Page 18

“Couldn’t wait, huh?” I ask as I walk into the room.

“He’s been at it a while now,” Callum chuckles. “To be fair, I was the one who broke and fucked her first. She’s a good one. Hopefully, she lasts a bit.”

“Well, we will see,” I shrug.

I watch as Daemon fucks this woman stupid. She’s groaning now as Daemon is filling her up. She is face down, bent over the bed. She is tightly gripping the comforter. Daemon groans and empties the last of himself inside her. When he pulls out, he smacks her ass and winks at me.

“Does little Cassie like having her ass fucked?” I ask as I grab her hips.

“Kael,” she groans again into the mattress. I take that as my cue and bury myself inside of her with one thrust. She yells out, and her body is tense. I fuck her harder, and the shadows begin to drift away. I feel relief wash over me, having fed the curse what it wanted from me.

I move her up to the bed and roll her to her back as I sink into her again. It takes me a second to realize that her screams are real. She has blood all over her face and chest.

“What have you done to me?” she asks in a weakened voice.

“Fuck,” I say only to say it louder. “Fuck!” Callum rushes over when he sees me pull out of her without finishing. I rush to the bathroom to get a wet washcloth. When I return, she’s convulsing.

Emotion slams down on all of us when we realize that we’ve been leaving these women alone to experience this. They’ve been dying alone because we are too selfish to comfort them through the mess we’ve made. We are killing these women while treating them like they are disposable.

I scoop Cassie up into my arms and move us to the floor. She very well might’ve died while I was fucking her if I hadn’t flipped her over. I wasn’t paying attention. My stupid ass thought she was just enjoying herself. Sobs crack from my throat as I rock her. “I’m so sorry,” I mutter. “I’m so fucking sorry.”

Daemon and Callum are also both in tears as they kneel down to be with her. When she stops convulsing, blood starts trickling out of her ears. She’ll pass any moment now. I move her hair out of her face as I keep wiping her down, and tears blur my vision. She didn’t deserve this. Fox shifter or not, she didn’t deserve to die like this. None of them did. All of them were eager to be with us, and we could’ve given them the most basic respect and been by their sides as they died. We could’ve provided them comfort as they passed.

When I have wiped her clean, her breathing is now shallow. I gently kiss her forehead and bring her to my chest. I have never felt pain like this before, and I can’t fix it. I can’t order it away. I can’t trade it, so I don’t have to deal with it. Cassie is dead because of us. I was fucking her while she was in pain.

Her breathing stopped more than ten minutes ago, but I’m not ready to let go of her. Daemon stands and takes her out of my arms when he realizes that I don’t have the strength to do it myself. Callum and I grab her bags that she hadn’t been able to unpack yet. We follow behind him with her items to a room where we keep them. It has everything the coroner will need to transport her. He is so used to us at this point that he leaves us a bag to place the girls in. He knows about the curse, so he knows not to say how they died.

Daemon zips the bag closed but leans down and kisses her forehead before closing it completely. “She deserved better than that,” Daemon growls. “No more hiding them away to die alone.”

“I agree,” I reply weakly. Callum just nods.

“I’m starting to understand why our fathers intentionally denied themselves so that they would die,” Daemon mutters.

My eyes fly open, and I sit up. The room is dark and quiet. I can see Callum is asleep as I walk over to Daemon’s bed. I just need to be close to her for a moment.

When I get closer, I notice that she’s not in bed with him. “Daemon,” I shout at him.

“Hmm? What?” he asks sleepily.

“Where is she? Where’s Lilith?” I ask, fully panicking now. I go to the closet to look for her, then the bathroom.

“What’s going on?” Callum asks.

“She’s gone. Lilith is gone,” I say. Fear swirls in my mind, and I stop in the middle of the room to center myself so I can think clearly.

“Woah. Hey,” Daemon says, laying his hand on my shoulder. “She probably just went to that building out in the woods. Relax, okay?”

“She shouldn’t be out there alone,” I retort. “Why wouldn’t she just wait until morning?”

“Because she is stubborn and independent. She’s never had anyone take care of her before. You can’t get mad at her for not understanding,” he says.

“I’m not mad, Daemon. I’m fucking scared,” I yell at him. He softens when he realizes that I hadthenightmare again.

“I’m sorry, man,” he says as he hugs me. “I fucking hate that you keep having that dream.”

“It just plays on a fucking loop. That could’ve been Lilith,” I say.

“But it wasn’t,” Callum says. “Let’s go find her so you two can poke fun at each other until you break and bend her over or something.” I nod and go into the closet to grab shoes for us.