Page 2 of Relapse

David’s life was flashing before my eyes. All of it. The good and the bad. The parts where I felt safe. Where I felt like his son. When he was “dad” and when he was the Devil. One couldn’t exist without the other in our fucked up relationship.

“NOAH!”

I looked down again. Delane. She was sobbing.

“What is going on?” she cried, clutching my arm as three security guards whipped past us in a frenzy. The doors were backed up, choked with clusters of bodies shoving through a space far too small to fit all of them. Workers desperately tried to clear the area in order to safely evacuate the guests. Before I could reply to Delane, a guttural shriek ruptured the chaotic atmosphere, loud enough to bring the panicking to a brief standstill.

“A THORNE DID THIS! It has to be them.”

Instantly, my eyes darted across the room, scouring the remnants of guests for Silas. The sound of his surname echoed through the air like a bullet fired, and the tension that settled in its wake was palpable. The room seemed to shrink into that accusatory silence and eyes surveyed the room, searching for clarity between groups. In the background, I could hear Damian pounding against David’s chest with each compression. 1…2…3…

My mind raced, leaping to the only outcome I knew: violence. I knew for certain that Silas was in danger. His family was in danger. And while I shouldn’t care, I understood that two sides of very different coins were about to turn against one another. They’d fought over less.

Fuck, why was my heart beating out of my chest? I couldn’t understand why the need to protect him was overwhelming me.

Voices rang out around me.

“They’re all trash!”

“Just who do you think you are, calling us that?”

Gasps of indignation emerged from the crowd. Based on the intensity of the room, a volcano was about to erupt.

“This was planned!”

“MONSTERS!”

I glanced down to my side. There was someone else who I needed to protect, too.

With my hands placed on Delane’s shoulders, I slowly eased her towards the door where security had managed to carve a path through to the outside. “Get out of here,” I ordered.

Her eyes shot to mine. “Noah, I’m scared. I want to stay here with y—”

The first punch was thrown, and all hell broke loose between members of my family and the Thornes. People from each side rushed into the midst of the fighting to help their loved ones, while everyone else tried miserably to break up riots that started throughout the room. If Silas was here, he’d be first to the front lines to support his family, and then I’d be in an even worse situation.

I’d have to protect my family, protect Delane…

… and protect Silas. Somehow. I was split three ways.

Clutching onto Delane’s hand, I pushed through the mobs and found my way to my mom and Damian, who seemed to be at the center of the conflict. Their bodies were a barricade to David’s lifeless form, my mom taking over chest compressions as Damian attempted to end a brawl that took place in front of him, so close that their feet nearly scuffled through the blood on the floor.

It was me entering Damian’s peripherals that caused him to turn for the slightest moment. Those few seconds were all it took for the antagonist to spin on his heels, pull his fist back, and release a punch that snapped across Damian’s face.

“Hey!” I snapped. Had I been a dog, I knew I would’ve been foaming at the mouth. Watching Damian get hurt ignited something deep in me. No one touches my brother. No one.

I released Delane’s hand almost instinctively and lunged forward, ripping the man backwards from behind. I reared back and clocked him in his jaw swiftly, cleanly, without warning. Despite Delane’s little gasp, I clutched him close by his neck collar, readying myself to hit him again. That little bitch had no idea what he unleashed.

Delane was about to see a side of me that I wasn’t proud of. When it came to my brother, there was no suppressing this anger. I wasn’t going to sit by while people I cared about were hurt. I would put that concern aside and deal with it later. For now, I’d punch the asshole’s lights out.

“Get out of the way!” I heard Damian hiss over my shoulder, grappling me by the waist and twisting me around before I could land the second punch.

I stumbled out of Damian’s grasp, and back into the fray he went. Part of me felt a bit scorned. Damian didn’t want me to help? Fine, he could fight his own fucking battles then. A sharp shriek pulled my attention back to Delane. She was on the ground, curled in fear, far too close to the thrashing limps and stomping shoes of another group of fighters. She had to have been knocked down during the shoving.

Out of nowhere, Damian yanked me behind his body, protecting me from a rogue punch thrown by the same asshat as before.

I will thank Damian for that later, I considered.

I took the dodged punch as my cue to return to Delane’s side, fighting the urge not to leap back into the quarrel someone else had started.