Prey

Chapter 71

Doe's POV:

Her words alone stunned me enough to let the fear I hadn't recovered enough to try to hide grab me tight by the throat.

Especially since right when I finally forced my eyes to move away from Xander, they practically locked onto her.

She stood about five feet behind him, looking idly down at her clawed hand as she plucked away what I immediately recognized to be a small scrap of Xander's shirt.

I just barely processed the blood completely covering them before she flicked her hand, sending the crimson down to stain the tiled floor at her feet.

Xander's quickly heaving breaths brushed across my forehead as I finally managed to piece together what had happened.

The mix of it all sent my insides twisting in a different manner than I was used to, making the gasp taking over my next intake resemble that of a panicked sob as I faced him again.

A light tremor worked itself throughout his body, I could feel it through the hand behind my head.

My hands rose towards him and mouth opened with no purpose other than a thoughtless intention to offer anything I could.

But what could I do with Layla so close? Her presence ruining any logical and straightforward process of mine and overriding it with nothing but pure terror.

Although his presence right now helped more than I was ready to admit.

The green eye above me closed again with the other one before a deep exhale broke his breathing pattern from what it had been

His head then dropped, forehead placing itself against my own for what couldn't have been any more than a second, just before it whipped back to face her.

"Are you insane?!," He snarled, that same rumble in his chest from last night starting up again.

My eyes rounded at the tone I never could have imagined to come from him while talking to her.

Or at all.

The sound of it alone struck something in me and yet her stance didn't change at all.

"Oh please," She scoffed, "It's not my fault you got in my way."

Another tight grunt lifted from his throat as he began to push himself from the wall,

His thumb rubbed twice against my head before he removed his hand, and I could almost hear his voice speaking the message it was portraying softly in my ear.

I've got you.

And even with the reassurance, there was a sting in my chest as his body backed away from mine, still never taking his eyes off of her.

Not because I didn't believe him, but because I wanted to keep him close.

To hide away in him as if the problem could just poof away.

I knew that wasn't possible and yet...

My hand met my mouth the second he turned to face her fully, keeping himself directly between her and me.

It was the only thing I could do to keep myself from screaming at the sight of what she'd done to him.

And knowing that it was meant for me.

Four gaping gashes tore across the entirety of his back, blood already soaking the strings of fabric left between each one and pouring fast to drench the rest of it.

My free hand pressed against the wall at the sudden lightheaded feeling and the stinging of iron in my nose, the only thing stopping me from vomiting being the small portion of willpower I could muster within this moment.