Page 26 of Hangman's Knot
"Walk away now," Luke says, his voice calm. "And no one will get hurt."
She sees the man's lip curl. "Oh, you'll get hurt alright."
And then he lunges. Eden screams, terror ripping through her. But without seeming to have moved, Luke has him on the ground, the shiv the man had been holding now clutched in Luke's hand.
And then everything happens too fast. There is movement from all sides. At one point, she hears Julius grunt an awful sound and he stumbles back towards her, but rights himself quickly, and she hears a loud clatter as another metal bar is tossed across the floor.
She thinks the fight is over for a moment, until suddenly she is caught up in someone's arms. They stink of cheap coffee and body odour and tobacco and blood and Eden gags.
She throws her whole weight against him, trying to free herself, but he has her by the hair, his other arm coming across her throat to choke her against his chest.
Her legs kick uselessly as she's hoisted against his body, and she redoubles her efforts when she feels his erection grinding into her. Oh god, please no, she silently prays. Her eyes seek out Julius and Luke, desperation rising in her chest.
And then she's falling, the ground rapidly rising up to meet her. But she never makes it, because warm arms catch her, and she smells safety and earthy patchouli and poisonous lilies as they pull her up to them.
"I've got you," she hears Julius say, the scent of his spicy bouquet reaching her nose. "You're safe, sweetheart."
When she doesn't respond, his voice turns concerned. "Baby? Eden? Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"
She feels gentle hands probing her scalp and then along her throat in a practiced motion, checking her for injuries like they've done this a thousand times before.
"Can you breathe?"
She takes a breath. Yes, she can. She nods.
"Can you swallow?"
She tries, and finds that she can, although it hurts. She nods again.
Luke breathes out a sigh of relief.
She opens her eyes. When had she closed them? She didn't know.
There were bodies strewn around them, some covered in blood, some with limbs that stuck out at odd angles.
Julius is crouching next to one, and she realizes he's removingone of the shivs from the man's leg. He wipes it on the man's pants to get the blood off of it.
"Here," he grunts, holding out the shard of sharpened metal out to her, as if he were passing her a piece of bread in the mess hall. "Tuck this in your shoe. Keep it on you at all times."
She doesn't move to take the weapon, so Julius does it for her, carefully tucking it in in her shoe so the knife is concealed by her pant leg but not at risk of slicing her.
"I think she's in shock," she hears Luke say.
Julius doesn't respond to that.
"Should we take her to the infirmary?"
"The fuck are they going to do for her? No. We'll get her some food and take her to her nest. She'll be okay there."
"She needs to shower, wash her hair," Luke says. "She's covered in blood. We're all covered in blood."
Julius growls at that. "It's not safe. You want another fight? Put a naked omega in the showers, you're asking for a fight."
"It's lunchtime," Luke reasons. "No one will be in there right now."
She realizes he's touching her, running his hands up and down her arms and back, pausing his circuit to hold her hands between his. She realizes how cold her hands are, how warm and big his feel when they surround hers.
She's shaking. Is it really that cold?
