Descent - Tara Fuller Page 0,65

have done everything in my power to make sure he never came back here again.

“It doesn’t matter what they were going to do to me,” he said. “Nothing is more important than you being safe.”

I shook my head. “Because I’m Balthazar’s daughter.”

He took my chin in his hand and forced my eyes back to his.

“Because you’re mine.”

Chapter 23

Easton

We’d found him.

I looked up at the kid hanging from a hook, lifeless, limp, broken, and bruised. For the first time since I’d been delivering the damned to Hell, I felt bad for it. I didn’t know this kid, but I knew he didn’t deserve this. Not if he’d lived the kind of life that had earned him a ticket past the pearly gates.

“Easton?” Gwen’s sweet voice broke as it came from the doorway, echoing off the frosted metal walls. “He’s in there, isn’t he? I can feel him.”

I did not want her to see this. It was why I wished she had let me do this alone. I looked away from Tyler and turned to see her breath cutting through the darkness like crystallized fog.

“He’s here.”

She rushed into the small, isolated room before I could warn her and stumbled to a stop when she spotted him dangling from the ceiling. She exhaled, a sick, pained sound that cut through me like a knife. Her attention dropped to the pool of frozen blood beneath him.

“Get him down,” she choked, doubling over. “Get him down, please!”

I dragged over a metal crate and climbed on top to get my hands up under the boy’s shoulders. Despite being stiff and cold, he was still in there. An agonized groan slipped past his blue lips as I jerked upward to remove him from the hook. Gwen made a strangled sound behind me, and I cringed.

“Are you okay?” I asked over my shoulder.

“Just do it,” she whispered.

I nodded, jaw clenched so tight pain spiked through my right temple. Shoving up again with everything I had, the hook finally slipped out. His weight came down on me, knocking me back. I hopped off the crate just as it slipped out from under my boots, and I caught Tyler around the middle before lowering him to the ground.

Gwen rushed to his side, tears glistening on her cheeks. She touched his face, and he flinched away from her fingers, eyes squeezed tight. His face was pale, lips cracked and bloody. His teeth chattered as he curled into himself against the floor.

“Oh, Tyler,” she whispered. “What did they do to you?”

“Don’t ask him that,” I said. “Ever. You won’t want to know, and he won’t want to remember.”

She stared down at him solemnly, stroking his hair, and nodded. Her fingers pressed against his temples before she closed her eyes. The pretty flushed color drained from her cheeks. Her body began to quake with the pain she was pulling out of him. I stepped back and shoved my fingers into my hair, forcing myself not to interrupt.

I hated this. Hated seeing her hurt. But this was who she was. Her father tried at every turn to keep her from being free, and she resented him for it. But how the hell was I supposed to stand by and watch her do this to herself?

“Gwen…” I dropped to a knee beside her and placed a hand on her back, wishing I could take it from her. For her. “That’s enough for now.”

She shook her head. “He needs to be able to walk out of here.”

Tyler groaned beneath her, his hands clutching at her shoulders, out of his mind and greedy for relief. Gwen gasped as a fresh wave of darkness overwhelmed her. Her eyes dimmed and a sob slipped free. He’d drain her if she let him.

Screw the kid not being able to walk out of here. I pulled her free from his grip and dragged her away from his recovering body. Gwen fought me, reaching, crying.

“No! I didn’t take enough!”

“You took plenty,” I said through gritted teeth.

Tyler pulled himself up onto his knees, coughing before falling back to his stomach on the frozen concrete.

“He can’t even stand,” she said.

“Then I’ll carry him,” I said. “You’re done, Gwen.”

“But—”

“Him I can live without, Gwen.” I swallowed hard as I looked down at her. Cheeks pink with bloody tears. Eyes dim and dark with pain. “Not you. I can’t… Don’t ask me to. Okay?”

She nodded and wiped her tears with the back of her hand. I couldn’t look at her right now. Not when she was