Page 16 of Her Avenging Angel

Chapter Thirteen

Raven made it to thefront room and found Dax standing behind the bar, his hands wrapped around Taylynn’s upper arms, he appeared to be trying to hold her still while she fought. She pummeled his chest, growled and snarled. He heard the word no several times as he made his way to them.

“What’s going on?”

“I’m afraid she’ll fall if I let her go. I know she doesn’t want me holding her but if she falls she’ll end up hurt worse.” The tension is Dax’s voice was clear.

Raven glanced at the floor and saw several broken bottles. That had been the glass breaking and it was also why Dax wouldn’t let her go. “Okay, let me see what I can do.” He turned his attention to Taylynn. “It’s all right, Taylynn. You’re okay.” He kept his voice soft, soothing, in an effort to calm her. He couldn’t know if it was penetrating the haze that seemed to have come over her—she seemed deep in the throes of some kind of panic attack. And while he hated seeing her go through this, he was proud that she was fighting.

Those fuckers hadn’t beaten all the spirit out of her. And he loved seeing it. “I’m going to move in behind you, little one. I’m going to get you out of here. Can you hear me, Taylynn?” She never responded, just kept fighting Dax, though her efforts were slowing a bit, and he knew she had to be getting tired. Her body was expending a lot of energy to heal, and she’d used more in her insistence on working behind the bar.

Raven glanced at Dax and was glad to see that the prospect didn’t look pissed off, but rather that he was using all his concentration to hold her. To keep her from getting hurt, and trying to limit how much damage she was doing to him, though Raven could tell from the scratches down one cheek, that she was not holding back against him. Knowing what he knew about her, Raven knew she likely wasn’t aware of where she was or what was happening. She was likely lost in memories and doing her best to keep that shit from happening to her again.

“Little one, it’s me. I’m going to pick you up. You need to stop fighting Dax. He’s not trying to hurt you. He’s doing his best to keep you from it.” Raven wasn’t convinced his constant talking was helping, he didn’t know if his words were sinking in at all, but hoped the calm, soothing tone would sink in sooner rather than later. He ignored the crunch of glass beneath his boots as he stepped up behind her, bent and scooped her into his arms. He didn’t know if it was being grabbed unexpectedly, the change of position or that the words he was still repeating had reached her but as soon as she hit his chest, all the fight seemed to leave her. He wasted no time carrying her back to his room.

“Clean up that mess,” he shouted over his shoulder, not caring who did it, as long as the work got done. “And send me Freud.” By the time he made it down the hall to the room next door to the one he’d given her when she’d first arrived, she seemed to have calmed down. Her face was buried against his chest and her breathing came out in small hasps and hiccups, but that was better than the frantic murmuring she’d been doing when he’d first reached her.

Raven used one hand to twist the knob, then shouldered the door open and carried her inside. He considered for an instant laying her on the bed and leaving but he couldn’t bring himself to do that. Not after the way she’d freaked out and now seemed okay with him holding her.

Instead of going to the bed, which he was afraid she wouldn’t take well since he wasn’t going to be letting her go, he went instead to the recliner and sat, still holding her cradled in his arms.

“Are you with me, little one, or are you still lost in the memories?” He kept his voice the same gentle tone he’d used while moving up behind her and picking her up. He’d known it was a risk doing that. There was a high chance her panic would only get worse. But he’d also risked that the total change of position would jar her enough to realize she wasn’t where she thought she was, that what she thought was happening wasn’t what was going on. Luckily it seemed to have worked but he had no way of knowing how she would react going forward.

“I’m here.” She pulled her face away from his chest enough to speak to him. “I’m sorry.”

“Its okay. It happens. Are you ready to tell me what happened?” He knew she needed to talk about it. Not just about today, but about all of it. She had to get it out or it wouldn’t get better. Sure, she might be able to ignore it and move on, but she would always have triggers and things that threw her back into that time. He knew, if she tried, she could move past the triggers. She could work through the trauma so that whatever had cause the incident in the other room no longer had any power over her.

She shook her head. “I hope I didn’t hurt him. It was Dax wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, little one, it was Dax and you scratched him, but I don’t think it’s anything serious.” He didn’t tell her that Dax could have stopped her from hurting him but had been more concerned that he not hurt her. Raven had seen that in his face, even in the few seconds he’d watched the two of them.

“I’ll need to tell him I’m sorry. He was nice. I don’t want to hurt him.”

“It will be all right. You’ll be able to talk to him later. Right now, Freud is going to come take a look at you and make sure you didn’t hurt yourself more, then we’ll rest a bit. I don’t know about you, but hearing you scream like that took at least ten years off my life. I want nothing more than to sit here with you in my arms and let it sink in that you’re okay.”

Some of the tension seemed to drain from her at his words. He didn’t know if it was that he wanted to sit here, holding her, that Freud was on his way, or something else entirely. It didn’t matter. What mattered was making sure she was okay.

“I need to go clean up the mess I made.”

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