Page 41 of Twist Me

The hands on my head jerked away, the coward not even up to finishing my murder, but I couldn’t pull myself up. He’d succeeded. The pain disappeared, and the feeling of ice was replaced with a warmth that spread from my head to my toes.

Saying a silent goodbye to my papi, I imagined being in my mama’s warm arms, embracing me like she had when I was a babe.Her hands were strong. Warm. She smelled like a spicy forest scent. Strange and masculine, but I wasn’t going to judge my mother. I was just happy to see her.

She lifted me up, her strength astounding as she carried me from the river. I smiled, the feeling of absolute bliss and safety cocooning me in a blanket of love before the darkness finally consumed me.

What the fuck was I feeling?

The sensations in my gut were waking up my black heart. The Little Lamb was damn near slaughtered. I was a second from being too late, and she would have been lost to me forever.

Now, looking down at her in my arms, I knew I had to get the fuck out of here. I couldn’t tell my brothers what had happened.I had been so blind in the dark that grabbing my phone had not even been a thought, and the guilt of that thought nagged at me like a whiny hag.

It was a struggle to see this pale creature lose blood right in front of me.

She’s fucking weak, and despite my medical training with my background, I knew she needed more than I could offer. It pissed me off, but if I was going to save this lamb…the wolf had to ask for help.

Wrapping up the very still, cold, wet Zee in my shirt, I knew she’d want to be modest like her virgin heart always portrayed. My mind reeled at what I was about to do because I didn’t ask for help. Fuck, I was already regretting my very existence. I finally put one foot in front of the other, knowing it was my only choice if I wanted to save her. I only knew one fucking doctor that wouldn’t escort my ass back to my cell. Well, if I was being completely honest,shejust might.

Knocking at the cabin door,seeing all my fucking memories of the damned place held in the wooden boards, was the last thing I thought I’d ever do. I felt my heartbeat in my throat, and the feeling of puking up a lung kept spinning in my mouth like a merry-go-round.

“What thefuckare you doing here, Lith?”

I sheepishly stared into the eyes of my older sister.

“Hey, Tal.”

“Don’t fucking ‘Hey Tal’ me. Who is this bleeding on my doorway, Goliath? Did you hurt someone?”

That made me angry. I had my fair share of kills, but I didn’t just snuff someone out for funsies.

“Taliah. She’s hurt. Can you scold me while you fix her up, pretty please?”

Snarling, my sister threw open the door to the cabin and stepped aside. I didn’t waste time in beating feet to her makeshift clinic in the back hall. Putting the Little Lamb on the metal gurney felt odd, but I knew that if anyone could fix her, Dr. Taliah Masters could.

Walking over to Zee, Tal flipped her over and clipped her massive waves of silvery blue hair in a knot on her head and snapped on gloves from a box near the gurney.

“What the fuck happened to this chick, Goliath?”

She turned the Little Lamb over, peeling my bloodied shirt off her wounds and assessing the damage. I hissed in a breath when I saw how truly shredded her back and stomach were. Who the fuck pulled a Freddie on my girl?

I hadn’t gotten a good look at the killer. The fucker bolted when I threw myself at the freak. Saving Zee took all my effort, so I had to let the fucker go. It was gnawing at me that I couldn’t do both. Someone dared mess with what was mine. They’d feel my fucking wrath when I got back. I’d turn the asylum upside down and rip anyone to shreds who stood in my path to finding out who did this to my Little Lamb.

“She’s absolutely mangled. Her skin has torn through multiple epidermal layers, and on her back, you can damn near see her fucking spine.”

I ignored the mumbo-medical speak as it went in one ear and came out the other as ‘it hurts a fuck ton.’

“Can you fix her or not, Taliah,” I snapped, slamming my hands down on the counter beside the gurney.

My sister stopped her assessment, walked over to me, and removed my hand from her counter. “Listen, big boy…if you want to throw a temper tantrum, go the fuck outside. If you want to help fix your girlfriend, then shut up and grab the alcoholand gauze pads. I need to clean these gashes before they get infected.”

I sobered up with her motherly berating, and after flipping her off behind her back, I found the items she described.

Ezello didn’t move the entire time my sister poked, prodded, and cleaned those nasty wounds. I saw her chest moving, but she looked so still. It was only after being shooed away because I asked for the sixteenth time if she was dead or not that I realized she was probably alive.

Walking around my sister’s cabin, I made myself at home and grabbed some chips and a soda, propped back on the sofa, and flipped on the TV.

Bad move.

Apparently, my disappearance hadn’t gone unnoticed, and neither had Ezello’s. I turned up the sound to hear the nasally-sounding reporter better.

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