as she applied another seal to a smaller hole.

"Why isn't she healing?" Bachon asked in alarm. "She should be healing."

"We need to take her to the hospital," Z said as he took in the destruction of her body.

Ama turned and glared at him in response.

"Would you like to explain the horns and wings to the ER?" Ama hissed.

Z slowly knelt by Val's head and placed a hand on her head as the situation fully hit him. She needed a healer, but then realized that would not work on wounds she had not been able to heal either. He could see some marks on her that had begun the healing process but the ones on her neck, arm, and chest were raw and fresh. Maybe they just needed a surgeon to patch her up long enough for her body to take care of itself.

"We have you Val," Z comforted.

Z had a heightened sense of smell compared to his siblings and his nostrils flared as he caught a whiff of something. His brow furrowed as he tried to identify the scent, there was something familiar about it. Leaning down to Val's neck, Z sniffed and immediately recoiled.

"Salt," Z said.

"What?" Ama said in frustration.

She was working furiously on Val's body to make sure every hole was plugged, and she was still breathing.

"There is salt in the wound," he clarified.

Ama froze and then lifted her hands slowly from her sister as she looked at the other wounds. She pointed to the sealed hole on her shoulder.

"What about that one?" Ama asked.

Z sniffed and then nodded to confirm the same scent. Ama lifted Val's mangled arm to him, and he obligingly sniffed and shook his head in disappointment.

"Get the matches," Ama demanded. "Get a bowl and scrape off the sulfur ends."

Z jumped up and jerked out the whole junk drawer as well as ripped off the cabinet door for the bowls. He grabbed a knife and came back to his place at Val's head. Matches spilled onto the floor as he pushed open the box and started scraping the ends into the bowl as requested.

"We're getting somewhere," Ama said. "We can purify the two that smell like salt and hopefully they will start healing."

Z finished the task and handed the bowl over to Ama. She took the knife from him and used it to nick her arm, letting the blood drip into the bowl. She turned the knife around and began using the hilt to mash the blood and match heads into a paste. Once satisfied with the consistency, she then began applying it to the wound on Val's neck.

"Good thing I'm a universal donor," Ama said.

"And we're immune to all those diseases humans get," Bachon pointed out.

Ama glared at her brother before returning her attention to the wound. All three watched with bated breath for any change. Meg silently came into the room and placed a hand on Ama's shoulder, giving her a look of deep remorse.

"No," Ama said.

She stood and faced the older demon.

"No!" Ama yelled in her face. "No, I won't give up on her. She wouldn't give up on us if we were the ones lying on the ground."

"I know," Meg said quietly. "We learned something from the twins."

Ama kneeled again and began assessing the mangled arm. Having stabilized the rest of her sister as best she could, this was now her biggest concern. She did not want to leave the tourniquet on indefinitely but considering the significant loss of blood, she was concerned about taking it off.

"It is a lycan bite," Meg told her.

Meg now had their full attention. Val had found the rumored lycans...and survived. Well, sort of survived Ama amended to herself. Ama looked into the living room where Lammia was singing to the children as she stroked their hair.

Ama looked back at her sister and felt sorrow engulf her. No, it was not fair. She had a soft spot for Valrul, her little sister who had followed her around like her shadow. The little cambion that tried to prove she was just as brave, or stupid, as her older brothers. She saw the imp of a girl who grinned excitedly the first time she was allowed to show her true self when she looked at her now.

She was the best of them, and Ama refused to let this be her end. Anger swelled in her for trying to accept defeat. She had options, she just had to think of them.

"It's working," Z said.

Ama looked at Val's neck and saw the flesh returning to a healthy color slowly. That meant it would start regenerating soon but would take a good deal of time due to the size. They needed that healer, preferably an angelic one since they were more powerful. And Val needed blood.

"Z, your counterpart in Michael's Guard, you said he is a healer," Ama said to him.

Z nodded in agreement, already pulling out his phone. Ama removed the seals on Val's chest and applied the paste before reapplying them.

"He won't be able to take care of the arm," Meg said pointedly.

"But he can help with everything else," Ama shot back.

A bright burst of light flared in the kitchen and Ama did a double take on the blond man in front of her with glorious wings. She watched Bachon do the same and looked at each other; yet another development. Val's boy toy was an angel, this could be worse than the lycan bite after all.

Intimate relationships were forbidden between the angelic and demon classes. There were no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Ama was guessing it had never come up in their conversations based on the surprised look on his face.

He immediately dropped down and put his hand over the wound on her neck. He completely ignored them, his eyes only on Val as he looked over her body and his hand began to glow. He leaned back and began stripping his clothes with efficient movements.

"What in Hell happened?" Zack demanded.

"We don't know, she just materialized here like this with the kids," Z told him.

Zack shoved Bachon out of the way and laid down facing Val. Tenderly, he hooked an arm and leg under her before rolling her limp form on top of himself. He wrapped his wings around her as his whole being began to glow and he cradled her face on his shoulder.

"I have you love, come back to me now," Zack whispered in her ear.

Meg made a choking sound and Ama shot up, standing toe to toe with her.

"She didn't know," Ama ground out.

"Rules are rules, you know that Ama," Meg told her firmly.

"He didn't know," Bachon added.

Z stepped up to Meg and grabbed her by the elbow.

"We know that you threatened to compel Val to use her skills," Z pointed out.

Meg looked at them in alarm, her eyes darting between the three of them looking ready to take her on. Meg was powerful, but not powerful enough to take on all three of them at once.

"What did they tell you," Ama asked. "And make it quick."

"We had suspected Alexander had ties with the lycans, it was why we assigned Emithannya to him six years ago," Meg explained. "Emi managed to seduce him and married him, hoping to get close enough for him to confirm our expectations. She never found out anything, even after she gave birth to the twins. Then she suddenly disappeared, no communication, no traces."

Everyone knew the story of Emi; she was one of the top soldiers in Lucifer's Guard. She had been the example held up for generations, the inspiration for many like Z and Bachon. It had been spread around that she had perished while under deep cover.

"Emi isn't dead?" Z asked.

"We don't know," Meg answered.

"So, the twins are cambions? That entitles them to a protection detail if not relocation to Hell," Bachon added.

"That is why they have been getting assigned cambion apprentices for nannies," Meg confided. "Val was the first that wasn't a guard apprentice, but she was selected by Lucifer personally."

The siblings were reeling from that tidbit of information. Lucifer never oversaw the appointment of apprentices, he left that to Belias. That meant he was paying special attention to the twins and had placed Val there specifically.

"It turns out we were correct," Meg interrupted their thoughts. "Alexander is connected to the lycans. He is their king."

Bachon looked down at Val with alarm as she lay in Zack's embrace. The angel was still whispering in her ear as he held her. Bachon turned back to Meg with a hard stare.

"He needs to come to mark her," Bachon stated.

The sad look came across Meg's features again.

"He has to," Ama said. "You said the bite on her arm is from a lycan which means she can't heal fully without a lycan mate. She is his mate, that was why your dazzle didn't work on him but hers did. You need to get him here now."

"We don't know where he is," Meg said regretfully. "It appears that he went savage this weekend and had to be subdued. Val interrupted what sounded like a coup d'etat. She must have realized she couldn't save him and the children and so did what was needed to get the children to safety."

Ama clamped her mouth shut when she realized she was gaping. Lycans did not go savage, werewolves yes, but not lycans. It was part of what separated them and made lycans more powerful, their ability to control themselves above the level of werewolves.

"He sensed her with someone else," Ama pondered out loud.

All eyes turned back to the couple still on the floor. The forbidden couple that might find themselves headless if word leaked out. The couple that might not have occurred if Val had not been trying to follow the rules of her apprentice contract that kept her from engaging with Alexander.

"It would be enough, even for someone two centuries old, to lose control," Meg confirmed.

"What do we do now," Z asked with dismay.

They all looked at the pair on the floor and tried to find solutions. Ama was only slightly relieved to see Meg appear just as invested. She had to feel some responsibility for the muddle given her actions and the lack of preparation time she had allowed Valrul.

Val's eyes began to flutter and hope filled Ama again. Val's eyes slowly opened, and she looked at Zack. She smiled softly at him and sighed contentedly as her eyes closed again.

"Safe," was all Val said.