Above the Law

Chapter Twenty

"You can't tell," Lily whispered. "He was drunk, he didn't mean to."

The words registered. Loud and clear. They slammed into Eden's chest. Over and over. Stealing her breath. And whatever little hope Eden had at a happy ever after. She took in the scene in front of her.

Bloody sheets.

A sobbing little sister.

All the innocence gone from blue eyes.

Eden couldn't move to comfort her quivering sister. All she could move was a hand up to her open mouth. "No. Lily, no..." Eden stood frozen in the doorway, her head shaking back and forth in disbelief, a numb rage slowly boiling inside her. "What happened?"

Eden already knew the answer. The same thing had happened to her. But there was hope in the pit of her stomach, a dying flutter of hope that she was wrong.

Lily hugged her bloody sheets to her chest and took a small step away from Eden, pressing her trembling lips together and shaking her head back and forth. "You can't tell anyone," Lily pleaded. "It w-was my fault, Eden."

Eden took a step over the mounds of dirty clothes on the floor. "Your fault?" Eden repeated in a low, deadly voice she couldn't recognize as her own. "How the fuck was it your fault?"

But she knew that answer, too. Knew society was always eager to point the finger at the drunk girl wearing a tight skirt. She knew what Lily was taught.

A sob broke from Lily's chest, her words choked and inaudible. "You don't understand... I was teasing him. I just wanted someone to look at me the way Parker looks at you." Lily whimpered, hot tears sliding down her haunted face. "But he didn't look at me like that. I told him no but he didn't listen. I tried to stop him, but I c-couldn't. He didn't know what he was doing, Eden. He was drunk. I-I asked for it. He told me I was asking for it." Lily's voice broke and something inside Eden's chest did the same.

Chills crawled up Eden's back, while the rage rattled at her ribcage, waiting to escape. Where had Eden been when she was supposed to be protecting her sister?

Crumpled sheets.

A moaning older sister.

The first taste of ecstasy in emerald eyes.

"Who? Who fucking did this to you, Lily?" She already knew that answer, too. She tried to fight the monster. But that wasn't the sound of her ribs snapping, that was the sound of her compassion coming to an end.

Lily shook her head again, tears still cascading down her pale face. "It wasn't his fault. He was drunk."

Eden had never truly been angry with Lily, not until now. Now when it wasn't her fault, now when terror filled her face, now when she was defending her attacker. "Lily, who?" Eden spat.

Eden knew she shouldn't be yelling at her sister. She knew that. But the monster didn't. She knew she should be comforting Lily, knew she should be giving her time and space, knew she should be wrapping Lily in a warm embrace. She knew this. But the monster didn't.

But Eden also knew she wasn't go to sit around while her little sister's rapist was out there, breathing. The monster knew this. The monster craved this.

Lily shook her head more fiercely.

Eden stepped closer. "Lily, you can either tell me right now, or I can drag you down to the hospital and get a rape kit done." She didn't like darkness seeping into her voice, but the monster had crawled up her throat and laid its claim. "Either way, I'll find out."