Page 32 of The Guardian (Dark-Hunter 20)
Chapter 11
Jaden looked away from her, but not before she saw the shame and grief in his eyes. His breathing intensified as if he was fighting physical pain. "Seth hates me because I'm the stupid bastard who showed Noir how to drain his powers from him and keep him submissive."
Her jaw went slack as anger knifed her through the heart. How could he have done something like that? To a boy, no less? And here she'd thought he was decent.
In the end, he was even worse than Noir.
No wonder Seth hated people the way he did. He truly had had no one. Not once in his entire life.
She raked a repulsed sneer over Jaden's body. "Why would you have done that?"
He let out a laugh that was laced with bitterness and self-loathing. "Why does anyone screw someone else? I was trying to save my own ass. At the time, I didn't know Seth. I hadn't even seen him yet. Not that that's any kind of an excuse. Believe me, no one is more disgusted by my behavior than I am."
She wouldn't bet on that. It was a wonder Seth hadn't gutted him for it.
Jaden sighed. "My only defense is that I was in the detag area where I can't see out into the world. And Noir is one of only two people who can lie to me and I can't detect it. He told me that he'd found a bastard god who needed his powers drained. If I showed him how to capture the god and use his own powers to keep him weak, he'd allow me out of my hellhole, and I could kill the god for him." The shame in his bicolored gaze ran all the way to his soul.
"I'll never forget that moment when Noir threw him on the ground in front of me, and I looked down into the innocent face of a terrified, defenseless child who had no idea what had been done to him or why. Noir laughed like it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen. And I knew..." He ground his teeth and the agony on his face told her that he was being honest about his regret. "I knew I'd been lied to and that I'd just damned that poor child to more misery than any creature should suffer." He raked his hand through his dark hair. "I should have killed him that day. I should have. But I couldn't bring myself to slaughter a defenseless child."
"How could you have killed him?"
Jaden gave her an evil smirk. "There's nothing I can't kill. No matter how immortal."
"Then why don't you do us all a favor and kill Noir now?"
He glanced away from her and curled his lip in contempt. It wasn't until he spoke that she realized that contempt was directed at himself. "That's a long, complicated story, and it's one I will never tell to you or anyone else. Suffice it to say, not killing him when I could have was my biggest mistake and is my greatest regret. It never fails to mystify me how badly we fuck up our lives by trying to protect ourselves, and the ones we love, from hurt and from harm. Unfortunately, life is unpredictable and turns on you at the worst possible times. Too bad we can't club it in the head until it heels, or better yet dies."
Boy, did she ever know that. Whenever she thought things were going well, something always went tragically wrong.
"Why are you telling me all of this?"
"To save your ass. I've destroyed enough lives in my time. For once, I'd like to save one. Granted it doesn't even the scales, not by a longshot, but it's better than doing nothing." He jerked his chin toward the door. "In spite of what his parents and adoptive family did to him, Seth was decent when he first came here. Angry, understandably, but decent. Unfortunately, that didn't last. The unending misery and torture would have taken its toll on even the strongest of souls, and I give that boy credit, he lasted longer than anyone I've ever seen and that includes me. But after..." he trailed off as a dark cloud settled over his features.
Lydia frowned. "After what? You can't leave me hanging after everything else you've told me. How much worse could it be?"
"Ironically it's not," Jaden said with a heavy sigh. "It was just the straw that snapped the camel in two and left it bleeding on the ground. Seth made a pact with Noir's Malachai, Adarian. If he helped the Malachai go free, Adarian was supposed to come back and release him in turn."
She stated the obvious. "He didn't."
Jaden shook his head. "Better Adarian had ripped his head off and killed him than leave him here to face Noir's wrath."
She could only imagine how true that was. "I take it Noir wasn't happy."
"Lady, you have no idea. Noir draws the bulk of his power from the Malachai. When he found out why he'd been weakened and who was to blame, he did things to Seth that no one should suffer. Not just for a few weeks or even a year or a century. We're talking over a thousand years of torture so bad and grueling, I have no idea how that man is still sane. I honestly don't know why he hasn't gutted me for it. I wouldn't blame him in the least." He touched her again and this time she saw Seth as Jaden had seen him after his release.
He was perilously thin and weak. Gaunt. His eyes were sunk so deep into his skull that they made him look like a skeleton. But the worst was the huge bolt that had been pierced through his jaw. It went from under his chin, through his mouth and tongue where the upper end was so large he couldn't swallow for it. Nor could he speak. If he tried, blood flowed from his mouth and choked him.
Now she understood the significance of the scar under his chin that he touched so often.
Jaden released her. "I was the one who removed the bolt and took him to his room to heal. Gah, I still can't believe what Noir had reduced him to. And what kills me most is that mankind owes Seth a debt they don't even know about."
"How do you mean?"
Jaden held his hand out for her.
Lydia started to hesitate, but she wanted to see the truth. So taking his hand, she braced herself for the images she was sure would haunt her.
Seth stood proudly in Noir's throne room as he told Azura and his master what he'd done.
Noir narrowed his gaze in warning. "What do you mean, maggot, that you let the Malachai go?"
Seth shrugged. "You can set Jaden free. He's not the one to blame."
Noir stood up with hell's fury burning deep in his dark eyes. "Surely not even you, as pathetic as you are, were stupid enough to defy me. Not in this."
Seth didn't back down or cower. He lifted his chin defiantly and braced himself for his master's wrath. He'd known when he agreed to help Adarian that there was a good chance the bastard wouldn't uphold his side of the bargain.
But he'd hoped. Slight though that hope was, he'd been desperate enough to want to believe that the Malachai had held a shred of decency somewhere inside him.
Now, Adarian had done what Seth had feared. He'd abandoned him to Noir's fury.
You could have saved yourself. You didn't have to speak up.
True. Noir had blamed Jaden for Seth's actions. And while Seth hated that son of a bitch with everything he had, Jaden hadn't turned him in for it. He could have easily spared himself by telling Noir the truth.
But he hadn't.
And while Seth's moral code wasn't what it used to be, he wouldn't stand by and see Jaden torn apart for something he'd told Seth not to do.
