Page 41 of The Guardian (Dark-Hunter 20)
Azura laughed. "Then we can share another bite of it and we'll go after Zeus and his crew. Step by step, we will make it to the Malachai and then we'll be where we should be. Rulers of the world."
They walked away.
Flicking her nails at that door, Lydia was grateful they were gone before they sensed or discovered her. Or worse, she ripped the door open and did something stupid.
Ugh! One day those two would get their comeuppance. She only hoped she was there to see it happen.
But her relief at their departure didn't last.
After a few minutes, Jaden returned to his room without Seth. Something that made her panic all over again, especially since he was absolutely coated in blood that didn't appear to be his. Literally, from his forehead to his shoes. He looked like Carrie minus the painted-on prom dress.
Why wasn't Seth with him?
"Where is he?" she asked, terrified of the answer.
His face pale, Jaden was actually shaking as he made his way to his table and reached for an opaque, green decanter without answering her or even looking in her direction.
This had to be bad.
And as he poured his drink into a jewel-encrusted gold cup, Lydia frowned at the thickness of the liquid and the color. If she didn't know better, she'd swear it was blood.
After he knocked back all the contents of his cup, he finally looked at her. "You don't want to see him right now. Trust me."
"Don't be ridiculous. I have to go to him." He would be alone with no one to tend his wounds, and that was the last thing he needed.
Jaden crossed the room and placed his hands on her shoulders. His eerie eyes burned her with their intensity, anger, and disgust. "Lydia, listen to me," he growled between clenched teeth. "They almost cut him in half. Do you understand? I..." he winced as if he couldn't bear whatever flashed through his mind. When he met her gaze again, she swore she saw tears in his eyes. "Long ago I was one of the most revered warlords ever born, with a lot of field experience of god-war and massacre proportions. I fought and survived battles that would make Quentin Tarantino's movies look like a 1950s Disney musical, and I've never, ever seen anything so gruesome. Do you hear me?"
Those words hit her like blows.
He couldn't be serious. Surely not ...
Her own tears cut warm trails down her cheeks as she imagined what he'd found. What was left of Seth ...
Releasing her, Jaden raked a trembling hand through his hair and winced. "It's ... it's sick what they did to him. I didn't think anyone could be crueler than Noir. I stand corrected."
He snarled something in a language she'd never heard before. "I should never have let him go alone. I knew better. It's my fucking fault. All of this." He lowered his head and fisted his hands in his hair. "How could I have been so stupid? So selfish? Gah, I'm such a fucking idiot."
She wasn't sure if he was talking about his guilt over Seth or something else. But it was obvious, his past was every bit as brutal and traumatizing as Seth's.
Reaching out, she placed a comforting hand on Jaden's shoulder. "You did what Seth asked."
Jaden shook his head and this time there definitely were tears in his eyes, and her own flowed in response to seeing a man this strong hurt so much. "I just wanted five minutes of not having Azura and Noir breathing down my neck. Five minutes." His gaze tore into hers with the hatred that he bore for himself. "I condemned an innocent child into an eternity of hell for that five minutes. I'm worse than they are."
"No, Jaden. You're not. You think they have given his pain any consideration at all?"
He curled his lip as he shrugged her touch away. "Don't patronize me and tell what I am and what I'm not. I see myself for what I've become and I've never deluded myself or tried to spin my actions into something they're not. I know the beast in me and live with it every day."
And he hated it. He didn't say it because he didn't have to.
She knew there was no way to comfort him and even if there was, he wouldn't let her. He was too bent on flogging himself for his past mistakes.
Meanwhile, there was another man here who needed help. One who had somehow become important to her. If she couldn't help Jaden, the least she could do was go to him.
"Where is Seth?"
Jaden hesitated before he answered. "His room."
"Take me to him."
"I really don't think you need or want to see this."
She glared up at his peculiar eyes. "If you don't take me to him, right now, this second, I'll walk out that door and find him myself."
He growled low in his throat as he glared his anger at her. "And you would, too. You stubborn fool. Just remember, it was that kind of blatant stupidity that trapped me here. You should listen once in a while when someone warns you."
Lydia thought about that. He was right. She'd always been prone to leap and then think about the consequences on her way down the cliff, into the swirling ocean. Solin had dogged her hard over that her entire life. But she wasn't going to change today.
"He needs us."
Jaden shook his head. "Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you."
Before she could blink, they were in Seth's room, which was still bathed with that eerie blue glow. She took a second to get her bearings in the dark silence that heightened the sound of her own heart beating. The jackal in her smelled his blood, not that she couldn't see it plainly enough.
How did he have any left inside his body?
Completely naked, Seth lay on the bed so still, he didn't seem real or alive. With his head turned away from her, his straightened auburn hair spilled over the black pillow.
Bracing herself for the worst, she walked across the room slowly.
His breathing was so shallow, she could barely see his chest moving. His skin had a deathly ashen pallor to it and was covered with a fine sheen of sweat. Sweat that made the swallow on his neck glisten, reminding her of how he'd gotten that tattoo.
She choked back a sob over the pain of his life, wishing she could make him forget it.
He lay with his long legs stretched out and one arm draped over his chest, just above ...
