Page 16 of Place of Torment

“How dare you lock me out of my own rooms.” The Atua ignored me and shook his fist at Brooklyn who could not see him or his red face. “Gods damn demons! Do you know who I am?”

“Samir!” Holding myself up with a hand on the wall, I rose to my shaking feet while Rowen fretted around me like a mother hen. “Damn that pain did a number on me. I’ll tell you who you are, Samir. If you didn’t flap your gums so much that I can see all those teeth, I would’ve guessed you are an asshole.”

“I can endure many things, Shifter.” Whirling on me, Samir squared his shoulders and yanked on his button-down to straighten the nonexistent wrinkles. “Your childish insults, however, are not one of them. Not today.” Leaning forward he bared his fangs in my face on a hiss. “You think this is some philanthropic gesture from the demons? If one hair goes missing on that human’s head, I will gorge on your blood. On all of your bloods.”

“Do you hear yourself?” leaning a shoulder on the wall to hold myself up, I scrubbed a hand over my face. “That’s Brooklyn inside with Alice. Can you be honest with yourself, not me, and tell me if you truly believe my mate will hurt her best friend? She nearly ripped my head off for the human. At this point, I wish the demons do try something so she can kill them both and bet done with it.”

“Messing with demons never ends well.” Rowen shuddered, his mouth twisting in disgust. “They are vile creatures.”

“Some may say the same of your kind, too, Witch.” Samir sniffed haughtily at the male, looking down his nose at him. “I will mess with whomever well I please.”

The whole situation was getting out of hand, and I was left with little to no patience. My mate was counting on me to have her back, and by all the gods I was going to have it.

“What did you do to Alice, Rowen?” As soon as the words were out of my mouth I realized my mistake.

While angry to be locked out of the room, Samir totally forgot the reason why that happened. Now that I reminded him, he turned all that fury on the witch and before I could stop him, he picked up the shorter male and threw him all the way to the end of the hallway. Rowen flew head over ass with a high-pitched shriek before colliding with the wall and part of the elaborate window frame.

“This is all your fault.” Samir thundered and bolted after him.

I started to move in their direction as well, to separate them or get a few punches in to relieve my frustration with both of them, but I paused. Was it really a bad thing for the two of them to fight? As long as I kept an eye on them and made sure the witch does not die, a few bruises might do them both some good.

“I’ve had enough of you bullying me, Samir.” Rowen fought, kicked, and punched to untangle himself from the thick velvet drapes where he ended up rolling into, his voice muffled from the fabric. “I am no longer your subordinate and it’s time for you to learn that I have kept my head down only because I chose to.”

“Oh, shit.” I breathed when the witch finally stepped out of the long drapes.

The robes have ripped down on one side exposing a naked upper body that was not as bony as I expected it to be. Rounded, well-formed muscles twitched as he rolled his shoulders and the visible sigils were glowing so bright it was almost difficult to look at him.

“You will always be, lesser.” With a menacing grin Samir gloated at the witch. “You were born to serve me.”

It happened too fast to see exactly what Rowen did, but one moment Samir was grinning like a villain, the next bright golden light burst between the witch’s hands in a steady stream and jabbed him in the center of his chest. A painfilled shout came from the Atua like I’ve never heard before, and his body was flung back at the wall behind him. It hit with a tooth shattering crunch, and he ended up on the floor with his extremities at awkward angles.

Seeing the ancient Atua in a heap on the floor took the wind out of Rowen’s sails.

“What did I do?” he whispered, horrified at what he was looking at.

I could lie and say it was not a good sight, but I was usually honest with myself for the most part. It felt damn good to see that arrogant prick sprawled like a broken puppet on the Persian runner.

“I’ll be damned Rowen.” Chuckling low, I shook my head, but the humor died on my tongue when the male turned guilt-ridden eyes on me. “I didn’t think you had it in you.” Shrugging an unapologetic shoulder, I inched closer and kicked Samir with the tip of my boot to check if he was awake.

“I shouldn’t have done that.” Self-consciously he tugged on the ripped part of his robe. “And for the record I only tried to help Alice like she was one of my kind because it felt like the right thing to do. The opportunity presented itself and I took it. It worked.” The guilt was replaced with defiance when he jutted a stubborn jaw at that. “For the most part it worked, anyway. I don’t understand what happened there at the end.”

Just like Samir, I wanted to grab him by the neck and squeeze, until he stopped moving, but the logical part of my brain told me that he at least tried to do something. Everything else the rest of us attempted didn’t cut it. Alice was slowly slipping through our fingers, and it was my fault. I placed her in harm’s way regardless of what way I justified my actions. Instead of yelling at Rowen, I should’ve thanked him.

The fact that Brooklyn looked very hopeful when she asked me to keep the two males out of the room was a plus in the witch’s favor of course.

“Thank you for trying.” I decided to tell him.

“Huh?” His face scrunched up in confusion as he looked up at me. “You are not going to try and kill me like this one?” his hand flopped in the direction of the now twitching heap that was Samir.

I snorted and Rowen’s lips twitched.

“Nah. We are good.” I slapped his shoulder, and he stumbled away a few steps before he caught himself. “Besides, we have all the time in the world for Samir to come about and try to kill you again. It’ll be like watching one of those action movies that Alice likes.”

When Rowen gave me a mean glare I couldn’t help it.

I threw my head back and laughed.

“I’m going to gut you, Witch.” Came a hiss from the floor.

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