Hold Me Down (Descent to Darkness #4)

Chapter 1

Ashia

‘Waking Up’ – MJ Cole, Freya Ridings

The drive back home is the longest it’s ever been.

Rain continues to beat on the window, and while I know that Alex is going as quickly as he can, it’s just not acceptable.

No one is talking except for the occasional notification from Carter, but it’s killing me inside.

My heart is beating so fast that I feel like it matches the pace of the wheels turning, and I’m so fidgety that I have to either move my hands or keep my leg bouncing.

We found him. We actually found him. Well, Zeke did, but it doesn’t matter, because my husband is coming home.

He’s finally home. I can’t wait to wrap my arms around him and never let go.

His heart will finally beat against my ear, and everything will be right again.

I’ll breathe him in until I pass out, and then I’ll just stay in his arms forever.

Carter told us they just made it to the house, and Grease is helping Zeke get Damien to the first-floor guest room.

I had no idea that Grease was even involved, but I can’t even bring myself to care about that.

I’ll learn everything that happened once we get there, but for now, the silence is deafening.

They’re still keeping a lot from me, and the thought alone is infuriating.

What if something they hid could’ve helped us find him sooner?

There’s a real possibility that we could’ve put this together if they were just fucking honest with me, but there’s nothing we can do about it now.

Even though Carter is the only one to speak, he’s been careful about what to say as we ride, and it’s only making me angrier.

What could be so bad that they’re refusing to tell me? How do they think I’ll react?

Our baby girl kicks and flips in my belly like she knows something is happening, and I just want to tell her that Daddy’s back.

Who knows if she can even hear me yet, and she wouldn’t understand anyway, but I just want to scream it.

I want her to know that everything is going to be okay now.

That’s what I’m telling myself, at least. He’s hurt, and maybe I won’t realize the extent of his injuries until I see him, but all I can focus on is that he’s home.

Alex’s warnings keep blaring in my mind, and that only makes the anticipation worse.

He’s waiting for me. He needs me, and no cautionary demands are going to keep me from him.

Nothing that happened to him could be bad enough to drive me away, and if Alex thinks I’ll just be a complacent bystander to his pain, then he doesn’t know me as well as I thought he did.

After what feels like eternity, we finally pull up to the house, and we don’t even make it into the garage before I fling open my door.

“Ash! Hold on a second!” Ser screams, but I step out of the car anyway, not wasting another moment.

I march up to the garage door and make my way inside.

Each determined step is one leap closer to him.

This intense urge drives me forward, and the invulnerability conjuring in my chest is something I’ve never felt before.

Nails patter against the concrete behind me, clearly from Daisy, and I faintly hear a ‘God damn it’ from Carter, but I throw open the kitchen door to go in anyway.

For whatever reason, they’re trying to stop me, and I can’t let them.

As I rush through the area between the kitchen and the living room, Serena grabs my hand. I whip around and bare my teeth, almost losing myself completely as she tries to keep us apart.

“Ash, you need to sit down on the couch and wait until Derek and I can look him over.”

“What?! He’s in the other room, Ser! I’m not going to sit around and wait to see him!” I try to pull my arm away, but she doesn’t let me.

“Yes, you are!” she yells at me, and a light shock bursts in my chest. “You are on bed rest, which means little to no movement, and here you are storming through the house! I’m not trying to be a bitch, I swear, but if you go back there right now, you’re only going to break your own heart, and you’ll just be in our way.

” Her face melts into the same sympathetic look she used to give me when we were younger.

It almost makes me sick. “Sit down. Now!”

I can feel her grip on my hand tighten, and my lip instantly quivers.

She's never yelled at me like that before.

I've suddenly shrunk down to the size of a kid, and my instinct is to cower away from her. I immediately hate myself for it. These hormones are going to be the death of me, I swear, but I just can’t help it.

She's about to be even more upset with me, though, because I need to see him.

My soul needs to watch him take a breath, and I have to look at the different blues in his eyes.

I just have to, and no one is going to stop me—especially not my best friend.

My gaze hardens at her in anger before I rip my hand away and continue towards the room.

Her voice echoes through the hallway as she pleads behind me, but I just don’t care.

The love of my life is hanging by a thread in the next room, and she just expects me to stay out of the way?

She's stood by my side and watched how this has ripped my heart in two, and I desperately need to start healing—Damien and I both do.

The moment I make it through the guest room door, everything flips upside down.

My eyes land on him, and suddenly, I can’t move.

The temperature drops to the point of freezing, and every breath that was once filling up my lungs is forced out.

He must have stolen the air right out of me, because my legs quake and threaten to crumble.

Serena’s reasoning smacks me in the face, and I’m on the verge of shattering into pieces.

Damien looks so pale and small, like if he were to move too much, a bone would easily snap.

I can faintly see the outline of his ribcage underneath all of the injuries, which is only a testament to all he’s had to endure.

That alone breaks my heart. There’s a thin blanket covering him from the waist down, and it allows me to see almost everything as he attempts to kick it off.

He’s moaning in pain and fighting against Zeke and Grease as they try to hold him down, but he’s clearly weaker than he’s ever been before.

There’s barely an inch of skin that isn’t covered in some type of mark—whether that be a bruise, a cut, a burn, or other marks that I can’t make out immediately.

The room tilts, almost taking me with it.

Static starts to block my sight, and I have to grab onto the doorframe to keep myself upright.

Zeke looks back at me with teary eyes—similar to my own, which I can barely see through—and then his face morphs with dark reds and tight features.

“Damn it, Carter! Get her out of here!” he screams.

Firm hands grip the tops of my arms and pull me out of the room.

I unwillingly let Carter lead me away, but I’m not sure how I’m moving at all.

It doesn’t feel like I am. The world shifts around me, yet I can’t process it.

Everything is moving at lightning speed, but I’m stepping in slow motion, unable to hear or feel anything anymore.

My surroundings are caught in the same vacuum, and it’s sucking everything out of me.

I thought I’ve seen him in pain before, but it was nothing compared to this.

Even as we make our way back towards the living room, I can still hear his cries, and each breath he takes is another blow right to my heart.

Tears flood my cheeks, and the urge to punch Carter in the face and run back to Damien drowns my entire body.

Pain explodes through my chest. Every inch of my body tingles, and I feel sick.

I’ve felt shock before, but this is indescribable.

This is a tragedy worse than those already foretold.

Destroying something as solidified as Damien’s strength is catastrophic in the most ethereal way.

They stormed our pearly gates and unleashed hell upon the one that God already deemed a reaper—my dark God of War.

The ground beneath me threatens to give way, plummeting us into the storm I swore to chase him through.

Serena is only a blur as she darts past me, and the small breeze kicks my breathing back into gear. I gasp softly, desperate to ground myself for him. Now is not the time to crumble. I need to face the storm and stand tall—to keep a barrier between it and him.

As we enter the kitchen, my eyes avert to a stranger standing by the island.

Her hair is long and wild, and she stands awkwardly as Alex and Derek bring in the medical supplies.

She’s a little taller than me, and strikingly beautiful.

Even under the wounds on her face, I can see that.

She has full lips, which might be a little swollen, eyes as dark and cool as the night sky, and dark, ashy-brown, curly hair that flares out all around her.

Something seems familiar about her, though, like I’ve seen her before, and it sends an uneasy wave of recognition down my spine.

When her eyes meet mine and I can make out her full features, that’s when it clicks.

A new rage races to the surface of my skin.

That’s Victoria Avery.

She is involved.

She hurt him…

A red haze blankets my vision, and before I can even think, I swipe one of our knives from the block on the counter.

My body’s autopilot switches to full throttle, and I dart over to her with the blade raised above my shoulder.

Daisy immediately starts to bark and snarl, like she would join in before I could get the command out.

I don’t even think of it, though. I can’t think of anything other than tearing her apart myself.

Victoria jumps back and away from me, but I don’t waste a second and move with her.