Page 65 of Seduced

“There are others?” Nikolaos asked, attempting to lighten the atmosphere, but Alexei just winced. “I don’t know,” Nikolaos said, turning serious. “I don’t know what I would do if I were in your shoes, honestly, my lord.”

“What would that God of yours have me do?”

“Ask Him yourself,” Nikolaos said.

“I do not talk to deities,” Alexei smirked. “Besides, what that God did to Popp—Miss Wyatt…How she is, it frightens and enrages me.”

“Was it God who made her like this, or one of the people that use his name for power?” Nikolaos asked.

“It was her brother,” Alexei replied, “yes. But it is the same thing.”

“Is it?” Nikolaos said for the second time. Just that.

But it was enough to make Alexei think. God, how he hated thinking.

“What if…” his voice trailed into silence, but Nikolaos waited him out, not interrupting, and he continued in a few minutes. Thinking out loud. God help him. “Would that there was a God for people like us. The rotten, the broken. The unwanted. Well, not you, of course,” he turned to Nikolaos. “You are perfect.”

Nikolaos grabbed his wrist, and such was Alexei’s surprise, that he didn’t even blink at his touch. At first. Then he quickly withdrew his hand, but Nikolaos was gazing at Alexei with such fierceness in his eyes, he barely noticed Alexei’s flinching.

“I am not perfect,” Nikolaos said quietly. “I am sad and bitter and about to give up. I am as far from perfect as I can be.”

Alexei looked into the fire and said nothing.

Yes, he could stay here for days, away from the world, safe from the abyss that threatened to swallow him.

There were only two problems: one, the cats. They were bloody everywhere. Alexei loved them, even though he would never admit it, even on his last breath, but there was a limit to how many times he could be curled on. And two, one of the few servants that Alexei trusted to come down here to Nikolaos’ hiding rooms to bring him food and help him getdressed, suddenly came running in the door, to tell him that Miss Wyatt sir has fallen ill, sir, if you please.

“What?” Alexei practically screamed, getting up so fast he upset the chair.

“Lord Lyon sent me to tell you, my lord,” the poor man said, ducking his head, as if expecting a blow.

Alexei did not waste time to hit him, even though he wanted to, or to ask questions, even though he burned to know what had happened.

He burst out the door and did not stop running until he had reached Dante’s rooms, a good two hundred yards later. Honestly, he did not know how he did not completely lose his mind on the way.

Or maybe he did.

Because as soon as he entered Dante’s rooms, he found himself on his knees in front of Miss Wyatt, his hand itching to grab hers and never let go. He just lay there, on the floor, his heart threatening to burst out of his chest, in the grip of utter panic.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. “Did I hurt you? Answer me!”

He would absolutely murder himself if he had.

“It is nothing to concern yourself with,” Rania suddenly, blessedly appeared out of nowhere.

Her voice was low and calm, attempting to ground him in reality.

But not sanity. Not yet.

Poppy’s face was tilted up to his, all green eyes and pink lips, and he was drowning in her gaze. Her skin was pale, her freckles sticking out, and such fear rose within him that his heart started missing every second beat and he could taste bile.

What have I done to her?

“It is her monthly flows, Hades dear,” Rania said.

Oh.

Her monthly flows.

---