Of Blood and Downfall

Chapter 20.

Karden' s POV:

    There's a distant scream and I jolt awake. Sitting up in bed, my eyes adjust to complete darkness. The yell brings a shiver down my spine as I hold my chest with an open palm. Focusing on my breathing, I run a hand through my sleepy hair.

    From a distance, I hear voices downstairs in the kitchen. Kicking the sheet off my legs, I stand on my feet and slowly make my way downstairs with uneven steps.

    In the kitchen is Aiden, Damien and Ryker laughing about something around the island. There's empty beer bottles on the other side of the counter. When I enter, they all turn and begin cheering.

    "Karden! Welcome! Sorry we've woken you from your slumber." Damien shouts and I glance at the clock on the wall as it reads one forty two. I rub my tired eyes and yawn.

    "It's fine. I wasn't able to sleep anyways." It was the second time I woke up in the span of ten minutes. I sniff the air when a whiff of blood dances to my senses.

    I turn to find one of our humans sitting on a bench on the other side of the kitchen. She in a pale pink sleeping gown and slippers, one of the straps of the gown hanging off her shoulder. She's holding an open palm against her neck with a towel resting on the wound while trying to stop the bleeding. A painful look on her face as she silently sits on the bench.

    Turning to my brother curiously, I ask Damien, "Where's Issy?"

    Damien shrugs, "She's still out."

    "Mhm," I prop my hands on the island, gaining their attention strictly to me. "Where's the rest of the group?"

    Aiden answers this time. "Emilia went to bed, Lele left with Jakob about an hour ago and Lou left not long ago."

    I raise my hand to the back of my head and scratch it. It's not itchy but there's a dull pain. Something that suddenly made my skull ache—like a phantom feeling.

    "Where did he go?" I inquire, trying to ignore the weird pang on my head.

    Ryker glares at Damien and my brother shrugs. "He said his dad needed help at the Whore House."

    Aiden and Ryker chuckle when Damien corrects himself and adds, "Sorry, I mean Blood House."

    Suddenly, my arm stings, and I inhale through clenched teeth. I glance at my right arm, feeling the soft part tender. I run my fingers over it but there's nothing different but an odd reddening mark. Aiden glares at me but soon averts his gaze somewhere else to not cause a scene.

    Until a voice booms through the corridor outside.

    There's wailing and screaming. Thrashing and crying. We all go silent when a body bursts through the double doors, swinging back to my parents as they catch hold of them. Issy falls over but Ryker fades to catch her. Instead of acknowledging him, she throws him off her and screams as though someone has killed her mate.

    Mate.

    I reach for my arm again with warning asserted in my gaze.

    "They took her!" Issy cries, her hand up to her chest. Mother and father stand behind her, aware of their distance. There's blood on her face and hands—knuckles split open with unsealed wounds. "They took her!" She repeats, sobbing into her caked hands.

    Aiden rushes to her with urgency, her body collapsing into his large one.

    "Who took her?" I insist on knowing, afraid of who the her is.