“What is wrong with her?” Kyle demanded.
“I don’t know,” Julian said.
“Do you think someone will call the cops?”
“If they do, we’ll handle it then.” Julian leaned closer to Aida. “Aida, look at me.”
Her eyes remain squinted closed as her muffled screams reverberated against his hand. Veins in her forehead and temples throbbed as she strained against his hold. Sweat stuck her hair to her face as her heart accelerated to dangerous levels.
At a loss for how to calm her, Julian decided to do the one thing he didn’t think he’d ever do to her. His powers swelled within him while he spoke to her.
“Aida, look at me,” he commanded.
Her eyes remain closed, but she collapsed onto the bed and sobs tore from her. She tried to rip her legs away from Kyle as her head thrashed from side to side. Julian tried pushing deeper into her mind, but the more he probed, the more it felt like a brick wall was falling into place before him.
“Take control of her mind,” Kyle said.
“I’m trying,” Julian told him. “It’s not working.”
“How is that possible?” Cassidy breathed.
Julian didn’t know how that was possible, and then the answer hit him with a sickening jolt. “Someone already has control of it.”
Cassidy’s hand flew to her mouth. “What do we do?”
With the unrelenting intensity of the ocean, fury built within him as he stared at her bloodied face and the tears streaking her cheeks.
“I can’t,” she whimpered against his hand.
The fury pulsated through his veins and vibrated his cells until every one of them was screaming at him to kill whoever did this to her. He’d tear their arms off, rip away their legs, and leave nothing but a bloodied torso before removing their heart from their chest and crushing it.
He wasn’t surprised to see black seeping through his fingers and swirling with red as it spread across the back of his hands to encompass his wrist. He’d heard what could happen to a pureblood when something threatened their mate, and Aida was more than threatened, someone had screwed with her mind.
With the pulsing color came more strength. The power swelled within him until he wasn’t sure he could contain it, but staring at Aida and feeling the distress racking her body, he realized he could do anything to save her.
Regaining control of himself, he focused all his attention and increasing power on her. “Aida, listen to me.” He probed carefully at the wall in her mind; if he shoved past it, he might cause permanent damage or break her completely. “Aida, it’s Julian. You don’t have to kill me.”
The tears spilling from her eyes soaked his hand, and sorrow filled him. Someone had used her to try to kill him, and because she loved him, it broke something inside her.
Who did this?
He had no answer, but he would find out… if he could get her to calm down.
“Don’t cry, love.” He wiped away some of her tears, but they were falling too fast for him to clear them all. “I’m going to be okay, and you don’t have to kill me. You can rest now.”
“I can’t,” she moaned.
He didn’t think she was responding to his last command, but restating another, I can’t like she had earlier.
“All you have to do is rest,” he assured her as the wall started to crumble. “You don’t have to listen to whatever was said to you earlier. You can sleep now, Aida.”
Her eyelids fluttered open, and for a second, he found himself gazing into dazed, golden-brown eyes. He didn’t detect any recognition in her stare; she was caught up in his power now and helpless to do anything but obey.
“Sleep, Aida,” he commanded.
When she relaxed beneath him, her eyelids closed as her head slumped to the side. The seconds ticked by before he dared to take his hand away. During her struggle, she bit her bottom lip, and a trail of blood streaked her chin. With the pad of his thumb, he wiped it tenderly away and bent to rest his forehead against hers.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered as he swung between holding back tears and trying not to destroy everything in this room. “When I find whoever did this to you, I’m going to make them pay.”
Unable to part with her, he kissed her forehead and rested his face against hers. However, he couldn’t stay with her forever, and he couldn’t keep her asleep for the rest of her life.
“I love you,” he whispered against her lips before rising from the bed.
Kyle released her legs and backed away as the second Julian parted from her, the full force of his rage returned. The red and black colors pulsed through his flesh, and his muscles swelled as he paced the small room. He flexed the fingers of his wounded arm as the feeling returned to them, and his shoulder finished healing.
“I’m going to kill whoever did this,” he growled.
“Who could have done this?” Cassidy asked. “Who would want you dead?”
Julian racked his brain for an answer to the question, but he couldn’t think of anyone he could have pissed off enough to want to kill him. And who would know about Aida?
Dropping his head into his hands, he tugged at his hair as he tried to think beyond his overwhelming compulsion to destroy. He’d tear out their throat and feast on the blood of whoever did this. He’d bathe in it as he leisurely tore the limbs from their bodies and savored their screams.
“Julian,” Kyle said. “You have to calm down. You’re not going to be any good to her if you lose it.”
Kyle was right, but now that this part of him had been set free, Julian couldn’t get it under control again. He returned to Aida’s side and clasped her hand as he knelt at her side. Touching her helped calm him, and he inhaled a shuddery breath. Tucked beneath the blanket and with her hair fanned out across the sheets and pillows, she reminded him of Snow White, but he certainly wasn’t a prince.
Someone had done this to her to get at him; he had no idea who, but he would find out.
“It must have happened at work,” he said. “We’ve been together the rest of the time. Something happened at the gallery.”
“That place has to have a ton of cameras,” Kyle said.
“Cassidy, can you get my computer?” Julian asked. “It’s on the dresser next to you.”
She lifted it from the dresser and brought it over to him. Kneeling beside him, she set it on the floor.
“Can you open it?” Julian asked.
With the way he felt right now, he might tear the screen off. Cassidy opened it, and the home screen appeared. He released Aida’s hand as he hunched over the keyboard, and his fingers flew across the keys.
“Can you get a cloth and some water so I can clean her up?” he asked.
“Of course,” Cassidy said.
When she left the room, he worked to break into the gallery’s camera system. It wouldn’t take much time as he’d broken into it the night he had sex with Aida in the storage room. No one was going to see a video of his mate.
He located the gallery’s security system as Cassidy returned. He pushed his computer away to take the cloth and bowl of water from her. He set the bowl on the floor before wetting the cloth and turning back to Aida.
He steadied his hands before he cleaned Aida’s wounds and tried not to wince at the damage she inflicted on herself. She stirred only once while he worked before settling down again. He was careful not to inflict any more pain on her while he wiped away the rest of her blood.
When he finished, he gave the cloth and bowl back to Cassidy before taking the towel she handed him. He gently dabbed Aida’s flesh dry before kissing her and forcing himself away. Cassidy placed the bloody water and cloth on the dresser before returning to sit beside him. Julian turned his attention back to the computer; he had to find out what happened today.