Chapter 52 I saved her
Nico POV
But my little brother had already made up his mind. He launched at me, and I yelled over my shoulder, “lila, run!”
With a hard shove I pushed her out the door and ducked just in time as Damon fist came flying toward my face.
With a punch to Damon gut, I jerked up straight and flung my other fist toward his face, my knuckles connecting against his cheekbone. Bone cracked, grunts and roars of anger echoed.
Damon spun from the force and collapsed on the ground. For a second I wanted to kick him while he was down.
I wanted to beat him to a fucking pulp for threatening lila, for whipping her, and for every ounce of hate he had directed at her.
But lila was out there running through a house she didn’t know, guaranteed to find a threat around every damn corner. I had to go find her.
I rushed out the door and down the hall. There was only one place in this house she knew how to get to my bedroom.
So I rushed in the direction of my room, praying that she didn’t chance it by running anywhere else. My heart raced at a million miles a second, and my feet couldn’t carry me fast enough.
If anyone found her especially my mother, she’d be dead before I even had a chance at saving her.
I ran up the stairs and the second I rounded the corner I found her running toward my bedroom door flailing against the wall was more like it.
“lila!”
She froze and turned. “nico.”
Immediately she started running in my direction, and like a scene out of a goddamn romance movie, she wrapped her arms tight around my neck while I enclosed her within mine.
I could feel her heart beating wildly, the pulse resonating against my chest. Her warm breath crossed the skin of my neck, and the only thought running through my mind was, ‘I need to keep this woman.’
“lila, we need to get you inside my room.” With one arm still around her waist, we both ran toward the door.
The second we went in, I locked the door and bolted it shut with the extra security lever I knew would come in handy someday.
With a heavy sigh I leaned against the door trying to get my racing heart under control.
Motherfucker!
I basically just signed both our death warrants. Lila and I were both as good as dead.
Everything just spiraled out of control within minutes. One moment, one decision, one bullet, and now everything was fucked up.
“nico?”
I closed my eyes at the sound of her sweet voice. So close. It was so fucking close or rex would have stolen everything from her. He would have taken all of her that was mine now.
Her soul, her mind, her body, her fucking heartbeat. It was all mine, and that motherfucker was seconds away from taking it all.
I turned, and she was standing a few feet away from me, her eye swollen, and her cheeks red with tears.
“lila, I don’t”
“Thank you.” Her words cut me off, and I narrowed my eyes at her in confusion.
“You shouldn’t be thanking me, lila. You should hate me.”
“I did. I did hate you. And a part of me probably still does.” She lifted her eyes to meet mine. “But you saved me from him, which probably counts for something.”
I shook my head and pushed myself away from the door. “I didn’t save you, lila. You’re here because of me. You almost got raped, because of me.
And now? Now all hell is about to break loose, and I have no idea how I can stop this.” I walked past her to grab my mobile off the cabinet.
“You saved me from being raped.” Her voice broke, and she sucked in a breath. “To me, getting raped would have been a fate worse than death.”
I froze. When all this started any thought with her in it contained the word death as well. But that changed. If death should take her now, I would envy death for claiming such a beautiful creature.
“So, you saved me,” she whispered, and my chest tightened.
“Don’t thank me, lila.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m not sure whether I did it to save you…or to save myself.” It was the truth. I fucking blew rex head off because he was touching what was mine. He wanted to taint and defile something that belonged to me. So who did I save by killing him?
Did I save her, like she so eloquently put it? Or did I save myself by sparing me the anger, the guilt, the resentment of knowing that another man had claimed her, fucked her when the only word that resonated through my head whenever I looked at her was…mine?
I sighed. “Don’t try to make me the hero here, lila, because I’m not. I might have slayed one demon for you, for me, for us but with me comes a thousand more.”
She stepped up behind me, and my skin came alive when she placed her hand on my back.
“You’re not the devil, nico.”
I let out a halfhearted laugh. “You’re such a naïve little mouse.”
My eyes fell closed as my body started to bustle with so many emotions it was impossible to distinguish just one. Desire, possessiveness, a need to protect, lust…and something else something I didn’t recognize.
“Your tattoo.” Her fingertips started to move over my skin. “Did you design it?”
“Yeah.”
Her fingers travelled some more. “I understand the cross, Nikolai name.” She hesitated, her fingers pausing right where I knew it was. “But why your name?”
My eyes remained closed, the image of what I knew the tattoo looked like flashing in my mind. It was a cross-shaped headstone with Nikolai name on it, flames burning in the ground.
Within those flames was my name the morbid last edition Crow had added to the masterpiece on my back.
With a deep breath, I replied, “Because Nikolai might be dead and buried, but I’m the one burning in Hell.”
I felt her stiffen, and her hand left my skin. This was all too fucking heavy right now, and I had much more important shit to deal with like how to get her the fuck out of here in one piece.
I turned and took a strand of her blonde hair that was tainted red with rex blood
between my fingers. “You need a shower, and I need to call someone.”
I stepped away from her, and dialed the number of the only person I knew might be able to help us.
He answered on the second ring. “nico?”
“I need your help, Uncle Lucas.”