My head had cleared enough I could make them out.
“I told you what would happen if you came near her again.” Fire blazed to life overhead, and a face appeared before me.
Dark sage eyes and white blonde hair. Julian’s hard profile stared down at me. His expression unreadable. He reached a hand out, his fingertips barely touching my forehead as he brushed my hair aside.
An icy wave ran through me. Cold. Brutal. It was the kind of cold that hurt so much it blistered. Every inch of my skin prickled against his touch, absorbing unspeakable pain. When it finally started to ebb, I found myself clinging to it and wanting more.
“Can you hear me, Ruby?” he asked softly.
I tried to nod my head, and to my surprise, it actually moved. I swallowed hard, tears pricking my eyes. “Y-yes,” I rasped.
Slowly, but surely, the numbness began fading from my body as I came to. Enough so that I could make out Josh’s screaming.
I struggled to sit up, and Julian put a hand out to hold me down.
“You don’t want to see this.”
“…have to,” I whispered.
Something unspoken passed between us. Maybe it was the moment. Maybe it was the remnants of whatever drugs Josh gave me. I don’t know, but in that moment, Julian understood me as my eyes met his.
He didn’t say anything as he slipped an arm around my naked back and helped me into a sitting position. I realized why he didn’t want me to see it, but I felt nothing as I watched the scene play out before me.
Josh was kneeled before Rysten, his mouth gaping open in a now silent scream. The glamor that always surrounded Rysten was nonexistent. A wave of power that smelled distinctly of rot and decay filled the room as he held Josh’s face between his hands.
His eyes bled from their sockets as Rysten extracted the only sort of revenge I would ever get to see. I don’t think he could have stopped, even if I asked him.
Rysten leaned forward and whispered something in his ear that I couldn’t hear. Over his shoulder, Josh’s bleeding eyes met mine. Even dying, he looked at me hungrily. I grit my teeth together and said the only thing that could bring me peace.
“Kill him.”
My words were a whisper upon his grave. The moment they left my lips, his eyes exploded, and his heart gave out.
I’d never been one to revel in death, but after being stalked, drugged, and defiled, let’s just say it does something to your soul. I stared at his corpse, but there was no guilt. No kindness. No remorse.
I wanted him dead because he tried to take from me the very thing that I never wanted to take from anybody: the power to choose.
And if the Horsemen hadn’t come, he’d be raping me on a conference room table at this very moment. The truth of that thought hurt more than any physical pain.
But this wasn’t the time to process shit.
Not here, in a room where his corpse was still warm, and I was half-naked only being held up by Julian’s arm. No. Not here.
Allistair came forward to lift my arms while Julian put my shirt back on me.
I should have worn a bra.
“Listen to me, Ruby,” Allistair said. He repeated my name three times before stepping in my field of vision and forcing my attention. “We’re going to clean this up. It’ll be like it never happened. No one will know where he went, but that human will never hurt you again.”
Like it never happened. Those words played over and over in my mind.
“Moira said the same thing,” I murmured. Images of a night not so different than this played out before me. About a boy and a girl who played a game, and caught fire.
“What are you talking about?” Allistair asked gently. My thoughts began spinning wildly out of control.
“I never wanted him to lose his mind. I just couldn’t stop myself,” I whispered.
I could still remember the color of his hair. So yellow; kissed by the sun. He was barely a man when we met.
“Ruby, this isn’t your fault. What happened here—”
“He hurt me, too. And I made him pay.” My words were so soft. So quiet. Four pairs of eyes turned on me.
“She’s in shock, and she’s hurting. I’m going to take her home. Get this cleaned up. All of it,” Julian commanded. He leaned down and put his other arm beneath my legs. As he carried me out of the conference room, I looked over his shoulder.
Laran held out a hand, and Josh’s body went up in flames. Across from him, bathed in the firelight, Rysten’s eyes found me. He didn’t say anything, but something in the way he watched me made me think he knew what I was talking about. Then again, maybe I was just seeing shadows in the eyes of one killer to another.
No one questioned Julian as he carried me out of Pandora’s Box. I had to wonder what kind of security they had here if they just let men carry barely conscious women out the front door. I guess that was humans for you. They were as fucked up and flawed as we demons were. They just turned a blind eye to their own nefariousness.
Outside of the club, the wind picked up and the temperature dropped. I huddled against Julian as he walked farther from the club and turned down an alley. The midnight skies were a welcome sight after what seemed like a trip down the rabbit hole. I breathed a sigh of relief, but it was too soon.
“Going somewhere, mate?”
Glancing over Julian’s shoulder, I looked at the entrance to the alleyway behind us.
Devil save us.
It was the imp from the dive-bar, and he brought friends.
Chapter 15
“Since when do the Horsemen get involved with human affairs?” the imp called. Wind barreled down the alley and I clung to Julian as he turned towards it. Overhead, a dark cloud covered the moon. Thunder roared as a light drizzle broke out.
“What we do doesn’t concern you, imp,” Julian sneered. He and Allistair had that cold-arrogance-thing down pat. I didn’t feel the need to tremble with Allistair, because he was just condescending towards humans no matter what. Julian was different. There was a chill that followed, like death dancing on the wind.
“Actually,” the imp grinned, “it does, since your mate killed half my men and took my eye as a warning.” He stepped into the light of the single lamp that hung over a door in the alley.
One eye was glowing red, just as I remembered it. The other was an empty socket, horribly scarred by what looked like knife marks…Laran literally cut his eye out. All for touching me.
On any other day, that thought might make me a bit queasy. Today, I could not bring myself to feel much of anything, except the small bit of self-preservation I still had that wanted to get the fuck away from here.
This was the part where Julian was supposed to say he had nothing to do with it, and let bygones be bygones.
“You touched a she-demon he laid his claim on,” Julian replied.
I froze. What the actual fuck? That’s not what you were supposed to say!
Apparently, the imp thought so as well, because an evil smile that promised very bad things slipped onto his face.
“The very she-demon you’re holding now, if memory serves me,” the imp commented, his eye dropping from Julian to me. I regarded him warily, wishing no part in this. It was too little, too late.
“She is under our protection. Anyone that thinks to harm her will die a very slow and painful death by my hand. Don’t try to cross me, imp. If you thought War’s punishment was hard, you will find that Death is much more permanent.” Julian’s words were brittle. He sounded confident, but I could sense the worry pulsing through him. He may be able to hide it from them, but I knew the truth, and it didn’t bode well for me.
“Protection? Your she-demon glamored herself from him and was practically begging to be fucked. I might still oblige when we’re finished with you.” His gaze roamed over me, far too heated for my liking. “Although, I am curious as to what one single girl could do to provoke the protection of the Four Horsemen. I’ve been hearing some rumors out of Hell. Interesting rumors. Kind of make a demon wonder…”