45. Thalia
THALIA
“ W hat the hell happened?” Barrett asked, his wide eyes falling on the unconscious human women in my arms as I brushed past him down the halls of The Complex. Warriors parted ways, clearing a path as I rushed through the doors to the stairwell, Micah close behind as we descended quickly.
“She was being hunted by an immortal,” I said without sparing him a glance, ignoring the rush as my heart quickened when his footsteps followed us. Micah held the double doors to Dr. Johnson’s medical bay open, clearing my path as I quickly carried her in.
“What can I do for—” Dr. Johnson’s eyes fell to the human. “What happened?”
“An immortal?” Barrett asked, pace picking up to come into my line of sight.
My steps halted, and I turned to him, irrational irritation swelling in my chest.
“Were you not listening?” I bit out, immediately regretting the tone. I cleared my throat as I turned to carry her toward a bed. Dr. Johnson followed close behind me, immediately checking over her wounds.
I backed away, giving him room to assess her. “We don’t know how much she saw. If she saw too much, wiping her memories will be beyond our abilities.”
Dr. Johnson nodded and gestured to a nearby nurse. “Nicholas is a Nous user; he will be able to help.”
“Where did you find her?” Barrett asked, brows furrowing as he stepped closer to her bedside.
Micah frowned, and we exchanged confused looks before he answered. “Near Central Park.”
Since when had Barrett taken an interest in humans?
The nurse, Nicholas, approached, dipping his head to us as he stopped at the head of her bed. “I’ll make quick work so Dr. Johnson can care for her. Then, we can take her back into town before she wakes up.”
“Do you know her?” I asked, my question nearly overlapping Nicholas’ words as Barrett continued to stare at her. Dr. Johnson stepped back, giving him room as his eyes passed over her hair, her wounds. Then, he leaned over her and forced one of her eyes open to look at it.
Nicholas turned his attention to the girl, but Barrett’s hand shot out, grabbing his forearm to stop him from wiping the human’s mind. I frowned, glancing at Micah, who looked just as puzzled.
“No,” Barrett said, ignoring my question, and my gaze snapped to him.
“No?” Nicholas asked.
“No?” I echoed under my breath.
“I want her bewitched. There’re questions I need her to answer,” Barrett explained, releasing him.
“Does it have something to do with that assignment Damien gave you?” Micah asked, and Barrett stiffened but didn’t look his way, didn’t answer.
“Wake her up,” Barrett ordered.
Nicholas nodded. “Right away, sir.”
His hands rose to hover near her temples, and he closed his eyes. Barrett took a step back, and I remained silent, biting back the urge to press, to demand answers.
The woman’s eyes fluttered opened, the hazel of her irises dulled and drunken as she sat up.
“What’s your name?” Nicholas asked.
“Erika,” she said without hesitation, her words a near slur.
Nicholas glanced at Barrett and nodded.
“Do you know the man who attacked you?” Barrett asked.
“No,” she said, her voice flat.
Barrett let out a sigh. “Tell me what you know about him. ”
“I met him at the bar,” she said, her eyes almost unseeing as she stared forward.
“Did you get a good look at him?” Barrett pressed.
“He wore a hood. His face...” Her lips started to quiver, the words cutting short, but there was no fear in her voice, her expression. It was as if the knowledge she’d been tasked to relinquish simply ceased to exist.
“What about his face?” Barrett demanded, brows pinching together.
“I have no memory of it,” she said, blinking. “Blurred. Darkened.”
Barrett let out a groan of frustration. “Tell me what happened.”
“He asked me how old I was,” she said. “Then, he wouldn’t leave me alone, asked me if I had any strange dreams lately. When I told him I wasn’t interested in talking anymore, he got agitated and stormed off.”
My heart plummeted in anticipation of what I knew was to come, what I feared had happened given the state we’d found her in.
“I hadn’t realized he’d followed me from the bar. He cornered me, started asking me strange questions. None of it made sen?—”
“What questions?” Barrett demanded.
“He wanted to...” Once again the words fell short, and she blinked, a pained look slipping through the drunken mask. “I can’t...”
“Barrett,” I warned, watching the numb look on her face fracture, her brows furrowing as her mind began to buckle under some invisible weight.
“Think. You must remember,” Barrett growled, planting his hands on the bed on either side of her.
I grabbed his shoulder. “Barrett!”
He whipped around to look back at me, his eyes furious, but he didn’t speak. The girl’s eyes fluttered before she slumped back onto the bed, Nicholas catching her before her head hit the mattress.
Nicholas panted, a sheen of sweat coating his brow. “Apologies.”
A muscle ticked in Barrett’s jaw as he stared down at me. Never had he looked so angry at me, his steel eyes burning with a sort of resentment that mirrored my own. It hurt to look at, hurt to feel that gaze sear into me.
“Search her memories,” Barrett said without looking away from me. “See if you can find anything.”
“Right away, sir,” Nicholas said, arranging the girl into a more comfortable position.
Barrett shoved past me, and I twisted to watch him storm out of the medical bay. The beast bristled within me, its affection for Barrett not enough to take his temper as I followed him through the double doors.
“What the hell is your problem?” I demanded, grabbing his shoulder and forcing him to turn back to me.
His lips parted but then shut as he seemed to struggle to form words. He pulled his gaze from me, his hands balling into fists. “You’re interfering with my work.”
“Your work?” I balked. “I was only trying to help you! ”
“Thalia,” Micah said in warning as he approached me from behind, his hand coming to rest on my shoulder.
“No, this is bullshit,” I shouted, glancing back at him before leveling my gaze on Barrett whose eyes briefly flitted to Micah’s hand.
“What’s going on with you? You’re always in a foul mood, skipping out on training, irritable whenever we hang out.
Then, you push that poor girl past her mental limit when it’s clear the fucking Nous user altered her memories. You could have hurt her!”
He tilted his head and arched a brow, his voice bitter as he spat his words at me. “Oh, you care so much for these humans now, do you?”
“I do when they are unjustly harmed!” I shouted. “Unlike you, I have a conscious. Unlike you, I’ve seen the cruelty those without power suffer at the hands of those with it.”
His chest heaved as he took a step back, a muscle ticking in his jaw despite the flicker of guilt in his eyes.
“Have you spent so much time with those foul creatures of The Underworld that you now share their taste for human disdain?”
He stiffened, gaze briefly shifting to the curious eyes around us, and I sucked in a breath.
That was confidential knowledge, something no one was to know; technically, not even I should know about his ties to The Underworld.
Barrett didn’t respond, his silence too loud, and the quiet murmurs of the onlooking warriors in the hall of The Complex began to fill my ears.
Barrett leaned down just a fraction, meeting my gaze. “Don’t fucking get involved.”
“I’m worried about you,” I admitted in a near whisper.
Something flickered across his steel eyes, a molten softness that immediately hardened once more, tempering into something that could cut me down.
“Your worry is a burden I’d rather not suffer.”