Page 48 of Tortured Soul (Soulless #1)

Lola

“ W hat the hell are you doing?” I shouted, elbowing my way through the dozen guards to reach Dimitri. “Let him go!”

One of them looked at me, a dumbfounded expression on his face as I roughly shoved him into the large pillar, knocking some of his friends in the process.

But the bitch who stood in my way with a condescending smile and placed her hand on my collarbone to keep me from getting closer? Yeah, I was going to skin her alive.

“We have orders, and you don’t have clearance to be here,” she sneered.

Her blue eyes sparked with satisfaction. Fucking Divine . I could have felt what she was even if she had her helmet on by the way my skin crawled at her touch, like my whole body couldn’t stand to have her this close to me.

Strangely enough, Carter—as annoying and infuriating as he was—didn’t make me want to recoil in disgust like a few other Divines did.

“Remove that hand from her if you don’t want to lose it,” Dimitri growled from a few feet away, fighting against the few guards restraining him.

“I don’t give a fucking shit about your damn orders,” I said at the same time, pushing forward until my face was inches from hers.

And there it was; her bravado crumbled at the first sign of opposition.

The strawberry hair framing her head was plastered to her face from the rain and she looked like a drowning rat.

She tried to push me away, but her paling face was enough for me to know that she would cower in a corner if I pushed back .

“We’re following orders, here,” she tried again, but her tone was way less assured. “We can’t let unauthorized Immortals walk through the front gates without them being questioned.”

“ Unauthorized Immortals ?” Her throat bobbed at my tone.

“Are you denying access to your scouts when they come back from a mission?” She shook her head.

“Firstly, I don’t care that you weren’t important enough to know about him and where he’s coming back from, he has a report to deliver to Arc and Carrie personally .

Secondly, he’s my mate, and if your little friends don’t let go of him right now, it’s your fucking blood that will be covering my fists. ”

She scoffed, but no matter how much false confidence she put into her expression, I could smell the fear and unease coming off of her.

Which was strange. Most Divines wouldn’t have thought twice before trying to fight me off.

“He must be searched before we take him to our superiors,” she said, steeling herself, her fists tightening at her sides. Dimitri let out a pained grunt as one of the guards kicked him in the stomach after getting punched in the jaw. “It’s proto—”

She didn’t get to finish that sentence before she reeled back from the impact of my forehead against her nose. My head hurt and little stars dotted my vision, but it was all worth it seeing the chaos that followed.

As she fell to the floor on her ass, lifting her hand to the golden blood pouring heavily over her parted lips, the guards around us sprung into action, their movements uncoordinated and erratic.

One of them grabbed my arm and tried to pull it behind my back to restrain me but I slashed his face with sharp claws, leaving deep, black wounds going from his temple to his jaw. His grip loosened immediately and I turned to kick him in the stomach with my foot.

An elemental warlock sent a burst of wind that nearly knocked me off my feet, sending dirt and rain against my face and in my eyes, but I held on to another demon guard, making him fall instead and ran forward as soon as the warlock stopped channeling.

He made the mistake to turn around—not so cocky now that I was closing in—allowing me to jump on his back and remove his helmet from behind before using the sharp beak to hit at the top of his head and any other places that I could easily reach .

“ Fuck! ” he cursed, trying to shield himself with his hand, only for me to pierce holes in them too. “Get her off!” he yelped as he tried to move toward the couple of them still holding Dimitri.

My mate looked at me with wide eyes, an admiring look on his face. Hell, how I loved when he looked at my crazy behavior like this. I guess I was a little mad too.

The last mistake they made was to consider me a greater threat than the Nephilim.

The male warrior holding Dimitri’s arms behind his back took only one step in my direction before he was caught in a chokehold. Swirling red eyes met my determined blue and held.

How did I ever live without seeing him for so long? The madness might have been scary for everyone else, but it was reassuring to me. Because no matter how violent his curse was at times, behind the hurt and confusion was always unconditional love.

Guards were grunting everywhere around us as we held our positions.

Me holding on to the back of the frantic warlock, Dimitri keeping a consistent pressure on the demon windpipes.

The few that weren’t on the ground were pounding at our respective frames, trying to get their hold back on us, but we didn’t budge, gazes locked on each other.

Dirt and splashes of water were flying everywhere around our tumble, and I could hear people farther away, yelling and calling for help that took time to come.

Where the Hell were Arc and Carter?

“What’s going on here?” a familiar voice sounded from behind me and I turned my face, grinning. “Lola, that’s not funny, what—”

“Oh, come on Marcus,” I drawled. “They’re the ones who attacked and refused to be reasonable.”

He stepped in the melee, pulling other guards away from us and shoving them to the sides.

He wasn’t wearing his helmet, but he must have been patroling along the inside fortification since he was still dressed in his usual dark uniform, his soaked, dark blond hair pulled back in a half bun.

“Can you please let go of them?” He stopped between Dimitri and I, turning to look toward us both. The men who were still trying to pull me off the warlock and the guard away from Dimitri’s hold retreated. “You too,” Marcus continued, frowning at us .

As they joined their little friends to the side, I saw the mortification in the demon and the Warlock’s eyes. They knew that they had handled this poorly. Never turn your back on an Immortal opponent. Never switch your focus. Never underestimate.

“Where the Hell is Arc?” I asked, bumping into Marcus to get to Dimitri’s side. His arm wrapping around me and lips meeting my temple settled my racing heart instantly. I didn’t even care that he was covered in blood. A lot of blood . From a lot of different species.

Okay, maybe I cared a little.

“What happened?” I whispered to Dimitri while Marcus paced in front of the line of hurting—but mostly fine—guards, a scowl etched into his face as he surveyed them.

“I found it.”

My head snapped up. His grin was so wide the single dimple was visible on the side of his chin.

“You did?”

He nodded, eyes sparking with pride. I turned in his arms and snuggled closer to him as he tightened his hold around me. Marcus’ voice scolding the guards on the side was barely a white noise in my mind as all the tension that had plagued me for the last three days finally lessened.

“You promised you’d be careful,” I pointed out. “Why are you covered in—”

“What’s going on here?” Dimitri stiffened against me at the sound of Arc’s voice. “Why does everyone look like they were just part of a bar brawl?”

Marcus grunted. The guards lowered their heads, avoiding his gaze.

Cowards .

“What happened?” I scoffed, turning around to face him as Dimitri kept my back plastered against his chest. “Your guards are idiots, that’s what happened.”

“Care to explain further?” he seethed.

It was late, and the rain started to pick up. It should be a relief after so many days of scorching heat, but the drops were warm and the heavy and humid air was charged as the storm was building.

The few moonbeams shining through the thick clouds illuminated Arc’s face and made his blue-gray eye gleam in an unnatural way .

“They were holding Dimitri and wouldn’t let him through,” I gritted out. “He’s wearing your damn uniform because you said it would prevent him from being attacked by your own people, and it happened anyway. Do you care to explain that?”

“There’s a protocol,” the Divine bitch stammered. “We were—”

“The protocol concerns outsiders or threatening visitors,” Arc interrupted her with a sharp look. “Did he threaten you?”

All of the guards' eyes drifted to each other as the silence stretched.

“Did. He. Threaten. You?”

His eyes were cold as he looked at every single one of them, waiting for an answer.

“He’s covered in Immortal blood,” one of them answered, meeting his gaze for a second before he looked down again.

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

No one spoke again, the sound of the rain hitting the dusty ground of the entrance and cobblestone leading in the streets loud around us.

“You all know why I put you on gate duty,” Arc continued, taking a step closer to Dimitri and I.

“What you’re being reprimanded for.” His hand reaching for mine startled me and I looked up at him in surprise.

“You stood and watched as she was beaten upon arrival, and now this? You should have sent for Carrie or me the second you saw him approaching. You do not have the authority to restrain someone at the gates. You do not have the authority to do anything here.”

The reality of the situation hit me like a train wreck. They were the ones being punished for letting Carter get away with what he’d done. For not doing anything to stop him when he kicked me as I was helpless on the floor.

The ones who conveniently didn’t mention anything to Arc when I was stashed in that tower for hours.

It explained why Marcus’ anger was directed at them and not Dimitri and I when he arrived to stop the tumble.

“Marcus,” Arc said, not turning his gaze away from the line of guards. “Get their uniform and weapons, I’ll inform Carrie they’re dismissed from their functions.”