Chapter 94

Elain couldn't stop screaming. Every time Tallan touched her, she had flashes of different faerie faces. So many faces of other females that he had done this to. She could hear them crying and begging, some of them screaming like she was. None of it had made him stop.

She struggled as he managed to get between her thighs, forcing them apart, and she scratched at him, clawing at his face. He struck her then, hard across her own face, and she was stunned into silence. Still and shaking as she struggled to draw breath, all Elain could hear was her blood pounding in her ears, and Lucien's thunderous heartbeat somewhere nearby. He was still alive then.

When Tallan began fumbling with his pants, Elain began screaming again. "Oh, don't make such a fuss…" He muttered, and Elain shuddered when she felt him hard against her thigh, "I'm sure Lucien's broken you in well enough…"

Elain pushed at his shoulders, scratched at his face, and did anything she could think of to try and get Tallan off of her, but to no avail. When he managed to free himself from his pants, Elain began screaming for Lucien.

"I'm going to use your whole body to make myself feel good…" Tallan's breath was hot against her face and Elain just continued to scream.

"NO! NO!" She scratched at him again with her good hand, and tears blurred her vision when Tallan's hand seized her wrist and pinned it in the dirt above her head. "No… LUCIEN?!"

Tallan was ripped from her so suddenly and with such force that Elain's breath caught in her throat as she gasped. She didn't have the time to do anything but watch as Tallan was yanked up by his hair as Lucien grabbed him. There was a loud crack and then Tallan fell into the dirt unmoving, his head at an odd angle. Elain edged away from his body, and Lucien dropped to his knees beside her. His hands hovered over her, but didn't touch, and Elain let out a small whimper.

Shrugging out of his jacket, Lucien carefully lay it over Elain, covering her in place of her ruined dress. "Petal…?" his voice was thick, and she looked up at him. Both of his eyes were wide as they moved over her, coming to rest on her face. "Can I touch you…?" Elain forced herself up and just about climbed into his lap, wrapping her good arm around his neck. Lucien adjusted the jacket around her, and she could feel his hands shaking. "Are you hurt?" the words were practically sobbed, and Elain realised that he was crying. "Did he…? Elain, did he…"

"No." she breathed, tightening her arm around him and pressing her face into his hair. "No…" She let a sob of her own out then, her fingers tracing the collar of his shirt repetitively as she sought comfort from the familiar texture. Lucien's hands moved carefully over her back, and Elain closed her eyes, breathing him in. She felt his relief, matched only by her own, and she lifted her head a moment later to look at him. "Are you alright? Your shoulder…"

"I'm fine."

Bringing her good hand around to his face, Elain caught one of his tears with her thumb, brushing it away. Looking him over, she noted several places from which he was bleeding, not just the shoulder which had taken the arrow tipped with faebane, and she frowned. "Where's Malak?"

"Dead." His voice was expressionless now, but his hands were still firm on her.

"And Connal?"

Lucien's eyes flicked past her in the direction of his third brother. "Not dead, I think…" he paused for a moment, "Though I did hit him pretty hard."

Laying her hand against Lucien's cheek, Elain drew his eyes back to her. "I love you." She told him, swallowing another sob. "I love you…"

Nodding, Lucien ran his hand up her back. "I know, Petal." She leaned into him, laying her head against his shoulder as he held her firmly to himself "And I love you more than I can say." With her eyes closed and the adrenaline beginning to leave her, Elain's arm began to throb in earnest and she bit her lip against the mounting pain. "Elain…?"

"My arm…"

Lucien's hand stopped moving on her back for a moment before he made a frustrated sound. "I cannot heal you."

"Faebane…"

"Yes."

"How long will it last?" she lifted her head to look at him. He had many injuries of his own that required healing as well.

"I don't know."

Elain had been about to reply once more when Lucien suddenly got to his feet, lifting her into his arms as he did so. "What are you doing?" she murmured, her head swimming slightly.

"We're close to the Dawn border…"

Elain's eyes closed as he moved, and she allowed exhaustion and pain to wash over her. Feeling safe now, she stopped struggling against it all and let it take her.

Lucien felt Elain go limp in his arms and, with a quick glance at her face, he adjusted his hold on her, tightening his arms around her, as he forced himself to walk steadily toward the nearby trees. If he could get them over the border into Dawn, then surely Thesan's sentries would spot them and send someone to help them. He'd left their packs and everything else they had been carrying where they had fallen, near the bodies of his brothers, figuring that they could be sent for later. His main concern was Elain.

He knew that her arm was well and truly broken, he had heard the snap before her scream had sparked something fierce inside of him. Lucien didn't remember how he had gotten off the ground, how he had bested Connal, but it had been Elain's scream that had done it. Hearing his mate in pain had turned him feral, but Lucien was glad for that. If that hadn't happened, then he feared they would both be dead by now.

Well, he thought, he would be dead. They would have done worse to Elain before they'd eventually killed her. Glancing down at her again, Lucien swallowed his anger. If he had been mere moments slower in getting to her… Unable to even properly form the thoughts about what Tallan had been about to do, Lucien tried to focus on the fact that he hadn't been too slow. He had gotten there in time. He had gotten to her. She had screamed for him, and that had driven him on.

Somehow, he had driven Malak's own blade into his brother's abdomen as they had wrestled on the ground, and then he'd been on his feet and throwing himself toward Elain. Panic and fear had flooded him at the sight of her beneath Tallan, her dress in tatters, as he had pinned her in the dirt. He barely remembered pulling his brother off of her, or what he had done next. A sick feeling twisted though him then when he realised that he had now killed three of his own brothers. Who else could say that, he wondered?

Holding Elain tightly to himself, Lucien knew that it was worth it. He would do it all again if it meant keeping her safe and, as he staggered across the border into the Dawn Court, he hoped that whoever it was who informed his mother that two more of her sons were dead did so gently.

Thesan's men were on them within moments, and Lucien found himself unable to release Elain. He snarled when someone tried to coax him into letting her go, even so they could check on her injuries, and it wasn't until a female made the request of him that he was able to comply. He sat then, against a tree, as someone looked him over and someone else nearby was making plans to take them to Thesan's Palace. He was still bleeding, he realised, suddenly noticing the blood running down his chest beneath his shirt, and down his arm, and he was thankful that they would soon be surrounded by those with the ability to heal. Someone who wasn't poisoned with faebane. Closing his eyes, Lucien allowed himself to try and rest. They were safe. He'd gotten Elain to those who could help her, and that was all he had wanted. They were okay. With that thought, Lucien allowed himself to slip into blackness.