Page 49 of The Devil After Dark
The look on Oran’s face was pure primal instincts. Metal bit into my back as I pressed myself against the cage wall. There was nowhere for me to go. I wasn’t even hearing the screaming of the crowd any longer. It wasn’t distant. It just wasn’t there. I was only hearing my pounding heart and panicked breathing. Time stilled. Oran’s stalktowards me was slow and predatory. “Please,” I gasped out. Please what? Please don’t do this? Please don’t hurt me? I had no idea if he would be tender and loving or if I was doomed to be a tortured slave to him. Or maybe he would just kill me here.
I pressed myself harder against the chain link. “Please,” I begged again as his arm reached out for me. Then it bent. There was a snap and his body jerked. Another snap and his head twisted. His body crumbled and fell as snaps and pops filled my ears. I sobbed as the giant of a man was reduced to a pile of broken and bleeding body parts on the mats in front of me.
I could not tear my eyes away from him. Every limb jutted out at an odd angle with blood leaking from bone torn skin, and his eyes were still open, glazed and unseeing. Leather gloved hands slid along my cheeks and cradled my face. “Look at me, Angel,” Cassio’s gentle voice urged. “Look at me. That’s it, baby, look at me.”
My eyes raised to see Cassio in front of me, holding my face to his mask covered one. But it was him. In a quick movement he tore the mask from his head, his hand returning to cradle my face. Cassio was here. My entire body shook as relieved sobs raked through me. Cassio had come for me. My legs gave out and his hands slipped around me, pulling me close to his body. His smell and his warmth enveloped me and I pressed my face against his chest, trying to soak in every bit of him as I cried.
“I know, baby. I know. Let’s get you out of here,” Cassio whispered against my hair. “Don’t look around, baby. I need you to keep your eyes closed, okay? Can you do that for me?”
“Yes,” I choked out, my response broken and weak. I didn’t want to open my eyes anyway.
Cassio scooped me up and cradled me against his chest, one hand pressing my face into him. “Don’t look. Eyes closed, Angel.” I only turned into him further like I could be swallowed by his body if I tried hard enough.
There was only the sound of something dripping and the faintnoise of a bottle rolling across the ground. Was I smelling smoke? Where were all the people? Why was no one talking or yelling? Cassio carried me swiftly and steadily.
“Cass! This way, come on,” I heard Jason call out. Jason was here. I could hear Cassio’s heart beating and feel the heavy rise and fall of his chest.
“She’s going into shock,” Cassio said. I could hear the panic in his voice.
There was the sound of car doors opening. “Shit, Cassio! Put her here. Easy now. We need to get out of here.” Was that Zac’s voice?
Hands passed me off and I was suddenly sitting. I just kept my eyes closed. I was cold. Very very cold. My head dipped uncontrollably forward as I felt the world spin around me. A moment later Cassio’s arms were around me again. “Stay with me, baby. You’re safe. You’re safe.”
CASSIO
I slid into the car next to Liana and gathered her against me. I had gotten her out. She was alive. Liana’s body went limp as I stroked her hair and slid my hand over her body, searching for any injuries. Her hands were cut and bleeding along with a few scrapes to her forearms. There was blood dripping down her right shin, but I couldn’t find any substantial injuries and she was still breathing. The panic and stress from the last two days exited my body as I let my head fall back against the headrest in the car. Zac was hauling ass and I didn’t care. Jason was even saying something, but I wasn’t listening to see if he was talking to me or Zac.
Liana was safe. She was currently unconscious, but I had her. We had been just in time. Not a soul was left living in the building. I hadn’t cared who was there, they were all dead. I prayed that Lianahadn’t opened her eyes on the way out. If she had, she would have seen bodies in crumpled piles and blood soaking the floors of the place as fire consumed the walls. The exhaustion of depleting my magic so thoroughly started to set in as my adrenaline wore off.
I felt the car slow to a normal speed and let my eyes fall open to watch the dark countryside roll by outside the window. In a few hours we would be back in my territory. I wouldn’t know how bad Liana was until she woke up, but until then I wasn’t leaving her side. Until Liana could tell me, I had no way of knowing what Merrick did to her while he had her, but I did know he would never hurt her or any other woman ever again.
fifty-four
LIANA
I was warm and comfortable.Blinking my eyes, I tried to figure out where I was. Based on the pink and orange light filtering through the curtains it was either sunset or sunrise. “Hey, baby, how are you feeling?” It was Cassio. I rolled to my back as I felt the bed dip and there he was. His dark hair was messy from sleep or running his hands through it. His ice blue eyes scanned my face.
“Cassio, I …” Tears welled up in my eyes as everything that had happened came rushing back to my memory. “I’m going to be sick,” I gasped and hurled myself to the edge of the bed as I retched onto the floor.
Cassio’s penthouse. That is where I was. I had never been here. Cassio always came to me, but now I stood in the expansive room that was his kitchen, dining, and living room, looking out through aglass wall over his balcony at the city lights. You could see both rivers from here and the lights that lit up the hill in the old part of the city below the Moon Goddess Temple. Gods this view was beautiful. Sure I loved open spaces—that is why I had chosen to live in one of the small towns outside the city—but this view was breathtaking.
I heard the rumble of Jason and Cassio’s voices as they talked in the office off the entryway. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I could hear that Cassio had come back. It had been almost a week since the Claiming and I stayed in Cassio’s penthouse the entire time. I don’t think he would let me leave if I begged him. I hadn’t even tried to ask. The few times Cassio left, either Jason or, more often, Zac, would arrive and stay here while he was gone. I heard the front door close and then footsteps crossing the great room behind me. A moment later my eyes focused on the reflection of Cassio in the glass. He had paused, probably waiting to see if I had heard him, and his eyes caught mine in the reflection. Then he slid up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist, pressing a kiss to my head and leaving his lips against my hair.
“I have something to take care of tomorrow night,” Cassio said quietly. “It might be a late night, but Zac is going to come stay here while Jason and I are gone.” There was something heavy about what he was telling me.
“Okay,” I responded in a whisper. “I am assuming you won’t tell me where you are going or what you are doing.”
Cassio kissed my head again. “I will tell you if you would like to know,” he finally said.
I turned and pulled back from him, my brow scrunching in confusion. He had never offered any information, even when I asked. “I would like to know,” I responded cautiously.
“There is a meeting with the council for the magic wielders. It will be in an exclusive and private section of The Devil After Dark. We have a specific area used for council meetings when they are held in this province,” he said. Then his hand raised and his thumbbrushed along my jawline as he cradled my head. “They have questions about what happened at the Claiming and Jason and I will be answering them.”
I had not had the courage to ask what happened yet—how he had rescued me. When I was in Cassio’s arms at night, I didn’t have nightmares, but if I fell asleep without him, all I saw were the dead faces of the men who had paid to try their hand at claiming me. “What did happen at the Claiming? How were you able to save me? Merrick … he said you wouldn’t be able to find the location,” the words were thick as they exited my mouth. I needed to know the answer, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.
“We found someone who knew someone who was there. Roger and Thea helped.” My eyes bulged at the information that Roger knew. “We were close, really close, but I am not sure we would have made it in time if Silas Sinclair hadn’t reached out.” My heart cracked a little. Silas had gone for help. A little relief rushed through me. We might have considered him a sketchy client, but he had actually helped me. “We killed every single person there and then burned the place to the ground.” I blinked. Then I blinked again. Slowly I turned my head back towards the city lights. Every single person. “I won’t let anyone hurt you, Angel. And anyone who tries will die just like they all did.”
I leaned back against Cassio, sinking into his warmth. Cassio had killed everyone to save me and he would do it again if he had to. “Thank you,” I whispered. I wasn’t sure if I was thanking him for telling me, for rescuing me, or for killing every awful person who supported an event like that. Maybe I was thanking him for all of it.
