Page 121 of Touched By Darkness

Ronan chases after me as I walk up the stairs. “You can’t just walk away now. We need to ask some serious questions.”

“You sound like Dari.”

“The fuck I do.”

Ronan follows me to my room and shuts the door behind him.

“You saw the state of her. We need to find out what happened.”

“She escaped through the window to go see my uncle. That’s what happened.” I take a seat at the end of the bed.

“But why? And why is she back, looking like she swam in a pool of blood?”

“I need a minute, okay? I had to remove myself or I’d kill her.”

Ronan nods slowly, his hands in his jeans pockets. “Something isn’t right.”

I open my mouth to speak, but then think better of it. I’m too angry to make sense of the situation.

Dari and Alaric will keep her in their sights until I’m ready to talk to her again. “Throw her in the shower. If I have to smell the human on her again, I’ll kill her.”

DARIANA

The stairs creak as Ronan descends. “She needs a shower.”

I eye her for a moment longer, unsure how to feel. I want to trust her, but she makes it so damn difficult when she arrives back, covered from head to toe in blood and reeking of betrayal and deception.

Walking forward, I seize her bloodied arm and guide her down the hall toward the back of the house. Ronan and Alaric follow behind, their looming shadows chasing ours on the stone walls.

Aurelia stays silent with her head bent.

I side-eye her as we turn a corner. She looks like her soul barely survived whatever ordeal she’s been through, and it pulls on my heartstrings to see her so… empty, for lack of a better word.

We enter a spare bedroom on the bottom floor and walk through to the ensuite bathroom. Ronan leans against the sink with his feet planted and arms crossed as Alaric takes up position near the door like a bouncer.

The little witch looks down at her feet while I open a cupboard. I hand her a towel, then start the shower.

The silence in the room stretches on and on, taking on a shape of its own, until Aurelia finally whispers, “Is the water warm enough yet?”

She sounds like an injured bird.

On cue, Alaric’s and Ronan’s eyes darken.

Reaching my hand under the spray, I let the warm water steal my attention for a brief moment while Aurelia trembles like a leaf in the wind.

The wolves will have torn her to shreds by the end of this night. The atmosphere in the room is thick and crackles with a tension that threatens to zap me if I accidentally brush up against a surface. It’ll continue to thicken like a gathering storm on the horizon until I can wash the distinct scent of sex and death off her.

Aurelia slides down the straps of her dress, first the left and then the right, her shoulders shifting, her gaze downcast. The room holds its breath. Even the silence leans in.

The fabric falls to the floor, and I take in every inch of her flawless skin painted in blood. “What happened to you?”

Instead of answering, she steps into the shower and tips her head back with an audible sigh when the water wets her face. I exchange a look with Alaric and Ronan, who both start to strip down. Ronan tosses his shirt on the floor and then pops the button on his jeans while Alaric kicks his off.

“Whatever,” I mumble as I remove my dress.

If she doesn’t talk willingly, we’ll have to find other ways to get her to talk, and I’m not opposed to seducing her beneath the shower spray.

As I step into the shower, I tell myself I’m willing to do anything to protect Daemon, but this urge inside me has nothing to do with him. I want to protecther.This is all about the little angel who is quickly turning our dynamic upside down.

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