Page 35 of Vicious Little Princess

9

~Caterina~

I wasn’t calm.

That fury I’d unleashed in that garage was just temporarily dormant.

I hadn’t let it go.

And I wouldn’t.

I needed to be ready to go there again at a moment’s notice.

I couldn’t bury that monstrous part of me like I had been used to doing. I’d seen it last night, just how much power it had given me.

Not being afraid of it.

Not just accepting it, but relishing it.

The big issue was maintaining control to some extent during it so I didn’t hurt the boys like I had Nico earlier. I mean,shit,that could have been so much worse that it had been.

There was also the mass amount of energy that it expendedandme spacing out for a long time afterward. There wouldn’t always be the option to do that, or to entertain that kind of exhaustion.

As I was finding out now when it came to the latter aspect.

I staggered into my room, having to stop at the bed and slap my hand down on the mattress as a surge of lightheadedness took me over, making me waver on my feet because it was so fucking intense.

That was nothing compared to the nausea that was taking me over.

It became unbearable all too quickly, and impossible to hold back, and then I was staggering into the bathroom, throwing up the toilet seat, and collapsing to my knees a moment before I vomited into the bowl.

Seeing as though I’d barely eaten anything in the last forty-eight hours, it was mostly bile and some nasty dry heaving before I was able to draw in a steady breath without retching again.

Panting, I lifted my head and flushed the toilet, then pushed back to my feet.

Thankfully, the lightheadedness had dissipated, and I was able to make it over to the sink easily enough and then start brushing my teeth.

“Caterina?”

“Milo?”

I stilled just as I was spitting out some toothpaste, which unfortunately set me off again, and then I was rushing to the toilet again and throwing up a whole lot of nothing, just retching violently.

“Goddammit,” I heard Milo utter again, as he took over holding my hair back for me, enabling me to brace both hands on the toilet.

When it finally stopped, I lifted my head, but Milo didn’t ease back that much and he was actually crouching down in front of me. He stroked my hair gently, worry all over him as he looked me over.

“What’s up?” I croaked. “Did one of my alerts go off?”

“Not yet.”

My heart sank. “Oh.”

“I came in here to tell you I’m making some food and to ask you what you were in the mood for. But given what I just walked in on, that seems to be moot now.”

“Food?” I asked, frowning. “I’ve been snacking on those protein bars and stuff that you’ve been bringing me while I worked.”

“No. You opened one, and that was it. You didn’t even take a bite. You’ve been downing a hell of a lot of cups of coffee, and even a couple of energy drinks that Nico had left in the cupboard from months ago.”

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