Cecil broke out of the trance when Jekyll appeared in the entryway with Sin in his arms. He rushed over and let out a cry of fear once he saw all the blood covering him. Sin’s suit was shredded. And there was justsomuch blood. Cecil held his hands back, not wanting to hurt the man further.
“What happened?!” Why the hell had they brought Sin here?
“Cecil, move,” Jekyll ordered.
Crossing his arms, Cecil snapped, “Have you guys lost it? He needs to go to the hospital!”
Sin’s eyes fluttered open and he gasped, “Cecil, move…” When he didn’t, Sin rasped, “Please…”
“But…” he started weakly, but Sin’s pleading gaze had him moving out of the way.
Cecil followed the group that had gathered through the house, but instead of going to the room Cecil and Sin shared, they ended up in Sin’s study.
“What…” His eyes widened when Hyde pushed aside a bookshelf, revealing a metal door.
No one moved to open it. Instead, Hyde turned to face him and said, “Cecil, you need to leave.”
“What? No, let me help!” Being an Arcadian, while not particularly skilled, he did know how to clot blood. Not to mention, Cecil could donate. It didn’t take any effort on his part to let Sin bite him. At the very least, he could hold the man’s hand!
“Cecil, leave,” Sin growled. The man’s voice was deeper and stronger than before, and there was a deadly edge to it.
Cecil’s hands clenched into fists. No, he couldn’t leave! What if something happened? What if…Sin died?
“No!” Cecil shouted stubbornly. “I can help with the bleeding!” He moved to touch Sin, but the man brushed his hands away.
“I don’t need your help! Leave!” the man practically screamed.
Cecil flinched back. It felt like Sin had slapped him. They all peered at him expectantly, and some of the men, ones he wasn’t familiar with, were glaring.
As his stomach dropped, Cecil gulped. Did they really think he was that useless? Did Sin? “Bu?—”
“Leave!” Sin roared.
The back of his eyes stung with anger. “Fine!” Cecil turned and stomped away.
The hurt in Cecil’s eyes bothered him, but Sin didn’t have time to soothe him. The pain was pushing him over the edge again. Sin had been lucky the twins had found him before anyone else had. However, the shot he’d been given was wearing off.
There was a large hole in his chest, just inches from his heart, and part of his shoulder was missing. The need to heal was overriding his stubbornness in denying his beast its freedom. Sin wasn’t ready for Cecil to know, and the man wouldn’t have been safe if he had stayed.
If only Sin healed like other immortals. But, no, he had been denied that. Instead, Sin was forced to shift whenever seriously injured. No matter how much blood he took in, Sin’s body would not heal under such circumstances.
Shooing the other men away, Hyde opened the door. Despite being metal, it hadn’t made a sound. Inside was a fifteen-by-fifteen-foot room, a prison, made of thick metal walls, reinforced by magic to keep him locked away.
Jekyll carried Sin in, shutting and locking the door behind him—sealing the three of them inside. Sin winced in pain when Jekyll set him on the hard floor.
His body shook as his efforts to suppress his dark side began to falter. The creature chuckled darkly in the back of his mind. “Leave,” he growled at the twins.
Hyde laughed. “You know the drill, boss.”
“Too much pent-up aggression will make it harder for you to change back naturally,” Jekyll drawled.
Sin hated that they were right. Hated that he would hurt them. Worst of all, even knowing that his hatred would only fuel his beast, he couldn’t hold it back. His form contorted, and for the second time that night, Sin changed. His beast roared out with its freedom. And a body he could not fully control leaped toward Hyde.
Laying on the maroon carpet in his bedroom, Cecil stared up at the ceiling. It was beige, arched with equally spaced exposed dark wood beams. Cecil had been lying on his bed, staring up at the wooden canopy, tracing the starburst carved into it with his eyes, but he’d gotten bored. So now, he was on the floor.
The colors of the room should have been welcoming, but without Sin in it, the bedroom felt cold and uninviting. Sin had stayed away after the whole ‘getting shot’ incident. It had been four days—four fucking days since he had set eyes on the vampire.
His anger had cooled quickly. And Cecil had been ready to let it go…until Jekyll—who oddly enough looked like he’d been in an accident—had informed him that Sin didn’t want him to see him while injured.
