Page 86 of Tortured Soul
My hand tightened around his.
“The electronic thing said I was the biggest threat there is. No reward on my head for them to capture me, no bounty. Nephilims may enter in the Earthwalker category, but I’m stronger than most demons or most angels. My blood might run red, but trust me when I say I didn’t take much after my human mother.”
I straightened on my seat, unable to resist leaning closer to him.
Dimitri was a hothead. Impulsive. He was used to doing dangerous things and acting brashly.
But he had just gotten here. And I didn’t feel ready to let him go just yet.
“Dimitri—”
“Done,” Carter said, sliding the map closer to him. “There are hundreds of our people that are imprisoned somewhere. If you’re so good at tracking, find them and come back here so Arc or I can go on the rescue mission.”
“Hold on, we should talk about that. He’s—”
“A grown man,” Dimitri crooned in my ear. “I’ll be fine,zhizn moya.” I gave him a concerned look. “I’ll becareful. I promise I won’t get too close, alright?” he swore, lifting his hand to cup my face. “I’ll just look for a sign of their base or see if something is there, then I’ll come back to get back up.”
I didn’t like that. Something didn’t feel right.
“He’s not leavingtodayright?” I asked Arc, whose face was impassible. “Right?”
“I’m sorry, but the faster he leaves, the faster he’ll be back, and the faster we can take action,” Carrie said as Arc remained silent.
“Wait, did you plan this? Were you planning on him going to scout the territory foryou?”
“I was about to ask him if he could, yes,” Arc finally said, looking at me before turning away from my angry face as my eyes must have betrayed what I was thinking.Then go yourself. Better,send Carter… “He did say he was a good tracker, and we need someone powerful who can’t be easily captured. Apparently, he’s the most powerful of us.”
He nodded toward the shattered device Carter had left on the table in front of him.
“But it’s—we were supposed to—”He came here because today was special. He came here because he wanted to be with me.“What if the madness starts acting up, huh?” I turned back to Dimitri.
His smile was soft. His touch on my face warm and reassuring. But the red was still swirling, the madness dancing in his eyes like it was celebrating its victory. There was no way to determine how and when his mind could switch. He might not be able to carry on with the mission.
“Then it’ll be a bloodbath,” he said, his tone overly sweet. “There’s nothing like spilling a little blood to appease the mad beast sharing my mind.”
My throat bobbed. Carter, Arc, and Carrie were silent in the background, probably aware that they wouldn’t be of any help convincing me.
“Everything is going to be okay,zhizn moya. I’ll only be gone a few days. We’ve spent decades apart, a few days are nothing.”
I wanted to yell at him that it wasnotnothing. That the decades were in fact almost a century and it had been literalhellbeing away from him for so long. That even though I didn’t have my soul, having him near made me feel whole. That losing Blake had already been agony, and my heart wouldn’t be able to take losing him too.
But I didn’t. I didn’thaveto, because Dimitri could read me like his favorite book.
“I promise I’ll be back. And if I have to leave again to bring back the people this camp has lost, I'll come back to you again, this time for good.” My eyes widened. “No more running. No more letting the madness take control. I belong with you,zhizn moya.”
Chapter 25
Lola
Jeremiah was called to escort Dimitri around town to get some new clothes and supplies for his mission.
I, on the other hand, was still stuck in Carrie’s office with her, Carter, and Arc.
“If something happens to him, I—”
“What do you think will happen?” Arc interrupted sharply. “He’s a Nephilim. They can’t kill him. If they scan him with their tracker and they’re smart, they’ll just run the opposite direction.”
“And if they’re not?” I challenged.
