Chapter 20 Aiden
I dove into the pool and swam all the way to the other end before coming up for air. The energy inside of me was bursting at the seams. I felt so good—like the day after winning a battle or rejuvenating in the sacred springs of my old kingdom.
My power roared inside, and I had a feeling that was due to my bond with Katarina. And with Dorian.
I’d had my fair share of women through my many years, but what we experienced this morning?
The three of us? It was magical in every sense of the word.
Even now, I needed to use all my self-control just to stay away from her room.
I wanted so much more of her. I wanted to feel that magical link between the three of us.
That ribbon that tied us together and allowed us to share our feelings and our emotions.
I sank into the water again and closed my eyes.
The gurgling of the bubbles around me soothed my soul and gave me a chance to get control of my hormones.
Damn if I didn’t feel like a teenager going through puberty right now.
Even that thought made my dick shift under my suit and forced me to laugh at the ridiculousness.
This woman was going to kill me.
That pleasant thought was ripped from my psyche when someone screamed in pain. It was all in my head, and I immediately felt Dorian’s fear and anguish and knew that something was wrong.
Was it Katarina? Was it him? Where was he?
I jumped out of the water and listened to my surroundings. The pool was along the far side of the property, something Roman added after we moved in. But no one else was over here, and I forced my heart to still as I closed my eyes and listened again.
A searing pain ripped through my arm, right where that damn bullet grazed me last night. But it wasn’t my pain. It was Dorian’s. I could almost picture him rolling on the ground and suffering in agony.
There! I recognized that tree in his thoughts.
Dorian was at the memorial garden.
I immediately teleported to the opposite side of the grounds under the live oak, and a place Roman liked to spend a lot of time.
My feet landed in the grass, just a few feet from the pavers and where there were usually four lounge chairs.
There were still four chairs, but two of them had been knocked to the side and I smelled the distinct metallic scent of fresh blood.
“Dorian?” I shouted, trying to find him.
“Aiden, no!” Roman called out to me, but I didn’t have a chance to look for him.
My arms suddenly burned, and my neck snapped back with a force. Cold iron chains wrapped across my body, scorching my skin and rendering me as weak as a human in an instant.
Fucking fae folklore.
“It worked,” someone behind me shouted.
“Hold him tight and make sure he can’t use his hands.”
I managed to huff a laugh, which only worsened the pain as tears filled my eyes. I couldn’t control them, but I certainly wasn’t about to give up. I spun around to face my enemies. Two men. Dressed in black and covered in face tattoos.
Witches.
With my arms pinned to my side, I tried to snap my fingers and call the flames to them. But my body was too busy fighting off the scorching pain of my skin literally melting away every place the iron chain touched that I didn’t have the energy to call upon the fire.
I snarled at the two men in front of me. “You will die for this!”
They smiled. Actually fucking smiled like we weren’t going to deliver the maximum revenge on them once we got out of this mess.
“Yeah, I don’t think so,” the tallest and oldest one taunted. He yanked on the chains and I whimpered while he laughed.
The other man kicked out at my chest, knocking me back onto the pavers. My head cracked against the stone and for a second, I saw stars. Blinking away the floating lights, I growled at them again as I tried to wiggle my way free. It was useless.
The tall man yanked on the chain and started dragging me toward the chairs. He huffed while he pulled my body weight, and I heard the other one moving the furniture out of the way.
After several agonizing moments of my scorched skin getting dragged over stone, they finally stopped. The younger witch used his foot to roll me over on my side, and that’s when I understood just how much trouble we were in.
“Roman?” I whispered to my friend.
His white shirt was soaked with blood and a wooden stake large enough to kill a dragon protruded from his chest. I had no idea how he was still alive.
Was he still alive? His skin was almost translucent, and it looked like it took all his energy to turn his head and find my gaze. “Katarina?” he whispered.
The tears came back. “I don’t know.”
Dorian moaned as he pushed an image of the three of us together in the shower into my mind.
I dropped my chin to find him lying near my feet and almost gasped at the sight.
His contorted body was frozen as half man and half wolf…
only way worse than what any Hollywood studio could imagine.
He lay on his side, arms bent at the wrong angles and fingers too long to pass for human.
His jaw had elongated and fur sprouted from his cheeks.
But those were still Dorian’s eyes and he was suffering.
Stay still, my friend, I sent through my bond. Funny how we had just forged this connection and could already use it.
“Katarina?’ he breathed, coughing when his lips wouldn’t move the right way and he started to choke.
“She’s strong. She can handle herself.” I shifted my focus back to Roman, but he could no longer keep his eyes open. His dark hair was matted with blood and the way his sunglasses titled on his face made him look more like a corpse than ever before.
God damn the Crescent Coven.
They were going to pay for this in blood.
One of the men tugged on my chain and I screamed in pain and in anger. “You fuckers!”
“Stop your screaming,” the taller one said a second before he kicked me in the head.
I tried not to pass out. Had these chains not been on me, I would have been fine. But iron rendered me useless, and I would not be able to heal from this abuse as long as they were touching my skin.
“What do we do with them?” the younger man asked.
“You heard her. We keep them here until she has that girl.”
Katarina.
This was all about her.
I squirmed and in my head, I was able to move quite a bit. But in reality, my body was weak and my fighting ability was nearly gone. Dorian let out a long sigh that terrified me. Was he dying? No, no, no. This wasn’t happening.
Using every ounce of energy I could gather, I rolled onto my back so I could face our enemy. Both of them stood just far enough away that I couldn’t reach them with my mouth or head, but close enough that I could clearly see their expressions.
“You will die for this,” I snarled.
The tall one shrugged. “You have to survive first.”
I didn’t know what he was implying until I felt the cold, iron blade slide into my stomach. I sputtered a cough as the poison from the metal dissipated into my bloodstream, immediately causing me so much agony I couldn’t breathe.
And when the iron fragments surrounded my heart and squeezed tight enough to make it slow, I could only think about Katarina’s smile as the blackness took hold.