AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She never called for God while awake. She never prayed; she avoided it with clear intensity. Because God hadn’t answered her prayers as a child. He hadn’t saved her from the rapes or the horror.
She didn’t see her rescue as salvation, because Dayan had moved so easily into position and begun his own campaign to destroy her. She didn’t see Dayan’s death as a salvation or as an answer to her childhood prayers.
She didn’t see the strength inside herself, that strength that went clear to her soul, as a gift from God. She believed the scientists and soldiers in those labs were right. That God didn’t create her, and He didn’t claim her. She believed she was without grace.
Grief welled inside him. It tightened his throat and his chest, and left him aching with a depth he hadn’t previously believed possible. He ached to the core of his being, a pain he feared would never ease or find relief unless Dawn did.
“…Save me…” The words whispered past her lips, and he knew, in a second, she would wake up.
He could feel her gathering for it, pushing herself back to consciousness to escape those shattered memories and the child determined to find acknowledgment.
She came awake with a hard jerk as he let his eyes close. He didn’t want her to feel shame, didn’t want her to have to fight back her emotions because she knew he watched. She shouldn’t have to see the knowledge in his eyes, the memories she fought in his gaze.
Because he knew what they had done to her as clearly as she did. Dayan had forced her to watch the disc, and Seth had forced himself to watch those images in that office where Jonas and Callan had turned their backs on them.
He felt her rise, felt her move from their bed and slowly dress in the uniform she kept lying on the padded stool.
She wouldn’t leave the house; he was confident of that. She needed to run, to hunt, but she wouldn’t leave his security, his protection, long enough to do so.
The knowledge that she restrained herself for him in such a way was a grim reminder of the life she had led and the discipline she imposed on herself.
He lay still and listened to her finish dressing then leave the bedroom. She left the door open into the sitting room. A second later he heard her muted conversation with the Breed guard outside the door, then the door closed and he was alone.
He waited. She would need time. A little bit of time before he followed her. A chance to breathe and to find her balance. He understood the nightmares well.
He gave her half an hour. She wasn’t getting any more than that. The fact that he was able to lie there, to force himself to patience, was a testament to his control, not his patience.
Seth rose from the bed and breathed a weary sigh before dressing himself. He chose jeans and a T-shirt and tied leather running shoes on his feet before leaving the bedroom.
The guard came to attention as he opened the door, his amber eyes somber as Seth stepped outside.
Mercury’s expression was grim as Seth watched him for a long, silent moment.
“Where did she go?” he finally asked.
Mercury ran a broad hand around the back of his neck, rubbing at it in indecision.
“I won’t ask again,” he stated. He would simply go looking for her himself.
“Exercise room,” Mercury finally growled. “Let her work it out, Lawrence. She doesn’t need you down there.”
Seth tightened his jaw as anger lashed inside him.
“So who does she need down there with her, Mercury?” He asked sarcastically. “The ghosts she carries with her and nothing more?”
Mercury grunted at that. “The Breed whose gonna get his ass kicked. You don’t want to play that role tonight.”
Because the rage building in her was growing, and Seth knew it. It was lashing at her emotions and her control, and the only way Dawn knew how to fight it was by lashing out at something else.
“If you warn her that I’m headed down there, then I’ll kick your ass,” Seth told him, ignoring the Breed’s look of disbelief. “She doesn’t just need a fight, Mercury, she needs me as well. Deal with that however you need to, but keep your mouth shut.”
He didn’t wait on a reply but started down the hall, heading for the basement level where the gym room was housed. One wide section had been partitioned off for hand-to-hand combat practice. It was an exercise Seth often participated in with the bodyguards Sanctuary provided for him.
The house was silent, shadowed and dim. Even the household staff was in bed by now, having cleaned up quickly after the party and prepared the rooms for the next day.
Pushing open the door into the basement level, he could hear the sounds of combat coming from behind the netted screens at the other side of the room.
Shadows twisted behind the partition, blocked and struck as feral growls erupted and the sound of a male grunt could be heard.
