Chasing Demons (Book 2) Rated R

Chapter 23

I could hear their shouts as a pair of arms carried me.

They were shouts of happiness, shouts of relief, wails of mourning, and soon, the quiet whisperings of worry.

I opened my eyes and it was immediately clear that I was no longer in my body.

Once again, I found myself in the in-between.

It was Christian's arms that carried me. He walked across the drawbridge toward Dannek castle stone-faced and with his jaw set.

As for me, I lay perfectly still.

My chest didn't rise and fall.

My body did not breathe.

My body was...dead.

There were several lacerations across my face, neck, and arms--the soul-sucking scratches of my ghosts and my ears and nose were bleeding.

My lifeless head flopped against Christian's blood-stained shirt.

"Lady...no," Darius whispered as Christian carried me past him.

"Make way!" Darius shouted. Waving his arms in the air, he cleared a path for Christian to get through, past the foyer, past a long, dark hallway, littered with women, on the ground, crying, and down a set of stairs into the dungeon.

In the dungeons, it was dark, only the dim light of the moon filtering through small windows.

Darius, assisted by another guard, pulled open a heavy trap door , and I saw, below, the peering, tear-streaked faces of dozens of women and children.

"Find my Grandfather," Christian ordered.

Darius jumped into the basement and a great commotion ensued below.

Women jumped out of the way, some gripping their crying children to open a path toward the back.

Christian handed my limp body to a guard below before he climbed down and immediately took me back into his arms.

Grandfather Nandru pushed to the front of the crowd, his white hair brushing his shoulders. I remembered him from the last time I'd seen him, under very similar circumstances, his kind face hovering over me as he placed his palms over Christian's shoulders.

"My heavens, child. What happened?"

"Help her." Christian croaked. Then louder. "Grandfather, help her!"

Christian dropped to his knees, setting me on the cold stone floor of the dungeon, though I could not feel it.

Grandfather Nandru knelt down beside him, worrying creasing his forehead.

"I think she's dead," Christian whispered, and he used the back of his palm to swipe at his face. "I told her to stay away," he went on. "She didn't listen."

A woman with black hair, piled into a crown of braids on her head, skirted around Grandfather Nandru and fell to her knees beside Christian. She had bright blue eyes and they shared the same cheekbones.

His mother, I realized.

She wrapped her arms around his stiff shoulders and rested her head in the crook of his neck. She rubbed his arm up and down as he sat there, unmoving, while Grandfather Nandru pulled vials of liquids from his cloak.

My heart ached for Christian.

A quiet, concerning silence, had come over him. He stared at my body with hands balled into fists which shook slightly against his knees.

Anca, his mother, continued to whisper soothing words to him but he didn't react.

He appeared not to hear her. He appeared not to see anything, not even my blood-stained face.