Their Broken Angel

Chapter Thirteen

Roman's POV

I can't believe Alessandro would keep something like this from us! I mean, fuck! Just looking at her made me want to kill a man. I know for a fact I won't be able to sleep until this is resolved. Those fuckers need to pay for their actions, even if it's the last thing I do.

I can feel my thoughts spiraling down a dark path, but I don't even care. This is our sorella, our baby sister we're talking about! I can't just stand by and do nothing! I can't be bothered with silence as I storm down the hallways. Let them know I'm mad, I don't fucking care.

"Alessandro!" I growl as I push through the door to his study. "How could you fucking keep that from us? Have you seen her back? The fucking words?" I demand, bile rising in my throat at the thought of her pale skin, marred with brusies and burns. And the damn words. Who could do that? I've tortured many a poor soul in my time, but to carve words like that? On a child? It's sick.

"No. I haven't seen, but she's told me a little bit about her story." He replies calmly.

"Only a little? You didn't demand answers?" I ask, my voice rising with each word. "At least tell me you have those fuckers in the basement so I can rip out their throats!"

"Of course I demanded." He snaps, before allowing a small smirk to roll across his lips, "She flat out refused until I agreed to her conditions." He shakes his head softly. "You can't force that girl to give up anything she doesn't want to give up. Not without one hell of a fight at least. You know, she tried to pay me fifty dollars to sleep on the hotel floor because she thought she would owe me something in return? For sleeping on the floor!"

"Please tell me you're kidding?"

"Unfortnately, I'm not. I believe we will have to tread very carefully around our little angioletto." He looks me straight in the eye, making sure I'm paying close attention. I almost scoff, as if I'd ignore something important like this. "You can not be angry around her. It's a trigger. I don't care what happened, if you start to feel the rage, you take it far away from her. You understand me?"

"Yeah, I get you. I wouldn't want that around her anyways." I reply, slightly miffed he thought he had to inform me of that. Of course I'll take it away from her. I've seen how jumpy she is.

"Now then, what words? And what's wrong with her back?"

***********

After my chat with Alessandro, I make my way down the hall to Elijah's in-door clinic. There's no way I'm letting my passerotta go to bed with her wounds not taken care of. And I know for a fact she's not going to let Elijah come near her right now, so I'm going to do the best I can. If she'll let me, that is.

I stroll through the open door, knocking on it as I go to alert him to my presence. Elijah always gets wrapped up in his work. We've startled him a few too many times and it always ends in being drenched in some form of strange liquid or another. Once, he spilled a new chemical compound he'd been working on. The hair on my leg didn't grow back for a month. So needless to say, we always knock now.

"Elijah." I say, my voice gruff, "I need supplies."

"Of course!" He replies, immediately bustling around to gather equipment, "What happened? Who's injured?"

"Nothing happened. It's Ember. I'm just going to bandage her up properly. She doesn't have clean bandages." I reply, trying to stick with my goal of keeping my promise. I can't tell Elijah what I saw. She'd never trust me again.

"Bandages? What does she need bandaged?! Bring her down here and I'll take a look."

"I can't do that man. The only way she'd let me even look at them was if I promised I wouldn't tell anyone. She doesn't trust you enough yet. Hell, I doubt she's going to let me fix her up. But I have to try."