Ronen
Chapter
Thirty-One
Rune slept with me that night. She currently had her muzzle poking into my neck and her hind-leg claws digging into my calf.
It wasn’t like my bed couldn’t fit four more of her.
She just had to sleep in the most awkward position right next to me.
At least the crushed mint and herbs I swiped from the kitchen helped with her breath as it annoyingly puffed into my face.
Then drool dripped down her jowls and plopped onto my skin.
Time to get up.
But that was all I did.
I stood there, knowing I needed to change to meet the pet. Knowing I claimed to want to be a better male, to make Gabriel proud. Except when she no longer stood beside me last night, when I realized what door she went to, it felt like she’d driven a knife into my chest.
She’d given me the best night of my life, and in turn, I gave her more of me. Then it felt like she threw it in my face.
I was already in a dark mood after seeing Michael’s scars on her back.
All five fucking scars the bastard carved into her.
It was the first time I’d ever seen them.
My praesidium plunged me into a cold wrath, and for the rest of the night, all I could think about was how badly I wanted to find and murder him for marking her.
The truth was, I should’ve expected what would happen at the end of the night. I knew where she slept. Who she slept with. But I didn’t want her in his room. I wanted her in mine.
And now I needed to go save the pet from himself, when that was the absolute last thing I wanted to do.
Sitting back down on my bed, I tried to think about what Gabriel would say.
He’d probably try to rile me up and convince me to fight fair, or the reward wouldn’t be as sweet.
Then I’d tell him he was full of shit because I’d tasted the Hellion, and she was more than sweet.
She was decadent. To which he’d slap me upside the head, then give me a speech that I’d act like I didn’t take to heart. But I always did.
If you truly care about Lucille, you’ll help him. If not to give him a fighting chance, then to give Lucille some relief from being a caretaker.
“Seven Hells, I can practically hear your patronizing, honorable voice from the Eternal Forest,” I muttered, waking Rune.
She plopped her head on my lap and sent me support and tough love.
“You too?” I accused. “It’s bad enough having an imagined conversation with Gabriel without adding your needling into the mix.”
Nudging my legs, Rune whined, wanting me to move.
“Fuck. Fine,” I barked, striding to my closet. “But you’re coming with, and you better be ready to intervene, Rune.”
She bared her large canines, sending me a threatening confirmation. I’d felt her bite only once before. Soulhounds may pick their angel, but the angel still has to earn their respect. And that respect came at a vicious, painful price. My calf still throbbed sometimes from her claim.
Once ready, I flew to the Eternal Forest, and Rune ran somewhere below me.
Maybe I’d get lucky and the pet wouldn’t show.
Luck and I had a turbulent relationship.
I landed in front of him, the glow of the forest highlighting his empty gaze.
“How’d you sleep?” I mocked, circling him.
“Like I always do.”
“Right.” I socked him in the face and kicked in his knees. He slammed into the ground with an unsatisfactory soft thump. Should’ve hit him harder if he was going to be so damned annoying. “Why are you still here?” I demanded.
“You told me to be.” The pet tried to push off the ground. My boot stomped on his chest, pinning him.
“Please tell me you have at least one brain cell left. Why are you here?” I spat, grinding my heel into his squadron uniform. His ribs flexed beneath the pressure, and my shadows coiled in gleeful suspense. Just a little more force, and I could break them. Tempting. So unbelievably tempting.
“Because I deserve it.”
Damn right he did. Still wasn’t the right answer. I pressed harder, digging in like he was a disgusting bug I needed to kill. His ribs shifted. The pet gasped, I grinned, and Rune growled, sending me a feeling of reproach.
I snapped my head up. She gnashed her teeth at me, prowling closer.
“You’re late. And this hardly warrants your attitude. Save it for later.” I most likely only bruised his ribs, possibly fractured one or two. Sam could heal those in a couple hours. “We’re just getting started.”
She sat, the shadows woven through her fur stilling, preparing. Unlike with the hellion, I couldn’t block her from feeling me. She knew I edged the line between doing what served him and what served me.
Removing my boot, I waited to see what state I’d put the pet in.
He pushed to his feet with little struggle. Bruised, then.
“Is she going to join in?” He nodded toward Rune.
“No.”
“Then why is she here?”
His question didn’t deserve a response.
“If she’s not here to help you, then she’s either a spectator or a buffer.”
“And?”
Blue flames flashed in his irises. “I don’t want a buffer.”
A cruel grin stretched across my face. “I don’t give a shit what you want. If you came for pain, I’ll give you pain.”
That seemed to satisfy him. Superb.
Now, would he give me what I wanted, or would we be at this for weeks? Months? The thought sickened me.
He stood there like an eager, miserable sacrifice. What did the hellion see in him?
I gritted my teeth and split his lip with my fist. Then hit the same spot again, harder. It reminded me of Alexei’s treatment with me. The pain had woken me up. It helped focus my attention on the present and away from the horrible memories. It had given me relief, as I imagined it did for him.
He fell, grunting. Then stood for more.
“Why do you keep getting up?” I slammed my fist into his injured side, forcing him to sink to his knees.
Rune growled again. I suppose I shouldn’t break his ribs.
“I already told you,” he snapped, spitting blood from his mouth.
Hmm. I could work with that.
“No. You’ve told me what you’ve told yourself. I want the truth.”
“What truth?”
For fuck’s sake. How did Alexei do it?
“Why.” I drove my fist into his jaw. “Do.” His stomach. “You.” His nose. “Keep.” His jaw again. “Getting.” His mouth. “Up?”
“Why do you keep avoiding my ribs?” he accused, spitting on my boots.
Was that his attempt to bait me?
I’d had countless bodily fluids splatter my boots over the years. His hardly mattered. Although I couldn’t help but be smug that we were finally making progress.
Let’s see how angry he became if I didn’t hurt him at all.
“You expect me to answer your question when you refuse to answer mine?”
“I have!” he shouted.
I chuckled.
Something snaked through his tightening expression. I knew that look. It was the same one MJ got when she had me by the balls. Or Alexei, when he developed a plan that’d destroy our adversary. He had a card up his sleeve. Was he about to rub Lucille’s sleeping habits in my face?
I’d already battled with that this morning.
Was he going to bring up their past sexual exploits? The thought pissed me off, but also made me smile, because I had some of my own now. More recent too.
“Remember when I told you about the time I ran my tongue all over Lucille’s body?”
So fucking predictable. I shrugged, keeping a tight hold on my pissy shadows, knowing my nonchalant response would further goad him. That was part of our goal, after all. Unfortunately, it did nothing. He truly thought he had something.
“Well, I forgot to mention each time I made her orgasm on my fingers and tongue, giving her the first moments of pleasure in her entire twenty years…” He paused, letting his trailing words sink in.
Did they really count if they happened in her dream-walks?
Still, his words were like tiny needles digging beneath my skin, creating holes for my shadows to seep through as they attacked my body, trying to fly out and silence him.
I tensed, keeping them close. He wanted a reaction.
The need for pain in this stage was undeniable.
And as much as his words taunted the beast inside me, I wouldn’t give him what he wanted.
Then he continued.
“I manipulated her.”
A deadly cold pooled through my system.
“I took her pleasure all for the sake of the show I provided for Lilith.”
Show?
He used Lucille’s most vulnerable moments to give a show to that deranged fucking witch?
My Soul Swords were in my hands before I even realized I’d moved. My vicious shadows seethed to be released. To raze him from this world. I clenched my hilts, arms and legs shaking with my fraying restraint.
She would never forgive me.
“Should’ve seen how happy I made her after I seduced her into trusting me.”
I took one step, teeth clenched, battling every cell in my body screaming at me to close the distance and end this.
“Stop,” I hissed, trying to save his rotten existence.
He lifted his chin, exposing his neck. “And even after I betrayed her trust—”
I’ll lose her.
“—poisoned those special moments for her—”
I’ll lose her.
“—smashed her feeble little heart—”
Blood pounded in my ears.
“—she still came to my kingdom to rescue me or die trying. And she almost did, didn’t she? Like she will if you let me live.”
My praesidium ripped away the last of my resistance.
I moved and swung my swords with the full intention of severing his head from his body and watching his soul sift into my blades.
Rune leaped on the pet, knocking him down.
My steel sliced through empty air. She whipped around, clamping her teeth around my swords, and ripped them from my hands, flinging them away.
I luscelered one way and sent my shadows in the other.
Rune intercepted my lusceler, tackling me to the ground.
Her hind claws sank through my uniform into my outer thighs, forcing a hiss from my lips.
The tips of her front claws teased my chest, pinning me beneath her strength.
She seethed above me, gnashing her teeth, barely refraining from biting me.
“You forgot about my shadows,” I countered, fully succumbed to my praesidium.
The pet wouldn’t be any better off when they sank into his brain and slowly tore apart his nerves, burst his blood cells, and overheated his body.
Humor danced through our connection, and I realized my shadows still hadn’t brought me his blood. They had absorbed it. Their density and weight had changed the moment they did. So where were they?
My eyes narrowed.
She ceased snarling, sat back, and tilted her head. A heavy black cloud hung suspended in the air beside her. It writhed as if caught in an invisible barrier. The tendrils reached toward me. I tugged on my power, urging it to move. Rune tugged back, keeping them in place.
Impossible.
I knew Soulhounds were siphons. They could use our powers. But I never knew they could overpower their angels’ control. Jerking upward, I reached for my blood-soaked shadows. She snapped her jaws around the cloud before I could. They flooded into her, changing her normal golden eyes to black.
I froze.
Rune used my surprise against me, sending a shadowball into the pet’s chest and knocking him unconscious. Why would she—
Another shadowball flew toward me. I scoffed.
As if that’d do anything to me.
That was my last thought before everything went black.
Waking up, I gave myself a second to sit with my disbelief. Rune could use my shadows against me. Had she always had the ability and hidden it from me? Or was it new?
She no longer pinned me down, and the spot where the pet had collapsed lay empty. They were gone.
The Eternal Forest still illuminated the clearing, which meant I hadn’t been knocked out for long.
Rune, I hissed down our connection. Where the hell are you?
She responded with defiance.
We both know you can’t drag his unconscious body faster than I can find you.
Her feelings screamed, Challenge accepted.
I pushed to my feet, ignoring the sting and warmth dripping down my legs. My jaw ticked as I gazed into the depths of the blue glow.
“He does not deserve to live. He does not deserve her forgiveness,” I whispered harshly, speaking to Gabriel’s remains. “I am not a better male. I am not you.”
I strode toward where Rune had flung my swords. Or where I thought she had tossed them. I searched the glowing trunks, expecting to find them at the base of one. Frustration poked at my lingering rage. It shouldn’t be this hard to find my damned swords.
Rune’s wicked delight answered me. I threw up a wall between us. She still felt everything—a safety mechanism in our connection. If anything happened to me, she’d die. That didn’t mean I couldn’t keep her smug satisfaction from drilling into my skull.
I whipped around. Had I misjudged where she tossed them? Then I stilled.
My swords hid in the darkness of a lightless tree.
The sight shook me to my core. The Eternal Forest was named for its never-ending nightly light.
Every angelic soul forever lived on through the luminance and warmth they gave this land.
Their memory remained unending, unquestionable, everlasting.
Nothing could, would, or should ever alter that fact.
So staring at the brown trunk, black creeping through the veins that should’ve been glowing blue, plunged me into a deep, foreboding horror.
Searching for the cause, I noted the boot prints and the dark substance coating the dead grass—the infected’s blood.
It still painted the ground from when we fought the infected Damned during Saraqael’s funeral.
From the path of rot spreading from the fight zone to the trunk, it looked as if the blood had eaten away the soul light and infected it all at once.
Alexei was right. Their infected blood was poisoning the land. But I still didn’t think this was enough to cause the weather changes.
Rune slammed against my wall. I dropped it immediately. Desperation and a cry for help crashed through our connection, carrying her location with it. I cloaked myself in shadows and luscelered to them.