Page 70 of Eternally Yours

“You killed him,” she gritted through her protruding fangs.

Still shaking, I stared at her in silence. Too afraid to speak. Unable to accept what I’d done.

Turning her attention back to Nic, she tried to feed him her own blood, but all I heard were her mournful cries—the sound of a centuries-old heart breaking.

“Get her out of here,” she said to someone as she dropped an electronic device on the floor. Gripping one of Nic’s hands, she kissed his fingers then placed his hand over his chest.

Someone grabbed me by the arms and tore the collar from my neck before dragging me away. I didn’t protest. My limbs were heavy as lead, but it was the weight pushing down on my heart that stole my will to fight. At that moment, I hoped they would kill me.

Nic had been wrong about me. Iwasa monster, and I’d murdered him with my own claws and teeth. I was no different from those beasts and deserved to be put down like a dog.

But my punishment wouldn’t be swift. Instead, I was tossed into a dark room with a stone floor and no windows. Could it be I was back in purgatory?

The room stunk of mold, urine, and decay. Squinting toward the door, I saw the door close and heard the mechanical lock as they sealed me inside my prison. Footsteps echoed off and within minutes, silence wrapped her merciless cloak around me.

Alone with my thoughts, my memory pieced itself back together like a jigsaw puzzle. The attack at the cave. The collar around my neck. The terror that latched onto my being when the mad scientist from the Order told me he’d use me against Nic’s coven.

Burying my face in my hands, I succumbed to my misery, sobbing without end.

Why hadn’t Nic just left me for dead in that alley? None of this would’ve happened if he’d just done what he was supposed to do—abandoned the collateral damage. My existence had harmed not only him, but whoever else I might have killed in my frenzy.

What I couldn’t piece together was how I’d arrived at the coven. Or how the doctor had been able to suppress my abilities or enhance them at his will with that collar. But none of that mattered now. I was dangerous. A liability. Keeping me alive was putting others at risk.

I waited for someone to come and demand answers, but the minutes ticked away and no one showed. Hours might have turned to days. I wasn’t sure. And I didn’t care. All I wanted was to end. I no longer cared about living. Not even for my father. He was better off without me.

As time dragged by, my captors tried to feed me, but how could I eat when every time I thought about blood all I saw was Nic’s mangled face? If they wouldn’t kill me, I would starve myself to death.

More time lapsed, and at some point, I was no longer able to tell where I ended and the floor began. I’d grown too weak to cry, even if the sorrow hadn’t waned. And I was too weak to move, so I stayed in the same spot, covered in my own filth.

Someone, please, end me already.

The metal sounds of the door unlatching broke the deathly silence.

Probably another goblet filled with blood. Despite my hunger for sustenance, the thought of blood repulsed me.

When the door swung wide open and a bright flash of light hit my face, I knew the moment had finally arrived. I sighed in relief.

“Get up,” a female voice said. “Heavens, it stinks in here.”

I turned toward my visitor, my eyes straining to focus. “Cath...erine?” I struggled to pronounce her name, my mouth dry like a desert.

“You should be dead. You destroyed everything for me. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be.”

“I-I—” I couldn’t get the words out. My throat was too tight.

“God, what did he ever see in you...”

My gaze dropped to the ground. I couldn’t answer her question because I truly had no idea.

“You killed him. Slaughtered him. And you’re going to regret what you did,” she growled and gestured to the guards waiting behind her. “Make sure of it.”

The sound of her footsteps receding made my chest collapse. “No... don’t leave me here. Catherine…”

The footsteps stopped.

With her back to me, all I saw was her sleek silhouette.

“I’m so sorry,” I said, needing her to know that I felt her pain. She’d been Nic’s friend for centuries. “I loved him too.”

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