Page 360 of Blood and Ruin: The Complete Series

“What’s wrong?” I cringe when I realize how stupid of a question it is. Every inch of his body is probably in pain.

“I just need to sit for a minute.”

I find a patch of forest with soft vegetation and help him ease down onto it. His hands shake as he hunches forward.

I feel so helpless not knowing where to touch, as every part of him looks fragile right now. My eyes catch a drip of blood as it lands on the forest floor. I follow its source, finding the back of Luka’s black shirt drenched in sweat… No, not sweat. Blood.

With my own hands shaking, as gently as possible, I lift the back of his top up. I don’t get further than a couple of inches, the extent of the damage done visible even this far down. Not only are there fresh scars but there are also older scars sitting right underneath them making my heart sink.

How long was this going on for? All without me even knowing my twin was in pain.

Luka turns to me, catching the fucking devastated look on my face. My eyes burn, the lump in my throat following it as I try to get my shit together long enough to get an answer.

“Why, Luka?” My voice is raw, the pain behind it making it sound like I was the one broken here.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Luka drops his head to his hands. The slight shake from his shoulders telling me he’s crying. I don’t know what to do to ease his mental pain right now, and I can’t even fucking touch him without hurting him, so I do what I do best; fuck it up more and push him for an answer.

“I could’ve helped you. I would’ve donesomething.”

“Like what?” Luka lifts his head and looks away, but I catch the pained look on his face, his eyes rimmed-red and swollen. “We’re just kids. We couldn’t even find our… We couldn’t even find Kiarra.”

“We’re not just kids. We’re fucking wolves, shadow wolves, making us a hell of a lot more powerful than any of them.”

Luka’s shoulders drop, as if the weight he’s been carrying is too heavy to bear. “Maybe that’s the problem. Maybe we shouldn’t have this….power. Maybe Cillian was right… Maybe we are evil.”

Hell-to-the-fucking-no!

“Look at me now, brother, because when I tell you this, I need you to see the fucking truth on my face.”

It takes a moment, but Luka eventually shifts, wincing as he turns to look at me, his eyes dipping every now and again as if he can’t even bear to look me in the eye.

I move forward until I’m face-to-face with him. Until he can see every fucking line and expression on my face and in my eyes.

“Nothing, and I meannothing, Cillian or any of those fuckers told you is true. Not asinglefucking word.”

I gently place my hands on his shoulders, continuing to look him dead square in the eyes.

“You. Are. Not. Evil. There isn’t a fucking evil bone in your body.” The vehemence in my voice makes him flinch, but I continue on, knowing he needs to hear this. Hear just how much I believe how wrong they all are.

“Just stop for a moment and think about it, brother. Who was the one that strapped you down to a table and did that to your back?” I wait for Luka to answer me, to see the truth himself. But maybe that psychotic asshole has already dug deep into his mind, and maybe it’s going to take a lot longer than a few words to make him believe me.

I glance back at the direction we came, wondering how many of them I could take out and make it back before Luka notices.

Maybe I should wait until night—

“He said…” Luka swallows, frowning. “He said… he was going to rid the evil abomination from my body. That we’re cursed and never meant to be born.”

Rid the evil… from his fucking body. The evil…

My eyes grow wider with each of Luka’s words and the meaning behind them. Cillian wasn’t just fucking torturing Luka; he was trying to remove hisfucking wolf.

I swallow hard but no matter how many times I do, I can’t swallow past the hard lump in my throat, or stop the heavy lead in my stomach growing heavier as it sits there switching from ice to flames.

I glance back in the direction we came.

Fuck it.I’m burning them all. The entire fucking place. They can all go to hell and if it comes to it, I’ll fucking greet them when they arrive, ready to fuck up their lives all over again.

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