She turned and pain flashed through the top of her head as he yanked her back by her hair.
"Ain't no old ladies staying here last I checked." He dragged her inside.
Screaming, she fought to get her footing, but he went too fast. Down a hall and through several doors, he hauled her like a weightless doll.
"Look what I found snooping outside." He threw her and she hit the floor with her right knee and the hot streaks of pain shot through her. She hated screaming, but couldn't help it. A scared whimper reached her ears and she looked up and met the legs of a person tied to a chair. Dread filled her as she raised her gaze higher. Oh God. Tyler. Tyler bloodied and beaten till his face was swollen so she hardly recognized him.
Anger and fury welled up inside her like a giant wave she couldn't keep in. "What have you done!" Her entire body quivered with the force of her anger and the effort to hold it. "What have you done to him?"
Their laughter boomed as though she were hilarious. "Must be baby-momma." One elbowed the other.
"What I done? You mean this?" A guy struck Tyler in the face and blood flew, his head flopping lifelessly. "Or this?" He struck him again.
Horror gripped her and she drew a huge breath and screamed his name as hard and loud as she could. "Lyyyyyght!" She screamed it over and over until her throat was shredded.
The fists came for her then. But she didn't stop. They beat her and she screamed his name with every hit.
She deserved this.
****
Dare woke, feeling like she'd been blown to pieces and put back together again.
"You were, dear."
She jumped and turned to the voice behind her. An old man stood, busying himself with something she couldn't see. She looked around at the strange room. Nearly white. "Where the fuck am I? Am I dead?"
"Not any more. I revived you. I'll tell the Ruby Prince he can come see you now."
"The what?" Did he just say ruby prince?
She watched Francis, her secret hero who'd almost been killed because of her, rush to her. She gasped when he pulled her in his arms. God, he felt so amazing. She held him tight, no longer wanting to deny how perfect he felt, how right. "Where am I? What is this place? He said something about a ruby prince."
"Shhh, don't worry about any of that. You nearly died and I brought you here where I live."
She shook her head, looking into his deep red eyes. She suddenly remembered the last moment they just before…
She bolted up. "Antoine! Shit! They must have him. It was a fucking ambush." She struggled in Francis' embrace but he only tightened it.
"Shh, stop. They'll find him."
"They, who?"
"My brothers and sister."
The door burst open and in walked the woman from the first night. Danger rolling off of the angelic looking form, blue eyes cold and locked on. Dare's muscle locked in dread. This bitch was B-A-D.
"Where is Tyler?" She stopped by the chair.
Francis spun to her. "What? What do you mean where's Tyler? He's with you."
She looked at Francis, silvery light bolting from those cold eyes. "He was until her people ambushed you."
"You were supposed to stay with him!" Francis grabbed his head.
"Maxwell 911'd me!" She glared at Dare.
Clearly she considered the whole thing Dare's fault. "I had no clue they were going to do that!"
"She had no clue." Francis repeated in a firm voice.
The girl stretched out her hand and her fingernail grew into a long metal spike.
Dare's eyes felt like they were going to fall out of her head. "What the fuck?"
Francis held her wrist. "Peggy what are you doing?"
"Probing. She will have links I need."
"You could hurt her."
"Oh she's a big girl." She bent her head as though searching for an entry. "What's a little pain?"
Dare leaned away. "Don't you fucking touch me with that thing. What the fuck are you?"
The metal on her finger suddenly raced up the girl's arm and swallowed her entire body until she stood like some fucking freak from a nightmare sci-fi movie.
"Oh my God, oh my God." Dare whimpered and cringed back.
"Peggy. Don't. Do this."
"Then make her tell me! Where! Is! Tyler!"
Dare covered her ears and screamed as the sound of those words seemed to tear at the molecules in her brain.
"You're hurting her! Please stop!"
The girl aimed her hand at Dare and a flash of red filled the room. Dare blinked, staring at the woman encased in a red casket looking box. She looked at Francis. No. Not Francis. Some red statue. A red man statue that moved and seemed to be made of…ruby. Oh dear God, dear God. She was dreaming. "The Ruby Prince," she barely whispered. The room spun and she fell into darkness with the words I got you Abigail floating softly in her spirit like a long forgotten lullaby.