as he fell to his knees. The howl of pain that came shortly after rang through the room. He would never forget the feeling that he felt this day.
Tears dripped down his cheeks as his hands fisted in the clothing that his brother had worn. Life, without him, was empty. How was Auro to live? His mind rejected the thought that Lyne was gone, that he had been killed...
His watery gaze snapped to the fire poker. Who had done it? He stood unsteadily to his feet. “Who did this?” Auro cried, the sound of utter rage bringing forth the stomp of feet. Power swirled around him, spurred on by fury. A group of weary men stood before him, one pushing another in front of them.
“Who has killed my brother?” No one answered, a couple of coughs and then flinches when he screamed, “Tell me now!”
An almost demonic wrath overcame him at the lack of response. He surged forward, maniacal hand latching onto the neck of a man with a scar running along his cheek. “Tell me,” he roared.
“We didn’t see it,” he growled, pulling against Auro’s hold on his neck. He tightened his hand, watching with mild pleasure as the veins started to pop on the man’s face. He saw movement from behind him and turned deadly eyes on the man. He stopped moving.
“How could you not have seen?” he spat, throwing the man against the wall. Rationality left him then. He stormed forward, his cloak billowing out behind him as he grasped onto the man closest to him.
The bloodshed that spilled around him was not enough to stop the torment of his brother’s death.
No one in that house left alive.
It was several hours later before Jamie could even breathe normally. They had gone to a store, but he hadn’t been allowed in. With nothing but a towel around his hips, she was sure he made a site. Jamie had him wait outside while she went into the outlet.
She had been thankfully numb when handing the cashier a fifty to pay for the dark jeans, black shirt, a pair of Reeboks and socks, and an overcoat that would at least keep him partially warm. Now, as she sat on the bed in a hotel, feeling like a dead weight, she recalled everything that had happened.
The hundred that she had withdrawn from the ATM earlier had come in handy on their way back to the hotel. A bus ride, meal and outfit for Talon, and she was almost broke. At least he had had enough sense, despite his obvious astonishment at being free, to lead her to a bank.
He had stood behind her like a dark enforcer, arms over his chest and legs braced apart as he watched her talk to the banker. It had been a short and uncomplicated exchange. She took out five hundred, enough for a ride back and a little extra in case anything else happened on their way.
Jamie couldn’t understand Talon, though. Much of what had happened was a blur, but she could recall his expression the second they had set foot out of the house. He had shivered, looked around... and turned completely stony. She hadn’t been strong enough to ask him anything besides where they should go.
He had roughly said, “To where you were before. I would rather not stay here any longer.” Jamie had blindly led them away.
The plane was most likely gone by now, and the more she thought about it, the more she realized how...unsociable Talon was. He stayed out of site as much as he could. She hadn’t bothered to get any information about his past from him, had already decided in her mind that he didn’t know much of the modern world — or at least didn’t remember it.
He had been through a nightmare with her. She could look at him and remember, clear as day, what it had been like to kill Lyne. It had been so simple, almost serene to her. If he was so easily killed, why hadn’t he been dead before? Talon would not have gone through such torture if it hadn’t been for an opposing force — either Auro or the collar, she didn’t know.
Now, as she turned her head to look at him, she forced the tears to stay inside and not pour down her cheeks as they desperately wanted to. His scars and wounds were covered, but not yet healed. He might get better fast — hell, she had seen it happen