Page 75 of Eternally Yours

Delirium was getting the best of me. I must’ve heard her wrong. There’s no way…

My eyes drifted close out of pure exhaustion, the sound of Cat’s footsteps lulling me back to sleep.

After some time, a sharp slap across my cheek stunned me awake, and when my eyes snapped open and my vision cleared, I stared at her beautiful but scrunched face.

She pressed something against my lips and warm liquid slid over my tongue.Blood.Depleted of will power, thirst and hunger took over. Grasping the metallic cup from her hand, I tipped it back and gulped it down in one breath, blood spilling down my chin.

“Whoa, slow down,” Cat said, trying to pull the cup back. But I held on, slurping every last drop. Sweet fire spread through every limb as the effects of the life-giving liquid took form.

“More,” I moaned as I licked the inside of the cup. She obliged, taking it from me only to give it back a second later filled to the brim. I drank it down just as greedily. She was tearing open another when I threw the empty cup and snatched the blood bag from her, not able to wait a moment longer. Tearing the plastic nozzle open with my teeth, I drained that bag, too.

“They starved you,” she said with disgust.

I shook my head no. “I starved myself.”

As life bloomed in my muscles, I looked at my surroundings. Eyes wide, my whole world came crashing down. I was sitting on Nic’s bed at his New York apartment.

I pushed up off the bed, almost knocking into Cat. Why the hell would she bring me here? Hadn’t she tortured me enough? This was crueler than being stuck in that dungeon.

“Relax, Loren.”

Feeling reinforced with vitality, I didn’t hold back my anger and stalked closer. “Don’t tell me to relax. Why did you bring me here?”

She crossed her arms, her eyes were flighty as if she was running out of patience. “Because I need your help to rescue Nic.”

My shoulders fell, her words bouncing in my head like a bad joke. For the first time since the attack, my beast growled, her claws scraping at my insides. “Nic’s dead. You told me so yourself.”

Perhaps sensing the threat simmering beneath my skin, she took a step back. “Dead?” Her eyes narrowed as if what I said made no sense. “Right now, he probably wishes he were, but nope.”

Rubbing at my forehead, I turned from her, heat spreading across my chest. “But you said I decapitated him. That I tore him limb from limb.”

“Well…”

Snapping my gaze her way, I waited with bated breath.

She shrugged in a half-hearted apology. “Youdidturn him into minced meat. You don’t remember that?”

Of course I remembered what I saw. I could still see the blood stains on my hands. But a part of me had held a glimmer of hope. “I recall only what I saw after the collar was disarmed. I mean, I saw the damage, but…”

Her gaze softened over me and she drew closer, placing a gentle hand on my arm. “No one thought he would make it. But the blood you fed him, that’s probably what saved his life.”

I placed a hand over my beating heart, its thumps spreading warmth through my body. Nic was alive. Recalling my time in that dungeon, I realized that while my mind had accepted his death, my heart had always held on, even if I’d refused to believe it. Still, if Nic hadn’t died, why had Catherine come to my cell and beaten the shit out of me? Why had she told me I’d killed him?

“You came to my cell. You said I had destroyed everything for you.”

“You really believe it was me?”

The memory was a fuzzy one, but I distinctly remembered a woman’s voice. The rest I wasn’t so sure about now. “I… I don’t know...”

She spun away, holding on to her chin as she spat, “That conniving little shit.”

My gut clenched. If it hadn't been Cat...

What the hell was going on?

“You know who it was?” I asked her.

Her head pivoted my way, her gaze sharp as blades. “Mariellena DeLorzeno,” she uttered between clenched teeth. “Nic’s betrothed. I can’t believe it. That fucking wench knew all along.”

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