Now, he was too overwhelmed by her presence. By the fresh cuts on the wrist he had just reverently kissed. By her badly shaven scalp. By the old bruises revealed by her skimpy slip. By the new ones. By how frail she felt in his arms. But most of all, he was overwhelmed by the aura of hopelessness radiating from her in tangible waves. Her pain hurt him.
“You’re here.” She sobbed and her tears rained down on him.
“I’m here.” Feeling the pull of her big eyes and her soft lips, he gently pulled her down with him and caressed her jaw. “Luisa—” He trembled as he lowered his mouth to hers for their first kiss.
When their lips touched, his heart slammed against his ribcage. He gently pressed against her bottom lip, caressing it with his, his tongue softly skimming the ridge of her teeth. She tilted her head and he lowered his hand to her shoulder, then to her back, pressing her to him. He tasted her mouth in slow, gentle strokes. Dizziness overcame him, and he breathed through her, not wanting to sever the connection through their bodies. Because he was giving her his heart and soul in that kiss and would never be whole again without her.
“Raphael—” She shivered and inched away from him, separating them, then burrowed closer into his embrace.
“I’m here, baby.” With the strength only desperation can give, he kissed her again, brushing her lips, then whispered, “I can’t live without you.” His cast arm impeded him from fully embracing her and he hated it. “I know it sounds impossible, because we’ve only met twice and for only a few minutes at a time, but it’s enough to me.” He brushed her nose. “I’ve fallen in love with you at fourteen, that first night when you saved me from the enforcer, and I already knew then you were my life mate.”
Shaking her head again, Luisa whispered against his mouth, “Raphael—”
With a long kiss, he silenced her then said, “Without a doubt, I know. My wolf knows.” He would never look at another girl the way he looked at her. His heart would never beat as fast for another girl as it did for Luisa. “I love you.”
“I never thought I would ever see you again.” She pushed away from him a second time, her big eyes studying his. “Why are you here?”
He lowered his forehead to hers, his breathing too ragged and his heart beating too fast. “I promised I would find you.”
She brought one hand to his cheek and caressed it. “You shouldn’t have. The Reds are horrible people. They’ll force you to do horrible things.” New tears stained her cheeks, and she turned to the side. “They’ll break you and change you and I’m not worth it.”
Unable to process all the emotions he felt at once, he washed away his anger at the world by letting himself cry. Then he took her mouth for a fierce kiss. “Never say that. I’d give my life for you. I’d do anything for you.” He pressed her to him tighter, his hand caressing her back in frantic motions, wanting to erase with his touch all the damage done to her. “I’ll find a way to free you from them.” He brought her wrists to his lips and brushed the cuts marring her skin, starting with the fresh ones that were already healing. Then he helped her up and saw all the blood covering her slip. “Luisa—”
Looking down, she gasped and brought both hands to her mouth. “What happened to you?”
Confused, he followed her eyes to the front of his tunic and saw he was the one bleeding, not her. As if all the events of the day had finally caught up with him, Raphael felt lightheaded and staggered toward the bed, built inside the alcove in the corner of the room.
Once he sat on the edge of the bed, she kneeled by him on the soft carpet. “Let me see.” She peeled his tunic open by slowly raising its lapels away. At the sight of his tattoo, she cried. “What did they do to you?”
“Roman initiation, apparently.” He tried to smile, but it was hard when the room spun around him.
“It takes several sessions to finish the wolf—” Eyes wide, she tightened her hold on his tunic lapels and her knuckles whitened. “Why did they force you to endure such torture?”
“Well, I didn’t know I had the option to cry uncle, so I just went along with it. No big deal.” With the last remnant of his strength, he put a finger under her chin and gently raised it until she was looking at him, and not at his chest. “I got a promotion out of it. Youngest Red or fastest to become one, either way I’m a tough one.”
She snorted and it sounded adorable coming from her. Then her expression darkened. “That day, I went back to Mattatoio, hoping you would come—”
“The controller sent me to RYS, but when I got back to Rome I looked for you at the social center. I asked everyone, but nobody knew you or they didn’t want to talk to me. Then around two months ago, a friend of mine, Carla, told me about this girl named Luisa who had tried to escape from the Reds and had hidden at Mattatoio. Next morning, I came here and asked to join the gang.”
“I can’t believe you really looked for me.” Luisa’s eyes filled with tears again.
“Of course I did, you are my mate.” With his thumb, he wiped her face dry and tilted his head to give her a more convincing smile. “Don’t cry, baby. Everything’s turned out just fine.”
Laughing a nervous laugh, she pointed at his bleeding tattoo, at his cast, at all his bruises. “Does this look fine to you?”
He shrugged and tried to pull her closer to him with his hand, but she resisted so he said, “I’ll heal. Next moon, we’ll be both as good as new.” A lie, like the ones he told himself every night when he still lived with his father.
She smiled then and rested her head on his leg. “I’ve thought of you all the time. Because of you, I rebelled against Rico.” Her fingers played with the hem of his tunic. “I never wanted to be his.”
The macabre pattern of her own bruises and cuts gave Raphael chills, and he caressed her head feeling where the razor had shaved her hair too close to the scalp. “What did he do to you?” His wolf cried so loud he couldn’t silence him fast enough. “Sorry, Wolf wants out.”
“My wolf always acts crazy around yours.” Closing her eyes, she relaxed against him.
“What did Rico do to you?” Raphael repeated the question, adding nausea to the long list of nuisances fighting for supremacy at the moment.
“It’s all my family’s fault.” Shivering, she angled her head toward the wall.
“What do you mean?” Bile rose to Raphael’s throat.
“I was sold to the Reds when I was eight, and Tancredi left me alone until I turned fourteen, then he gave me to Rico—”
The room spun faster and he felt like he was on a rollercoaster. “Who sold you to the gang?”
“One of my older brothers. My parents died in an accident and we were put in foster care. I was the youngest of seven, the only girl and the one more likely to be adopted. I was valuable.” She then sat and faced him. “My brother Raul realized he could sell me to the highest bidder.”
“You don’t mean—” Raphael couldn’t say it.
“Not that way. Not then.” Luisa’s eyes unfocused for a moment, then she was back and her expression was cold. “Raul was already dealing drugs for the Reds and when he realized I was worth something, he bartered me for a year of V. Getting rich fast was high on his list of priorities. Being a decent person wasn’t on it at all.”
“Where is he now?” Raphael’s wolf projected his murderous thoughts loud and clear, taking control of Raphael’s emotion and making him crave blood.
“He was greedy but not smart enough and got himself killed because of V.”
His nausea abated a moment, and Raphael changed position so that he could remove the bloodied tunic.
“Let me.” She scooted closer to him and helped him out of the garment, then looked at his chest. “We should clean it.”
Raphael’s eyes went to the second door opening into the room. “That must be the bathroom.” Hoping not to faint, he pressed his good hand down and pushed his legs up, only to fall back to the bed with a loud thump of his cast hitting the wooden frame.
“Wait here.”
She went to open the door and turned to nod at him. “I’ll go wet a towel.” The sound of water bursting from a faucet echoed from the bathroom, then Luisa reappeared a moment later with a wet cloth. Lowering herself by his side, she first brushed his lips, then she whispered, “I promise I’ll be gentle.”
He watched as she carefully washed his skin with slow, tender brushes, and couldn’t help a low moan.
“Am I hurting you?”
“Don’t stop.” Breathing hard, he took her hesitating hand and lowered it to his chest, right over his heart. “I need your touch.”
In silence, she cleaned him, running to the bathroom to rinse the blood from the towel several times, until it finally stayed white. Feeling he would burst if he didn’t have his original question answered, he steadied her hand with his and asked once again, “Did Rico ever—” but at the end he couldn’t make himself say the words.
Removing her hand from his hold, she hugged herself and looked down.
A mournful cry erupted from Raphael’s mouth. As he doubled over, lacerating pain hit his solar plexus. His wolf’s reaction was deafening, and Raphael let him roar until his lungs burnt.
Luisa’s small fingers slid through his hair, then she trailed small kisses over his eyes, nose, lips, chin, and throat. “I couldn’t stop him at first.” Her breath caressed his face. “I tried. I escaped, but he found me every time.”
Raphael wiped away the bitter tears falling down his cheeks. “When we met the first time in that apartment, were you on the run?”
“Yes, I was living under Angelo Bridge and I followed a nice couple home. For a few nights, I waited outside on the balcony for them to go to sleep. Then I let myself in, and spent time in the nursery they had prepared for their unborn kid. I pretended to be their daughter. I always left at dawn and erased any trace of my presence.”
“I’m sorry I ruined it for you.” Tilting his head, he managed a small smile for her.
“You are the most beautiful thing that ever happened to me.” She scooted closer, then leaned against the part of his chest that wasn’t tattooed and tucked her head under his chin.
With his good arm, he circled her back in soothing movement. “You’re everything to me. And I’ll kill Rico for hurting you.”
“I don’t want you to even get close to him.”
“Too late for that. I’ve chosen him as my big brother.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Because he got you.”
“He’s going to hurt you.”
“I don’t care as long as I can stop him from ever hurting you again.”
“It’s okay now. Rico only beats me, he doesn’t—” Luisa brought her knees up and huddled herself in a tight ball.
With renewed anger, Raphael inwardly cursed at a universe where being hit by a savage bully was the preferable choice, but let her gather her thoughts and waited for her to talk.
“He doesn’t want me anymore.” A little sound, maybe a nervous laugh, escaped her mouth as she rocked herself. “I made myself ugly.”
“You could never be ugly.”
“Rico likes curvaceous girls with long hair and unblemished skin. I was already cutting myself, that’s something that started when I first came here—”
Maneuvering his cast arm around her balled form, Raphael gently coaxed Luisa to open up, then he dropped a kiss on her crown. “That will stop. You’ll never harm yourself again.” He nudged her nose with his. “And you’re beautiful. The most beautiful girl in the whole world. I’ve never seen eyes that color of yours. I’ve never tasted lips as soft. Your scent drives me crazy. Blindfolded, I could find you in a crowd of a thousand people.” His whispers made her shiver and he shivered too in response, his breathing became irregular and his heart thumped louder against his ribcage.
“I.” A kiss on the spot where her earlobe met the column of her throat.
“Love.” A feather-light brush on the hollow of her throat.
“All.” A caress on the small of her back.
“Of.” One-handedly, he grabbed the hem of her slip and torturously raised the bloodied garment over her head.
“You.” Had he not been already sitting, Raphael would have fallen to his knees before the sight of Luisa only wearing pink underwear. Her skin was smeared by his blood that had seeped through the flimsy material of the slip, yet she was still a vision.
Her arms flew to cover her chest as she sank into the mattress. “I don’t want you to see me like this.”
“You take my breath away.” Reaching out, he took hold of her hand and pulled her toward him.
“I’m bald.”
“The haircut looks good on you.” With a smile, he leaned against her forehead.
“I’m too thin.”
“I love you.” In a different occasion, soon, he would talk her into start eating again but not now. “I’m crazy about you.”
Lowering his mouth toward hers, he felt his wolf demanding to be acknowledged and his heartbeats sped up again. Wolf excitedly pranced around in a meadow, and Luisa’s beautiful chocolate she-wolf entered his line of vision. He howled his pleasure to the night sky, waking critters and bugs.
She.
Mine.
I.
Hers.
Forever.
Together.
Wolf’s thoughts echoed loud and clear inside Raphael’s mind, making him gasp as Luisa’s eyes widened.
“I can see your wolf,” she said.
“As I can see yours.” As Raphael mused on the meaning of that, Wolf pounced on the she-wolf, sending her sprawling onto the dewy grass. Growling, she playfully nipped at him.
A sudden frenzy possessed both Raphael and Luisa, and he accompanied her down to the mattress. One look at her reminded him of how small and frail she was and that he must be gentle. As he balanced his weight on his cast arm not to squash her under him, he lowered himself over her trembling body. All his body hurt, but he could only think of claiming Luisa as his soul mate.
“Raphael…” Luisa’s eyes mirrored the hunger consuming Raphael. “I love you.”
His heart stopped beating and his lungs stopped pumping air. Time paused. As he finally exhaled, reality became a blur.
“Together,” he said.
“Forever,” she said.
“Only you and me in the universe.” Covering her like a blanket, he let their bodies touch and pushed away the pain from his chest, from his broken arm, from all the blows received in the morning. Nothing mattered. Only Luisa.
“Only you and me in the universe,” she repeated, tears in her eyes and lips half-open.
His mouth took possession of hers, and a kiss that started sweet soon transformed into something all-encompassing. “I need you.”
“I want you.” She started pulling down the strings of her bra, revealing more bruises as the fabric fell to the side. A bluish handprint covered the top of her breast. When she saw him staring at the spot, she stopped and brought her hand up to cover the mark. “It’s nothing.”
“It’s fresh,” he croaked.
“This morning, Rico didn’t like I was wearing a big sweater over the slip and tore it out.” With a wave of her hand, she tried to dismiss the argument.
Anger possessed Raphael once again. Coupling with powerlessness, the feeling made him stand and propelled him out of the bed. Only the anguished look on Luisa’s face had the power to stop him from exiting that room, looking for a fight with his big brother.
“I will kill him.” Panting, he repeatedly punched the door with his good hand. “No one hurts you.” His wolf roared. “No one touches you.” Rivulets of blood fell between his knuckles, but he drove his fist through the wooden surface again and again until it splintered. “No one even looks at you with the idea of harming you.” Nausea and pain overtook him, and he paused the pounding only to realize that slender arms were hugging his legs.
“Please, stop—” she whispered among sobs. “You’re scaring me.”
As if a b
ucket of icy water had been dumped on him, Raphael shivered and his rage dimmed. “I’m sorry.” The sight of Luisa crying at his feet sickened him as much as the bruises covering her body. “Don’t be scared of me, baby.” With a heavy sigh, he reached down to help her up, and blood trickled on her head and shoulders. Trying to clean his mess made it worse as he smeared it everywhere. “I can’t bear to see all those bruises on you—”
Eyes on the floor, she shied away from him. “I understand if I repulse you—”
A different kind of pain lacerated his already wounded heart. “Look at me.”
“It’s okay.”
After he took care of cleaning his hand by wiping it on his thigh, he placed a finger under her chin and raised her face until she had to look at him. Then he passed his thumb over her jaw. “You are my mate. The thought that someone laid a hand on you and hurt you drives me crazy with grief. It’s my job to protect you, and I wasn’t there for you when you needed me. I should’ve found you earlier. I—”
“You’re here now. That’s all that matters.” Tilting her head she leaned against his hand and closed her eyes. “Just you and me. I don’t need anything else.”
At the end of his endurance for the day, Raphael pulled her closer with his cast arm and bumped her forehead with his. “Let’s clean you up from my gore, then we’ll rest a bit. What do you think?”
Silently, she took his hand in hers and walked toward the bathroom, there she entered the shower stall. “Are you coming?” she asked, gently pulling him in.
Raising his cast, he gave her a small smile and released her hand. “Another time.” The truth was, he feared he would make her his mate if they entered the shower together. When the time was right, he would help her escape for good. Then and only then, away from the tyranny of the Reds, and in a safe place, he would give her the fairy tale night she deserved. She would have the bed of roses and the sweet words. But not tonight. Not when she only knew violence.
Chapter Ten
The morning after, Raphael woke alone and with a start. Where Luisa should have been, rightfully beside him, he found an indent on the mattress that was still warm. His new leather jacket with the patch sewn on its front had been folded, and placed at the foot of the bed, along with a note scribbled on a piece of paper. Neat and feminine handwriting had penned a message that sped Raphael’s heartbeat to an instant gallop.
Raphael (The Immortal Youth Book 1) Page 11