Page 92 of Claimed By the Damned
The world tilts.Guarded her?My mind struggles to reconcile the image of the boy I grew up with, the brother I tried to shield, with a man capable of standing by while Lila suffered. The betrayal deepens, suffocating me.
"And I'm the one who helped her escape," Theo says, the words quiet but carrying the force of a physical blow. "I'm the guard who got her out."
Silence slams into the room, absolute and deafening. My mind reels, struggling to connect this—my brother, Kolya's guard, Lila's Savior?The pieces whirl, then crash into place with stunning, painful clarity. Lila’s story… the unnamed guard… the one who’d told her to head for Yachats becausehis brotherlived here…
Ryker steps forward, his gun lowered slightly, eyes wide as he stares at Theo. “Holy shit,” he breathes, the realization hitting him. “The guard, Lila said a guard helped her. Told her his brother was in Yachats. That wasyou?”
Bastian’s gaze is a laser, fixed on Theo, then flicking to me. The implications are enormous, almost too much to process.
My hand on Theo’s collar slackens. Itwashim. The brother I thought lost to darkness, the one I’d felt so much anger and guilt over, had been the one to give Lila her first chance at freedom. He’d sent her towardsme, without either of us knowing. The maelstrom of fury, betrayal, and shock inside me doesn't vanish, but a new, bewildering current joins the storm, a reluctant, grudging flicker of something akin to disbelief, maybe even a sliver of pride, quickly smothered by the sheer impossibility of it all.
“She was just a kid,” Theo says, his voice raw with a pain that mirrors my own. “Kolya took her, broke her, and I—” His throat bobs. “I got her out. Sent her towards Yachats, hoping you might be a safe haven for her, even if I couldn't tell her who you were specifically. I just gave her the town. I had to godeep underground right after, cover my tracks. But I kept an eye on her from a distance when I could, saw you guys had found her, took her in. I was relieved she was safe, that someone was looking out for her.”
Theo’s voice cracks slightly, fists clenching. “I should have done more. Should have found a way to warn you he was still hunting her. Now, knowing she’s back in his hands…” He sucks in a breath. “I fear what he’ll do to her. What he’s already done.”
A fresh wave of rage hits me, but it’s complicated now, tangled with a bewildering mix of old anger, fresh guilt, and a reluctant, dawning respect. We thought she was safe. And my own brother had been her silent, distant protector.
Theo’s eyes darken. “I’ve spent years trying to make up for my mistakes. Helping get Lila back—that’s the only way I can live with myself.”
The anger still burns, but the foundation beneath it has shifted. It isn’t just about his past crimes anymore; it’s about Lila. And it’s about the staggering truth of what he did for her.
I step back, finally lowering the gun. My posture remains rigid, but the fury in my gaze is tempered with something else—a raw, conflicted turmoil. "Start talking. We don’t have time for anything but getting her back."
Theo
Silence stretches in the war room, thick and suffocating. Every pair of eyes burns into me, filled with distrust, skepticism, and in Ethan’s case—pure, unfiltered anger. He hasn't said a word since I spoke, but his jaw is locked so tight I swear he’ll break a tooth.His gaze is a physical weight, crushing me with the force of years of disappointment, of brotherhood fractured. I see the betrayal warring with the desperate need for information, and it guts me. He always found a way out, a way to be better. I got stuck. Maybe that’s what he sees, what he can't forgive.
I inhale deeply, the weight of every choice I’d ever made pressing down on me. They know now that I was part of Kolya's world, that I was the one who helped her get away. "There's no excuse for the life I fell into," I begin, my gaze fixed on Ethan, then sweeping to the others. "But Lila... she wasn’t just a job to me, not just another victim in his twisted world. She was the reason I finally saw a way out of it, a reason to try."
The room tenses. Guns aren't drawn anymore, but I can see fingers twitch toward them. Near me, Ethan radiates hostility. Bastian’s expression is unreadable. Ryker narrows his eyes, grip tightening around the knife he always keeps on him. Ethan doesn’t move—he just stares, cold and unrelenting.
“She was different,” I continue, forcing myself to keep my tone steady, even as the memory of her kindness in that hellhole makes my throat ache. “Most people in Kolya’s world either bowed to him or got crushed under his boot. They lost themselves to fear, or they became part of the cruelty. But Lila… even when he was doing his worst to her, trying to break every piece of her, she never fully let him. There was still a light in her, a strength he couldn’t extinguish.” I exhale sharply. “And despite everything she was going through, she was still the kindest person I knew. She treatedme, one of his damn guards, like a person. Not a weapon, not a criminal, just a human being. She’d ask about my day, share a piece of fruit if she managed to snag an extra one, small things that felt monumental in that place. It sounds stupid, but that simple decency, that refusal to let his darkness taint her own goodness… For the first time in my life,thatmade me want to be better.”
My gaze drops to the floor, shame and a different kind of pain twisting in my gut. “I was assigned to her often. Became her main guard, in a way. We found moments. Small ones. A shared look when Kolya wasn’t watching. A quiet word when no one else was listening. Sometimes, when the risk felt manageable, I’d find excuses to get her out of that cursed mansion, even if just for a drive, a walk somewhere remote where she could breathe air that wasn’t tainted by him. Little rebellions, stupid risks on my part. Pathetic attempts to give her a sliver of normalcy, to try and balance the scales for the horrors he put her through.”
I look up, meeting Ethan’s stony gaze, then Bastian’s, then Ryker’s. “Don’t get me wrong. I was there. I saw what he did to her. I stood by, a coward in his uniform, while he… while he broke her. And every time, a piece of me died with her. Knowing I was part of the system that allowed it, even as I tried to offer these small, stupid comforts… it ate me alive. The guilt was a constant companion, a shadow I couldn't shake. There were nights I couldn’t sleep, her haunted eyes burned into my memory.”
I shift on my feet, hesitating before I continue, the words feeling heavy, inadequate. "Helping her escape was the only good thing I’ve ever done. The only time I truly fought back against what he was, what I had become. It wasn't just about freeing her; it was about trying to salvage some piece of my own soul, proving to myself that I wasn't entirely lost to the darkness I'd let myself sink into."
The weight of those words settles deep in my chest. My life has been a string of mistakes, each one leading me further down a road I never meant to travel. But that moment of helping her escape is my proof that I am not completely lost.
Ethan averts his gaze, attention snapping sharply to the blueprints spread across the table as if my words are physicallyuncomfortable to hear. He scoffs, the sound sharp and dismissive. “And yet, here we are. She’s back in his hands.”
A sharp pang of regret slams into me. He’s right. No matter what I’d done back then, it hadn't been enough. “I never stopped keeping tabs on her,” I admit, my voice rough. But what good had it done? If I had been watching Kolya instead of just hoping she was safe, maybe I could have stopped this. "I couldn't get too close, couldn't risk Kolya tracing me back to her, but I found ways. Saw she’d made it to Yachats, saw she’d found… well, found you. And for a while, I thought she was finally safe. That my gamble had paid off."
Ethan’s stare drills into me like he’s trying to peel back every layer, searching for the lie. But there isn't one. I’m done running. Done hiding. If saving Lila is the only thing I ever do right, then I’ll die making it happen.
“Theo,” Bastian says finally, arms crossed over his chest. “You’re telling us you know how to get inside undetected?”
I nod. "I already told you, Kolya’s estate has weaknesses. I know the security, the guard shifts, the blind spots. I walked those patrols for years. I saw where the cameras didn't reach, which sensors were glitchy, how complacent some of the outer guards became."
But more importantly, I know who’s watching her. I still have contacts on the inside, a few guards who never fully bought into Kolya’s madness. They feed me intel when they can, and that’s how I know exactly where she is.
A muscle ticks in Ethan’s jaw. “Who’s watching her?”
“Dimitri Ivanov.”
That gets a reaction. Grim’s grip on his gun tightens. Ryker mutters a curse. Even Ethan, as furious as he is, has to process the weight of that name. Dimitri isn't just a guard, he is Kolya’s personal brute. A nightmare in human form. Everyone knows ofhis brutality. He doesn't care if you are a man or a woman; pain is his language, and he speaks it fluently.
