Chapter 45
FORTY-FIVE
AIDEN
It’s a hand over my mouth that wakes me.
I thrash, kicking my legs out as I’m dragged out of bed. Without my glasses, everything is blurry, but I can still make out the four figures in the dark room, but only one of them is next to me.
“Let him go! I’ll fucking—Fuck!”
My eyes widen and I scream, the sound muffled by the hand over my mouth, as I watch a solid blow be delivered to Levi’s face by one of the three men around him. His head lulls back, the impact jarring him, but he doesn’t stop. He keeps fighting, pulling against the three figures trying to keep him contained, but they’re struggling with his ferocity.
“Keep his arms together!”
“Well, I’m fucking trying, aren’t I?”
“Shit! He bit me!”
I gasp as I recognize the voices. Those aren’t just three unnamed, unknown men. It’s Bel, Gore, and Asi that are currently wrestling Levi to the ground, slamming his head against the wooden floor so forcefully that I swear I hear something crack. This makes me turn to my own attacker, and even though the image of him is fuzzy, I know by those bright blue eyes and dimpled cheeks that it’s Mammon currently trying to pull me out of the room.
I’m no match for him, but I still try. I thrash and claw at his arm, ripping skin off, but it amounts to nothing. He’s too strong and I’m caught off-guard. When I manage to smack him in the eye, he growls and tosses me onto the floor, the impact making me cry out in pain.
“Aiden! Aiden!” Levi screams, biting at the air as Gore ties his arms behind his back. “Fucking stop! Don’t hurt him!”
I whimper when a kick is delivered to my still healing ribs, and it knocks the breath from me. I wheeze but don’t give up. I look at Levi—at the agony in his eyes—and I try to go to him, all the while manic laughter rings out around us. “Levi?—”
I’m hauled up by my hair and thrown against the wall, hitting the cracked mirror which shatters even further, impaling my skin with broken glass. Still, I fight, crawling through broken glass toward my monster who’s trying to reach out bound hands to me. Tears well in my eyes when a boot slams against the side of my face, knocking spit and blood from my lips. Levi roars, struggling even further as his brothers try to get him to stand.
“Please!” he begs, his voice cracking when Mammon stomps on my still-healing fingers, and I scream. “Please! Stop!”
I start to cry, not because of the pain, but because of the sheer desperation in Levi’s voice. He’s not a man that begs—who cries—but he’s unraveling before our very eyes. He’s dashing his pride to plead for my life.
Through a bloody mouth, I roll onto my back, fighting against losing consciousness as Mammon hits me. Again and again and again until my vision becomes blotchy and filled with stars. I turn my head, only able to watch as Asi, Bel, and Gore lift Levi up to his feet. He tries to rush to me, but they cut him off at his legs, and send him tumbling back down to the floor. His eyes snap up to Mammon who towers over me, unshed tears in his eyes. “I’m begging you. Don’t do this. Don’t take him away from me.”
“You’re the only one to blame,” Mammon says, but there’s no wicked joy in his voice, no amusement at what’s happening. “Actions have consequences. You should say your goodbyes now.”
It’s then that I realize this is a losing battle. We’re outnumbered, woken up in the dead of night, and there’s no way we’re getting out of this. Moments of my life fly through my mind—all the ‘what-ifs’ —but the only thing I care about is making sure that the last thing Levi hears is my voice.
“Leviathan…” I groan, my fingertips so close to touching him. “I l-love y-you.”
He loses it, shrieking as his brothers once again pick him up. “No, no, no! Aiden! Aiden !”
His voice, that almost demonic and haunting melody, is the last thing I hear as I die.