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I blinked in confusion. Of course, they would think it was him, as far as either of them knew I was still hunting him.
"Did that God?" he asked after another breath.
"No, neither one of them," I replied as Ty picked up my dagger and used it to slice the ropes holding me to the tree. I slumped forward as soon as they were loose, a groan falling from my lips. My ribs screamed as I was released even the tiny bit, blazing fire through my chest and stealing my breath. I probably had at least one broken one.
"Who did this?" Ty asked quietly. His rage was there, but it was calmer than Raiden's. He promised slow revenge on whoever hurt his baby sister, whereas Rai's would get him killed.
"A group of demons. I think they are the ones causing the chaos, the fire, the dead girls, it is all them," I admitted. He lifted an eyebrow, and I continued. "There is apparently a portal they are coming through. Lex and Alastor were going to find out where it was last night. It is somewhere in the forest."
"You are in the forest," Raiden said, stating the obvious.
Rolling my eyes, I focused on him. Some of my embarrassment from the last time I saw him tried to sneak in, but I pushed it away. No fucking way. "I know that, Einstein, but I was in the city. They kidnapped me and brought me here."
"They kidnapped you?" Ty parroted slowly.
"I know." I grimaced. How could I explain they showed up working together and got the best of me? Demons didn't do that. He angled me away from him, and my dagger slipped through the ropes that held my hands together. I worked my wrists in a circle and massaged each one with my still half asleep fingertips. "The demons have formed groups. It is worse than I had thought. There were at least twenty working together. And they are afraid of Bellamy."
"Who the fuck is Bellamy, Sam?" Ty asked.
"The Prince," I stuttered over the answer, knowing he was going to hate it. Raiden was no help as he crossed his arms over his muscled chest, his jaw tense as he stared at me.
"When did you get on a first name basis with the fucking Prince of Demons?" Ty yelled, not looking for a reply because none I could give would be good enough.
I yanked my dagger out of his hands and pushed myself to my feet all in one smooth motion. Dizziness took hold, and I wobbled on my feet slightly before finding my balance. "Jesus, you are giving my headache a headache. We can talk about this later," I replied and then started stomping away from them both, like they hadn't just come to my rescue.
CHAPTER 19
Raiden
The bile satat just the base of my throat, threatening to coat the forest floor with it. Sam, my Sammy, had slept with the Demon Prince. I could smell him on her the second I knelt down and breathed in. My control slipped, and I had to back away. Otherwise, I would have revealed my true nature, shifted to my dragon, sliced the bindings with my claws and carried her away from here, and back to my makeshift cave. Not an actual cave, because there were none in the area, but a warehouse large enough for my dragon to be free and on someone's cell phone.
Ty took over smoothly, seeing my distress and not mentioning it. I could do nothing as I clenched my jaw hard as he interrogated his sister, when what she needed was someone to wrap her up and take care of her. Couldn't he see they had hit her repeatedly and left her for dead in the middle of the woods?
When she lunged from the floor, taking only a second before her long legs carried her away from me, we both watched in stunned silence. My dragon snapped and forced me to sprint after her.
"Hey," I said as I got closer to her. "Let me help you clean up those wounds."
She glanced sharply over at me. The perfume of blueberries and vanilla mixed with the smokey scent of the Prince wafted over to me on the breeze, forcing me to face the fact that she let him touch her intimately, but she had rejected me. Bitterness grabbed me by the jaw as it clenched together again.
"You don't have to worry about me, Rai, I got it," she replied without looking my way again. She stomped through the forest.
"I'd say that if maybe I stayed by you last night, a lot of things might not have happened," I replied, and she came to a complete stop and swung around to face me.
"Yeah, and you might be dead right now," she shot back, her voice full of anger as she closed the distance between us. "What I do is dangerous, Rai. All that will happen to you if you are with me is you'll distract me and both of us will get hurt because I am protecting you."
Now was the time to tell her. I opened my mouth, and the words got stuck in my throat. I worked my jaw, attempting to force the sentence past the lump of fear that had formed. My heart raced inside my chest, the beat of it probably visible on my neck. My mouth dried up and swallowing around the invisible sand in my mouth was impossible. She reached out and touched my arm; the anger washing away as concern for me flashed over her expressive face.
"Rai, are you okay? You look ashen and you're sweating. Are you sick? Ty, Rai needs a doctor," she said, her hand wrapped around my forearm as she turned toward her brother.
"I'm fine," I replied. The words sounded strangled, and she lifted her brow at me. While all I could focus on was the soft touch of her fingers that had found their way around my wrist to my skin. My whole body zoned into that one touch, using it to steady myself. "I have something to tell you."
Her gaze bounced from her brother back to me. Something flickered in the depths of her mossy green eyes, something thatcautioned me from saying anything else. I swallowed hard and shut my mouth. Now was not the time. Here I was worried about myself and telling her the truth, and she was standing in front of me, with bruises swelling the side of her face, and so much blood I wasn't sure her lip was the only place that had been bleeding.
"You know what, nevermind, let's get you back home so we can clean you up," I said. As Sam gave a brief nod and turned away from me, Ty shook his head in disappointment. He had been telling me we should tell her for months, but he respected that it was my secret to tell.
She came into the kitchen in a pair of short workout shorts and a tiny tank top that revealed that tantalizing sliver of skin between the two fabrics. My gaze got caught on the tanned skin as she moved further into the room, drying her hair with the towel. Yanking my eyes away from the display, I focused on her face as it reappeared. The bruises looked worse without the blood caked on the side of her face, and I noticed the slight cut on her neck, not deep enough for stitches, but it was still going to take a couple of weeks to heal fully.
"You look like shit," Ty said in only the way a brother could. She swatted him with the towel, crossing the room to me, or really the kitchen table I was sitting at.
