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Navigating the steps carefully, she sluggishly took them downstairs. When she reachedAdriel’s room, the door was closed. She knocked softly. “Ade? It’s me. Can I come in?”
The latch clicked as she turned the knob. Adriel lay on her side, her body turned toward the wall so Juniper couldn’t see her face.
“Hey.”
A soft sniff was her only reply.
She crossed the distance, unsure if her presence would be welcome. “Dane warned me to stay away, but I needed to see you.”
Dried mud and blood still caked the crevices of Adriel’s ankles and feet. Had she just been lying here for days in this filth?
“Baby?” When she rested a feather-light hand on her shoulder, her body trembled. “It’s okay to cry.” Climbing behind her, she gently curved her body close to hers and pulled her into her arms. “I’ll cry with you.”
A low whimper met her ears as Adriel’s shoulders shook.
Juniper’s heart broke. “It’s okay,” she whispered, stroking a gentle hand over her hair. Her tears made it hard to form words. “Whatever you’re feeling right now is okay.”
She knew too well the emptiness that followed an assault. That numbing void that turned a person inside out. There was no logical way through that sort of mind fuck. One could only suffer with it and hope living might become bearable again—despite the flashbacks, anger, and misplaced shame.
Her fingers gently untangled the knots in herhair. “You didn’t do anything wrong,” she whispered, pressing a kiss to the back of her shoulder.
A jagged breath tore out of her. “I… can’t do this. I can’t go back to that.”
“You won’t. He caught us off guard this time. Next time, we’ll be ready.”
“There won’t be a next time.”
The undertones of her vow sent a shiver down Juniper’s spine. She sat up and forced Adriel to look at her, but when she saw her battered face, she had to cover her own sob. Adriel had seen to their healing but not seen to her own.
That fucker was going to pay.
Shoving aside her hate, she drew in a galvanizing breath and focused on helping Adriel. “You listen to me, Ade. What happened up there does not change anything. You are not going back. No one is going to hurt you anymore. Do you understand?” She tried to speak firmly, but her voice trembled. “I mean it, Adriel. I will protect you, even if it means protecting you from yourself.”
She turned to face her. A tear slid through the blood and grime on her cheek. “I’m so scared, Juniper.”
She pulled her into a fierce hug. “I know. You would be crazy not to be. But, between the three of us, we can beat him. That’s where I need you to put your faith right now. Okay?”
She squeezed her eyes shut and nodded tightly.
Juniper sighed and loosened her hold, but Adriel’s hand still clutched her shirt. She liked the idea of comforting her, being the strong one, the protector. Adriel might be half a millennium old and immortal, but there was something utterly innocent about her. And no one was going to fuck with that.
She kissed her nose and combed the hair away from her shimmering eyes. “What do you say we get you cleaned up?”
When Adriel nodded and scooted forward. Juniper slowly stood and held out a hand to gently help her from the bed. In the face of Adriel’s fear, her own pain somehow disappeared. “I’ll take care of you.”
“Thank you.”
Small cuts marked her skin. She wasn’t healing because she’d given her blood away. “After your bath, we’ll see about getting you fed.”
Adriel sat on the toilet while Juniper filled the tub. She kept her eyes on her task, but as she gathered a washcloth and towel from the closet, she noted how Adriel’s shoulders hunched inward and how haunted she appeared as she stared blankly at the floor.
When she stripped away her nightgown, she winced at the purple marks covering her torso. “Jesus.”
“It doesn’t hurt.”
Juniper glanced into her tired eyes, knowing that was a bald-faced lie. “You don’t have to be proud or strong around me, Ade. I was there.”
With gentle motions, she pulled away her clothing, knowing the worst injuries were never the outward ones anyway. She used a warm, soapy washcloth to sponge away most of the dirt before helping her into the tub.
