Chapter 29 #2
“When I found her, she was half insane with demon possession and holed up in a shack, filthy from her kills. There were bloody bits of humans everywhere. The stench of death was awful. Did you see her like that?”
Cade shook his head. “Directorate business took me elsewhere.”
“She was covered in marks—the bleeding, raised symbols all over her body that demons use to mark their humans. Being a vampire, the creature possessing her put those things on her over and over every night after she’d healed them.
I can’t even imagine the pain. Running around naked, her hair falling out, and her teeth…
” He shook his head. “She was one of the hardest for me. I’m not saying that because you had feelings for her.
If I’d known she was important to you…” If that’d been Gemma, he would’ve died to get her free of the demon, no matter what state she emerged on the other side.
“There’s more. Finish,” Cade gritted out.
He ran a hand over his face. “I didn’t know you and she… I swear, Cade, I would’ve tried harder, even died if I had to in order to get her free.”
“Tell me about her teeth.”
“She’d filed them to sharp points like a demon’s.”
A muscle in his brother’s jaw twitched. “Then you killed her.”
“It was more complicated than that. I didn’t waltz in and dispatch her.
This is what’s behind the rift between us?
” He blew out a frustrated exhale. “I tried an exorcism on her, which was risky. The demon wouldn’t let go.
There was a moment, a few seconds, when I separated them.
” He didn’t want to see Cade’s reaction to telling of this part.
He didn’t want to deal with more pain over that vile encounter.
“She was shredded. In those few moments she begged me to kill her. She couldn’t take…
” He covered his face and whispered. “She couldn’t stand what that thing forced her to do.
At first I refused to kill her, stupidly hoping she wasn’t lost. She was one of us.
There are so few of us, even fewer females.
I believed I could get her free, but the demon overpowered her and made her attack.
It was her or me. One of us was going to die.
I still have a scar from the chunk of flesh she took from me.
” He raised his shirt to expose an indented mouth-sized scar over his chest. “She tried to chew out my heart. If I’d known you were linked to her, I would’ve brought you with me to help her.
You might’ve been able to reach her soul.
That’s what I needed—a connection, a reason for her to fight to survive. ”
Cade buried his face in his hands with his elbows on the table. Hoarsely, he said, “We’d had a fight before she disappeared. I don’t know how she got mixed up with a demon. Did you find out why or how?”
“No. You know as well as I a demonic possession means she was likely playing with dark magic. Did you love her?”
Cade’s shoulders drooped. He rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know. I thought so, but then I see how Gemma is with you.”
“What do you mean?”
“That girl punched me in the fucking balls, but not to get free. I’d already let her go.
She was pissed I took her from you. Then, at Petra’s place, the woman had tunnel vision—was determined to get you out of there.
I have no doubt she would’ve hurt me far worst this time if I tried to make her leave without you.
Or she would’ve left me imprisoned and gone to get you herself.
Hell, she might’ve tried to decapitate me or asked the treacherous teenaged witch to bespell me again if I disagreed with her plan.
I don’t think Jasmine would’ve fought like that for me.
Jasmine wanted to dominate me. She wanted to be the only thing in my life.
” He shrugged and took a sip of his drink.
“I don’t know why Gemma is so committed to me. I sure as shit don’t deserve it.”
“She believes in you.”
Skarde glanced up; it sounded like Cade had more to say.
On a whisper Cade added, “You deserve it. She’s right.
There’s no one else who wants to do what you do.
There’s no one else as capable. The Directorate has records on you.
They talk a lot about you. I’ve heard about some of the things you’ve fought, the problems you’ve fixed.
They’re horrifying and scare the hell out of all of us, but not you.
I think in some corner of their minds there’s a mixture of respect and terror of your skills. ”
Praise? His brother didn’t hand out compliments. They fought. They argued. They rarely agreed. That was their relationship.
“From the first day, she believed in me,” Skarde muttered as he grabbed the bottle of alcohol and took a deep drink. “I don’t know what’s happened to mess up Fliet. I think whatever it is goes way beyond a grudge against me for killing his brother’s mate.”
“He was a good fighter before he went weird.”
“At the risk of saying something soft… Shit, my head’s all kinds of messed up at the moment. If you want to learn to do what I do, you can. I’ll show you. It requires a belief in magic, sometimes even wielding it—not the dark stuff, but small bits of white magic.”
Cade raised his cup in a silent toast that Skarde interpreted as a strong “maybe” before taking a sip.
The prophecy loomed, terrifying and murky. He liked knowing he could still trust his brother. Gemma was right. Talking shit out helped.
“Will you kill her if she goes bad, given the prophecy bullshit? I won’t be able to do it.” Skarde didn’t want to think about this but given the prophecy, he had to make plans.
Cade stared at his cup. “I already said I would.” Softly, he added, “You can’t run from her like you do every other woman simply because of Gorm.”
Skarde sucked in a breath and pushed back his chair as if about to stand. The name of the brother he’d idolized, the one who’d taught him how to survive his father’s temper, still had the power to hurt.
“Our brother was unstable before he got married and worse after,” Cade continued.
“Our father broke him. The week in isolation in the pit… We survived, but he didn’t come out right.
Gorm warped love into an abusive sort of control that drove his wife to despise him.
She feared him so much she asked me to kill her once. Did you know that?”
Skarde knew.
Cade folded his hands on the table. “I refused to get in the middle of that fucked up relationship.”
“I don’t want to talk about Gorm. I know he wasn’t in his right mind, but clearly love didn’t work for him or our parents.”
“Our parents? That foul union didn’t start with love.
And it ended without a shred of it between them.
Do you remember how many times Mamman tried to kill him?
I’m thinking at least twenty. The foul asshole was simply too tough to die or savvy enough to dodge death.
Did you ever wonder why he didn’t kill her and be done with her murderous attempts?
I think he loved it. He took it as another kind of challenge he could survive. He egged her on at one point.”
Skarde had forgotten a lot of that. “We’re a product of our upbringing.”
“True. I’m no relationship expert, but you’re going to have to work through all of it. You’re neither of them. Nothing scares you, but the thought of sharing feelings or someone getting under your skin, getting to know you… That sends you running.”