Minutes passed, or maybe it was hours, before I heard the first pounding on the door. It was locked, but it wouldn’t take long for them to break through.
I pressed my forehead to my knees. Closing my eyes, I barred all thoughts except those of Chris from my mind. And I waited.
Chapter 23
Chris
“Where is she?” I roared at the Incubus I held by the throat against the wall.
Around us, the bodies of his brethren littered the hallway, but the Incubus showed no fear. He smirked through bloody teeth and let out a rattling laugh.
“Too…late,” he rasped.
I rammed my knife into his chest so hard it pinned him to the wall.
“Chris.”
Sara’s voice cut through the bloodlust consuming me. I ran toward her, barely seeing the faces of the warriors I passed. All I could think about was Beth. I could sense her nearby, but I couldn’t locate her. Her presence felt muted, and I was terrified of what that meant. She could be dying, and I couldn’t find her to help her.
I found Sara and Nikolas in an office, standing before an open section of wall that led to a set of stairs leading down. I moved past them and raced down the stairs with them close on my heels.
I emerged in a dimly-lit hallway with a set of doors on the other end, and I knew without asking that this was the Lilin’s private quarters. We hadn’t found him since we’d stormed his lair, and my gut told me he was holed up down here. And he had Beth.
The thought of what he could be doing to her made me almost blind with rage. I hit the doors with the force of a truck, but I didn’t even put a crack in them.
“Beth,” I bellowed, shoving at the doors with all of my might.
Sara ran up to me. “Stop. You’ll hurt yourself.”
“She’s in there,” I snarled, my voice barely recognizable as my Mori came closer to the surface.
“It’s warded.” Sara waved me away and placed her hand on one of the doors. Blue sparks crackled over the surface of the wood, and there was a blinding white flash as her power obliterated the warlock magic protecting the door.
Solmi, my Mori growled when I felt Beth’s presence strong and clear. She was alive and behind this door.
I rammed the door hard with my shoulder, and it cracked under the assault. A second hit and it crashed inward.
The first thing I saw was the body in the center of the room. The head had been hacked off with what looked like a fireplace shovel, and the rug beneath the body was soaked with black demon blood.
“Beth,” I shouted, seeing no sign of her.
My eyes fell on the bed visible through the open door of the bedroom, and I nearly choked on the fear of what I would find in that room.
I was halfway across the sitting room when a tiny whimper stopped me cold. I looked toward the sound, and crimson bled into my vision when I saw Beth’s bloody and bruised body huddled in a corner. She was barefoot, and the pink dress she wore was ripped and bloody.
Blood roared in my ears as the last of the control I’d been holding onto for days finally slipped. My vision tunneled until all I could see was my mate, looking small and broken on the floor.
Beth’s head lifted slowly. Through the curtain of her blonde hair, her tortured gray eyes met mine. A wave of pain came across our bond, pushing through the red haze in my mind. My mate needed me.
I knelt in front of her. My focus never left her, but I was aware of every sound behind me. My body thrummed with feral rage, and I’d kill anyone who came near us.
Neither of us moved or spoke for a long moment. Then she reached out with one hand and touched my face as if she wasn’t sure I was real. I placed my shaking hand over hers, holding it against my cheek and letting her touch soothe the beast clawing to break free. For the first time in five days, the unbearable tightness in my chest began to lessen, and I could breathe again.
“Beth,” I whispered hoarsely.
Her eyes brimmed with tears that spilled over and left trails through the black blood on her face. She stared at me, silently pleading for what she was unable to put into words.
Letting go of her hand, I sat on the floor and lifted her into my arms. She curled into a tight ball with her face buried against my chest. A single ragged sob escaped her as I wrapped my body protectively around her, and the anguished sound sliced my heart to ribbons.
“I’m here, Dove,” I said, my voice hoarse with emotion. “I’ve got you.”
I could hear low voices and movement in the room, but all of my attention was focused on Beth. Nothing else mattered to me. I had no idea what she’d gone through down here, or what lasting effects it would have on her. My sole purpose in life now was to do or be whatever she needed to help her recover. I’d start by taking her away from this hellish place.
Standing with Beth in my arms, I walked to the door where Nikolas stood talking to Sara and Rachel. Rachel put a hand to her mouth to cover her gasp when she saw Beth, and Sara looked like she was trying hard not to cry.
“I’m taking her home,” I whispered, not wanting to startle Beth.
Nikolas nodded. He and Sara would stay here and oversee the care of the human girls and the demon slaves we’d recovered. Margot was most likely with them now, and then they’d need to be returned to their families. There were more than enough warriors here to handle that. My only concern was Beth.
“I’m coming with you,” Rachel said softly.
We made our way upstairs. Warriors moved out of our way and cast worried looks at Beth as I carried her through the large underground structure. She kept her face pressed to my chest, and I was glad she didn’t have to see the blood or the dead Incubi littering the hallway from our short and violent attack on the lair. She’d been through enough tonight.
I climbed the final set of stairs to the exit, a carefully concealed trapdoor in the floor of a utility shed at the back of the Bel Air property. My jaw clenched as I walked through the trees and the house came into view. It gutted me to know I’d been here four days ago, and the whole time, Beth had been a few hundred feet away.
Once Jordan had identified the Lilin, it hadn’t taken David long to find out that Henry Durham, who owned this property, supposedly had a grandson named Adam Woodward. That had been all we needed to convince us to come back for a second look at the place.
It was Sara who had suggested that the reason we didn’t find anything the first time was because the Lilin might be using warlock glamours. She’d stayed in the house on our first visit, but this time, she’d walked the entire property. She was the one who had discovered the trapdoor in the shed and had neutralized the powerful glamour hiding it.
I’d never be able to repay my cousin for what she’d done here tonight. She would say we’re family and she was glad she could help, but she’d given me back my mate. There was no gift more precious than that.
My mother was waiting for us in the driveway with a set of keys in her hand. She gave Beth a tender look and led us to an SUV at the bottom of the driveway. Rachel opened the back door for me, and I climbed in, settling Beth on my lap. The two women took the front, neither saying much as my mother drove us back to the command center.
Beth still hadn’t uttered a word by the time we arrived at the house, and her silence scared me. Killing a demon wouldn’t upset her. Something far worse had traumatized her, and I couldn’t bring myself to think about what had put her in this fragile state.
The women took over as soon as I carried Beth to her bedroom.
“Rachel and I will bathe her and check her for injuries,” my mother said when I sat on the bed with Beth in my arms.
“I won’t leave her.”
I gazed down at the girl I’d feared I would never hold again, and I didn’t think I’d ever be able to let her go.
My mother laid a gentle hand on my shoulder, and I looked up into her warm eyes.
“Christian, I know you two need each other, but it’s important that we understand the extent of her injuries. You have to let us tend to her.”
The meaning in her words sent a knife straight through my chest, and I could only nod helplessly. My protective instincts were riding me hard, and it took a Herculean effort to stand and place Beth in my mother’s capable arms.
Rachel ushered me out of the room and shut the door. A few minutes later, I heard water running in the bathroom and the soft murmur of voices.