Page 61 of Sebastian

I slammed my head forward, knocking my skull right into her nose. It always worked in movies.

While the move did have the desired result, Administrator Constella’s nose gushed blood and distracted her long enough for me to grab the syringe, there were unforeseen consequences.

Slamming my head into someone else injured me as well.

My vision spun and pain blossomed all along my skull. This was definitely not helping my concussion, but even though I couldn’t see straight, I could feel the cool cylinder of the syringe in my hand.

I’d at least managed that much. Now I just needed to find help.

Holding onto the bed, I rose to my feet and stumbled for the door.

Unfortunately, a broken nose wasn’t a fatal injury, and the pain didn’t distract Administrator Constella for long. She rushed after me, grabbing my legs to pull me back to the floor.

We grappled over the syringe. Her fingers came dangerously close to clawing out my eyes, so I sank my teeth into the back of her hand.

The taste of blood on my tongue made me draw back. It was much more unpleasant than expected and I nearly lost my grip on the syringe.

“Give up. Whatever they’re paying you can’t be worth it.”

She clocked me with her elbow, and I felt a bruise immediately start to form under my eye.

“A brat like you wouldn’t understand.” She yanked my hair hard enough to pull my head to the side and managed to get her hands around the syringe.

I kicked her off me, and she crashed against Sebastian’s bed. His leg swung in its traction and I flinched, hoping I hadn’t made his injuries worse.

“No, I wouldn’t understand. I hope I never understand the actions of people like you.”

Several orange strands of my hair still hung between her fingers as she glared at me. “Don’t be so self-righteous. You’d do the same thing in my position.”

I never got to find out what that position actually was.

Before she could come at me again, she was suddenly yanked backward.

Sometime during our fight, it seemed Sebastian had woken up. Still stuck lying in bed, he leaned as far over the edge of the mattress as he could and locked one arm around Administrator Constella’s neck in a stranglehold.

She clawed at his arm but couldn’t free herself from the headlock.

Sebastian stared at me with eyes still blurry from his long bout of unconsciousness. It was obvious he’d acted more on instinct than conscious thought.

“Newt, what the hell is going on?”

I looked at him, looked at the syringe in my hand, looked at Administrator Constella, and had no idea where to start explaining.

Then, before I could utter a word, the door opened, and I was met with surprised shouts from both Damien and Gabe.

We must have made a shocking scene.

Me, sprawled over the ground with a syringe clutched in my hand.

Sebastian half falling out of his bed with his leg still in traction as he kept a stranglehold on a member of the hospital staff.

And Administrator Constella, who had completely forgotten her usually put-together demeanor to spew a series of creative curses as she tried to pry Sebastian’s arm off of her.

The image was so absurd, I couldn’t help but laugh as relief flooded through me.

Sebastian was awake. I’d protected him from the third attempt on his life, and simultaneously survived the second attempt on my own.

It was someone else’s job to take over for a little while.

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