CHAPTER 19
Loke cursed himself under his breath as Anais fled, leaving him alone and staring at the space where she had been. What he had done had been necessary. He had needed to drive her away from him.
He hadn’t expected it to hurt as much as it had though.
The pain that had flared in her eyes and on his senses, running through him as if it had been his own incredible hurt, had torn down his strength and resolve, and he had been on the verge of taking back his words and comforting her when she had run away from him.
He staggered to the right wall of his cell, pressed his back to it and slid down it again. He stretched his legs out in front of him and looked along the corridor in the direction she had run, aching with a need to make her come back to him. He needed to take her pain away. It was still strong within him and he couldn’t shake it. It mingled with his own hurt and tore at him, stripping away the guards around his heart until it felt exposed and vulnerable, a weak thing that would never be strong again.
Because he had driven away the one divine being who had filled him with strength and power the likes of which he had never felt before.
His little Amazon.
His fated female.
Just being around her, being close to her, had made him stronger, until he had felt invincible. Just a smile from her had made the earth tremble beneath his feet and had set his heart pounding. A look was all it had taken to shake his world to its foundations and leave him burning with a need for more of her.
A kiss from her had ruined him.
Gods, he needed her.
He raked his fingers through his blue hair, tugging it back as he fought that need.
It was better this way. He had seen her pain and her guilt, and her fear. He couldn’t take those things away from her, but he could stop them from growing stronger and destroying her.
If his words had struck a deep enough mark, as he had intended, she would stay away from him while the scientists studied him. He didn’t want her to witness what they did to him. He didn’t want her to have to endure seeing him go through everything they had planned for him and blaming herself for it.
The male in the next cell began chanting about revenge, a mission and escaping. The first and last of those sounded appealing, but escaping took precedence over revenge. He wasn’t even sure who he wanted revenge on. Archangel for containing and studying him? King Thorne of the demons for defeating him? Anais for handing him over?
The darker, angry part of himself whispered to make her suffer for what she had done to him.
The rest of him said he had hurt her enough when she was already hurting over what she had done. There was no need to punish her for it. He had driven her away and now he would wait for an opportunity to escape. Hopefully it would come before he lost too much of his strength or the laws of the banishment killed him.
The male continued to mutter as he started to pace, a clipped edge to it as he moved closer to Loke and then drifted further away.
Loke closed his eyes and settled more heavily against the white wall, resting and conserving his strength as he waited for someone to come to take him to the scientists.
There was a knock on the wall behind him.
“That the woman you were looking for?”
Loke sighed. “Yes.”
“They sent a woman to trick you, too?” Those words stuck a knife in his heart and he tried to ignore the sick feeling that swept through him, chilling him and stirring the darker part of himself that blamed Anais for what had happened.
Had she betrayed him as a hunter from the same clan had clearly betrayed the male in the other cell?
He couldn’t bear the thought that she might have, that what had happened between them might not have been real after all. He shunned that feeling, clinging to his belief in her and her feelings. She felt something for him. She hadn’t betrayed him. She hadn’t used him. Her pain had been real. His grip on that belief began to slip again and he clung more fiercely to it, refusing to listen to the darker part of his nature.
It was difficult when he was weak and hurting, and afraid. He might be a warrior, but he was strong enough to admit when he was scared. He feared what lay ahead for him, what torture the scientists would inflict upon him in their quest for knowledge of his species.
Anais had done this to him.
The male twisted the knife in his heart. “Did she sleep with you and then betray you?”
Loke screwed his eyes shut and scrubbed a hand down his face. He growled, “Yes.”
The male spat out a foul curse. “They did the same thing to me… and then they attacked my pride. They killed my sister and mother.”
Loke’s eyes shot open and his heart raced as the male’s words sank in. His clan were in danger.
The hunters knew where they were.
Anais or the other huntresses would lead Archangel to them and they would all be killed, as this male’s family had been.
He snarled and shoved onto his feet, and began pounding on the glass again, unable to stop himself as his rage burned beyond his control, turning his heart to ash in his chest as his mind filled with images of these wretches harming his kin, all because he had dared to save one of them.
Because he had fallen in love with one of them.
The male in the next cell had been tricked in the same manner. Loke had wanted to believe that Anais hadn’t betrayed him, but that belief died again as he ran over what the male had said. A female hunter had seduced and betrayed him.
“What is your name?” Loke pressed his hand to the white wall between his cell and the male’s and breathed hard, struggling to calm himself.
He was wasting his energy and his strength. He needed to conserve them. Weakened as he was, he was still superior in strength to the mortals in the complex. None of them would be a match for him.
“Harbin.” Came the reply.
“My name is Loke. You heard my conversation with the huntress. I cannot be here. I must escape these fiends… and therefore I need your help. I need your knowledge of this facility.”
Harbin began chanting about his mission again and Loke couldn’t help but wonder whether he had lost his mind during his containment. Had they studied him too? Was this madness what awaited Loke if he allowed them to conduct their study?
He needed to escape.
He refused to allow his life to end here.
He roared and hammered his fists against the glass. It shook beneath his furious blows but still refused to break.
“Bad move,” Harbin called through the wall. “They don’t like it when we’re rowdy.”
Loke stopped.
Too late.
Thick white smoke poured into the room from above the barrier and swirled around him. He tried not to breathe it in but he ran out of air and was forced to take a breath. The moment he did, his head turned and his vision wobbled.
The last thing he heard before passing out was the deep vicious growl of Harbin’s voice.
“Two scientists. Bonds are weak. Shatter them. Scalpels are weapons. Four guards. Two observers. Eight throats to cut. Kill the fuckers and come get me. I know a portal back to Hell.”