Prey.

35.

Ryan slowly approached the wooden door, his brothers were supporting him from afar. "Good morning, Angel," Ryan spoke softly. "Is your new room pretty?" Once Neela heard Ryan's voice, she bolted up in her bed and tried to tell herself that what she had just experienced was a dream. She brought her shaking hands up to her wet eyes to remove the salty water from her face.

Neela didn't even take one look around her yet, "yeah, yeah, it's great," she spoke shakily as she held her right hand to her right eye as more tears escaped. "Are you okay?" Ryan got closer to the door and whispered, "you're crying."

Neela was tired, she didn't wanna lie anymore, she didn't wanna try to make people believe she was okay. "Yup, indeed I am." She stood to her feet and made her way to the bathroom that was still connected to her bedroom. "Can we please talk later? Everyone will give us privacy. We can do it in a big, echoey room so father and my brothers will hear better!"

"Yeah, sure," Neela said meekly. "What time is it?" She changed the subject as she took notice to the sky that was in twilight. "Time doesn't exist here, Angel." Ryan explained simply, "it's always twilight. Demons don't need to sleep as much as humans. Whichever humans who are here will be able to feel peaceful while they try to sleep."

After moments of awkward silence, Ryan spoke again. "Breakfast is ready. Can we sit next to each other?"

"I'm scared to," Neela meekly spike once again. "I know what happened, believe me." Ryan sighed as he leaned against the door. "Landon told me about it after I woke up from it. I know no amount of sorries will suffice for what I had done, but I'm trying. I'm training so much more now, Angel. And I'm improving everyday." Ryan bit the inside of his cheek when Neela hadn't answered him, "I just want you to feel my warmth also. I—just imagine how amazing it'll be once I can control it. We can have the life that I'm dreaming about and then you'll be able to feel my love. No more hitting, or feeding from you, or branding. That day will come, Angel, I promise." Neela didn't believe a word he said.

All she did was make her way out of the bedroom to come face-to-face with her attacker, he being the only one she can see. "Where's everyone else?" Neela spoke as she slowly walked back into her room. That was, until Ryan grabbed her by the front of her shirt.

Panic ran throughout Neela's entire body when she was grabbed, "please don't hurt me," she whispered as tears begun to well in her eyes. "Y-you can feed from me, if you want! But please, no more hitting, I hate it!"

"Neela," Ryan spoke in a calm manner as he lifted his hands away from Neela to show her that everything was fine. She couldn't see, though, by the time she finished her statement, Neela had tightly screwed her eyes shut to prepare herself for the impact of beats against her being. "It was only your shirt I touched. It only happens if we touch skin-to-skin," Neela shook her head with her eyes still closed, "look at me." Ryan demanded as he rested his hands on his knees as he leaned down to be face-to-face with Neela. "We're both human now. It's all okay," Ryan spoke softly, but there was an intense emotion in his eyes.

After breakfast, Neela and Ryan stayed back after the maids cleaned the dining table. "May I see it?" Ryan asked after minutes of the two sitting there in a calm.

"Last time you saw something, I was branded," Neela said harshly. She was angry. She was angry at everything, she was depressed, she was confused, she was hurting. "I'm sorry," she quickly said in her meek voice once again.

"Why are you apologizing, angel? I was the one who did it to you," Neela shrugged her shoulders at his question. "I just want to see how terrible it is. Have you let anyone treat it lately?"

"No," Neela states as he slowly arose from her seat. "It was only treated once, the first night it happened."

"Angel," Ryan spoke sternly, "it will become infected if you don't have it treated. Please, after this meeting, go to Sean—he'll take care of it." Neela said nothing and stood in front of Ryan with her back to him. She couldn't exactly pin point where the scar was, as her whole body is always in pain now. She just motioned for Ryan to pull at her shirt so he could find it himself.

"Angel, you must be very still. I don't want to hurt you," Neela could feel Ryan's warm breath on her back. Slowly, the fabric was peeled off of the girl's tainted skin. It felt as if the skin was being pulled off by force. "Ahh," Neela slightly jerked when a sensitive spot was set free.

"Yeah, we can talk later all we want. For now, we have to patch you up. You're bleeding again," Ryan quickly covered his mouth and took many paces away from his mate. "Please go find Sean. He'll help you."

The two ran in opposite directions. Ryan ran to the attic, that's where the new training room was. Neela ran to the basement, that's where Sean had to order new medical supplies. Once Neela walked in, her blood scent engulfed Sean's senses. "What happened? Did he hurt you anywhere?" At this point, Sean has dropped everything and started squeezing and touching various parts of Neela's body to see if anything was broken.

"No," Neela shrugged off his hands. "He wanted to see it, the branding, and now it's bleeding and supposedly infected."

Quickly, Sean prepared a small, metal table with the basic supplies he needed. Alcohol, gauze, gloves, the basic materials. "Neela, please lay on your side while facing the door. I will need to cut open the back of your shirt so I can have room to work and see how far the infection had spread."

Neela obliged immediately. Sean grabbed bandage scissors and cut a straight line in Neela's shirt, all the way down from her neckline to her waist. "Holy—" Sean cut his words off as all he could see was dark yellow with dark red surrounding the wound. "Am I gonna be okay?" Nervousness erupted in Neela's stomach after hearing her brothers gasp.

"Neela, please don't freak out. Everything will be fine," Sean begun to put on his gloves and put an antiseptic all around Neela's back which made her squirm and flinch. "What I need to do is remove the top layer of the scab. It's too hard for any medicine to get through," Sean moved his position so he was standing in front of Neela and looking at her. "I'm going to use my powers to put you in a deeper sleeping state than your normal REM stage. You won't dream, you won't feel anything until I wake you up. I've done this to you before, it's okay," Sean begun to pet Neela's head once he felt that she was nervous.

Neela whispered, "I trust you," she looked to the floor.

"Thank you," Sean smiled and moved his position to behind her as he picked up a scalpel. "Sleep."