Alle Kapitel von Ruined by my Bully Stepbrother: Kapitel 101 – Kapitel 110

Theodora's POVThe pain stopped.That was the first thing I noticed. One moment I was burning alive from the inside out and the next there was nothing. Silence. Peace. I lay on my back staring at the sky and felt different. Wrong. No not wrong. New. Like I had shed my skin and grown another one that fit better but felt strange.I sat up slowly. My body moved smoothly. Too smoothly. Like oil instead of joints and muscles. Everything felt sharper. Clearer. The world had more colors than I remembered. More sounds. More everything. I could hear heartbeats from a hundred yards away. Could smell individual scents in the blood and smoke. Could feel the earth breathing beneath me."Dora." Nate's voice was rough. Raw from screaming. He sat beside me looking as shocked as I felt. "Are you okay?"I turned to him and my breath caught. He looked the same but different. His eyes had always been beautiful but now they glowed faintly. Silver like mine. His skin had a luminescence to it. Subtle. Like

Nate's POVThe Henderson estate stood empty behind us.I looked at it one last time before loading the final box into the truck. The place was falling apart. Windows broken. Walls cracked. Gardens overgrown. It looked like the haunted house it had always felt like. Richard was locked up somewhere in beast form and I hoped he stayed that way forever. That building held nothing but bad memories and worse ghosts."Ready?" Dora touched my arm. Gentle. Understanding. She knew what I was feeling without me having to say it."More than ready." I closed the truck door. "Let us get out of here."We drove to Brooklyn. To the neighborhood where Dora and Emily had lived before Richard ruined everything. The house was smaller than the estate. Older. But it felt warm. Welcoming. Like a home instead of a prison. Emily was already inside directing movers and unpacking boxes with an energy I had not seen in her before."Nate can you grab the books?" She called from somewhere upstairs. "They go in the

  Nate's POV The drive to New Jersey was silent. Dora sat in the passenger seat staring out the window. I could feel her fear through the bond. Her doubt. She was questioning everything. Whether we were ready for this. Whether killing was something she could live with. I had my own doubts but I pushed them down. Buried them deep. One of us needed to be strong. Selene had given us coordinates. An abandoned warehouse in Newark. The vampires were holed up there during daylight. Waiting for the night to hunt again. We had a window. A chance to end this before more innocents died. That thought kept me focused. Kept my hands steady on the wheel. "We do not have to do this." Dora's voice was small. "We could call the Council. Let them handle it." "The Council already tried." I kept my eyes on the road. "These vampires do not care about laws or negotiations. The

  Nate's POV We had been at the party for less than an hour. One hour of pretending to be normal. Of watching Dora dance and laugh like she used to before the weight of the world landed on her shoulders. One hour of freedom before duty came crashing back. The disturbance pulsed again. Stronger this time. Close enough to make my teeth ache. Dora was already moving through the crowd toward me. Her eyes had lost that carefree spark. The warrior was back. "We need to go." She grabbed my hand. Her voice was low enough that only I could hear over the music. "It is close. Really close." We slipped out the back door. The night air was cool against my heated skin. We followed the pull of dark energy. It led us in a circle around the house. Back toward the party. My stomach dropped. "No." The word came out harshly. Desperate. "It cannot be here. Not here."

 Nate's POV I kissed Dora against the wall of the war room while Ashton explained his theory. Not my finest moment of focus but I needed it. Needed her. The weight of what he was saying pressed down like gravity multiplying. Someone was systematically attacking the barriers between worlds and we had been too blind to see the pattern. Too caught up in fighting individual battles to notice the war being waged. I pulled Dora closer. Deepened the kiss. Let myself drown in her taste for just a moment before reality crashed back. "Are you two even listening?" Ashton's voice cut through the haze. Annoyed. "This is literally world ending information." "We heard you." I did not let go of Dora. Kept one arm locked around her waist.  "Ley lines. Dimensional barriers. Someone is planning something catastrophic. We get it." "Do you think?" He pointed at