Page 44 of Blood Secret

13

Janna

I was dying.I was burning up from the inside out. Every nerve, every muscle, every part of me was wracked with agonizing, blinding, screaming pain.

I writhed on the floor, wishing I could crawl out of my burning skin, wishing I would die and it would all be over.

I opened my eyes and my vision blurred, doubled, tripled.

His face hovered over mine.

Vale.

Where was Bradley? I could almost see him if I tried hard enough, but I didn’t want to try because he was a monster, he tried to kill me, he had hurt me so much, so much, everywhere. He might come back for me.

No, no, he wouldn’t, he thought I was dead.

And I was dead, or dying, and that was fine because I wanted it to end. I wanted it to all end. What did I ever do to deserve this hell? My muscles clenched and I doubled up, rolling onto my side.

He was whispering, over and over. It won’t last forever. It will end. It won’t last forever. Stay with me. Stay with me.

What did he do to me?

He had made me drink his blood. I could still taste it, mingled with my own, but that didn’t make sense because how could I tell the difference?

I drank his blood, and I had liked it. No, loved it, even though it repulsed me.

I didn’t have a choice, did I?

No, there was no choice, because the blood was all that would keep me alive.

But I didn’t want to be alive anymore. What was I going to do? My mind was snapping, shattering into a million pieces. I would never be whole again. I would go insane and stay that way.

Oh, God, I’m dying. When will it end? I just want it to be over. I don’t want this, any of it, please, let me die.No matter what I did in my life, no matter how many sins I committed, I don’t deserve this. Please, let me die. I don’t want to live anymore if this is all there is.

But it didn’t end. It went on and on, the feeling that my bones were breaking and mending over and over, the way my muscles stretched and cramped and burned, the way my heart pounded until I was sure it would explode out of my chest and my brain raced with crazy thoughts, scorching the inside of my head with images I couldn’t explain and didn’t want to see because they were terrible, awful, disgusting and inhuman and brutal.

And he was there, trying to hold me through it.

I felt cold water on my face and realized he was washing me, but it didn’t give me any comfort because the fire was inside and he couldn’t put it out by putting cold water on my outside. It wasn’t working.

I turned my head from side to side and moaned helplessly.

“Shh… try to be quiet…”

That had to be a joke. How could I be quiet? I opened my eyes and looked up at him and tried to focus.

“When… will it end?” I rasped before moaning again as fresh pain raced through me from head to toe.

“Soon. Soon. I promise. Just hold on.”

I closed my eyes and arched my back as even deeper anguish settled in my chest. My chest. I remembered something about my chest. Oh, yes, he had stomped on it with those big, heavy shoes of his.

I had heard my ribs cracking and snapping and could feel them stabbing me inside, but there was nothing I could do about it then.

He was so much stronger.

I remembered tasting my blood, hearing it bubbling in my chest when I tried to breathe.

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