Page 41 of Guarded By the Nightmare

“Shhhh, Mina,” I crooned. It was torture to be surrounded by so much of her pain and not feed. But I wasn’t entirely sure if I took anything from her now that there’d be any ofherleft.

It felt like I was the only thing holding her together.

I firmed myself all around her, until she was engulfed in my essence, pressed from all sides, supported and held.

“Mina, Mina, Mina,” I whispered, with my lips against her ear, waiting for her to answer me, and not entirely sure she ever would.

Then she reached the end of whatever well she’d fallen into and resurfaced with a shuddering gasp.

“Mina,” I whispered again.

Whatever spell had been on her was finally broken—had she been injured by the same magic that afflicted her friend?I released her a little, but held her head in my hands.

“Are you okay?” I asked her, still mostly wound around her like a snake.

She shook her head against me. “No, not really.” She fought to move her arm and I let her—she wiped the back of her hand against herface. “I can’t go back there, Sylas. I’m sorry. I want to be brave, for Ella’s sake. But—I—I can’t.” She stuttered as she spoke the words, trying to get them out the same time as she swallowed her emotions down.

“It is all right, my queen. We may do it later, or not at all. You have been brave enough already.”

She sank back in her seat and wriggled, so I unbound her. “No, not really.”

And then a uniformed stranger appeared from beneath the tree’s shade and tapped on the window at her side with a clipboard. She jumped up half a foot in her seat, then rolled her window down like he was gesturing for her to do.

“Miss, you can’t be here, you know that,” he said, pointing at her with the handheld talking device in his free hand.

“I know,” she said, and quickly started her car.

32

MINA

I drove homeby muscle memory.

It’d been a long time since I’d had a panic attack, but if anything was going to trigger one, it was the thought of going back to the cabin.

It made sense, now that I was able to put two and two together—with Sylas’s help—but just because my brain knew it was the right thing to do didn’t mean that any part of my body was on board with the idea.

Because my body remembered.

I’d gone there again, mostly to prove to myself that I wasn’t crazy, after I hauled the police out and hadn’t been able to find the cellar door—despite the fact that it was wooden and huge—and made myself the laughingstock of the campus.

And that was when I’d beencaught.

All by my lonesome.

And—

“Mina!” Sylas shouted, grabbing the steering wheel from my hands, yanking us back into our lane.

“What? I’m sorry—I’m fine!” I sputtered, dragging my attention back to the present.

“Perhaps I should drive,” he suggested sternly.

“Do you know how?” I asked, looking over.

“No. But it doesn’t look that hard.”

I snorted at him. “I’ll pay attention,” I said, then glanced into the rearview mirror and saw his expression of concern and disbelief written in his shadows. “Swear.”

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