Page 37 of Forsaken Dream
“I made sure any human coming near would have the undeniable need to leave and never come back,” Angelo confirmed my thoughts.
The angel stepped aside so Vaser could tug the door open, supporting the rotting wood with a bulge of his bicep when it tilted peculiarly to the side. Tyler placed himself back-to-back with Angelo, his head swiveling around as he scanned the land with a stiff set to his massive shoulders. They could placate me as much as they wanted by treating me like some shrinking violet in need of protection, but I didn’t survive my father’s court for as long as I had by not being able to take care of myself.Let’s not talk about your unladylike dealings in front of the males, Echo. No need for them to know how not very timid and feminine you are.
The inside of the place was not much better than the outside. Dust covered everything, cobwebs stretching from corner to corner in thick white sheets while swinging above our heads from the wooden beams in the ceiling. Squinting up, I was glad the supports looked sturdy enough not to drop the roof over us and bury us alive. The air was heavy, feeling wet on my tongue, and the stench of mildew and rotting wood almost took my breath away. My nose tickled in a warning before a loud sneeze rocked me in the angel’s arms. Dust mites were floating across the streaks of light coming through the cracks in the walls. At first I thought the glow was coming from the windows, but they’d been painted black. What little light we had cast shadows over the faces of the three males around me and turned their handsome features harsh in the gloomy room.
“He is not here.” Rubbing at the tip of my nose with the back of my hand so I didn’t sneeze again, I couldn’t see another room or even a trap door to tell me where they’d locked Josh.
“He is here alright.” Tyler stepped fully inside, turning the already small room claustrophobic.
Vaser walked up to a wide sheet of some canvas I’d assumed was just another thick netting of the cobwebs, yanking it off so fast a large cloud of dust billowed around us. Under it, poor Josh was curled up like a fetus, his knees touching the tip of his nose and his feet tucked into his ass. A long metal chain as wide as my thigh stretched from his neck to the wall, where it was pinned by a ton of iron bars crawling all the way to one of the rafters holding the roof. My eyebrows crawled to my hairline at the sight.
“Did you think you were tying up an elephant?” A snort escaped me at the overkill, my words coming much louder than my previous hushed tones. “I don’t think he has lifted anything heavier than a bottle of beer in his life. I doubt he would’ve escaped, even if you used zip ties on him.”
At the sound of my voice, the human uncurled, lifting his head and zeroing in on me. His unfocused gaze widened in alarm when it darted over the three males, but the moment it passed over me, it snapped back and stayed there. Hatred burned like an inferno in the depths of his eyes, and it stole my breath faster than the stench. I knew that he never understood my refusal of his advances was nothing personal to him but to humans in general, but until that very moment, I didn’t know he hated me so much. That only made me push the angel’s arms harder so he would release me. Something was definitely up with Josh. Even the greed for money in his attempt to chase me off my land had not been enough to turn him into an evil jerk like that. Angelo set me on my feet reluctantly, his hand wrapping around my upper arm to keep me near. The fates save me from stubborn, overprotective males. With a roll of my eyes, I yanked my arm free and darted away from him to crouch a couple of feet in front of the human.
“Echo,” Tyler barked, but I ignored him.
Lowering my eyelids, I focused on the aura around the human. His lifeforce was weak and was struggling to blink in and out around his physical body when he jerked back at my sudden dash for him. His back was pressed on the wall, and his lips were peeled back in a silent snarl, but the hatred was there in his eyes. If he could, he would kill me where I’d plopped on my knees in front of him. So focused on trying to see if the shadow was around his shoulders where I’d seen it the last time he stood in front of me, I didn’t notice his attention had turned from my face to the hollow of my neck.
A sharp intake of breath was all I could manage when his hand shot for my neck, but he didn’t grip me to choke me to death. His knuckles grazed the skin on my chest before Tyler had him up in the air by his fist, which was squeezing the human’s throat. Sharp pain raced through me from my skin being rubbed raw when Josh ripped the necklace I’d been wearing for sixty years. The crystal was comforting to me, reminding me of the sweet woman who raised me. Reminding me that I’d known love and kindness from an early age, even if it hadn’t been from my own mother.
Josh laughed.
An unhinged, shrill sound that hurt my ears a moment before the room was pitched into darkness like some beast had swallowed the sun from the sky. The air shifted around us, charging with something I couldn’t name. It terrified me to the marrow of my bones. Hands wrapped around my shoulders right before I was swung into a male’s chest, which I recognized as Vaser’s by the flavor of chocolate coating my dry-from-fear mouth. It was logical for the incubus to babysit me, bearing in mind the other two were all about crushing skulls and stabbing things with flaming swords.
The door of the mill was ripped off the hinges, allowing a dim light to penetrate the room as if it wasn’t the middle of the day but late night outside. A figure blocked the exit from us, but it wasn’t the teeth-gnashing monster from my nightmares I’d expected. A low blue light similar to the color of tropical waters emanated around his slim body as he tilted his head like a bird of prey, his eyes locking on me from his eerily handsome face. With his hands tucked into the pockets of his slacks, he ignored the three males who were blocking his way to me.
A smile slowly stretched his lips.
I couldn’t see him clearly in the dim light, but I started gaping like a fool at him for a totally different reason. He wasn’t scary, no. Even in the darkness, I could tell he was easy on the eyes. It wasn’t even the power he executed that was punching at us in waves.
No, it was none of that.
What had me frozen and unable to breathe while he grinned to drive that point home like a hot dagger through my chest was the feeling that burst inside me the moment I set my eyes on him. A deep, dark chuckle from the male covered my arms in goosebumps. We wondered what happened to the fourth mate.
I was pretty sure I just found him.
