Page 20 of Place of Torment

“We will, of course.” The female demon slowly and carefully rose to her feet, which placed her roughly around my height. “We only placed it because Brooklyn asked. But out of curiosity.” Cocking her head to the side she seemed intrigued by the situation. Her braid swung like a rope over her shoulder and dangled backward and forward innocently for a long moment. “What do you think you can do if we don’t do what you demand?”

“Me?” I laughed humorlessly at her. Fatigue started to creep up and I found it difficult to hold the vase between us, but I had to hold on for just a bit longer. “I won’t do anything.” My smile was probably more a grimace than an expression of happiness. “But he will.”

“Who?” the woman frowned at me.

“My friends, of course.” Adrenaline shot through me as I opened my mouth and screamed from the top of my lungs making Brooklyn grab her ears and duck her head from the high- pitched sound. “Dominic! Samir! Help!”

The magic around the door was glowing red undisturbed when the walls came crashing down around it and a pissed off shifter and vamp stood shoulder to shoulder panting with rage in the middle of the dust cloud.

My lips twitched when I head Brooklyn whisper from behind me. “Oh, shit.”

I was so totally going to save her this time, again.

14

Brooklyn

“Everyone stop!” The extra punch from my curse assured my wishes were followed, leaving everyone in peculiar states.

Samir was halfway to Echo, teeth bared, and fingers clawed, ready to tear her apart. There was murder written in his furious eyes. Dominic had his full attention focused on Chester after his gaze skipped all over me from head to toe checking for injuries, and he saw Alice was unharmed standing in front of me with that ridiculous vase. Rowen was peeking out from behind them, eyes wide and sigils lit up in a rapid pattern. Plaster and white dust covered all of them and the cloud was spreading around to fill the room.

“We will be fine now, don’t worry.” Alice turned her head to look at me over her shoulder. “No one is kidnaping my bestie.”

“We were fine before, as well.” There was a pounding headache forming right above the right side of my cheekbone sending waves of nausea through me, making me unsteady on my feet. “Everyone in this house is here because we are trying to help you, Alice. Please put the vase down and lay down until we are sure you are fully healed.”

After a long moment and a nod from Dominic, she sheepishly cringed and gingerly placed the vase at her feet in the pool of water. I meant to do the right thing for her by bringing the demons to help her, but, yet again, I managed to make a mess out of things.

I was drained.

Mentally and emotionally.

To prove that fact, my curse couldn’t hold the males much longer and they reanimated again. Thankfully, the promise of being told what to do again did its trick, and no one attacked anyone. However, there was a ton of glaring between all of them.

Scratching and soft whimpering reached my ears coming from somewhere in the hallway and I stabbed Samir with a pointed glare. He knew why I was sending him death threats through my gaze because all of us could hear the wolf attempting to get out of whatever room he was locked in. All of us but Alice.

“What’s that noise?” My human friend pushed her glasses up her nose with a forefinger and glanced from Dominic to me. “Can you hear it?”

It appeared that I was wrong. Watching her tilt her head this way and that I couldn’t help but wonder what other changes have occurred in her thanks to our meddling in her life. Afraid she was losing too much blood that cursed night, Samir and I both gave her some of ours in hopes to help with healing.

It didn’t.

When that didn’t work, Dominic tried, too, thinking that his shifter ability of accelerated healing is a closer match to human than ours. Time proved him wrong as well. Nothing changed apart from Rowen’s ability to feed her potions that smelled vile but kept her afloat. Nothing healed her, but it kept her alive.

Until I brought the demons right at the time the witch decided to experiment with my friend. Now she could hear sounds that no human ever could. Everyone in the room was ignoring Alice’s strange behavior. All of them were looking at me with accusatory eyes, like I knew something they didn’t and was refusing to share.

I did, of course.

I just had no intention to share, yet.

Not until I knew which one of them, I could trust.

“I had to place the wolf away from you so I could try to do the spell, Alice.” Rowen stepped through the large hole in the wall warily glancing at the red glowing door. “He wouldn’t let me move you from the bed, so I took a steak from the fridge and lured him to the end of the hallway.”

“You fed that mongrel my steak?” Dominic glowered at the witch.

“I didn’t see you coming up with new ideas on what to do. I’ll replace your steak.” Rowen shuffled his feet faster when a low growl started in Dominic’s throat. “Besides. That wolf was starving. He was dripping saliva all down the hall. When was the last time anyone fed him?”

He wasn’t fully finished talking when Alice bolted out of the room, jumping like a gazelle through the hole, the long t-shirt bunched up in both hands and her skinny legs barely missing the sharp edges. She was muttering something about her soul burning in hell and that’s why the demons came to get her. I flinched when the crashing noise came a moment later from my friend throwing something at the door holding her pet as she called him.

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