Prey.

41.

Ryan stopped dead in his tracks, his mouth agape and his eyes widened. His brothers all ran past him, "my son!" Damien yelled and stopped by Ryan to grab onto his shoulder, "what happened?" Damien looked to his sons feet to see he's completely barefoot, "you step on something?"

Ryan tried to yell in pain, but all that came out were raspy groans as he was brought down to his knees from the pain he was feeling in his body. The veins in his neck and head were protruding. "Ryan, speak to me!" Damien demanded in his deep, alpha growl which made Ryan fully lay on the ground and start convulsing.

"Dad! Please! She's dying!" Sean yelled with tears streaming down his face. Damien heard growls and ripping of clothes and smelled blood shortly after. "I'm so sorry, my son," Damien whispered and squeezed Ryan's shoulder to comfort him and ran off deeper into the woods to find the rest of his sons and his daughter. Neela's clothes were all ripped, there were clean, deep scratches from her cheek down to her waist.

Blood was leaking out from her entire left side, the snow around her was dyed red, Neela's black hair was matted with blood and snow, her heartbeat was beginning to become slower and beat less. "Landon, teleport us all back to the house. Come back and get Ryan, also," Damien picked Neela up bridal style and spat on the body that was next to her, now dead. "Sean," he looked over at his son, not caring if his white button-up shirt was becoming stained, "the second we get to the hospital, you need to work quickly." Damien spoke calmly and in a quiet voice, despite his daughter lying in his arms almost dead.

Damien closed his eyes to blink and once he opened them, only he, Neela, Sean,  and Caleb were back at the estate. Damien laid Neela on the metal table as Sean hurriedly got all the supplies he needed with the tears not stopping.

As he sat down on a chair that was sat to where Neela was facing him, Damien kept a hard face. His jaw was clenched, his eyes were looking at Neela, but he was zoned out. Damien wanted to cry, he knew the type of pain that Ryan was feeling; it reminded him all too well of how his own wife died. But, he needed to stay strong; for his sons, his daughter, and his wife.

Instead of thinking about it all, he just crossed one leg over the other and intertwined his hands together and just watched Sean; to make sure he was doing everything right and wasn't becoming too emotional. All that could be heard with demon hearing was the sound of the needle and thread piercing through Neela's skin, the sound of Sean's tears, and the sound of water and alcohol being sprayed onto Neela's skin. All that could be heard with average human hearing was Sean whispering 'I'm so sorry. I love you so much,' over and over to Neela.

"My son," Damien caught Sean's attention when he noticed his hands were shaking a lot from working too quickly, "it's okay if you can't save her, just try to patch her up well." Sean thickly swallowed with a nod and several deep breaths. When he looked back at Neela he shook his body as a way to loosen up and went right back to work. "If Neela's heart fails, I'll be the one to do it." Sean knew what Damien was talking about, so he just nodded.

It would be risky for Ryan to do it himself because of the curse. Damien was the most experienced in changing a human into a demon, he's only done it once—once more than the rest of the boys. And besides, Neela trusts Damien, they have a father-daughter bond.

Damien sat up a bit more to see how the progress with Neela's gashes are going, "my son," Damien spoke when he saw that he was halfway done. Sean looked to his father after spraying more alcohol onto Neela's side. "Begin the blood transfusions," Damien came to Sean's side and squeezed his shoulder, "she's going to be fine."

After hooking Neela up to the IV, Sean just stood in front of her and watched his sister in awe. "Despite the scars, father, she will still be breathtaking."

Damien smiled also, motioning for Sean to get back to work. "I know, she's perfect for Ryan. So beautiful and sweet, she is," he heaved a sad sigh. "However, she's going to loathe them. They will only be a reminder."

Sean shrugged, "we'll make her love them like we do." Damien firmly patted Sean on his back and told his son that he'd be back, that he had to check on Ryan. That was, until Sean called out his name. "I—" Sean spoke, "if this happens again—it's clear that she doesn't want to be alive. Couldn't we just give her what she wanted?"

"It would kill Ryan if we had done that. I can't put you boys through the same thing I went through with your mother." Damien spoke in a hurt voice, "she may not want to be here now. But when she gets to the age to be able to have a mate, Sean, she'll want to live everyday with no regrets."

When Damien got to Ryan's room, Landon and the twins were all trying to keep him held down and calm. "Where in the fuck is Neela?" Ryan growled once he felt Damien's presence. Ryan's eyes were closed, he was speaking through his teeth, and he groaned a lot in his words while breathing heavily.

"She's okay," Ryan noticeably heaved a sigh of relief when he heard those words. "What happened?" Ryan asked while still breathing heavily and trying to break free once again.

"She ran away, out of the house. Sean tried to make her sleep so we could all get to her quickly, she wouldn't succumb to his words. Another demon clawed her side and she almost died."

Ryan now spoke in a soft whisper, "I told Neela she could trust me. We told her that her father died so she could trust us more, but no. She was just waiting to fuck us over." Ryan thrashed his body once again, still coming to no avail.

"Please try to calm down, everything is okay now. We're going to talk to Neela in a quiet and safe place whenever she's okay again." Ryan opened his eyes and looked at Damien in confusion, "she couldn't have been hurt that badly."

"The gashes go from her cheek, all the way down to her waist. There's going to be terrible scarring on her whole left side," Damien looked down in sadness, he knew that Ryan and Neela both would hate them. "I'm going to mark her," Ryan stated with a hard face, "you better have killed it. I'll still be able to perceive its smell on her if you didn't kill it."

"We did kill it," Landon stated, "the twins and I both did. Ethan took it off Neela and we just started ripping into it."

"I can't let you mark Neela again," Damien spoke while guiding the boys away from their brother. "Wait for this mark until she's at prime mating age and actually wants it."