Unbound (The Captive #7)(20)

Blood pooled from her sliced flesh as she sought to get to her heart, to tear the shattered and broken organ from her body as shards of pain sliced like glass over her skin. Broken. Gone. Braith was gone. The connection had been severed as cleanly as she’d severed tangled fishing line over the years.

Her hands touched upon bone before they were yanked away from her body. Words were shouted at her; she didn’t hear them as someone hauled her to her feet and dragged her onward. She reached for her chest again. Those hands jerked her hands back, and more words were spoken, but she didn’t think these ones were directed at her and she didn’t care if they were.

She was dying. Nothing mattered anymore.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she recalled that something did matter. There was something she was supposed to do, others she was supposed to help, but the sorrow and insanity swirling through her mind made it difficult to concentrate.

She collapsed against the arms holding her and was swung up off the ground. She could barely make out the blurry world around her. When she lifted her hands once more to her chest, they were slapped aside.

“No!” William’s voice penetrated through her grief-stricken haze. “There are caves up here.”

He wasn’t speaking to her, and she dimly recalled Tempest was with them too. They’d been doing something…

They’d been drawing the vampires who had attacked them away. Fury burst over her like the sun rising over the mountains on a clear summer morning. It dried her tears as she balled her hands and resisted bellowing into the night sky. Squirming in William’s arms, she shoved against her brother’s chest.

“Kill them!” she hissed through her teeth.

His arms tightened around her, but on her next shove, she broke his hold on her. He grabbed for her as she tumbled from his arms. She hit the ground running, back toward where she’d last seen the white-cloaked troops following them. She made it only ten feet before arms enveloped her ankles. With her legs yanked out from under her, she slammed into the ground.

Her fingers tore at the earth. She kicked at whoever held her until she knocked their hold on her free. Red filled her vision, and a snarl tore from her as she became determined to kill whoever had tackled her. Flipping over, she hooked her fingers into claws and went for the eyes.

William ducked back in time to avoid having his skin torn from his face. The sight of her brother knocked some of the driving urge to kill from her. No matter how much she craved death right now, she would not hurt her brother, her twin. William clutched her arms, pinning them to her chest as he loomed over her.

“Listen to me!” he yelled. “Remember that you think there’s a chance Braith can come back from this. That he can rise from the dead, like his father. If you die, there is no coming back for you, and he will rise only to want to die again.”

Her struggles against him eased as his words sank in. “They have to pay.”

“They will, but not tonight. You have to stay with me in order to get them.”

Keeping hold of her forearms, he yanked her to her feet. He pulled the ruined remains of her shirt from her upper body, leaving her only in her bra, then wiped her blood away before tossing it on the ground. The frigid air caressing her skin had nothing on the icy tendrils encasing her heart.

He was dead, her Braith was dead.

He’s coming back!

What if he doesn’t? What If I’m wrong?

She wrapped her arms around her middle. Her fangs pricked her bottom lip when she drew it into her mouth. She hadn’t realized they’d extended. She craved sinking them into someone’s throat and tearing out their jugular to watch them bleed all over the place. To tear out that bitch’s throat.

Oh yes, that was exactly whose blood she wanted sliding down her throat. She could keep it together until then; she had no other choice. The analytical, vengeful side of her brain slowly rose up to take over the weeping, shattered pieces of her mind.

If Braith didn’t return, she would continue until Sabine, and anyone who aided her, was dead.

William pulled her cloak snuggly around her, lifted her up, and tossed her over his shoulder. “I can walk,” she gasped when she found herself staring at his back.

“I don’t trust you right now,” he replied honestly and broke into a jog with Tempest by his side.

Aria had no idea where they were going; she didn’t care. She had plans to make, and she knew exactly how to set those plans into motion.

***

Jack

Jack couldn’t tear his gaze away from Braith’s eyes. Open and unseeing, there was nothing there anymore. Even after Braith was blinded, he may not have been able to see anything, but his eyes had reflected life to the rare few who had seen him without his dark sunglasses on.

Anguish squeezed his chest. Behind him, Melinda sobbed openly as Ashby tried to comfort her. Tears pricked his eyes, burning and making him blink rapidly. Braith had been his older brother, at one time his enemy, then his friend. He’d expected that friendship to grow and deepen throughout the coming years.

A single tear slipped free. Braith would come back; he had to.

Until then, the kingdom had just fallen to him. He may not want it, but he would protect it and everyone in it.

Hannah knelt at his side, her arms wrapped around his shoulders. Her sweet scent filled his nose, and his arms encircled her waist as he pulled her closer. He took some comfort in her as he turned his head into her silken hair.