Page 16 of Indecent

Again. And again. Blood trickled from the wounds, and his head swirled dizzyingly. He just wanted it to be over. Please God, let it be over soon. He squeezed his eyes shut.

“Stop!”

He knew that voice.

“Take your hands off him, witch!”

Daniel opened his eyes. HQ was gone. Nicolas was gone. He was back in the dark forest in Hell, pinned face-first against a tree trunk by an unfamiliar weight. His back stung, and when he turned his head, he saw that horrible face again. Pale white with empty black holes for eyes. He wanted to scream, but it lodged in his throat. Its mouth twisted with fury, and it spun away from him.

Daniel sank to the ground, trembling, as it collided with Chaol. He was like an avenging angel, his dark eyes blazing as he grabbed the demon, slamming it into a nearby tree. The color leached from his body as he transformed, his wings flaring out behind him as he lunged forward and tore the other demon’s throat out with his sharp teeth. It took almost no time at all. Was the witch that weak or was Chaol particularly powerful?

“Danny,” Chaol snarled as he tossed the body away carelessly. “Danny, my darkling.”

He gathered Daniel into his arms and sat down right there against the tree trunk. His wings wrapped around him, cocooning him from the world, and Daniel let himself be held, tucking his face in the curve of Chaol’s neck while his teeth chattered.

“I’m so sorry,” Chaol said, rocking him from side to side. Clawed fingers gripped the back of Daniel’s head. “I didn’t know one of those fear-sucking assholes was nearby or I never would’ve left you alone, I swear. Are you okay? I can smell your blood.”

“It was—” Daniel stopped, barely able to understand himself. He shook his head, pressing closer, and Chaol’s arms and wings tightened around him.

“Not real,” Chaol said sternly. “It was not real. Whatever she showed you, whatever you saw, it wasn’t real.”

“But it was,” Daniel whimpered. “Not all of it, maybe. But some of it.”

“No, it wasn’t. Think about it. Even if you saw memories, they weren’t exactly what really happened, were they?”

Well, no. Nicolas had been there the day Daniel received his lashes, but he certainly wasn’t standing there laughing. They’d had to hold him back. Daniel watched tears stream down his brother’s face as the whip scored his back. It was one of the worst days of both their lives. And it had been ten lashes, not twenty, given to him by Father Conroy. Commander Sloan never handled the whip himself.

And the swimming exercise had actually happened, but while he remembered it with zero fondness, no one shoved him under the water or dragged him down by the wrists. Dad yelled at him a lot and lectured him for not finishing first in his age group and made him do the swim a second time alone to prove he could beat his previous time—which he wasn’t able to do, because he was exhausted. They’d driven home in silence, and he’d never felt like a bigger disappointment.

But the first part that took place at the Rink? That never happened. His brother and friends said all the worst things Daniel thought about himself. That he was lonely and worthless and nobody really cared about him. But he knew in his heart it wasn’t true. Nicolas loved him. None of them would be okay with him dying. Maybe Ira had known, but the prophet didn’t have a malicious bone in his body. He must’ve had a good reason for keeping it a secret.

Maybe, Daniel realized, Ira had known Daniel would come back as a demon. Maybe that was why he hadn’t said anything. At this point, it was the best he could hope for.

“Danny, please talk to me,” Chaol whispered. “Are you okay? I should look at your back.”

His back. His back was really bleeding, but the lashes hadn’t been real.

“Why am I bleeding? How am I bleeding? I thought that was a physical thing.”

Chaol huffed out a laugh. “You can bleed. Otherwise where would the fun be?”

“Great.”

“She was clawing up your back, using it to feed on your fear.”

Daniel absorbed that. “It was her claws. Not the whip.”

“Whip?” Chaol asked sharply. “What whip?”

“At the guild. Punished for disagreeing with the commander. Whipped me in front of everyone.” His eyes burned, but no tears fell.

Chaol’s fingers tightened against the back of his head. “What?”

Daniel nodded numbly. “Months ago. That’s one of the reasons I finally left.”

“You mean you didn’t leave that day?”

Daniel sniffled. “No. I should’ve. I was weak. A lot of us were. We wanted to leave, but we didn’t know how. The guild is all we’ve ever known.”