Page 51 of Afflicted

“Jules,” I murmur, sitting down beside her. “Jules, it’s OK. I’m here.”

She reaches behind her blindly, as though searching for something. I put my hand over hers, and she clutches onto it.

“Don’t leave me,” she whispers. “Please don’t leave me.”

Relief so sweet I can taste it floods me.

“I’m not going anywhere.” I reach out to stroke her fingers as her body shakes. She’s crying. “I’m right here. No one’s going to hurt you.”

“How could he do that?” She buries her face in the pillow, her cries becoming louder. “How could he do that?”

I have to touch her. If I don’t, I’ll go out into the night and find that bastard. I’ll tear him to pieces. She needs me right now. I have to stay with her.

I lean over her, stroking her hair gently, still holding her hand. “Jules, I’m here.”

She rolls over tentatively, wincing, and she gazes up at me. I reach out and brush the tears away from her cheeks, smiling at her.

“I’ll kill anyone who hurts you.”

“You promise?” She asks in a tiny voice.

“I swear to you.”

She tucks my hand under her chin, curling herself around my arm. “Stay with me?”

I brush the hair from her forehead as I smile down at her. “Always.”

CHAPTER17

SILAS

“You better have a damnedgood explanation for this, King.” Anderson’s veins are popping at his temples, his jaw clenched so hard I half expect him to crack some teeth. “A dead officer and blood reserves being used on a human?”

“Braun was assaulting a human,” I reply, my hands clasped behind my back.

“And whose word do we have for that? Yours?” Anderson waves vaguely at me.

I fix him with a mild glare. “Questioning my integrity again, are we, sir?”

“Considering you just tore a fellow officer’s head off, I think it’s probably warranted.”

“Braun assaulted a human. He had her on the ground, where he was raping her, and feeding off her.” I need to take a deep breath before continuing, because holy fuck the fury burns down my ribs and has my heart contracting painfully. “She’s lucky I got there when I did, and that I acted as fast as I did. Because otherwise, she’d be dead.”

Anderson huffs out a breath and rises to his feet. “Well, Braunisdead, so-”

“I don’t know how you think rapists should be dealt with, but in my book, execution’s rather appropriate.” Rage prickles at my palms, and I rub them together behind my back, trying to get a handle on my anger. I need to at least try and give a front of being reasonable.

Anderson leans back on his desk, crossing his arms over his chest. “It looked very much like bloodlust, and that’s a problem when you’re one of my senior officers.”

“It wasn’t bloodlust.” It’s a lie. I blacked right the fuck out. “I felt compelled to protect an innocent woman.”

“I looked at your file,” Anderson says, and a chill runs down my spine. “I saw your… history.”

“My history, sir?” I roll my shoulders, biting back the gnawing shame that overwhelms me. “Everyone has a history.”

“And yours is rather colorful isn’t it, King?”

I clench my molars together. “That was a long time ago.”

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