Page 140 of A Sweet Destruction

I had to be dead, and this was the afterlife. A blissful sleep where I got to watch Ford flick fully grown adults off him, knocking them down so forcefully they wouldn’t be getting back up.

When the skylights shattered, I was absolutely certain I’d died. Figures jumped through the broken window, rolling onto the floor and back up with an expert level of efficiency and grace.

I laughed through a bloody mouth. For all my sins in life, I’d clearly ended up in a hell where our rescue came a second too late.

Move, the Bond growled at me, its voice strained like it’d been screaming at me. Instinct took over then, trying to throw myself back on the ground, hoping that the chair would break under my weight when it could withstand a thousand—if not a thousand thousands—times that force.

Two quick pops rent through the air, and I slammed to the ground a second later as the wood exploded underneath me. The wind was knocked out of me, making me struggle to breathe.

“Sorry!” someone yelled, right as that figured hopped over me like a gazelle.

“Slow down!” someone else yelled, that voice more masculine.

I was trying really hard to understand what was happening, but my body was battered and my mind hazy. I had no choice but to confront my reality when a Muli soldier picked me up off the floor by the hem of my shirt and slammed me into the wall.

My mind snapped into focus from the adrenaline. Nearly every Muli soldier who’d been standing guard over us was on the floor, unconscious or something worse.

Soren was holding someone on the ground who was struggling like a trapped animal, while Bellamy and Freya were restraining a man double their combined size together.

And Ford, sweet Ford. Well, sweet to me.

I couldn’t really warn the poor kid what was coming for him. I was pretty sure my trachea had been sliced clean through anyways. I really didn’t know how I was still alive.

Ford stalked towards us, slamming his hand on the back of my attacker’s neck and throwing him across the room as if he weighed no more than a feather.

Without him pinning me to the wall—and, it appeared, conveniently stopping the bleeding—I slumped towards the ground in a ball of useless limbs. There was a sickening snap and a burst of pain. My ankle, maybe. I was too dizzy to care.

I was weightless again a second later, scooped up into the warmest arms I’d ever felt. I breathed in deep, hoping to fill my lungs with Ford’s scent.

Instead, I smelled his blood.

The Bond, who had fallen into a instinctual, action-first state through this ordeal, snapped to attention. I let it take over, wanting the same things it did.

A low, primal growl ripped from my throat as I twisted in Ford’s arms. I must have shocked him, because I was able to jump down and lunge for the first soldier I laid eyes on.

They’d hurt Ford. He was bleeding. They’d made him watch as they hurt me.

Snarling like a rabid animal, I went for the first person I saw, lying on the ground groaning, barely conscious. The Bond didn’t care.

My eyes zeroed in on the broken wood on the floor. Hmm, great weapon.

It was so close. I could see myself using it to draw blood. A liter for every ounce they’d taken from Ford. I would accept nothing less.

“No!” I tried to scream, the word only coming out in a hoarse whisper, when I felt arms wrap around my middle, stopping me in my pursuit.

“You’re hurt,” Ford snapped in my ear, sounding like he was pissed at me for Elijah’s torture. It was enough to pull my attention off the soldier lying on the floor. I twisted around, trying to break free of his hold again. The only thing more important than him was getting vengeance for what had been done to him.

“I hate to interrupt this romantic embrace,” Soren chimed in, looking disdainfully on the way me and Ford had our fingers digging into each other’s forearms. “But we really must leave before Elijah comes back with reinforcements.”

Right. I had to blink a few times to recall all the details of our situation.

Then the details of our situation, in which I could barely speak and had blood all over me and had a gaping wound at my neck, caught up with me and I collapsed to the floor.

✦

Ford

It was a strange thing, to watch your life die before your body followed.