Page 149 of Dark Haven Omegaverse

The longer he held me, the longer I lost composure. I couldn’t speak to tell them anything as my body shook violently and my teeth clattered too hard to say much.

He sent relief and pride through the bond but it barely registered against my numb mind.

“They’re in shock,” Drake declared. “We have to warm them up.”

“Give her here,” Monty growled, forcing Kol to give me up. I was too far gone to notice where we were heading.

My vision blacked out, then came back as I was under the hot spray of a shower. I sputtered a little but fell back under the exhaustion again. My body ached and my mind was swimming.

There was no regret.

But there was horror.

I’d slaughtered a man.

Even if he deserved it, I took his life.

He wasn’t a demon from Helheim who was trying to kill me, he was a human.

“He’s dead.”

My words filled the space, but I couldn’t understand their answers as I blacked out again, this time not fighting it as I slipped into unconsciousness.

Harlow

Tuesday Morning

Drake’s Room

Nightmares of Vane plagued my sleep. More than once I heard Drake’s voice calming me until I slipped into another round of nightmares.

Voices eventually pulled me from sleep, and I sighed in relief as I opened my eyes to Hiro and Drake cuddling next to me.

“That was the worst sleep of my life,” I muttered as I forced myself to sit up.

Hiro snorted humorlessly.

“Same,” he muttered. “We fucking wrecked Vane.”

“Ivar described it as a massacre,” Drake proclaimed. “You took back the power, that’s huge.”

“And gross,” I muttered. Looking down I expected my body to be covered in blood, but I was wearing only a large tee that smelled like Drake’s cologne, and I was clean. “Where’s the blood?”

“I got you both cleaned up with Ivar’s help,” Drake said. “You looked like a crime scene.”

“How do you feel, Hiro?” I asked. He looked at me and his eyes shadowed. There was a hint of embarrassment and shame there, like he didn’t want me to know he froze.

We didn’t get to choose our trauma or how we reacted to it. I’d never fault him for that.

“I remembered Hiro dying. I don’t know how I got that memory since it isn’t mine, but I saw it happen. It was—” A sob escaped as Drake and I moved in around him.

“You don’t have to—” I tried to reassure him.

“No, I do,” he stated, swiping angrily at his tears. His emerald eyes held so much heartbreak I wanted to kill everyone who’d ever hurt him. Hiro and Roman both deserved better. “It’s the only way I can heal.”

“Okay, we’re here,” Drake promised as he gripped Hiro’s shoulder in his hand, grounding him.

“My family was abusive. Well, Roman’s, I guess,” he said with a grimace.

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