Page 8 of Fall into Savagery

We packed light,not wanting to delay any more time than necessary.

Any time wasted was time Damien was spending in whatever hellhole they were keeping him in.

Time that could permanently take him away from us.

I closed my eyes, trying to shake the thoughts away.

Damien was resourceful. And his survival instincts were dead on.

He would do whatever it took to stay breathing while we worked to find him.

The weight that had been on my shoulders since the moment he got in the car with Luca felt almost unbearable now.

Damien was the glue that held us all together, and right now, we were scrambling, trying to take it one step at a time.

We were all fucking lost without him.

Catalina came out of her room with a small duffle bag on her shoulder, while Nikolay followed close behind.

He hadn’t let her out of his sight since the day Luca returned her to us, not unless it was absolutely necessary, like this morning, when he went to confront the Blood Nation Sinners.

The conniving little fuckers weren’t hard to find, but it took us some time.

Wasted fucking time, by the looks of it.

But Maxim just sent the name of the traitors over to us. Twenty-two total.

Twenty-two dead men, by my count.

It was only a matter of time, and I wasn’t going to be satisfied until I ensured their deaths would be as painful, bloodied, and messy as fucking possible.

Catalina paused when she found me by the front door.

Indecision moved through her eyes, and I knew she was deciding on whether she would say goodbye to Nikolay.

She was mad at him.

I knew that, and Nikolay knew that.

Especially since he was the one to tie her up in the first place, and I knew he blamed himself.

But fuck, if only they took the time to really think about it.

It had been my fault.

I should have left locating my mom’s whereabouts alone.

She had been safer that way.

And her location had been what lured the three of us away from Catalina in the first place.

She took a deep breath and made a move to walk away. It looked like she wasn’t going to say goodbye to him.

Before she could take another step, Nikolay pulled her back, turning her around and engulfing her small form in his arms tightly.

He buried his face in her neck, whispering something in her ear.

She nodded but otherwise didn’t reply. Not that I had expected her to, but this was better than the indifference she had treated him with since we got her back.

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