Page 99 of Villains and Vengeance
She was my friend, the first one I’d had since I was a kid. It didn’t matter that she was a giant predator. She saved me countless times in there and she gave her life for mine.
The tears flow faster at the thoughts. Another who died because of me.
I bawl for a long time in the wet grass in the dark even though I’m cold and wearing what amounts to a short, waffle robe that’s lacking a belt. And when I’m too exhausted to cry anymore, I close my eyes and start dreaming.
* * *
Maddox
I walkthrough the dark house, the one that I’ve called home all my life, and I can hardly believe we’re back. It’s scarcely been a fortnight since we were sent to the Mountain, and, before that, less than three weeks since I was last here.
‘It feels like a lifetime ago,’ I mutter to myself as I look out at my estate from one of the high stone turrets.
‘It does,’ Iron agrees from behind me, and I pretend I knew he was there all along because I don’t want him to know how easy it is for him to sneak up on me these days. Will his newfound magick dissipate now that we’re no longer in the Mountain? A part of me hopes it does because, at the moment, he’s stronger than I am.
I need to feed.Properly.
‘Jayce and Axel all snug in their beds?’
‘Yes. They’re coming around. You’ll probably have to deal with the fallout of drugging them and leaving Jules by morning.’
I nod. ‘Do you still feel the same as you did? About leaving her?
‘No,’ he answers. ‘I don’t.’
He leaves it at that, and I hear the door click closed.
I look back, staring at the place where he was just standing. Why don’t I believe him? Why do I think that the problems Jules caused are just the beginning?
I leave the tower, taking the winding, stone staircases that are uncomfortably reminiscent of the Mountain now I think about it. When I get to my library, I relax a little for maybe the first time in several weeks.
We aren’t dead. We aren’t in prison. We’re home.
I sit at my desk and call for our butler, Robertson, to bring me a cup of tea before I remember that he’s not here, that he betrayed me –us– and was arguably the catalyst for a lot of our troubles. I pour myself two fingers of single malt Scotch from one of the crystal decanters instead, throwing it back in one.
I don’t need a reminder that Robertson’s comeuppance needs to be forthcoming quite soon, but thinking about him is an important reminder that no matter how safe we think we are even here in my family’s ancestral seat of power, it’s an illusion.
AND I need to find a new butler as soon as possible.
I stand up and walk to the windows, turning on the outside lamps. Light floods the stone terrace and the first twenty meters of the lawn and I’m just about to turn away when something catches my eye at the edge of where the light meets the darkness in the garden.
I open one of the French doors, and peer out, trying to understand what I’m looking at without the glare of the glass.
Is it a stag or a deer that’s come out of the woods? Whatever it is, it’s lying still in the grass.
I walk across the terrace and down the steps towards the figure. As I go closer, I see it’s not an animal at all, but a human or supe. A female. She’s wearing what looks like a shirt that only reaches her mid-thighs. I freeze mid-stride when I see it up close and remember where I saw it before.
It can’t be!
She’s huddled in a ball on her side, turned away from my eyes. I kneel down and take her shoulder, pulling her towards me and, even though I already know on some level, I’m still a little shocked when I see her face and my suspicions are confirmed.
‘How did you get here?’ I ask softly.
She doesn’t answer me, of course. She’s unconscious and shivering. Her shirt gapes open, showing numerous lacerations and bruises. Likely Dante’s work.
I’m struck by how much I want to scoop her up, get her somewhere warm and dry, protect her. My gaze hardens.
Her being back here was not what I wanted and it’s definitely the last thing we need as a clan. I glance over my shoulder. With Axel and Jayce’s obsession with her and Daemon and Iron being scarcely two steps behind that, I need to make sure no one knows she’s here.
