The second the door closed, I sighed, hugging myself. I simultaneously felt safer and terrified that I was alone.
Chapter 4
Let me help.
A shriek of agony made me jolt up straight in bed, sheet tangling around my waist. I was on my feet, wings sprawling and tail lashing, before I even had a chance to think. My quarters were empty. The cry had to have been a mental one. The only people who I could sense this closely were my brothers and cousin; I was tied to them.
Another mental cry pierced my thoughts and made me wince. A snap followed by yelling raced through my thoughts. Fire. The stench of death. Desperate screams. Bartholomew sliding a bolt home on an incinerator.
I shook my head. It was a jumble.
Vince. His name hit me squarely. He called to my inner fire in a way I did not understand.
I moved toward the door and froze. Vince wouldn’t want my help. Icouldhelp him, though. I swallowed as his screams echoed in my mind. His pain and fear reached through the halls and clawed me open.
Jaw tight, I strode out of my quarters.
“You are safe,” a deep voice said.
My eyes shot open. Sweat drenched the sheets surrounding me, and a hulking form hovered over me. I screamed, sliding away from the hand stretching toward me.
No more. Please, god. No more.
“Vince. Vince, it’s me,” the shape said. “It’s Dontilvynsan.”
“Donny?” I asked, panting. I finally looked at him in the bright light of the bedroom. “What the fuck?”
“I can help you. Please let me help you.” His hand moved in my direction.
I jerked away. I didn’t want to be touched. Why couldn’t people stop touching me?
His hand fell, and he crouched right beside the bed. His hair was falling over his bare shoulders. Wings were behind him. He had wings. No, I knew that. I’d seen that fucker Kal’s wings. Why was I seeing Don’s? Don was half-naked in my room. Why was he here? I couldn’t think. The dreams had come and flayed me raw.
“I am not going to hurt you. I heard you crying,” he said, tapping a clawed finger to his temple. “I can help. If you let me.”
“How?”
“I would have to touch your face.”
I jerked back and smacked into the headboard.
“I won’t if you don’t want me to,” Dontilvynsan said, “but I can help you sleep.”
“Just my face? Nothing else? You won’t hurt me?”
“I promise.”
That meant literally nothing.
“I will never touch you without permission, except for if you are in danger. I swear it.”
That still meant nothing, but I nodded.
“Lie down.”
Shaking, I stretched out, my eyes never leaving his face as my muscles tensed. My mind was already starting to slip into that safe space that no one could touch.
“I’m not going to hurt you, Vince. I’ll never hurt you.”
