Page 185 of Branded
But…it was all I had in that moment.
I slipped my arms around her.
“Don’t—”
“I have you.” And I did, lifting her gently, carrying her back into the bedroom, tucking her into bed.
“Don’t hurt me,” she whispered.
I went still.
“Don’t hurt me,” she whispered again.
I cupped her cheeks. “Beth, honey. I won’t hurt you. I promise.”
Her eyes weren’t focused, not on anything in the present. She was trapped somewhere deep, somewhere dark. “Don’t hurt me. Please. I won’t tell. I won’t. I promise.”
“Beth.”
Her eyes hit mine, but they were still unfocused, and she shoved out of the bed, hit the floor, body bending on itself again. “I promise. I promise I won’t tell the demons. I won’t let them out. I won’t. I won’t. I won’t?—”
Fuck.
This was…I didn’t know how to deal with this.
I stood up, grabbed the jersey from the floor, tugging it over her head, covering her body, trying to keep her warm in the cool house. A yank had the blanket from the bed, and I wrapped it around her.
“Beth, honey. It’s Raph. You’re here with me now. You’re safe. I promise.”
She quieted, but didn’t come back to me, just huddled in that blanket, rocking lightly back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.
“Can you talk to me, honey? Tell me what’s wrong?”
Her forehead pressed to her knees; her arms wrapped tighter. “The demons are trying to escape. They’ll hurt everyone, ruin everything. I can’t let them out. I can’t let them out. I can’t?—”
“I’m here with you,” I said gently, moving closer, carefully peeling her hand free, lacing our fingers together. “I can help you with the demons. I can?—”
Her head jerked off her knees, eyes wide and wild and still not here. “They’ll hurt you. They’ll hurt you. They’ll?—”
“I’m strong, sugarpie.”
Just rocking. Just repeating that they would hurt me over and over again.
I carefully peeled her other hand free, slowly, gently, incrementally brought her into my side. “I’m here. You’re okay,” I whispered in answer to those chanted words that had no context in the now, in this moment, from the woman I’d come to know.
But it didn’t break through, didn’t bring her back to me.
And as I held her, as she sat on the floor, rocking and shivering and not herself, I hated to do it.
Hated that I couldn’t make this go away.
Hated that this wasn’t a moment I could just hold her and talk to her and make everything okay.
This was…deep and heavy, and I didn’t have one fucking clue how to handle it.
So I hated to do it, but I also didn’t know what else to do.
Keeping my arms around her, that soft chant slicing through me, I reached to the side, snagged my pants, and pulled out my cell.
