Page 196 of Fangs
“Why?” she gasped, and I could see the betrayal I felt reflected in her eyes.
“So I couldn’t go with them.” My head pounded. “Apple, can you cut the ties?”
She nodded, her face serious, and got up to find a knife. It took her a while to cut through the plastic cord, and I tried to brace myself for getting accidentally cut, but the first time she slipped and nicked my wrist, I jumped. She immediately burst into tears, and I had to calm her down before convincing her to keep going. She got me a couple more times, the knife sliding on the zip tie, slippery with my blood. Finally, the ties fell off, and I brought my hands up to inspect my bloody wrists. I winced at the large amount of blood staining my sleeves. I’d put deep gashes in them from yanking against the ties and a couple lacerations that probably needed stitches. I shakily got to my feet and stepped around the beam, grimacing more at the blood smeared across the floor.
“How long has it been since they left?” I asked.
Apple wrinkled her nose like she was thinking hard. “Twenty hours?”
I looked out the window at the sunlight, lips twitching wearily at her attempt. It looked like it’d been maybe a couple hours.
Apple followed, attached to my side, as I went to the sink and started woodenly cleaning out the wounds on my wrists. The deepest lacerations were still bleeding a fair bit, but I wasn’t going to deal with stitching myself up right now. My body would probably heal the wounds before I bledtoomuch.
I’ve seen you put your own health at risk about two dozen times since I met you.Sable’s earlier words ran through my head, but I shoved them away.
It hurt as I washed the wounds out, but I barely noticed. I felt removed from myself again. I understood why Wolf tied me up when he first abducted me, but tying me upnow?I’dbeggedhim not to, but once again, he saw my panic as manipulation. I couldn’t keep doing this. I couldn’t keep ripping out bloody pieces of myself to show him if he was going to pick and choose which ones he thought were real. I got my left wrist bandaged, but then I fumbled with the bandage on my right.
“Can I do it?”
I glanced at Apple, who looked up at me with huge, solemn eyes. I dropped into a crouch and held out my wrist, instructing her how to do it as she clumsily wrapped it for me.
Once it was tied, I got to my feet, jaw set with grim determination. “Go find Leda, okay?”
“Where are you going?” Apple whispered.
“To Nemo’s,” I answered.
Nemo’s house was full of people. They all looked startled when I came storming in, but no one stopped me. I found Nemo in his office with Smith and a handful of other people gathered around the large radio, their faces grim.
“What’s happening?” I demanded.
The people around Nemo stared at me with wide eyes, but Nemo was studying me carefully, frowning. I knew I looked crazed. I’d tried to clean myself up a little, but my eyes were red and swollen, both my wrists were bandaged, and there was blood smeared on my clothes.
“What happened to your arms?” he asked.
“Nothing,” I bit out. “What’s happening?”
Nemo glanced at Smith and then moved around everyone to approach me.
“Come speak with me privately for a minute,” he said, gently taking my elbow.
I debated refusing to move until someone updated me, but the kindness and patience in Nemo’s face took the wind out of my sails. I nodded, and he steered me out of his office and into the kitchen. It was a small, enclosed space but cozy and homey.
“Ember, what happened to your arms?” Nemo asked again.
“It’s just a cut,” I said stiffly.
His eyebrows drew together. “On both wrists?” When I didn’t answer, he pressed, “Did someone attack you again?”
“No.”
His frown deepened. “Is it self-inflicted?”
“No! I mean…not intentionally…”
He simply studied me.
“Wolf tied me up in the clinic because I threatened to follow them,” I finally admitted, hating that my voice wobbled.
