Page 74 of Heart of the Hunted
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Taredd
Taredd was fuming. It was all his fault that those Demons managed to get their hands on Natalia. If he hadn't left her alone in the tavern, then none of this would have happened.
If he hadn't forced her to go with him in the first place, then none of this would have happened because she wouldn't have been in a town full of monsters as she called them.
Because of his ignorance in thinking she was safe after being seen with him, she had been hurt and there was nothing he could do to change it, he couldn't turn back time and change the past. Now he would have to live with himself for causing her harm, it didn't matter what anyone said, it was all his fault.
At least she didn’t have to come back here to see the destruction left in the Demons wake. While they had been gone, the broken door had been replaced with a new one. Taredd was impressed at how quickly they had cleaned up the mess.
"Stop blaming yourself," Dain told him. "You couldn't have known any of this would happen."
"I should have known though,” he said, pacing the room.
Natalia was in the other room still, soaking in the bath. He could hear her crying as she sat in the rapidly cooling water. Taredd would do anything he could to take away her pain, but there wasn't anything that he could do.
"Why should you have known?" Dain asked.
"Because I knew that we were being watched. I should have known it was only a matter of time before they were going to do something,” he said, adamantly. "I should have never left her alone."
"Taredd…"
"It doesn't matter what you say, Dain,” he interrupted. "It will not change a thing. It was my fault, and there's nothing you can say that will change my mind."
Stopping in front of the door separating him from Natalia, he put his hand against it and said quietly. "I just hope she can forgive me."
Dain walked over and placed his hand on Taredd shoulder, but he didn't say a thing. Dain knew he was right, so there wasn't much he could say.
Moving away from the door, Taredd began pacing again. He couldn't sit still while she was in there, hurting. He wanted to comfort her, but he didn't know how. The cuts and bruises would heal in time, but the memory of what happened to her would take longer to fade, if it ever did.
"I'm taking her home,” he said suddenly.
"What?" Dain asked.
"I'm taking her home,” he repeated, turning to look Dain in the eyes.
"You know where she lives?" Dain asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I do now,” he said confidently.
"Don't tell me that you're going to do what I think you are?" Dain asked, shaking his head.
"I'm taking her back to my home."
"But your home is in the Demon realm," Dain pointed out. "If you're trying to keep her safe, do you think that is the best place to take her?"
"There's no place safer than my home," Taredd told him.
Even being in the Demon realm she was far safer than staying in this realm. There were more than enough people working for him back home to keep her safe. He trusted every single one of them not to cause Natalia any harm.
If they knew what she meant to him, then they would lay down their lives to protect her from other Demons living in the realm. So, yes, it was the safest place to take her.
Now he just needed to convince her it was the best thing for her. That might not be so easy, especially after what had just happened to her.
"Okay," Dain said. "But you're going to need both mine and Arun's help in getting her to your house in one piece. You know it’s more dangerous for Humans in the Demon realm than it is here."
Taredd turned and looked at Dain. "You don't have to do that,” he told him.
