Page 101 of Ravaged Devotion

There hadn’t been any more noises since the scream that’d woken him. For years now Rue had needed heavy duty sleep aids, but ever since getting back with Ryker, that had changed. These past few nights, nights spent hunted and terrified and confused, had been some of the best sleeps he’d had possibly ever.

Whatever that said about him as a person, he couldn’t dwell on it.

Ryker was right, soon they would have to get up and go back out there straight into the bloodshed and insanity. Rue shifted back, pressing closer against the Black Hart’s chest, intent on milking this comfortable feeling for as long as he could.

When it was just the two of them, nothing else mattered.

He preferred it that way.

* * *

“What if we just…didn’t?” Rue wrung his hands as Ryker moved the dresser away from the door. “We could just stay. Eventually help will come, won’t it?”

The Black Harts were close. One of them would realize they’d lost contact with Ryker, Ell, and Uriel.

“We’d run out of food and have to leave the room anyway,” Ryker said. He took his hand. “Don’t be scared. I won’t let you get hurt.”

“I’m not just worried for myself, Ryk.”

“We’ll be fine, sweetheart.”

“You don’t know that.” He couldn’t make that promise. Neither of them could.

“Bowie is still out there, remember?” Ryker changed tactics, using his friend as motivational bait. The corner of his mouth twitched upward when Rue gave him a look, letting him know he was on to him. “As far as we know, there’s also Penn, Hollis, and…”

“Fran,” Rue supplied. “The worker who went to check the fuse box is named Fran.”

“Right, him. I don’t care about them, clearly, but you? You’re a decent person. Are you really going to be okay with leaving them out there to fend for themselves?”

“Ellery and Uriel are there,” Rue drawled. “They’ll be fine.”

“And if they aren’t?”

“Better them than you.” They were both caught off guard by his words, but despite the flash of guilt, Rue didn’t attempt to retract them.

He meant it.

Bad things could happen to anyone else in the entire universe, so long as it didn’t happen to Ryker.

“Careful,” his Black Hart grinned. “You’re sounding more and more like one of us.”

“What’s the plan?” If they were going to do this and risk their necks, they had to have a plan. And rules. Lots of rules. “We stick together. No matter what. No running off without me or leaving me behind because you think it’ll be safer.”

“Only if you make the same promise.”

“Deal.”

“Stay behind me at all times,” Ryker said. “I won’t force you to stay here, but we both know I have a better chance against this thing than you do.”

“No unnecessary risks.”

“Okay.”

Rue exhaled. “We go straight to the game room and check Ishleen for this patch. Then we search for Ellery and Uriel. We are not going out there to hunt this monster.”

“But—”

“No. Once we’ve met up with the others, then we can talk about it. It’ll be safer with the three of you anyway.” He frowned, thinking on it. “Actually, they had all night. Maybe they killed it already?”