Page 31 of Tortured Soul (Soulless #1)

Lola

M y curiosity wasn’t enough anymore for me not to regret accepting Arc’s invitation—or rather summoning .

Here I was, standing next to a disheveled and smirking Dimitri under the door frame, while all three of them stared at us with various expressions on their faces.

My Nephilim had not bothered to find new clothes, and his dark shirt was hanging open as most of the buttons had been ripped out, showing everyone we passed on the way his sculpted chest and the over fifteen hundred years old mark of his binding promise to me.

Good thing his dress pants were black and there was no visible stain on his crotch from the moment he rubbed himself between my legs…

If his dumbfounded smile, messy hair, and the claw marks on his chest, neck, and arms didn’t scream what happened, the glow and scent of my skin definitely did.

My throat bobbed as Arc’s nostrils flared, his pupils expanding in his eyes. Dimitri didn’t seem to mind Carter’s murderous eyes and fists tightening on the table. But Carrie’s smile looked absolutely oblivious to the sudden tension bursting through the roof the second she opened the door.

“Right on time!” she beamed.

I gave her a curt nod, burying my surprise at her happy tone. I’d have to get used to the fact that she didn’t actually hate me.

Dimitri chuckled next to me before he mumbled, “No matter how much I tried not to.”

A blush crept up my neck as my eyes widened, meeting Arc and Carter’s gazes in hope they didn’t hear him.

He would’ve definitely gone for a second round if not for this meeting we were supposed to attend.

Not sure I would have argued against it .

It seemed my self-control was worth shit. Not even a day earlier, I had told him that we were going to remain platonic.

What happened on that kitchen counter? Yeah, not platonic at all .

“Please, have a seat.”

Carrie had pushed her desk against the large window on the far wall and pulled a round table in the middle of her office, five chairs surrounding it. Arc and Carter were seated next to each other, the pulled chair next to Arc suggesting Carrie had been sitting there.

“I don’t understand why they’re here,” Carter grumbled, eyes drifting to anywhere but Dimitri and I.

And here I thought he might actually have meant his apology from last night.

“We could have been elsewhere doing something else, but someone rudely interrupted,” Dimitri pointedly taunted, pulling the chair next to Carrie’s and indicating for me to sit. “Can’t always have what we want, can we?”

With bulging eyes focused on the table not to notice anyone’s stare, I found myself sitting excruciatingly slow. Maybe if I didn’t move too fast, they’d forget I ever existed.

I wish I’d created some dark clothes instead of stopping by the apartment to wear real ones…What a stupid idea to have chosen to wear the bright baby blue summer dress I’ve been dying to try on since I bought it a couple of days ago.

“I’m going to ignore the little jabs you keep throwing at each other,” Arc said, obviously already tired with this exchange, “and remind you that we’re part of the same bind group and it’s time we start acting like one.”

“We’re not binded,” Carter spat back.

Dimitri sat between me and Carter, and I refrained from rolling my eyes, already forgetting about my no-movement rule and more inclined to let my inner brat out once again.

“It doesn’t matter,” Arc growled, and I was pretty sure the whole room trembled at the sound.

“You advertised her as your mate for days before changing your damn mind on a whim, and now people know she’s mine too.

Your behavior has already been a headache to deal with and now I need us all to fucking move forward.

Together .” As I lifted my eyes, I saw him looking straight at me, before he turned to Carter.

“As discussed, you will be moving back to the house.”

Not sure I was happy about that…

Carter suddenly smiled, but it looked sinister. “I was doing just that this morning, but I stumbled upon a scarring sight.”

Well, if it wasn’t clear before, it was now.

Dimitri’s laugh was hysterical as he answered, “Right, scarring. Good one. Let’s not talk about what happened in your pants at that sight. Not sure what aroused you the most. Was it her blood flowing into my mouth, or my cock buried in—”

“Oh my—” I started, not sure if I was enjoying the tortured look on Carter’s face or if I wanted to run away and hide for the next decade.

“Can you please wait until I’m out of here before you start airing your dirty laundry out in the open?” Carrie groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I’m the one about to be scarred for life here, and Lola looks like she’s about to combust into flames any second now.”

I leaned toward her slowly. “Thank hell, please get me out of here.”

The room fell silent, everyone casting each other looks of either loathing or longing.

Carter moving back to the house I was now bound to live in was an issue. Especially since I really wanted Dimitri to stay around.

Not sure I would be able to endure the constant taunting, and fighting, and—and everything Carter brought.

“Alright, are we good to go?” Carrie asked, looking at each of us warily.

“Go ahead,” Arc said.

“Last night, my scouts took over four more cabins and raided all the documents they found.”

“Wait, you guys are going for the cabins?” I interrupted, leaning forward to place my elbows on the table.

Carter groaned but Carrie grinned. “Turns out, what you brought back was a gold mine of information. There was a detailed list of the Guardians and other Immortals from the camp, and the bounty they offered for their capture, the rotation plan for the soldiers and their active cabins, a map of the surroundings marking some of the traps, and more things about the overall hierarchy of their army.”

Arc nodded, his face calm. How was he calm? There was a bounty on his head? Was it what he was referring to last night when he said he was receiving threats ?

“We’re confident that taking control of all the cabins will allow us to progress further and eventually find the place where they keep our missing Immortals,” he said, pushing one of the documents toward me over the table.

My fingers brushed his as I reached for it and he pulled his hand away abruptly, as if the contact with my skin burned him.

Okay, so we were back to him avoiding me like the plague. I lifted my eyes to his in confusion, but his gaze was focused on the information displayed on the document still in front of him.

Weird .

“As you can see,” Carrie continued, still oblivious, “there’s a whole area that doesn’t have traps, forming kind of a large path in the direction of the stone forest and up to the canyons.”

There was. The map was incredibly detailed.

“We believe they have their operation center or the prison in that area.”

With the tip of a pen, she circled the canyon I had to avoid on my way here from Nevada.

During the war, a large group of Immortals had taken refuge there, using caves and caverns, connecting them with narrow underground corridors to stay hidden.

Humans, not understanding the principle of being an Immortal, had tried various methods to drive them out, including poisoning the Colorado River, and killing thousands of their own in the process.

That river was now long gone, used by a few elemental warlocks and witches to retaliate. They absorbed it’s entire essence, saving the land it ran over from completely putrefying, and made it rain, containing the damages to the whole state.

Most humans died from their own poison, but it killed the fauna and flora too, turning almost every mortal thing to rotting stone.

The scorching heat had somehow stopped the rot, making the whole state a desert covered with stone forest and cracked floor.

And the canyon, which previously hosted part of the river, was now just dry land surrounded by menacing mountains and cliffs.

“You think they settled in the old caves? Are they safe with everything that happened?” Dimitri asked, leaning to study the map.

“They might have built around them or in the dead river bed,” Carrie said, bringing the pen to her mouth to nibble on the cap. “Or yeah, maybe they secured the caverns and caves to stay hidden from sight.”

“Why not send someone who can teleport there?” I asked.

Arc shook his head, closing his eyes briefly.

“There’s something there that prevents us from pinpointing it. Everyone who tried to land here”—he placed his finger on the canyon area—“ended up somewhere else a few miles away.”

My brows scrunched down.

“Humans can’t do things like this,” Dimitri cut in, obviously as confused as I was.

“That’s why we believe there are Immortals, too.”

I let myself fall backward until my back met the back of the chair. Arc said that to me yesterday, when he mentioned the threats he was receiving. But it seemed ludicrous to picture Immortals working alongside humans to harm others of their kind.

“We also found this in a few cabins.” Carrie leaned to the side to grab something from the floor, between her and Arc.

She placed a familiar device on the table, right in the middle of us all.

Familiar because I’ve seen this once before, and once only.

Just about a couple of weeks ago, when I was attacked on my way here.

“It’s—”

“A tracker,” I interrupted her.

Oh, how my little excursion outside the time I went into the cabin could have gone very wrong, if that weasel had had a mind and actually used it.

“You’ve seen this before?” Arc asked at the same time Dimitri said, “How do you know what that thing is?”

“I-I,” I stuttered, trying to remember through the fog that was my memory.

I’d burned that thing with the bodies that night, but I remembered the look on their faces as they pointed it toward me and it blinked like a christmas tree.

“It’s uh—yes. I was attacked by humans on my way here, and they had something like this.”