Doe's POV:

Her words alone stunned me enough to let the fear I hadn't recovered enough to try to hide grab me tight by the throat.

Especially since right when I finally forced my eyes to move away from Xander, they practically locked onto her.

She stood about five feet behind him, looking idly down at her clawed hand as she plucked away what I immediately recognized to be a small scrap of Xander's shirt.

I just barely processed the blood completely covering them before she flicked her hand, sending the crimson down to stain the tiled floor at her feet.

Xander's quickly heaving breaths brushed across my forehead as I finally managed to piece together what had happened.

The mix of it all sent my insides twisting in a different manner than I was used to, making the gasp taking over my next intake resemble that of a panicked sob as I faced him again.

A light tremor worked itself throughout his body, I could feel it through the hand behind my head.

My hands rose towards him and mouth opened with no purpose other than a thoughtless intention to offer anything I could.

But what could I do with Layla so close? Her presence ruining any logical and straightforward process of mine and overriding it with nothing but pure terror.

Although his presence right now helped more than I was ready to admit.

The green eye above me closed again with the other one before a deep exhale broke his breathing pattern from what it had been

His head then dropped, forehead placing itself against my own for what couldn't have been any more than a second, just before it whipped back to face her.

"Are you insane?!," He snarled, that same rumble in his chest from last night starting up again.

My eyes rounded at the tone I never could have imagined to come from him while talking to her.

Or at all.

The sound of it alone struck something in me and yet her stance didn't change at all.

"Oh please," She scoffed, "It's not my fault you got in my way."

Another tight grunt lifted from his throat as he began to push himself from the wall,

His thumb rubbed twice against my head before he removed his hand, and I could almost hear his voice speaking the message it was portraying softly in my ear.

I've got you.

And even with the reassurance, there was a sting in my chest as his body backed away from mine, still never taking his eyes off of her.

Not because I didn't believe him, but because I wanted to keep him close.

To hide away in him as if the problem could just poof away.

I knew that wasn't possible and yet...

My hand met my mouth the second he turned to face her fully, keeping himself directly between her and me.

It was the only thing I could do to keep myself from screaming at the sight of what she'd done to him.

And knowing that it was meant for me.

Four gaping gashes tore across the entirety of his back, blood already soaking the strings of fabric left between each one and pouring fast to drench the rest of it.

My free hand pressed against the wall at the sudden lightheaded feeling and the stinging of iron in my nose, the only thing stopping me from vomiting being the small portion of willpower I could muster within this moment.

With the amount of blood I've seen in my life, I never expected to have this sort of reaction.

But it had never been bad enough for me to see the inner working of my own body from a wound.

The cuts were so drawn out and so deep that I could easily distinguish what I could only discern as being muscle and the bottom portion of his scapulas.

She cut him down to the bone.

It didn't take much more investigation to see that with the placement of it... if it had been me, her claws would have found themselves deep in my throat.

Something that would have left me dead by now if not begging for it as a mercy.

I swallowed hard, replaying every single time she'd ended a dream of mine like that, and taking a moment to finally accept just how serious his promises to me were.

I kept waiting for his wounds to close. For his skin to tie itself back together and end the agony he must be feeling, but it never did.

Why wasn't he healing?!

With the wound where it was, there couldn't possibly be a way for him to move his arms, hell, the entirety of his body without making it worse.

"You knew this was coming, Alex. Don't act so surprised."

His shoulders went rigid the second she spoke his name, almost wincing at the sound of it.

"I wasn't expecting it here," He snapped, widening his arms to gesture to the hallway.

I cringed at the way his back moved as he did, not at all understanding how she was just standing there.

How she wasn't at all reacting to his clear show of anger. How she wasn't even slightly apologetic about the fact that she decimated his back.

If I had to guess, she must not understand where he stood with her yet.

That his current reaction was just instinctive to the pain he was in, but his actions were too similar to last night's for that to be the true case.

I knew that.

"We could have gotten this done last night," She began, approaching us the same way she did in my last dream.

Slow, calculated. All with the posture of someone completely in control of the situation, "I tried to get this done in private but you decided not to cooperate, and I'm losing patience. You've put this off for far too long now, so I decided to just get on with it myself since that's the only way things get done around here!"

I couldn't possibly push myself any further against the wall, and she was only a foot away from him.

Yet with each inch she closed between us his arms grew tighter, prominent veins running down his arms to the rigid claw-tipped fingers.

"There's been a change of plans," his words were low and uncomfortably steady given the current atmosphere, radiating the same warning growl I've heard before.

She still pretended as if she couldn't hear it, or that it just didn't apply to her.

"Its funny how you think you have a say after leaving me at the ball like that," She bit, lifting her arm around xander and towards me, "Now if you'll so kindly step away from-"

I didn't see them move.

Only heard the hard slam four feet to my left followed briskly by her choked gasp.

I just managed to contain my own as I saw what had happened, not realizing that I had been holding my breath until I felt the relief of it returning to me.

He had her pinned face first to the wall, using his entire body to keep her there.

The hand that was reaching for me being twisted behind her and secured against her back, the other fixed right above her head.

Thats where it must have clicked in her brain how serious Xander was about this.

I'll admit, it clicked something in mine too.

The side of her face stayed pressed against the wall facing me, eyes wide in an oddly satisfying show of sudden fear.

Part of me wished I could snap out of my shock to enjoy it more.

Enjoy as she was forced to taste a scoop of her own medicine.

All I could do now was just watch as she wriggled, her breaths picking up the pace.

Xander didn't budge an inch, nor did it look like she was making him get anywhere close.

The gaze he held, the hard glare he sported was like nothing I'd seen on him before.

Mixed with the stance and the growl that had turned to one of anger, it surpassed anything I've seen on even Nico.

He leaned his head forward, close enough so he was right next to her ear.

"Its funny how you think you have any right to talk after what you put us through." Even with the change, his words kept that same tone.

It was terrifying and intriguing all at the same time.

Her flailing turned frantic, pupils thinning and widening almost as if it too was fighting her.

When they stayed round, the fright on her face tripled.

"Alex... Alex wait!" She stammered, "T-This isn't fair! You know I cant-"

Her words died into a whimper as his holds on her wrists tightened.

"What part of this has ever come off as 'fair' to you," he grit, causing her to flinch away to the best of her current ability.

Even now I could see the tremor throughout his body, and the blood that continued to stain his shirt red.

"What happened to you?" She began in that voice that always made him fall into her hands, "You used to be my-"

"Stop. Talking."

The anger he held after my fall was minuscule compared to what I was seeing now.

This one had intention, as well as an obvious target

It was like I could almost feel it rolling off of him with every word.

Even amoungst all of that I was torn between the subsiding feer, the shock and of all things, the relief of everything I was seeing and hearing.

Of actions I could have never hoped for.

"I played your little game for well over two years and lost hundreds of times since then. I let you string me along, I followed you every whim, took all the blame for what you did to Doe infront of Nico. You dug yourself in and got the deepest part of me attached to you knowing how impossible that is to break. I got stuck and did everything for you. And all you wanted was a chance at Nico. You tell me if any of that feels fair."

Her eyes were shut tight, fighting in vain against him as his voice grew louder with the sentence.

This level of fuming anger from someone who so rarely showed a hint of it... understandably terrified her.

It was a terrifying sight, yet strangely it didn't spark any sort of that reaction from me.

"You weren't supposed to break from it so soon," her pitiful voice squeaked, surrendering to her defeat against the wall.

She just... admitted it?

Even if we already knew her motifs, admitting it just felt like a completely new low.

"What are you going to do to me then? Hurt me," Her surrender had turned quickly into desperation, "Whatever it is just hurry up and get it over with!"

His eyes narrowed further, pulling her arm further up her back, just enough to where she gasped and eyes opened again from the pain.

Then he spoke, the words almost gravely.

"No. I'm not my brother, and I'm sure this will be the only time that fact doesn't disappoint you."

The dread on her face grew exponentially worse.

"Something like that cant just be dealt with through physical pain, And lucky for me you've given me something I believe you'll find much more devastating to lose your close hold on."

My brows furrowed in confusion where as his words made it to where she looked like she was about to do whatever it took to keep him from what he was threatening.

"No! I-I told you that In trust! Please you cant!"

"That was your own mistake," He spoke monotonously, "I cant fathom why you'd such a secret to someone you were only using. You had to have known I'd break from you eventually. My parents arent the type to spread secrets, but I'm sure a fact such as that would be handy to have. Given the reputation the Bronwyns have amoungst Lords."

She had to catch her breath for a moment, just staring at him the best she could "You do that and it hurts both me and Lucien! Please he didn't do anything wrong, don't bring him into this! I-I'll do anything just keep him out of it!"

She was nearing the verge of tears at this point.

I had no idea what it was that they were talking about, but it seemed to be working regardless.

"Fine. But on one condition."

There was a spark of hope in her eyes.

"Anything."

I felt myself stiffen as his gaze turned to me, her eyes following  before both returned to how they were.

"I never want to see you anywhere near her again. If you even come close to touching her I will spread your families secret like a wild fire before personally seeing it through that you under go every single thing that you've put her through. Starting with the whip and ending with the strangulation."

Holy shit, that's... A lot.

I think she stopped breathing, those fearful eyes slowly meeting mine yet again.

It coursed a feeling power in me that I'd never had the luxury of experiencing.

Seeing her trembling in my sights.

I smirked, wide and proud as her face fell even more.

"You're a little too close to her now for my comfort," Xander began again, cautiously stepping back from her and releasing her wrists, "You better leave before I run out of patience."

She didn't say another word, didn't try to argue, didn't even hang around a second longer.

The same breeze blew through my hair as she disappeared back from where she came.