Page 96 of Chain Me
“It was a very clever method,” Dmitri mused as I gulped at the tea. “Slow. Sustained over multiple hosts. He must have started not long after you began supplying her fresh blood.” He eyed Dublin, smirking. “I used to muse which one of you two might best the other when you eventually did resume your trite little war games. Believe it or not, Dublin, but I always had my money on you. Mero could be cunning, but he had his boundaries. Even if heisusing the other Gray girl as a pawn, like I suspect, I doubt he’s killed her. Yet.You, on the other hand, were ruthless—”
“Enough.” The growl lacked any of the intensity I was used to. In its absence, Dublin resembled a mere shadow of his former self. A specter on par with Raphael—a hollow soul, somewhere in between the man and monster. But as he turned his attention to me, some semblance of the Devil I knew returned again. Namely in his eyes as they flickered with an unreadable mixture of emotion. “How do you feel?”
“Tired,” I rasped, my voice breaking.
“You should be right as rain in a few more days,” Dmitri insisted. “Ergot is resistant but not infallible—”
“I need to speak to her alone.” Dublin didn’t even look at him, expecting his will be obeyed.
“Fine.” Dmitri shrugged and headed for the doorway. “Though perhaps now isn’t the best time to mention that you shouldn’t trust all you see or hear, Eleanor,” he told me with a playful wink. “The Ergot is still in your bloodstream, after all.”
His laugh echoed in his wake, but Dublin’s voice easily overpowered it.
“Tell me what happened.” He sat on the edge of the bed, his back to me, but his hand settled over my hip, palpable even through the heavy blankets. “From the beginning. Everything.”
“I was hearing voices,” I admitted. My throat felt sore from disuse. Just how long had I been beneath the spell of the drug?
“What did they say?” he prompted.
I hesitated, swiping my tongue along my dry, cracked lips. “That… That you hated me. That you didn’t want me.” I realized now just how insane it sounded out loud. “I think I knew I was being irrational, but I couldn’t help it. It felt so real. I could hear it—”
“Telling you that I couldn’t love you?” He didn’t meet my gaze. Instead, he eyed the far wall, his jaw clenched. “You screamed that line the most.”
I closed my eyes, hating the vicious memories as they teased the edges of my psyche. “How could this happen? Dmitri said—”
“You were poisoned,” he said over me. “Right under my nose and I didn’t even see it until it was almost too late.”
As my eyes reopened, I found him watching me, lingering over my face. “Why?”
“To punish me.” He sounded more resigned than vengeful. “I suspect that was his design all along, as far as you were concerned. Punish me.”
“Why?”
“Why?” He laughed, shaking his head as if unsure how to even phrase the answer. “He… I loved him like a brother once,” he admitted softly. “I trusted him above all others. Always. And you are his vehicle to punish me.” The hand he rested over me withdrew, becoming a fist he slammed onto the mattress. “But he’s overplayed his hand, and if he tries to hurt you again, I will kill him.”
“Dublin…” I’d forgotten how formidable he could sound. How dangerous when confronted. Blazing silver eyes cut me to the bone as he held my gaze. “What about Georgie? Dmitri said she might be—”
“You need to focus on yourself for now,” he warned. “Trust me on this.”
It was as close to begging as a man like him might ever come—and despite his nearness, I sensed he could drift from me farther than ever if I pushed him away now.
And I wasn’t the only one who needed him.
“I saw things too.” The words almost hurt to say, conjuring a memory sharp with a pain I’d never ever felt. Longing. Fear. Guilt. “I saw… She was so beautiful…and I killed her.” Panicked, I flexed my fingers, grasping at nothing. “I killed her—”
“It was a nightmare,” he said, but it wasn’t the truth. A nightmare was comparable to what I’d witnessed, but I’d rather burn alive than feel that pain again. “The drug should help you sleep without any more dreams. Get some rest.”
I steeled myself for him to leave, but he found my hand, still bound to the bed, and grasped it tightly. He remained like that for only God knew how long.
Long after I surrendered to unconsciousness again.
Contaminated
The vicious specter of doubt chased me through a nightmarish maze. I couldn’t escape it, assaulted by its cruel taunts.You’re pathetic, Eleanor. Pathetic…
I awoke, gasping as panic formed a noose around my throat more restraining than the binds still pinning me in place. Straining my shoulders, I struggled to sit up, blinking my eyes open to the morbidly decorated ceiling above. A twisted sense of relief slowed my frantic heartbeat by a fraction. I was still in that room.
And someone remained beside me, brushing the sweat-soaked curls from my face.
