Sinless (Deadly Omen Book 1)
Page 13
I didn't bother responding, knowing they were all completely focused on the girl, the deathly pale, unmoving, barely-breathing girl. If I was completely honest with everyone involved, I was completely focused on her, too. It was my fault that she had gotten hurt because my own Sin had prevented me from seeing clearly. I was too prideful to consider that the crazy old preacher might try to attack a woman of her profession, much less one that so obviously enjoyed what she did. I was too stupid to put aside my pettiness for a few moments to just hang out and keep my eyes on the suspects.
That wasn't the worst of it, though. It was pure coincidence that she turned out to be a stripper. We had already planned on going and staking out the club that Jonas Holden liked to frequent, the place where we were sure he picked up most of his victims. As if the things he did to his own stepdaughters weren't bad enough, we were pretty positive that he had gotten his slimy hands on something that he shouldn't have. That he was causing these tragedies and tearing families asunder.
I tried my damnedest not to feel the guilt that was creeping up my spine like a snake, slithering its way into my conscience. But it was there, nonetheless. Watching the way my brothers frantically assessed and evaluated her, they way they looked both helpless and determined in the face of losing this stranger who had only just flounced into our lives, it almost ripped me completely in two.
I stood straight and rolled my shoulders back, taking determined strides toward the bed where Ria was now laying on her stomach, black tendrils inking out under her fair skin from a relatively small wound. At least the knife had not been very large or penetrated deeply. "Back up." I commanded, pushing through the circle the five of them had formed around her.
Rafe got right up in my face, his own darkened with a fury I had only ever seen on Gatlin. "I'm not going to let you let her die, E. Over my own dead body." Rafe was slimmer than I in stature, but I had invested much more time and effort into my fighting skills over the course of my long life. I could take him down in a heartbeat if that was my wish.
"Get out of my way, Greed." I hissed. "No one is dying today." I shoved him aside, not caring to make sure he didn't fall into anything. He would live. Ria, on the other hand, would not, unless I did something fast. I had only seen this poison at work once that I could recall, and it was so far in the past that I wasn't sure I would be able to remember exactly what the treatment was. The black lines were spreading too fast for my comfort, spurred on by the presence of our Sins. "Get out. You're all making this worse." I hissed, searching my mind for the method that would remedy the troublemaker's ailment.
The guys all hesitated, seeming unsure of whether they could trust me, once again sending a wave of hurt through me. They could trust me, that was one thing I knew for absolute certain. Finally, they all seemed to come to that same conclusion and filed out of the room, one by one.
Once I had room to think and the darkness had significantly slowed its rapid spread, I delved into my memories, searching for a particular one. There was a girl, dressed in all purple, laying on the ground, a warrior standing above her with a blade that dripped with her blood and poison.
The memory started to fade and I pressed my fists into my temples, fighting to keep the images in my mind. Time did horrible things to the mind. I dispatched the warrior quickly and ran to the woman's side. I distinctly remembered thinking she was the most beautiful woman I had seen in my entire existence. Black vein-like tendrils spread out from a deep wound in her chest.
"Suck the poison out, like a serpent's venom, then heat the wound." The woman had said. It sounded too simple, too easy. I remembered thinking the woman was completely mad. "Make my heart beat faster, to push it all out. I shall heal then."
I shuddered a bit at the memory, realizing what I was going to have to do. "I'm so sorry, Ria." I whispered to her, knowing full well that she would not be able to hear me. I pushed her her hair away from the side of her face that wasn't on the bed.
* * *
I was practically dead on my feet, completely knackered by the time I reached the bottom of the stairs. As soon as my foot touched the floor, my brothers were there, matching expressions of fear and anticipation etched into their eyes themselves. I felt horrible for what I was about to have to tell them, for how I had to save the girl that they were all so infatuated with. They'd forgive me, sure, but the implications of what had to be done were absolutely horrifying.
"She is going to be fine." I told them.
They all breathed a heavy sigh of relief, one they must have been holding in for the hours it took to accomplish what I needed to do. The girl would be fine, and so would they.
Gatlin stepped forward first, looking like he had aged ten years, which was impossible. "How did you... Fix it?" He hesitated, searching my face for a sign that might explain it all to him.
Breathing in deeply, feeling too tired to move at all and just sat on the floor at the base of the stairs, leaning my head and back on the banister. "I had to take her Sin. All of it." I admitted quietly, feeling the crushing guilt hit me like a speeding train.
I swear that I could see a mirror shatter in my brother's silver eyes. "You... What?" He whispered, his voice wavering between fury and fear. I had anticipated this. I knew what I had to do was risky.
"I had to make her Sinless, then give it all back, then take it again. I had to keep her heart rate high enough and long enough for her body to push out any lingering traces of the poison. And for her to heal faster." I added the last part to reassure them all that she was going to be okay, and quickly.
That wasn’t completely true, and I knew my brothers could see right through the hole in my explaination. The truth was that the poison only responded to magic, so I had to take it all away to nullify its effect. But you can’t give magic back in the exact amounts in which it’s taken. If I had given too little, her lifespan would have been significantly shorter. If I gave too much, she lived much longer than any mortal ever would. And I gave too much
When I saw each one of them slowly deflate, I knew they had processed everything enough to forgive me. They all seemed to realize the same thing simultaneously and each turned their tired eyes on me.
"How much Sin did you give, E?" Kellan was the one to ask what they were all thinking and I could hear the strain in his voice, the barely subdued anger. Who was I kidding? Of course Kellan would be the most affected by the issue at hand. He had seen me give too much before.
I closed my eyes against the curious and concerned stares that my brothers were giving me. "Enough. If we tell her everything else, we can't tell her what saved her life. If she looks too hard, it could do a lot of damage," I explained staring at the faint light coming through my eyelids. "To more than just her." We all knew the same thing, and it infuriated me just the slightest bit.
She wasn't going anywhere for a while.
16
Ria
Ria?" I heard someone say. They sounded close, but muffled and distant. I knew their voice sounded familiar but couldn't seem to put a name or face to the sound. I could definitely smell, though, and the heavenly aroma of something deep and woody mixed with the rich, unmistakable scent of coffee filled me with absolute bliss.
Wait. Coffee?
My eyes flew open painfully, and I almost jerked upright before Eliam's hand came crashing down on my chest to hold me still.
I stared at him warily, his blonde hair messy and violet eyes dark with the bags to match. "What just happened?" I asked cautiously, trying to subtly adjust the position I was in. I felt like I'd been asleep for a week.
Eliam snorted a laugh and gave me a sideways glance. "Just?" He repeated. "Love, you've been out for nearly a week now."
I actually gasped. Out loud. For real. "Are you fucking serious?" I sputtered. My head whipped around as I looked for any sign at all that he was lying. Literally anything would do. "There's no way in hell." I mean, there actually was. After all, hadn't I just remarked on how my body was feeling that very way?
"So, then what happened just over five days ago?" I asked, my eyes narrowed at him in a way that I hoped conveyed my suspicion. Of course, I remembered the whole ordeal from my own perspective, but I also remembered the pain and not knowing where it came from.
He took a deep breath and let it out before finally replying. "Belvieu... He stabbed you." He said, staring at me with those fathomless eyes of his. They really were beautiful.
I snorted. "Yeah, I got that much, Einstein." I rolled my eyes at him. I mean, really. It was easy enough to deduce, even though I hadn't been one hundred percent positive. "But, I'm still breathing and obviously well enough to be at home, so what gives?"
He just raised a perfect brow at me. "Well, you appear to have all the answers, so I'll let you figure it all out." The bastard was smirking at me. I was really starting to hate that expression.
"Fine." I snapped at him. Then I settled my face into a smirk of my own and added, "but could you get your hand off my boob, first?"
His brows drew together in confusion as his eyes drifted down to where his hand still lay pressed against my chest. More specifically, my breast. Still looking like he didn't quite understand, he looked up at me. Then he grinned and gave it a quick squeeze before removing the offending limb while I looked on in complete shock, my jaw hanging so low that it dangled by a mere thread.
What the hell?
"Why did you even come to help? I thought you wanted me gone." I puzzled, crossing my arms over my chest and lifting my chin.
Eliam's face dropped into one of such sadness that I had trouble processing the image. A face like that, so full of raw confidence and ferocity, wasn't a face that an expression like that belonged on. "Ria," he said solemnly. "I may have wanted you gone - I still do - but I'd never want you dead."
I was take completely by surprise. Of course, I never even thought that he would want me dead, but that spurred on a bigger question. "You thought he was going to kill me? What makes you so sure?" I asked. My mouth was suddenly dry, my throat itchy, and my limbs heavy. I could have died.
"You can't reason with a madman, love. And Augustus Belvieu is as barmy as barmy comes." He explained, surprisingly gently considering the last several conversations we'd had. I was having a hard time wrapping my head around everything.
I had lived in this town for a total of two days and so much crazy had already happened. First Clove, who definitely counts as crazy, then the guys, then that psychopath preacher trying to kill me. That was all a little much for my brain to take in. I would have rather dealt with a cheating ex and the heartache of it all than face potential death. It was probably in my best interest to get the hell out of dodge, but I'm an honest-to-God liar. That's because I actually would do just about anything to avoid ever seeing those cardboard brown eyes ever again, much less those soft teardrop blue ones that I had trusted, foolishly, for so damn long.
Unfortunately for me, "just about anything" included sticking around this already whacked off town.
Eliam was still staring at me patiently, as though he understood that I was talking myself through inner turmoil. "So..." I started. "If he stabbed me, why am I okay?" I thought back to when Belvieu was launched into the air by the wispy red stuff. I hadn't seen where it had come from, but I also didn't give it much thought. It seemed familiar, somehow.
"He didn't get you very well, but the blade was sharp and coated in a mild toxin." He answered. "If the dagger hadn't ended up in one of those scars, the toxin would have traveled faster than we could have done anything." He looked grim, and whether it was from the whole knife thing or the scar thing, I couldn't tell.
Trying to think of something to say, I decided I'd rather think about almost being murdered rather than about my childhood. "What kind of toxin was it?" I asked quietly.
Eliam, the asshole, gave me a bemused look that also seemed to ask if the blade had actually landed in my skull instead of my back. "The killing kind, Ria." He deadpanned.
"So helpful, Eliam. You should be a professor with that skill of yours." I said dryly with another roll of my eyes.
He turned to look out my large window and said, "I was, once."
Wait, wha-
"Ria!" A voice screeched from the doorway. I turned my head just in time to briefly spot a bushy brown blur racing toward me at a dizzying speed. "You're awake, OMG, you're awake!" Drea cried into my hair. Ew, my hair. Pretty sure I hadn't been bathed. Ew.
I laughed softly and patted my friend's back. "I'm awake. Down girl." I chuckled as she drew back and wrinkled her nose at me. "Yeah, I know, I stink." I told her, frowning.
Drea glared at me. "No, you talked to me like a dog. Rude, much!"
"More like a puppy."
"That's supposed to make it any better?"
"Yes, because they're cute and amazing snugglers."
"I am a pretty fantastic snuggler..."
"Well, there you go." I patted her head playfully and she stuck her tongue out back at me.
"Where are the rest of the guys?" I asked, noting that it was Eliam of all people that I woke up to.
Drea smiled a knowing smile. "They had to do a job. They'll probably be back sometime tomorrow morning." She told me. Her eyes darted to Eliam, back to me, then back to him. "E, can she get up?" She asked him.
Eliam turned back to me, leaning back in his chair that he had pulled up to the bed and crossing his arms. "If she can walk seven steps without getting dizzy, she's good." He said with smug looking grin on his stupid face.
Seven steps would be a piece of cake,
I flung the covers off and was shocked to see that I was in a pair of black capri yoga pants and a red tank top. "Who changed me?" I asked with eyes narrowed in Eliam's direction.
He only shrugged in response. What a dick.
I shook off my irritation for the time being and focused on sitting up without outwardly wincing. I'll give the asshole that much, sitting up wasn't exactly pleasant, so probably not the wisest decision I'd ever made. Certainly not the stupidest, thought. So there's that.
Once I was sat up, I allowed myself a few seconds to adjust to the feeling, and for the sting and burn of my too-tight muscles to fade. Once I was sure I wouldn't get a charlie horse the second I moved, I stood and stayed still. No dizziness. I took two steps with no issue and was pretty happy. Another two steps. Almost there...
I took two more successful steps, but as I put my foot out for the last one, I felt a shift in the air that seemed to intentionally bump me just enough to make me wobble.
"Oh dear." Eliam clucked. "Looks like you got dizzy after all."
Get that stupid fucking smirk off your fucking face before I fucking smash it in.
"I didn't get dizzy." I ground out between clenched teeth. "Something pushed me."
The infuriating Adonis of a man - wait, what? Not what I meant at all. The infuriating man chuckled. "What could have pushed you? Neither of us were near enough." He said, reminding me too much of Dr. Evil.
"Eliam!" Drea admonished. "Stop that right now, you prideful ass." Drea grabbed my arm and started leading me to the door. "Come one, let's go eat." She said to me, making my stomach agree loudly.
"The phrase is pompous ass!" Eliam called, having not moved a single inch.
Drea threw a dismissive wave over her shoulder as we crossed through the doorway. "Not when it comes to you!" She hollered back, shooting me a light, friendly grin. I knew there was a reason I kept her around.
We took the stairs slowly, because I still wasn't convinced that I wasn't going to get hit with a wave of dizziness strong enough to flip an elephant. Once we reached the bottom, I let out a breath that I didn't realize I'd been holding. Never had I been so afraid of stairs. And in this day and age, no one at a hospital would believe for a second that I actually fell dow
n the stairs. (Thanks a lot, assholes.)
We walked into the kitchen and I immediately plopped my ass down on the floor, my back leaning against the cabinets.
"What's on the menu, chef?" I asked as Drea watched me with amusement.
She tapped her chin thoughtfully and grabbed a plate off the counter above me. "Grilled cheese?"
My mouth watered and my stomach threw a party at just the thought. I snatched one off the plate and stuffed my face in the most unladylike way possible. Don't care. Need food. "Can you make anything other than this amazing grilled cheese?" I asked around a very large, cheesy bite.
My friend laughed and sat on the floor next me, setting the plate of grilled cheesy goodness between us. "What, sick of it already?" She asked. Something in my horrified expression must have been hilarious, because she said, "kidding! I'm a pretty good cook. I feel like if I didn't cook for these guys, they'd live off boxed pizza and chicken nuggets for the rest of their lives.
I laughed out loud at her certainty, causing a few crumbs to tumble from my mouth. Oops.
We talked, we laughed, we gossiped, and we ate grilled cheese until we were full to bursting. It was a nice little dose of normalcy and I felt absolutely shitty for possibly ruining the mood.
"Drea?"
"Mhmm." She replied around her own mouthful.
I carefully weighed my question before asking it out loud. "What are those guys?"
17
Ria
Drea choked on her grilled cheese, sending her into a coughing fit that had her tripled over. I sat patiently while she used her fist to pat her chest. Such dramatics.
But, I mean, I had just asked her what the guys were, so it was safe to assume that the question would take anyone by surprise that way.
"What?" Drea asked incredulously. Her eyes were bugging out of her head and she was rubbing her chest where she had been hitting herself.
I raised a brow at her. "You know what I'm talking about." I said. "What are they? I saw that red stuff at the club and I know Eliam did something with the air." I just knew he had to have done something, I knew that she knew what the hell was going on. There's no way she was so close to these guys that she cooked for them on a regular basis and didn't know their secrets.