Dead After Dark (Companion #6.5)(12)

Bride rose from her rocking chair as she cuddled a sleeping toddler in her arms. “Are you all right, Fury?”

Angelia saw the fatigue on his face and could only imagine how much he must be hurting. Still, he’d come for her . . .

It was amazing.

“Yeah,” he said in a strained tone, “but I really need to lie down and rest for awhile.”

“Go sleep, sweetie.”

Fury paused and met Angelia’s gaze with a feral hostility so potent, it chilled her all the way to her soul. “You hurt her, you even give her a bad look that hurts her feelings and so help me, I will slaughter you like yesterday’s meal and no power, yours or otherwise, will save you. Do you understand me?”

She nodded.

“I’m not kidding,” he warned again.

“I know you’re not.”

He inclined his head to her before he shut the door.

Angelia turned to find Bride closing the distance on her. Without a word and still holding the toddler, Bride stepped past her and opened the door. Fury was back in wolf form, lying in the hallway where he must have collapsed as soon as he closed the door.

Her expression sympathetic, Bride knelt on the floor and sank one hand in his white fur. “Vane?”

He manifested in the hallway beside her. “What the hell’s he doing here? I was looking for him downstairs.”

“He wanted me to watch Angelia.”

Vane looked at Angelia and gave her a nasty glare. “Why?”

“He said she was scared and wanted me to stay with her. What’s going on?”

Vane’s face softened as he looked at his mate. The love he felt for her was more than obvious and it touched Angelia’s heart. No man had ever looked at her with that kind of tenderness.

He brushed a strand of hair back from her face before he dropped his hand down to the dark hair of the sleeping toddler. “I’m not sure myself, baby. Fury always talks more to you than he does me.” He returned his gaze to Angelia and it turned lethal and cold. “I warn you now. Anything happens to my mate or my son, we will hunt you down and rip you into so many pieces they’ll never find all of you.”

Angelia stiffened. “I’m not an animal. I don’t prey on people’s families to get back at them.”

Vane scoffed. “Oh, girl, trust me. Animals don’t revenge-kill or -attack. That’s purely human. So in this case, you better act like an animal and guard her with your life. ’Cause that’s what I’m going to take if she so much as gets a paper cut in your presence.”

Angelia returned his lethal stare with one of her own. If he thought to attack her, he was going to learn that she wasn’t a weakling. She was a trained warrior and she wouldn’t go down without a brutal fight. “You know, I’m really getting tired of being threatened by everyone.”

“No threats. Just a stated hard-core fact.”

Angelia glared at him, wanting to go for his throat. If only she wasn’t wearing her collar.

“All right, people,” Bride said. “Enough. You,” she said to Vane, “get Fury in bed and take care of him.” She stood up and walked to Angelia. “You, follow me and I promise I won’t threaten you unless you do something to deserve it.”

Vane laughed low in his throat. “And keep in mind that even though she’s human, she took out my mother and caged her. Don’t let her humanity fool you. She can be as vicious as they come.”

Bride made an air kiss at him while she cradled her son’s head with one hand. “Only when I’m protecting you and Baby Boo, sweetie. Now get Fuzzhead in bed. We’ll be fine.”

Angelia stepped back to allow Bride to lead the way back into the nursery. The walls were a pale baby blue decorated with teddy bears and stars. She put the toddler in his matching white-and-blue crib before she lifted the side into place.

Feeling awkward, Angelia folded her arms across her chest. “How old’s your son?”

“Two years. I know I should take him out of the crib, but he’s a kinetic sleeper and I’m not ready for him to accidentally fall out of bed yet. Silly, huh?”

She bit back a smile at Bride’s concern. “Protecting your family is never silly.”

“No, it isn’t.” Bride sighed as she brushed a hand through the baby’s dark hair. Turning, she faced Angelia. “So you want to tell me what’s going on?”

Angelia debated on the sanity of that. Telling her that she’d helped kidnap Fury and then stood back while two of her tessera ruthlessly tortured him didn’t seem like an award-winning act of intelligence.

More like suicide given the nature of these “people.”

“I’m not sure how to answer that.”

Bride’s gaze narrowed. “Then you must be one of the ones who hurt him.”

“No,” she said indignantly. “I didn’t torture him. I wouldn’t do that to anyone.”

Bride cocked her head suspiciously. “But you let it happen.”

She was smarter than Angelia wanted. “I did stop them.”

“After how long? Fury was in pretty bad shape and I know how much damage he can take and still stand and fight. To pass out like he did . . . someone beat him for a while.”

Angelia looked away, ashamed. It actually hurt her on a deeper level than she would have thought possible that she hadn’t intervened sooner. What kind of person stood by while someone was brutalized? Especially someone she’d once called friend.