"Get Luo Chen," Jiang Lang said.
"Can't. He is otherwise occupied." Bai Long stalked toward the open door.
"I'll be back," he called over his shoulder.
He advised Jiang Lang to watch the blonde, as she was wilful.
With a jerk, he slammed the door shut behind him.
Like an idiot, Danika nearly ran after him.
He scared her more than any of the others, but for some reason she'd rather be with him.
There was something about him that affected her.
Deeply.
The pain in his eyes, maybe.
The fine lines of stress etched in his face, perhaps.
He called to her on a primitive level.
A level that claimed he'd keep her safe, no matter what threats he uttered.
"If I have to chase you,"
Jiang Lang said, "you will regret it. Understand?"
The blunt warning shoved the lingering heat from her skin.
This man was completely terrifying.
Every time he spoke, she heard a trace of brutality in his voice, as if it were infused in the undercurrents.
As if he couldn't wait to inflict maximum pain on anyone who even glanced in his direction.
She'd noticed in the past few minutes that his face sometimes mutated, a skeletal mask falling over his features.
His violet eyes had flickered to black, then neon red, then black again.
What kind of man - what kind of human - could look like that?
A quake traveled from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet.
As a child, she'd feared the boogeyman until her mother had told her the creature was a myth, a lie meant to keep children obedient.
Danika thought perhaps she was staring at the boogeyman right now.
Only when he gazed at the woman on the bed did he appear normal.
"Understand?" he demanded again.
"Yes." She punctuated the word with a cooperative nod.
"Good." Promptly dismissing the girl from his thoughts, Jiang Lang turned back to Xu Ling.
Her trembling had escalated into wracking tremors.
Her teeth chattered. Her eyes were open and a lone tear slid down her pale cheek.
"Thank you," she whispered to the healer.
"You're welcome."
"Do you feel better?" he asked softly.
"I still hurt," she said. "I'm cold. But yes. Better."
Willing his own heat into her body, he said, "I'm sorry." He rarely uttered those words. In fact, the only apology he'd made in decades was the one he'd offered his friends this morning. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry." He couldn't say it enough. "I'm so sorry."
She shook her head, then moaned and lay still.
She said it was an accident.
His mouth fell open in surprise and reverence.
So far he'd caused this human nothing but pain, yet here she was, trying to absolve him.
Astonishing. "You're going to live. I swear it." Whatever he had to do to keep his vow, he'd do it.
Xu Ling smiled faintly. She said that at least there was silence.
Silence.
That wasn't the first time she'd used that word.
Nor was it the first time she'd said it with such awe. "I do not understand."
Despite her weakened condition, she managed another of those frail, sweet smiles.
She stated that that made two of them.
Fireworks sparked in his bloodstream - that smile, so radiant, so lovely - warming him, arousing him, filling him with so much relief he was almost drunk with it.
He opened his mouth to respond, not that he knew what to say, when Bai Long sailed into the room, Yan Lie at his side.
The other man's short hair gleamed in the light.
Seeing them, Danika retreated to the wall, realized what she'd done and stepped forward again.
She raised her chin again, reminding Jiang Lang of Xu Ling in healthier moments.
He had assumed Bai Long had left the fortress and traveled into the city for Danika's purse, but Bai Long's hands were empty.
Anger slithered through Jiang Lang, provoking Violence as a child would a beast in a cage, running a stick over the bars.
A frown pulled at his lips.
He'd hoped to see the last of the wretched demon today - at least until midnight arrived.
"Why are you still here? Go get that purse," he commanded. Words he had never thought he'd say.
"I'll take too long," Bai Long said, looking anywhere but at Danika. He explained that Yan Lie was going to escort the female into town, and that Yan Lie said he was fine right now and had no desire to hurt her.
"Oh, no. No, no, no. I don't want to leave without my family," Danika rushed out on a panicked breath.
Yan Lie ignored her and pulled his shirt off over his head. "Let's get this done." He was tanned and muscled, a testament to his warrior's soul.
He sported so many tattoos it was hard to distinguish one from the other.
Jiang Lang only recognized two: the black butterfly that flew along the waves of his ribs and the demon that stretched ugly wings over the contours of his neck.
Just looking at him, anyone could tell he was a good man to have at your side and a bad one to have at your throat.
"Stop. There's no reason to undress." Danika shook her head violently. "Put your shirt back on. Right now, damn it!"
Grim determination emanated from Yan Lie as he approached her.
Danika locked her wild gaze on Bai Long. "Don't let him rape me. Please. Bai Long, please."
"He's not going to touch you that way," Bai Long gnashed out. "You have my word."
There was something very odd about him, Jiang Lang noted.
His black eyes were edged with scarlet, a color-match to the scarlet butterfly tattooed on Jiang Lang's back.
Pain, it seemed, was working himself into a fit of violence.
Over Danika?
The girl wasn't pacified by his words, but Yan Lie continued his approach anyway.
Danika scrambled from one side of the room to the other, strange noises emerging from her throat.
Small, raspy pants, as desperate and feral as Bai Long's suddenly quickened breathing. Jiang Lang felt certain that at any moment, Pain was going to leap at Wrath and attempt to claw it to death.
"Stop," Xu Ling said.
Finally Yan Lie trapped the frantic woman in a corner.
She screamed as her arms and legs lashed out, trying to keep him at a distance. "Don't touch me. Don't you dare touch me!"
"I'm not going to hurt you," Yan Lie said calmly.
She kneed the sensitive flesh between his legs. He gasped, hunched a little, but gave no other reaction.
"Fuck you," she snarled, a wildcat that wouldn't be tamed. "I won't let you rape me. I'll die first."
"No rape. But if I must, I will knock you out. And you won't like my methods, that I promise you."
Far from subduing her, the threat merely enraged her further.
She fought harder, slamming her elbow into Yan Lie's stomach, kicking him in the groin a second time. Obviously growing weary of her struggles, Yan Lie raised his fist.
Xu Ling stiffened, moaned. "Stop this. I don't need the pills. I don't."
"Do not hurt her," Bai Long growled.
Yan Lie didn't strike.
Yet. He ran his tongue over his teeth.
He said she made her choice.
If he hit her and Xu Ling witnessed it, Jiang Lang feared she would want to leave again, would once again insist he take her home. "Calm down," he told Danika.
"He only needs to accompany you into town."
"Liar!" Snarling, she used her leg to boot Yan Lie in the stomach.
The warrior didn't budge. Disgust fell over his features, and he tightened the fist he still held in midair. "I warned you."
"Stop," Xu Ling called hoarsely.
Jiang Lang opened his mouth to utter his own command.
He needn't have bothered. Bai Long beat him to it.
One second Bai Long was on the far side of the room, the next he was at Yan Lie's side, gripping the man's wrist.
The two glared at each other for a long, silent moment.
"No hitting," Bai Long said, and Jiang Lang had never heard a more lethal tone.
A battle raged in Yan Lie's eyes before he lowered his arm.
Had he lied? Was the courtiers' decree already taking root? Was he fighting the need to hurt Danika? "Calm her down, then, or I will knock her out."
Bai Long didn't move, just shifted the direction of his gaze.
Tears poured from Danika's eyes, making the terror banked there glisten.
She whispered in that same broken tone Xu Ling had used that he shouldn't let him do this, that she had helped him just like he wanted, and he shouldn't let him do this.
As quickly as Bai Long had leapt to her defense, Jiang Lang half expected him to give in to her plea.
He was mistaken.
"Stop fighting him," Bai Long commanded, showing no mercy.
He stated that they needed that medicine, and Yan Lie was the only one who could take her to get it.
He added that she wouldn't even scratch him because she couldn't afford to anger him, and asked if they were clear.
A look of betrayal passed over her face. She asked why he couldn't go into town alone and why he couldn't buy the pills at the nearest drugstore.
"Jiang Lang," Xu Ling said. "I'm better. I swear. I don't - "
He squeezed her shoulder gently, but did not reply. Interrupting the trio would only increase the tension. Besides, he knew Xu Ling was lying. Pain still lingered in her eyes, glowing brightly.
"Yan Lie is taking you into the city," Bai Long continued. "He will not rape you. You have my word." A muscle ticked below his left eye. He explained that Yan Lie would not know what to buy on his own, and that she must go.
Silent, shaking, Danika studied his face through the watery shield of her lashes.
Searching for truth? Or for comfort? Finally she nodded, a single, nearly imperceptible incline of her head.
She straightened and took a wobbly step toward Yan Lie.
Without a word, Yan Lie grabbed her wrist and stalked to the room's only window. Its arching glass led onto a wide terrace.
Danika did not protest, even as he unlatched the pane with his free hand, the glue Jiang Lang had used earlier nothing to his superior strength.
Cold air instantly blustered inside, virginal snowflakes swirling through the room. He released her wrist only to grip her waist and lift her onto the window ledge.
"Stop him," Xu Ling rasped as Danika peeked over the rail and laughed bitterly, a little hysterically.
"What are you going to do?" the blonde demanded. "Throw me? You're all liars, you know that? I hope every single one of you rots in hell."
"We already are," Bai Long said flatly.
Yan Lie gripped Danika's shoulders as he joined her, then spun her so that she faced him. "Hold on to me."
Another bitter laugh. She asked why.
"So you'll live." Large wings suddenly sprang from hidden slits in his back.
They were long and black and looked as soft as gossamer, but the ends were pointed, sharp as knives.
Xu Ling gasped in shock. "I'm better. I swear I'm better."
Jiang Lang stroked her cheek, hoping to relax her. "Shh. Everything will be fine."
Danika's eyes widened unnaturally.
"Stop!"
She tried to wrench herself from Yan Lie's grip, tried to race back inside the room, but he held tight.
She reached for Bai Long. "I can't do this. I can't! Don't let him take me, Bai Long. Please!"
Expression tormented, Bai Long stepped toward her... stretched out his arms... scowled... dropped them to his sides.
"Bai Long!"
"Go!" Bai Long shouted.
Without another word, Yan Lie jumped, falling from view and taking Danika with him. She screamed, but that scream soon became a gasp, the gasp a moan.
Then the two came into view again, soaring through the air, Yan Lie's wings flapping gracefully, rhythmically.
"Stop him," Xu Ling breathed. "Please."
"I can't. I wouldn't even if I could.
Do not worry for her. The wings of punishment are strong, well able to hold Danika's slight weight."
He searched the room for Bai Long, who paced from one corner to another.
The man was gripping a dagger by the blade rather than the hilt and blood was dripping from his white-knuckled hand onto the floor.
"We need water and coffee," Jiang Lang told him, remembering Danika's instructions.
Bai Long planted his feet and squeezed his eyelids closed, as if he fought for control.
As if he teetered on the brink of a total meltdown.
He said he should have taken her himself, but walking would have taken too long, and asked if Jiang Lang saw how frightened she was.
"I saw." Jiang Lang didn't know what else to say.
Danika's fear was nothing to him when compared to Xu Ling's pain.
Bai Long rubbed a hand over his jaw, smearing a trail of crimson on his skin. "Water? Coffee, you said?"
"Yes."
Seemingly grateful for the reprieve, Bai Long strode from the room.
Obviously Jiang Lang wasn't the only one in the fortress who suddenly had woman troubles.
A short while later, Bai Long returned with the desired items and set the tray on the edge of the bed.
That done, he left again. Jiang Lang doubted he'd return.
Shaking his head in pity .
if Bai Long felt for Danika half of what Jiang Lang felt for Xu Ling, he was destined for a world of hurt, and not the kind he craved.
Jiang Lang reached over Xu Ling and gripped the tepid glass of water.
He slid one hand under her neck, tilted her head, and placed the rim of the glass at the seam of her mouth.