Page 119 of Touched By Darkness

They know better than to speak when I’m like this. Nothing they say can calm the raging beast inside me.

I won’t calm down until she’s found. And even then, it’ll take me a long fucking time to rein in these emotions.

Emotions I shouldn’t have in the first place.

Walking up to the mantelpiece, I pick up a candelabra and throw that too, because fuck it, I need to break shit when I’m this angry.

“Where the hell is she? It’s been two days… she can’t just fucking vanish.”

More silence.

I stop mid-stride and glare at them all seated on the couch. “Where the fuck is she?”

“Like I said before,” Dari starts, “I bet she’s with your uncle.”

Every time she says it, I get more and more agitated.

“If she wanted to go for a midnight stroll, she would have told you.”

I ignore her as I start pacing again, burning a hole through the damask carpet. “I can’t fucking believe she escaped through the fucking window. Why the fuck didn’t I think to bar them up when she first moved in?”

“Well, that’s sorted now, isn’t it?” Alaric jerks his thumb over his shoulder at the barred windows. “This place resembles a maximum-security prison after you had your father’s staff block every possible escape route.”

Ronan snorts a laugh, his legs stretched out in front of him. “You know how to swoon the ladies. Lock them up in your mansion. She’ll love sleeping in a room with barred windows.”

“Look at my face,” I command, pointing to it. “Do I look like I fucking care what she wants or how she’ll feel about her new sleeping arrangements? If she doesn’t want to sleep in a fucking prison, she shouldn’t escape through the fucking windows.”

Alaric stifles a laugh with his closed fist.

I ignore that too, because I might kill him if I don’t. Now is not the time for rash decisions. “What if her stalker took her?”

I don’t like how much dread that thought fills me with. The very idea of someone hurting my little witch when I’m not there to protect her...

My hands fist by my sides, and I blow out a harsh breath in a poor bid to calm myself down. “I can’t fucking do this. I need to kill someone.”

“What do we always say?” Ronan replies, tossing a ball of flame from hand to hand. “We shouldn’t kill for fun.”

I come to a skidding halt and give him an incredulous look as Dariana bursts out laughing beside him. “What kind of bullshit are you sprouting now?”

He looks up at me and then, quick as a flash, throws the fireball at me. I duck just in time. “Good to see you’re not too enraged to lose your reflexes.”

“The hell was that for?” I growl, leveling him with a glare to rival all glares.

Dariana’s loud laughter grates on my nerves, but when I glower at her too, she laughs even harder.

Annoyed beyond belief, I throw hellfire at them both. Dariana launches herself to the floor with a squeal, which soon morphs into more laughter. How the fuck do you shut a girl up without choking her on your dick?

Just then, the front door opens, and we fall silent, exchanging glances. I storm into the hallway and come to a halt when I lay eyes on Aurelia, who’s covered head to toe in blood and gore. She looks as if someone emptied a bucket of blood on her and decorated her with innards and pieces of flesh.

“The fuck?” Alaric breathes out behind me as the others join us. His comment is followed by Dariana’s audible gasp.

Snapping out of it, I walk up to her and push her back against the closed door with enough force to knock the wind from her lungs. “Where the fuck have you been?”

“That’s your first question?” Dari asks, “Not why she looks like she indulged in her bloodlust at a Taylor Swift concert?”

If there’s one thing I hate when I’m angry, it’s common sense.

Common fucking sense.

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