Witching Moon (Twisted Dark, #1)

Chapter Thirteen: No Cure

The female sunk towards me, I could hear her teeth grinding together and I carried her to the bathroom. After whatever magick she did, the doors had once again appeared. Her body shook and I bared my teeth at it. She was hurt and it was because she protected me and Bo. I snapped my teeth together as I set her down beside the tub, turning on the water quickly before turning back to her and reaching for her shirt.

She lightly slapped my hands away, her eyes narrowing. "I'm not a child, I can do it myself." I ignored her weak slaps and sliced her shirt off with my claws. I bared my teeth and growled at the purple and black bruising that encased the right side of her torso heavily. I grabbed her arms, looking her over. A dark rumble exited my beast and shook my bones as I saw the deep claw marks the were had left on her body. They had been bleeding but they weren't anymore and I wondered if it was due to her magick.

I carefully lifted her off of the floor and her legs trembled and her form was nearly limp as I undid the button of her jeans. I held her steady as I used one hand to push the material over her hips. She made a pained sound, leaning on me heavily as I shoved the jeans down until she could step out of them herself.

"Bapa?" At the wavering voice I turned my head, Bo was standing in the doorway and I looked down at BamBam.

"Help her. I'm fine." She waved me off, attempting to stand on her own, her face pale and ashy with the pain. I didn't believe her for a moment but I slowly let my arm drop and headed for Bo. I picked her up, glancing over my shoulder as the witchling sat heavily on the side of the tub, holding her ribs with her arm as her other hand griped the edge of the tub so hard her knuckles were white.

"What happened?" Bo's voice was small and wavering as I carried her out of the bathroom and towards the bedroom BamBam had created for her.

"She fought a were." She had killed him but he still put his hands on her, still marked her skin and harmed her. The beast inside me was unsettled by that, angry and restless. He wished to hurt something, kill anything, because we had been stuck, denied helping the female, denied our ability to protect her.

Bo gave a small gasp as I set her down on her bed. "Oh no." Her little face looked stricken and I chucked her chin lightly.

"She's tough. Be fine." I couldn't really look into Bo's eyes and not experience mind numbing rage at the thought of what awaited her at the hands of those who sought us. I thought burying her alive was bad enough but to defile her in such a way before hand? Survival of the species or not, no true cure would ever require such a heinous act.

"I wanna help." She moved to get off the bed and I grabbed her around the waist, setting her back on the bed before tugging up her dress.

"You need sleep." I pulled the dress off of her, laying it at the foot of the bed as I tucked her into the bed, pulling the blankets over her.

Her bottom lip stuck out, trembling as her eyes glimmered with tears. "I wanna help." It was a forlorn set of words but I shook my head.

"No need to see such things, knyaginya." I wanted to keep her from the horrors of what would happen to those who defied the Order of the Forests. I didn't want her to see the witchling harmed as she was. "You need sleep. Witchling will be fine, be better tomorrow." At least I hoped she would. I didn't know what I would do if she was down and out for a while. I was positive her magick would help her heal.

"Promise?" Her dark eyes gleamed at me, the tiny beast inside of her stirring with her high emotions and I gave a slow nod before bending down and pressing my lips to her forehead, brushing my thumb across her cheek. The thought that some saw her as a means to an end was a fist to the stomach, it was a burning in my veins that I knew I could never scratch out. The Forests wanted her, not for her gender or the spark of a magick soul within her, but for something so vile and cruel I could not understand why they would continue to follow and believe the words spoken to them by the High Kings. There was a wrongness in their demands and I did not understand how some could not see it as I did.