CHAPTER 7
Sula yawned, not a small one but a yawn that cracked her jaw and made her sound like a relative of a grizzly bear. She only knew of bears, the real grizzlies because one of the guards that used to watch over her. He had played documentaries over and over until she had requested something else be played, only to get her hand broken in response.
Instead of waking up back in that small cage, she was overjoyed to wake up in Damian’s huge, comfy bed. But this time there was no hiding. She had slept peacefully encased in his embrace and surrounded by his warmth.
She noticed when he had left, he had kissed her head before he slid out of the bed, making sure she was tucked in tightly.
This was heaven. It had to be. Sula grinned and then threw back the covers before she climbed out of bed. She couldn’t sleep the entire day away, and most of it had already gone. Damian had once again made sure the refrigerator was filled with chocolate cake, and Sula planned to take advantage of that fact.
She had found she had two new addictions—kissing Damian and eating chocolate cake. A naughty thought filtered through her mind, making her blush. What would happen if she kissed Damian after he had eaten the cake?
Her steps faltered as she moved to exit the bedroom. Something wasn’t right. Her gut churned and something tickled the back of her neck.
Reaching back, she touched the skin right at the bottom of her skull. Instead of bone, she felt a small flat disc… that had started to vibrate. Sula frowned as she tried to recall what it was or who had put it there, but she came up blank. That didn’t surprise her. There had been many times she had been unconscious that her old owners could have implanted anything.
Without another thought, Sula raced for the office and quickly moved to hide under the desk, only the vibrating got more and more intense.
She had to remove the implant.
Peeking out from under the desk, she looked across the surface, searching for anything she could use. Damian was a tidy male, very tidy compared to the males she had been exposed to, and as such had nothing on his desk but a dragon paper weight. She looked to his shelves and her eyes raced across the different keepsakes before landing on a small gem-encrusted letter opener. Darting from her hiding place, Sula grabbed the blunt knife before she quickly ducked under the desk again. She knew what she had to do. She also knew it would hurt, but it had to be done.
Before she had time to change her mind, Sula brought the dull end of the blade to her neck just below the implant and pressed hard. She cried out as it slowly pierced the skin. She felt the trickle of blood as it seeped from the wound and trailed down her back, but she continued, forcing the blade under and around the implant. Tears streamed down her face as she finally removed the round disc and dropped it onto the floor in front of her, only to find it still vibrating. Ignoring the pain from her neck, Sula used the hilt of the letter opener and smashed it against the implant, breaking it into two pieces and stopping the vibration.
Sula’s shoulders slumped and she fell back against the wood of the desk. They wouldn’t be able to find her now. That was her thought as she heard the front door burst open.
Closing her eyes, she curled into a ball, making herself as small as she could as she called out in her mind for Damian.
Damian……they’ve found me…help…
“Sula…oh, Sula,” a familiar voice called out, one that had fear skating down her spine. “We know you are here.”
Marcus had indeed found her. Her dream, her heaven was over.
“Come out, Sula. You don’t want us to hurt your new friend, do you?” His voice was filled with hate and impatience.
Damian…no. No one could hurt a black. Damian had said himself he was the biggest and baddest. But Marcus could hurt him. He knew how to bring down any shifter. That was how he was the most successful harvester on the black market.
She couldn’t let them hurt the one person in the whole world she cared about, she loved. She had told him thank you for finding her when in fact she had wanted to say thank you for saving her life and showing her, if for only a short time, that she wasn’t just an object to be owned and harvested from. She was a person, a woman who deserved a lot more.
For that she owed Damian her life.
Slowly on shaky feet, she climbed out from her hiding place, walking around the desk and out into the hall. Even dressed in only Damian’s shirt, she had more confidence in herself than before. Holding her head high, she faced Marcus.
“Ahh there you are, my dear. I hope you’ve enjoyed your little holiday,” he sneered and stalked toward her. His lackeys grinned as they followed behind, their eyes taking in her barely clad form. This was part of the reason why she had stopped shifting back into her human form. Now they could see she was no longer a child, they would take her torture to the next level.
But she wouldn’t make it easy for them.
“Come. It’s time we went home, Sula.”
“No,” she answered. “You don’t own me.”
“Wrong.” Marcus countered followed by a back hand to the face that took her to the floor. His putrid breath covered her face as he leaned over her.
“You are mine, Sula. You have been since you were born.” He grabbed her from the back of the neck, pressing on the fresh wound and causing her to cry out.
“The only way you will be leaving again, my dear, is when you are dead.” Lifting her off her feet, he threw her into the waiting arms of one of the lackeys.
“Take her to the car and make sure she stays there too,” he ordered.
Sula fought against the tears that threatened to fall.
Damian…
IT HAD BEEN A LONG, hard day of training at court, none of which Damian remembered once he’d left. Every step, every turn in the car took him closer to the little bird who occupied his mind and his thoughts. He’d spent the morning calling his contacts, trying to get information on the men—no, creatures, he wouldn’t call them men—who had taken her. So far, no one knew anything, but he wasn’t worried. Even if it took years, someone somewhere would talk. Something would shake loose and he would track them down.
Training had been… interesting. In his preoccupation that asshole Joseph had managed to land a couple of solid blows, which meant Damian was now sporting the mother of all black eyes. His own fault. He shouldn’t have been daydreaming about Sula as she had been this morning, all wrapped up in his arms, warm and sleepy. It had taken all the strength he had to leave her there sleeping when every male instinct he had urged him to roll her over and learn the shape of her lips all over again.
He closed his eyes for a second as he waited for the lights at the intersection to change. He had to keep control of himself, hide the primitive male urges that surged through his blood.
Damian…
Hell, he was even hearing her voice in his head now. He had it bad. Real bad.
The lights changed, finally, and he pulled away, his foot heavy on the accelerator as the need to get back to her increased. And increased. Became an itch, one that needed to be scratched. He frowned, gasping as his scales brushed against the inside of his skin.
What the fuck, dude? he snarled mentally as his dragon tried to push through, its mind filled with growls and panic. Grimly, he fought the change as the car fishtailed at the back end a little. He’d never been so close to losing control in all his adult life.
Ouuuuuurrrrssss… Suuuuullllaaa… It hissed, still fighting him. He growled and it subsided until another voice joined it in his head.
Damian, please…
He put his foot down, the powerful car roaring as it sped up. He needed to get home. Now.
There… theretherethere… His dragon yammered as a car pulled out of the road in front of them. It was a black SUV with nothing unusual about it, but the sense of panic and dread that washed over him from the connection with his dragon made him feel sick.
Damian…
Sula was in that car. How he knew, he had no clue, but he did.
Yanking the steering wheel around, he grabbed the handbrake and turned the car. Metal groaned and tires squealed as he threw the back end around and then floored the accelerator. The engine roared, the big sports car taking off in pursuit of the SUV, and he thanked any god that might be listening that Sawyer had insisted they all learn human-style protection skills, like high speed pursuits driving.
The black SUV slowed just enough for Damian to catch up, briefly giving him a chance to catch the registration plate. He committed the number to memory before he dropped a gear and accelerated, nudging the SUV with his bumper. His grin was more feral and showed more teeth as the need to stop the car ate at him. That small voice that belonged to Sula had vanished, making his dragon claw at his insides. He nudged the bumper again before he veered sharply to the side, pulling alongside the SUV. All the windows were tinted, giving him zero clue as to who was driving. Whoever it was had no idea who they were dealing with.
Poor unfortunate bastards.
Unexpectedly, the SUV veered into Damian, the impact jolting him to the side so hard he almost lost his grip on the wheel. His dragon came to the rescue, claws bursting from the ends of his fingertips to punch into the leather cover. He snarled, turning the wheel and pushing back with the speeding car. Metal creaked and groaned as they tussled for dominance on the road. He gripped the steering wheel tighter, his arms fighting to hold the car in position as he careened to the side. If he could trap the SUV between him and the central barrier, he could force it to a stop.
His lips curled back from his teeth in a ferocious grin.
Then they were fucked, and not in a good way.
Oncoming traffic swerved to miss them as they veered out onto the road before Damian was able to force them back against the barrier.
Big mistake.
His foot flat to the floor, he gunned the engine and slammed back into the SUV. With a screech, it hit with enough force it somersaulted over the barrier. The metal of vehicle bent and buckled as the car rolled lazily down the embankment. Damian’s heart stopped in his chest, time slowing as he watched in horrified fascination.
Sula…his little bird…what had he done?
He slammed the brakes on his car and was out the door before it had come to a complete stop. His dragon was screaming in his mind to find his dot. He vaulted over the barrier and slid down the slope to where the crumpled SUV sat, smoke rising from the engine.
Both front doors hung open, the driver and whoever the passenger had been nowhere to be seen.
“Sula!”
His voice roared into the night air, both dragon and man feeling the anguish of loss.
“Sula,” he called out again, his ears straining for any sign, any whisper of sound that would tell him she still lived. He reached out to tear open the door at the back, but a rumble sounded from deep within. Before he could lay a hand on the door, the rumble became a growl, which became a thunderclap as the SUV exploded into a ball of flame.
The force of the blast knocked him flying backward, his thin shirt no protection against the bite of the asphalt.
But he didn’t feel the pain. He didn’t feel anything other than the sudden, ragged hole where his heart had been. Where Sula had been. She’d been wound so tightly around his heart and soul that he only realized now, when she was gone, that she had been there.
Noooo, ourrrrrsss! his dragon screamed in pain. Ourrrrr mate!
Their mate. His mate. Damian screamed, the sounds of pain and loss echoing that of his dragon’s. Sula had been their mate, the edges of the soul bond pulsing in agony to the beat of his heart. A heart that stuttered with loss and pain.
Hands grabbed at his arms, stopping him from running into the fire. He had to get to her although a part of him knew no one could have survived that blast. Not even a dragon in human form. His little dot had no chance.
“Get off me,” he roared only to be ignored and dragged farther away from the burning wreckage. Smaller explosions went off randomly as fuel and other flammable liquids were released.
His dragon’s bellows in his head grew louder and louder in an attempt to get him to shift but he ignored it. How could he shift again with Sula gone?
“Wow, a black. This should be fun,” a guttural voice ground out and was answered by laughter.
“Awww he lost his little birdie,” another teased.
“Bring him,” another voice called out.
Damian lost count of the other shifters that surrounded him as he knelt on the ground in the dirt, watching the SUV burn. His little bird had been inside. Nothing mattered anymore, not without Sula. She had filled a part of him he had never realized needed filling. She had been home for him.
“Look at me, black,” the harsh voice ordered.
Damian knew then and there this was it for him. Yes, he was a black. Fierce and strong even unbeatable, but without his mate he was nothing. His face swung to the owner of the voice, eyes black with his dragon meeting the bright green on green of a gorgon. A male one, go figure.
“Fuck you,” he snarled as his body reacted to the gaze of the gorgon.
His skin changed. Muscles changed to solid stone. As Damian’s heart stopped, the car exploded one last time, flames reaching into the night sky and creating a firework display that signaled the fall of a great warrior.
A black was dead.