Page 110 of Our Little Monster
“Serina, I—” She broke then, the words crumbling before they could fully form, and my heart splintered at the sight.
Instinctively, my arms reached out to her, but Bastian's hand shot up, a barrier built from concern rather than rejection. “You’renew, love, the hunger,” he warned, his tone gentle yet firm, a reminder of the beast that now stirred beneath my skin.
“It's okay,” Sam insisted, her voice steadfast despite the tremble that laced each word. She edged closer. “I trust her. She’s my cousin, and we're more like sisters than anything. Besides, if she kills me, I probably deserve it.”
She settled beside me on the bed, and I enveloped her in an embrace, feeling Nox, Bastian, and Thorne tense around us.
The scent of her blood was delicious, sending a shiver of need coursing through my veins. But I was stronger than the thirst, stronger than the monster I feared I'd become.
I held her, letting her warmth remind me that we had made it, both of us. Well, mostly.
I brushed a stray lock of hair from her damp cheek. “You don’t deserve that… I know it wasn't you,” I whispered softly. “You wouldn't intentionally hurt me, Sam. But the first thing we are going to do when this is over is get that tattoo on you. I don't care where, but it's happening. Fear of needles or not, we will get it done. I will not have you be used in such a way again.”
Sam nodded, acknowledging the pact without hesitation as she fiddled with the vervain necklace around her neck. I couldn’t trust a little piece of jewelry; she needed something permanent. Bastian, Thorne, and Nox needed one, too.
I moved to the side of the bed and stood, my legs firm as if they'd never known the fragility of human bones. No longer did I feel any pain, only the power rolling under my skin like thunderclouds ready to burst.
It was intoxicating, this sense of invincibility.
I turned to Bastian, Nox, and Thorne, who watched me with a mixture of concern and pride.
“How have you guys been avoiding his compulsion?” I asked, curiosity lacing my words. “He said he can compel anyone, and you don’t wear any jewelry or have any tattoos to keep him out of your head.”
“Vervain,” Bastian began, his voice a low hum that vibrated through my heightened senses. “We started ingesting the stems and blooms. It weakened us, but it kept him out of our heads.”
I mulled over his words, the bitter taste of betrayal still lingering on my tongue, but now it was mixed with a hint of admiration for their resilience. The lengths they went to protect me.
“Then all those times,” I started, hesitant, “when you were watching me and my dad, when you kept pressing for a deal… was that Victor pulling your strings or was it actually you?” My heart thrummed in my chest, aching for the truth.
“We had been ordered to watch you before your dad’s death, keep tabs and report back. By that time, we were trying to break the compulsion little by little. Unfortunately, we didn’t do it fast enough to stop what he had planned… And then we were too late. We had found you the day of the accident, and we took you to the hospital. We were there all that time, watching as you ripped the world apart for your vengeance.”
Bastian's eyes were heavy with unspoken apologies, his hands clenching into fists at his sides.
“But eventually we didn't have to give Victor accurate information anymore, didn't have to tell him the full truth because the vervain had started working more and more until he didn’t control us anymore. We played along with his games, spinning lies about other hunters that were doing the killings, and stayed in line until he figured out that you were alive.”
A glance passed between him and Sam, laden with meaning, a silent exchange that spoke volumes.
When Victor had caught her, the fragile veil of deceit they had woven came crashing down, revealing that it was me all along and that they had been lying.
That was how he knew I was coming, because of Sam. That was how he kneweverything.
They had been there this whole time, their presence a constant I hadn’t even been aware of, trying to protect me while ensnared in Victor’s twisted web.
My heart swelled with an affection that felt too vast for my chest.
Nox stepped closer, his presence enveloping me in a familiar warmth. “Bastian was the one who came up with the idea of easing into taking vervain. We started with a quarter of one of the petals, and then after a month or so we would up the dose little by little,” Nox explained.
The room seemed to spin as I pieced everything together.
“That’s why none of you were healing correctly… You were poisoning yourselves…arepoisoning yourselves,” I said to no one in particular, but they all just nodded.
They had been walking a razor's edge, caught between servitude and the fight for freedom.
To be with me, to keep me safe.
“Fuck, you guys…” My voice broke, a mix of gratitude and sorrow washing over me. “You played a dangerous game.”
Bastian reached out, his fingers brushing mine, sending a jolt of something electric but soothing through my veins. “For you, love,” he said, “we'd play that game a thousand times over.”
