Page 46 of Soul Redeemed

“He is.”

Without ceremony, she leapt from the bed toward the door.

Zayne darted after her, just catching her ankle. Face-planting the floor, she clawed to get away from him and kicked back, clocking Zayne in the jaw. The hit hardly registered as pain, and certainly didn’t falter his grip.

With a sharp yank, Zayne slid her back toward him and climbed up her body until he straddled her back, trapping both her wrists while she squirmed beneath him. “We’re not going to hurt you.”

In an unrelenting bid for freedom, the female continued to writhe against Zayne’s grasp. Completely futile, as he had no intentions of letting her go.

A scream reverberated from across the room, and Thais stiffened.

The dwarf hung by his back from one of the hooks above the bed, sobbing as he stared down on the unmoving female sprawled out and turning blue.

Beside him, Xander held one of the hooks, which dangled a large wobbling chunk of skin and meat. The pained moans rising from the other side of the bed told Zayne the flesh belonged to the brute.

“How deep are these hooks supposed to go? Fucking hell, the asshole must weigh a goddamn metric ton.” Xander huffed his irritation and hoisted the demon to his feet, revealing the gore glistening across the brute’s back in the exposed fascia.

“What do you want from me?” The female’s voice shifted Zayne’s attention back on her.

“You’re coming with us. You’ll be safe.”

“Yeah, that’s what that motherfucker told me, too. Take your safety and shove it square up your ass.”

“You know black magic, yeah? Why didn’t you use it on him?”

Zayne knew the answer, though. As much as she may have suffered in her torment, she couldn’t risk drawing attention to herself. Summoning the darkness would’ve drawn all variety of supes to her, including the Sentinels, whose acts of punishment made those twisted bastards behind him look like bumbling circus clowns.

“Just do whatever the fuck you want to do to me and let me go.”

“I told you. We’ve no intentions of harming you. I’m a son of Wrath.”

She kicked her head to the side. “Wrath?”

“I’m surprised you didn’t pick up on that yourself.”

Another scream echoed through the room, and Xander groaned, lifting the hook that’d scalped the Brute.

“I give up. I’ll need to lodge the hook to the bastard’s bones to get him to hang.” Tossing the hook away, Xander twisted the scalped mop of hair free and chucked it toward Ivan, who startled with a scream. Xander’s obnoxious laugh in response left Zayne shaking his head.

“They messed with my head. All my natural senses are out of whack right now.” Thais shifted beneath Zayne. “Let me up. I promise I won’t run.”

Zayne slid off her, allowing her to sit up, and pushed to his feet. Across the room, he rifled through a dumped duffel-bag of clothes, presumably hers, from which he tossed her a T-shirt and jeans.

Slipping the shirt over her head concealed her battered body, giving Zayne some relief. One thing he hated more than anything was seeing a female who’d been hurt. A part of him didn’t know what he’d do if he found Denya battered like that. Beautiful and innocent as she was, her soul was one of the cleanest he’d ever read, aside from a few small lies. She was like a fresh glass of water during a drought.

Zayne studied the female before him, allowing his senses to dig into her mind. A cloud of murk hung on his visions, keeping her sins completely hidden from him.

“You’re trying to probe me. I can feel it. Tickles a little.”

“What are you hiding?”

“I’ve got secrets that I intend to take to the very pits of Obsidius.” She ran a hand through her hair. “Got a smoke?” At the shake of Zayne’s head, she toyed with the button on the jeans still draped across her lap. “This place you’re taking me. It’s safe?”

“Safest in the city. Guarded by ghouls and the Fallen. And my brothers.”

“All sons of Wrath?”

Zayne gave a nod, pushed off the floor to his full height, and looked down on her. “No one can touch you there. I promise.”