Predator

20.

"It seems to me, when I found her, that she was given some type of psychedelic drug," a familiar voice spoke in a quiet voice, like he didn't want to disturb the sleeping girl. "She was spewing words of demons and realms. Maybe a cult."

Another voice spoke up, "That would explain the finger prints." After the man said that, Neela's now freed arm was lifted, "it looks like they branded her here. And, my god, her back. maybe they tried to make a pentagram on her." The more that the first voice spoke, the more it sounded like Damien to Neela's ears. "We should leave her now, she had a long journey coming back home." Damien spoke again but Neela knew that he didn't leave her, he wouldn't.

Neela turned to her side and cracked one eye open, she was overcome by an immediate headache. "Hey there," Damien's voice spoke but the man who sat in front of Neela did not look like the man she called dad. "Damien?" Neela spoke almost breathlessly, the feeling of her heartbeat still present in her head.

"Shh, it's okay," Damien smoothed the hair down on her head, "you're okay now, you're home." Neela, in the unavoidable silence, could hear the occasional beeps of various machines around her. Some of the machines were close by, others weren't in the room. "You're in the hospital, I had to make sure you were healthy. You're completely fine." Damien still spoke in a quiet voice, not wanting to agitate Neela's migraine further.

Neela changed the subject and grabbed onto Damien's hands. "I wanna go back, please take me to him." Damien could see that Neela was already ill. Could it have been from the loss of contact, or could it have been from teleporting from a different realm? Damien did not know.

"These people are going to take good care of you for a little bit," Damien carefully removed his hand from Neela's grasp and stood to his feet. "Anytime that you need to talk, I'll be here. You can need me as much as you please and I'll always be here because I love you." Neela, in her heart, knew that Damien was telling the truth when he said that he loved her. "I have to go now," Damien shook his head with pursed lips as Neela bottled upright in the hospital bed in protest. "I'll be back in two days, I promise. They just have to do some tests on you to make sure you're still healthy."

Neela held her hands over her aching heart and yelled out to her dad, "Damien, no!" Her sudden, loud voice surprised everyone in the vicinity of her, especially Damien.

"Neela," Damien kneeled at the foot of her bed and stared deeply into her glossed, doe eyes. "I will see you very soon, I promise. Not one person will hurt you, you'll be safe here while we try and work this out."

A nurse moved the flimsy curtain that was concealing Damien and his now crying daughter. He needed to leave for now. It killed him to see Neela so broken. Somehow, it hurt less to see her injured by Ryan's hands, or even halfway dead, rather than seeing her heartbroken from not being able to see her soul mate.

Damien grabbed the blonde-haired nurse by her upper arm, which stopped her in her tracks, "she's calling me by a name she's been mentioning since I found her, I believe the drugs are still in her system." He absolutely loathed lying like that but that was what had to be done.

The nurse offered Damien a sympathetic smile which he gave a close-mouthed smile back. "This happens a lot with kidnapping victims, Officer. Just head out for now and we'll call you when we need you," the nurse spoke like it was so simple, Damien was almost offended at her.

After much hesitation, Damien took one last look at his sobbing daughter and moved the curtain so he could exit. As he made his way to the automatic doors, all he could hear was Neela wailing out for him and the nurse attempting to talk her down.

~~

"It's done." Damien spoke in a plain voice as he walked back into the Romanian home, his appearance back to normal. He took one look at the lump on the living room couch and sighed. It was clear that not one of his boys, except Caleb, slept.

Ryan was a pale and sweating mess on the couch, not much different than Neela's appearance. Sean was working on getting all the suitcases in the living room. However, there were noticeable bags under his eyes along with disheveled hair and clothing. Landon was gulping cups of coffee down. And finally, the twins were attempting to help Ryan along with his heartbreak.

"We all leave the second Caleb gets back from school, do you all understand?" Damien was not in the best mood that day, none of the boys were. They all lost a sister, a mate, and a daughter. They were all fed up with Egin and the charges against Ryan, the lot just wanted to get it over with; Ryan was an innocent man.

Ryan, honestly, couldn't even look at Damien. Or any of the boys, minus the twins, for that matter. Damien was the one who came up with the idea of having Neela leave and the other just let it happen. The twins—they knew. They knew the emotional and physical pain that Ryan had felt, despite him not rejecting Neela; rejecting a mate almost hurt less.

~~

"Are my boys ready?" Damien tried to look and sound like his mood was boosted but it didn't last too long.

He heard a few of his sons mumble 'yes', so he then looked to Landon. "Lan, could you please take the suitcases to the other realm then come back here?"

Landon nodded as he ran his tongue across his top set of teeth in anger and annoyance. He took his time to neatly align the black suitcases in a neat line. Even though he and Neela weren't very close, he was never a bad guy to her, he believed. He fought the bad guy for her. Landon knew, once he laid eyes on Neela, that he would do anything in his power to keep her safe and protected. And like that? That wasn't the right way to do so.