Page 51 of Tortured Soul (Soulless #1)

Lola

I startled awake, jolting upright in my bed— Dimitri ’s bed—sliding my hand to the side only to find it empty, but still a bit warm.

Where was he? It was still dark outside.

“Dimitri?”

My eyes squinted through the dark room, trying to see if anything or anyone moved. Did he leave? Without saying goodbye?

I jumped out of the bed and ran to turn on the light. He wasn’t here . Not in there, nor in the bathroom.

Running down the stairs, I only realized that I didn’t bother to create some decent clothes when I collided head first with Carter’s back and fell on my ass.

Good thing I at least had some panties and a large T-shirt on.

“Fuck, I’m sorry, I—”

My words died in my throat when he didn’t move, stuck standing under the kitchen door frame, shoulders squared, hands fisted at his sides.

“Carter?”

The room, the whole house , was dead silent.

Something was wrong.

Carter

I shouldn’t be here.

Here, in Arc’s mind. Not hearing his thoughts, not feeling his emotions, only seeing through his eyes. Listening through his ears .

I tried to push against the cage blocking me here, to fight my way out and back to reality, but my conscience was stuck in there, and he didn’t seem to notice that he wasn’t alone in his head anymore.

“I still don’t understand why I couldn’t stay a bit longer to say goodbye to Lola,” Dimitri groaned next to him.

Arc turned his head toward the Nephilim, not stopping on their tracks and rolled his eyes.

I hated being stuck in here. Confined. Accessing his senses like we were one instead of seeing the scene as a whole.

“Stop complaining. The faster we take care of this, the faster we’ll be back.”

Dimitri threw him an annoyed look but kept moving forward, even increasing his pace on the now-dry ground. At least it stopped raining.

His face looked tense as he looked around them, eyes scanning the perimeter as they progressed in the stone forest.

They must have left at least two hours ago to be already this far. Why didn’t Arc tell me anything?

“Are you planning to stay here after we get back?” Arc asked.

Something bugged me in his voice. It was casual, but forced. Anxious.

The Nephilim didn’t hesitate a second. “If Lola stays, I’m staying. If she wants to leave, I’ll try and convince her to stay, but ultimately, if she does I’ll follow.”

The silence stretched for a few minutes and my unease grew with it. The sun started to rise on the horizon, partially illuminating their path through the dense forest of trees turned to stones.

“What makes you think she’ll want to leave?”

Dimitri turned his head toward him briefly.

I had heard Arc and Lola talk in the kitchen the night she helped me pluck the crystal shards out of my back.

She did say she planned to go away. To wait until Dimitri was back and then leave Arc and I behind.

She had some good reasons and arguments, to be fair; none of us had exactly been models since she arrived here…

“You wouldn’t be the first,” Dimitri answered.

“The first what?”

“Mate to be left behind.”

Arc’s vision narrowed and jaw clenched .

“I understand that you guys have had some highs and lows since you met, but weren’t you the one who left the last time?”

Dimitri chuckled, the sound a little dry.

“I’m not talking about me.”

My friend froze abruptly and Dimitri groaned but stopped a few feet farther.

“What do you mean?”

“Come on,” the Nephilim grunted. “You didn’t think Carter and you are the first mates she’s met since finding me over fifteen hundred years ago?

You said so yourself, we’re a group of six, which means she has five mates.

Lola lived a long life, she obviously stumbled upon at least another one of her mates before. ”

I hadn’t thought of that, and from Arc’s stillness, he hadn’t considered this possibility either.

“What do you mean left behind?” Arc snapped, taking a step closer to him and grabbing a hold of his forearm.

Dimitri’s eyes dropped to the hand on his skin and his eyes swirled angrily.

“Let go or you’ll lose the arm.”

An empty threat, but filled with a painful promise nonetheless.

Arc ignored it. “What. Do you. Mean?”

His grip tightened and Dimitri’s eyes darkened before he threw his other hand forward, sending Arc stumbling backward like he'd been hit by a car.

“You might be powerful but you don’t scare me. Touch me like this again, and you’ll be going to this prison on your own, only to return and find Lola and me gone.”

“Are you insinuating that Lola left her other mate because you told her to?”

Dimitri scoffed, shaking his head, the rising light reflecting on his silver hair like a beacon. The red in his eyes was vibrant and menacing as he took a step closer to my oldest friend.

“I didn’t. But I helped her flee when she asked me to.

I helped cover her tracks and hide herself so he wouldn’t find her again, even during our decades apart.

I’ll stop at nothing to protect her, even from herself or the people who care about her so much they put her and themselves at risk. She’s—”

He stopped abruptly, head snapping to the side in attention.

“She’s what ?” Arc growled. “Why can’t you fucking—”

“Shut up.”

The Nephilim turned around and scanned their surroundings, his whole body tensed, taking a defensive stance.

“Di—”

“I said shut up !” he hissed.

Arc stiffened. Something was wrong. In the whole situation, yes, but also with my friend.

He didn’t act like himself. Was he losing his internal battle with his demon side?

“We’re surrounded,” Dimitri said, leaping backward. “MOVE!”

But something in the air shifted, and in a second, hundreds of people were on them. Hellrisers, Earthwalkers, Humans… Dimitri was kneeling on the cracked and dirty floor, holding his head and pulling his own hair with a deafening scream.

Dozens of Immortals were holding him to the ground as one pushed the tip of a syringe into his neck.

Another one, walking slowly toward him, had his hand outstretched in front of him, his palm sliced open and dark smoke coming out of it to wrap around Dimitri’s head, invading his nostrils, ears, and mouth.

Arc was untouched but didn’t move, watching the scene unfazed. His eyes stopped on the man moving forward. The man whose smoke made Dimitri choke and retch.

Brown hair reached his shoulders and was held back in a half bun. His skin tanned, stubble dark and perfectly trimmed. His brown leather jacket shifted as he dropped his arm, satisfied that Dimitri was busy trying to fight the dark smoke attacking him from everywhere at once.

Arc’s eyes met the stranger’s and they held, recognition flaring his hazel irises flecked with gold before he spoke.

“Good to see you again, Archelaus.”

Lola

The sun was rising up as I sat at the kitchen counter, drinking my coffee and eyes narrowed on Carter. His white eyes and unnatural stillness were terrifying, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave the room. What if he suddenly woke up from this strange trance and—I don’t know, hurt himself?

For the third time in five minutes, my eyes drifted to the lonely marker sitting on the counter, just a few inches away. I really wanted to do that.

Would it be childish?

Yes.

Did I care?

Not really.

Slowly, without letting him out of my sight, my hand slid toward it. It was only the two of us for a couple of days, might as well pass the time and make fun of him a little, right?

Standing up carefully, I made my way to his front and took a few seconds to study his frozen state. The way his white eyes shone, almost blinding. The way his whole body was tensed and stuck in place.

I muffled a giggle as I lifted the uncapped marker to his face, my tongue peeking out as I drew over his upper lip, ending both lines with a little curl.

“Perfect,” I snickered.

Lifting my hand higher to draw little horns, his hand snapped around my wrist and I yelped.

“What the f—”

His eyes shone brighter, forcing me to close my eyes as I tried to break free, but he held me too tightly.

“Carter!” I screamed, pulling harder as the pain intensified and climbed up my arm. “Carter, let go! You’re hurting me!”

The blinding light dimmed slightly but I could still see it, even through my closed lids. I was projected backward, landing on the floor on my back.

“Lola!” Carter’s voice was erratic. “Lola—fuck, I’m sorry. Lola, are you—are you okay?”

I groaned, keeping my eyes closed, rolling to the side in pain.

“Lola, please get up. We need to go and see Carrie. Something’s wrong . ”

I inhaled and a sharp pain traveled up my hips to my lungs. “Fuck, give me a minute. I think you broke a rib.”

He cursed again, kneeling next to me. His hand felt soft and warm on my waist as his free fingers interlaced with mine. “Hold on. I’m so sorry, fuck—I’m so, so sorry, I’m—”

“Carter,” I interrupted him, keeping my eyes closed to protect them from his light as I could already feel my bones healing. “Calm down, I’m fine. You did worse damages on that first day, don’t—”

The pain intensified, pulling a gasp out of my throat before it stopped all together.

“We don’t have the time to wait for you to heal yourself,” he continued.

“Carter, please calm down and turn off your damn light, I can’t open my eyes, you’re—”

“I can’t ,” he gritted, sliding his arm under mine to help me get up. “I—I’m freaking out.”

His whole body was trembling, his voice wavering. I clasped my fingers around his wrist and his shirt.

“Breathe, Carter. I don’t understand what’s going on. When I came downstairs, Dimitri and Arc were gone and you were here in some sort of trance. What—”

“Something happened,” he interrupted again. “I don’t know if it was a trap or something else, but I think they’ve been taken.”