Where she had been brutally punished for saving him.
Christ. His gut gripped tight.
Whoever that fucking demon had given Ronan’s power to was gone as well. The fucker would have taken them with him. No doubt hiding somewhere else, waiting, watching for his next shot.
Luna said the demon would come for her. He’d try to take her from Gunner. That wasn’t going to happen. He’d make sure of it.
“Come out and face me!” he roared. “Fight me, you twisted fuck.”
Nothing. No one showed themselves, and that just had his rage shooting higher.
Not knowing where that demon was or when he would try to come for Luna—and the fear that she might run before he could get through to her—was seriously fucking with him.
“They’ve gone.”
Gunner turned at Rocco’s voice.
“I’ve been watching,” his brother said.
He’d lost more weight, Gunner noted, his cheeks appeared drawn, his clothes looser on his tall frame. “Thank you, brother,” Gunner said, not asking why he looked as if he’d taken a giant step back when he’d seemed to be improving, if only a little. Because to a lesser extent he understood. Nothing would cure or fix Rocco, nothing but having his female returned to him.
“How is she?” Rocco asked.
Gunner shoved his fingers through his hair. “Confused, scared, angry. That fucker killed her mother, he’s had her since she was seven, Roc. His toxic fucking blood is the only blood she’d ever had. He used her as a weapon, said if she didn’t do as he demanded, he’d take it out on her brother. But that fucker had already killed him. So yeah, she’s fucking struggling right now.”
Rocco’s eyes flashed black, then back to blue. “She’s talking, sharing, that’s gotta be a good sign.”
Gunner planted his hands on his hips. “Brother, I’m the reason she was in that cell in the first place. She tried to warn me the night we came here, and he caught her. The state she was in, that was punishment for helping me.”
A muscle in Roc's jaw jumped, and his eyes flashed again but stayed black this time. “She needs you.”
“I wish she did.” He swallowed hard, pacing away and back. “She doesn’t want a damn thing to do with me. The last thing she should have to deal with is some desperate fucking needy male.”
“You’re wrong, brother.” Rocco’s white, silver-tipped wings snapped out from his back. “You don’t know this, because you haven’t felt that bond between the two of you grow yet. But I promise you, even without mating, she feels it. Even if she’s afraid of it, even if she’s not ready to accept it, she feels it.” Roc’s gaze lowered, hiding his demon who had come forward to stare at Gunner through his brother’s eyes. Gunner had started to think Roc and his demon had made some kind of unholy pact to work side by side until they got Kyler back because his control over it, while he was so volatile, was seriously impressive.
“Roc…”
“Eventually, she’ll reach for you,” Rocco rasped. “Make sure you’re there when she does because, fuck, brother, the reward waiting for you…it’s worth any amount of suffering, any amount of pain, I promise you that.”
With two deep beats of his wings, Roc lifted off and disappeared into the sky.
Gunner stared after him, the things Rocco had said echoing through his mind.
He already knew his brother’s words were true. He felt it deep in his bones, his soul. He’d do anything, suffer anything for Luna.
Somehow, he would get through to her.
Chapter 11
Gunner rolled to his back with a groan. He’d returned in the early hours of the morning and had barely slept. After talking to Roc, Chaos had called him into the city to back up Zen and Kryos. Some demons had shown up at a club and things got ugly. There’d been a handful of hellhounds there as well, and they’d jumped in to help since they loved a good fight.
Afterward, a couple of them had asked Gunner to come back to their den and party. He used to do that quite a bit. They loved to fight and fuck, and Gunner had partaken when he hung out with them. He hadn’t been to the den in a long time, and he had no desire to go ever again, not to party, anyway.
There was only one person he wanted, and he couldn’t see that changing for the rest of eternity. Which sucked for him if Luna decided she didn’t