Vane curled his lip as if he found the idea as repugnant as Fang had. "Why would she have done that?"
"She said she loved him."
Vane went stiff all over. "You spoke in the past tense."
Fang took a deep breath and braced himself for Vane's reaction. Gods, how he wished he wasn't the one who had to tell him. "He died tonight."
Vane let fly a curse so foul, Fang was dumbfounded by it. Normally his brother was much more circumspect. But he understood completely. He mirrored the same emotions.
Vane sank down on his knees beside them and put one hand on Anya. When he met Fang's gaze, Fang saw all the agonized pain inside his brother's eyes that he held in his own heart.
"What are we going to do?"
Fang shook his head. "We're going to have to watch her die."
Vane looked away. It was as if he couldn't face it any more than Fang could. "What happened?"
"A group of Arcadians attacked them and Orian was killed during the fight. What else? Stupid fucking wolf. He should have been here with Anya and not out carousing with his friends."
Vane glanced around the den as if looking for the shadows to come to life and chase them down. "Did they track the rest back here?"
"I don't know. I didn't ask that question. Markus and a group of others went after them."
"And?"
"They haven't returned."
Those words had barely left his lips before the others loped slowly into camp. Some were bloody and limping. But none seemed to be missing.
"Stay with Anya." Vane went to check with them.
Fang didn't move until his brother returned with a steely look on his face. "What?"
"It's the group of Arcadians Acheron warned us about. Somehow they found out we're here and their Sentinels are out for our blood."
That was the story of their lives. No matter where they went, the Arcadians found them and attacked them. Why couldn't their human brethren just leave them alone?
Because the Fates are three psycho bitches bent on completely annihilating your species.
Now his sister would pay the ultimate price for a curse none of them had wanted or deserved. Life was so unfair. But as Acheron said so many times, deserving had nothing to do with anything. Life just was.
Vane sat down beside him. "You look like shit. Why don't you go get some rest?"
"I can't sleep."
"You need to sleep. You're not doing anyone any good if you're too tired to function."
Yeah, but how could he find peace tonight? There was nothing except this sick lump in his stomach that made him want to vomit.
How he wished he could go back twenty-four hours and be oblivious to this future. . . .
Vane gently pushed him. "I have Anya. Go rest. If nothing else, turn wolf for a while."
Fang nodded glumly before he relinquished her over, even though all he wanted to do was hold on to her for as long as he could. But Vane was right. He needed some time in his true form.
And he needed to find some kind of comfort for himself. Something to numb the pain if only for one tiny nanosecond.
Aimee came awake with a start as pain sliced through her. It was the same sensation she had whenever Wren or one of her brothers was threatened.