Chapter 22
Lola
My weak and exhausted legs struggled to propel me to the entrance of the camp, where the little hook in my stomach was pulling me to. A call that my body and mind was unable to resist.
Dimitri was here. He was back.
I tried apologizing to every person I ran into, stumbling as I moved forward.
Damn frenzy. If Carter hadn’t spent most of the night fucking my brain’s out, my body wouldn’t feel so fucking sore. Not that I was complaining, but what awful timing.
I could see it now.
The large group of people swarming the area in front of the main gate.
“Where is she?” Dimitri yelled, his voice broken. “Don’t fucking touch me! Where is my mate?”
Tears sprang to my eyes. He wasn’t well. I ran faster, hands outstretched to push people away from my path.
The ones surrounding him finally turned their heads as I forced my way into the crowd, shoving some to the side, punching the few who tried to hold me back.
“Dimitri!” I croaked, my voice something between a plea and a sob.
The rest of the crowd parted, letting go of him right as my body collided with his chest. His arms snapped around me, holding me tight as he let out a relieved but shuddering sigh and we fell to our knees on the ground.
My eyes were closed, but the metallic smell of blood covered his familiar scent of leather and citrus. I couldn’t open them. I didn’t want to see and acknowledge the bad state he came back to me in.
“I’m here, zhizn moya. I’m here. We’ll be alright,” he whispered in my hair, rocking us as he spoke.
But his hold felt weaker by the second. His arms slumping before he tried to force them back around me.
“Dimitri,” I sobbed, opening my eyes to finally look and inspect him.
His eyes swirled angrily, bright with the undeniable madness taking over his whole mind. Taking over his exhausted body.
“Zhi—I don’t…I don’t feel so good,” he stuttered, losing the fight with his arms as they fell to his side and he started to fall against me.
“Call for fucking help!” I screamed at the people surrounding us as I held him to me, supporting his weight with mine. His eyes fluttered close. “Don’t just stand there like useless fucking morons!”
“The Nephilim is back,” a guard said quietly, face hidden by his mask, hand pressing the little button I knew was hidden to the side. Finally. “Signs of madness, but he collapsed. Arc isn’t here and Carrie is not responding, she’s in a meeting.”
Dimitri was now fully out. I held him tighter, pressing the side of his head against my heart.
You’ll be fine. Hold on just a little while.
I needed to bring him to Ann. Just a little rest, and he’d be as good as—
“Restrain him and take him down to one of the cells,” the guard said, signaling other masked Immortals lingering by.
What?
I let Dimitri go softly, laying him on the floor as I crouched over him, my eyes not leaving the three guards approaching.
“If you take another fucking step, I’ll claw your fucking eyes out,” I said to them, my fingers morphing to ten inch claws.
They stopped, turning their faces to the man who gave the order. He shook his head, staring at me intently through the bottomless black holes of his crow mask.
“We can’t take any risks. He might wake up in a state of madness and attack everyone in his wake.”
“Then we have a problem, because if you try to put your filthy hands on him, I’ll be the one to attack.”
He pulled a strange looking dagger out of its sheath at his thigh and stared a bit longer as the other stayed still.
“Step away from the Nephilim,” he commanded.
“What are you going to do with that?” I taunted, nodding at his shiny little toy.
“I’m not above using it to get you out of the way.”
“Don’t you know what happened to the last ones who tried to restrain him and get me out of the way?” He didn’t react. I need to stall, someone trustworthy would be coming soon. “They got their ass kicked.”
“I don’t care who you’re sleeping with to get your way, I’m following orders,” he said.
This damn spot was cursed. It was the exact same place where I had to fight for him the last time, and I wasn’t above burning the front door to the ground to ensure they fucking stopped trying to take him from me.
My head tilted to the side. Three hesitating guards and one asshole. I could take them. Probably. Might have to use some mind tricks, though.
“And I don’t care who gave the fucking order, my threat still stands.”
The bastard—a Divine—shoved one of the other three forward to get him moving. “Restrain him and bring him to a cell. Get the Succubus too.”
They looked like they wanted to do anything but that. But I guess they thought that rejecting an order from one of their superiors would get them in more trouble than actually listening to my warnings.
Good. Dimitri came back to me all battered, and I itched for a fight. They would do.
The first one wasn’t cautious as he tried to reach for my arm to lift me up.
The four deep wounds on his shoulder, broken arm, and dislocated knee would take time to heal.
Black blood dripped from my claws as he sat on the floor, holding his leg with his uninjured arm like it might fall any moment. Weakling.
The second one was slower in his approach, pulling out a similar dagger than the one who stood comfortably to the side. “You sure about that?” I asked, adjusting my stance to turn to him, keeping an ear open for his slower companion behind me.
He didn’t answer, swiping the blade between us to try and reach my throat. I dodged, grabbing his arm with the motion. Using his own weight against him, I pulled and threw him to the last one’s feet, making him step back to avoid tripping over the dead weight.
The second one jumped back to his feet, slightly disoriented as he tightened his grip on his blade.
“Those are the Immortals protecting this camp?” I grinned. “Pretty mediocre, if you ask me. I’m just a Succubus, come on, how hard can it be?”
The demon lunged again, less cautious. I broke his wrist, making him drop his dagger to the ground.
He cried out, the sound haunting and muffled by his mask.
But I wasn’t done with him. I pulled the helmet off, my other hand landing on his forehead.
My eyes flared as I took hold of his mind, amplifying the overpowering emotion in it. Fear. How fun.
It took less than two seconds for him to fall to the ground and pull at his hair, looking around frantically and gripping at his chest.
Good. A little fear induced heart attack was great to get him off my back.
“What the Hell did you do to him?” the third one asked, stumbling back.
But I had no time for him, as the bastard who remained to the side until now was barely two feet behind me.
I turned too late and his hand was in my hair, gripping my braid tightly and pulling me up as his dagger found a place against my throat. I fought against him, swiping at his arm with my claws, leaving deep scratches in his long-sleeved uniform and skin.
“Get some backup!” he yelled over his shoulders as I managed to push his blade away from my skin, shattering the bones in his forearm in the process.
He dropped the blade, but it sliced at my kicking leg when it fell to the ground. No matter the pain he was in, he didn’t let go of my hair for too-long seconds. Long enough for backup to show up.
But not his.
Lightning struck my attacker and he shoved me to the ground as he fell, his body convulsing in pain. I scrambled back over Dimitri’s limp body on my hands and knees, panting from the soreness of my muscles and the pain of the superficial wounds on my throat and leg.
I lowered myself, enveloping him as best I could, whispering soft words to his ears. Over my cold dead body they’d take him anywhere other than a hospital bed or his room in Arc’s house.
A soft hand landed on my shoulder and I flinched, ready to attack once again. I need to protect him, protect what is mine. My mate. He was my mate, and he was suffering. I wouldn’t let anyone near him. No one cause him more harm.
“Lola, it’s alright,” Ann’s calm voice said to my side. “We’re here. Dimitri is safe.”
But I didn’t move. I couldn’t move. Carter had been attacked.
Dimitri was hurt. Arc was still missing.
I had to protect him. Protect them. I was failing.
Too weak to do anything. Fate had been cruel to bind me with so many souls.
I didn’t deserve them, didn’t deserve to be their core.
I couldn’t protect them, not without my lost soul.
Useless, the old voice in my mind whispered.
“Lola?” Marcus said softly, crouching on my other side. “You can let go now, he’s safe.”
“Get back.” My voice was unrecognizable. Something between a hiss and a growl as my whole body tightened above and around Dimitri’s unconscious form.
Marcus was pulled away before Kai said, “Give her a minute. Her mate instincts are all over the place, you can’t reason with her now.”
“She’s the core,” Ann continued, as to comfort my now silent friend. “And her mate is hurt. It’s a primal reaction, don’t take it personally.”
A comforting presence took Marcus’ place and the people around quieted the moment his hand landed on my back, moving up and down my spine in a slow motion.
“Lola, baby. He needs medical assistance, but we can’t move him if you don’t let him go,” Carter whispered before dropping a soft kiss on top of my hair.
“I can’t,” I breathed out. “I—What if someone tries to hurt him again?”
“No one will. I just need you to step back for a minute so we can place him on the stretcher. If you want to climb on it with him, that’s fine. You barely weigh anything, it won’t make much of a difference.”
Stepping back for a minute. I could do it. Couldn’t I?
With a shuddering breath, my muscles relaxed. Only enough for Carter to pull me up and into his arms, wrapping me in a tight hug.
“It’s going to be okay, baby. He’ll be okay,” he said in the crook of my ear.
My ear.
I pulled on my hair to cover it, my heart back to racing in my chest.