Syn put the injector back into his pocket. “You won’t hold it against me if I accidentally drop her a few times on her head, will you?”

“Not at all.”

“I knew I loved you for a reason.” Syn went to retrieve her.

Maris stopped Nykyrian before he took Darling out of his arms. “Will he be all right?”

Syn was the one who answered. “Physically, I think I can fix most of it. Mentally…” He glanced at Nykyrian and paused.

Nykyrian snorted. “Yeah, I’m still severely fucked up. I own that fact. It’s not like I can hide it.” He cleared his throat before he continued. “But to answer your question, Mari, there’s no telling. No one comes through torture intact. You’ve been around us long enough to know that. After mine, I was like an animal for a long time. Some days, I still am.”

Syn tossed the woman roughly over his shoulder. “Ditto. I was certifiable and alcoholic until my sister-in-law verbally kicked my ass and made me realize what I was doing to myself. I can’t believe I’m going to admit this outside my head, but thank the gods for Kasen. Anyone ever tells her I said that and I’ll deny it, then kill you.”

Sick to his stomach, Maris allowed Nykyrian to take Darling from him, and lead him back toward the hangar. He wasn’t as optimistic about his friend as they were. He knew Darling better than anyone, and before this had happened, Darling had been surfing the edge of paranoid insanity.

Every time he’d seen him, Darling had become more and more silent and sullen.

More unpredictable and defiant.

The ongoing hatred and rage Darling kept for his mother and uncle had blazed in his eyes like a tangible beast that wanted blood, and that repressed fury had scared Maris to the point, he’d expected Darling to lash out at them and kill them for it.

Would this push him over the edge?

It’s all my fault…

“If I’d only found him sooner,” he breathed.

Jayne rubbed his arm with a kind caress as she walked by his side. “Don’t go there, Mari. But for you remembering the woman’s name, we’d have never found him at all.”

Perhaps.

Yet looking at Darling’s condition, it was hard to see any kind of bright side. They’d torn him up so foully.

So cruelly…

How could anyone do this to another human being?

I wish my fighting skills were honed and up to date. Had they been, he’d hunt them down and make them regret their vicious brutality. But he’d walked away from his training years ago, and while he did work out to keep his lean muscles defined and was occasionally Darling’s sparring partner, he no longer had a warrior’s build.

Even when he’d possessed some of the best fighting skills in the universe, he hadn’t wanted them.

Unlike his brothers, Maris had never enjoyed hurting other people, especially not for sport or practice.

However, tonight, he understood the need to taste and let blood.