Page 40 of Our Little Monster
I refused to let them fall. I would not break. Not here. Not yet.
Bastian and Thorne shoved through the door. Nox moved to sit next to me, leaving a small gap of space between our thighs. Thorne sat on the other side, doing the same and Bastian kneeled in front of me.
“Nightmares?” Thorne asked quietly from my right.
I nodded, and everyone fell quiet. Sitting next to me like silent anchors until the storm passed. Not the physical one, but the emotional one.
Rain continued to pour outside, and I could hear some of the rain making it in through the open window as it rapped gently against the wood.
I’d always loved the rain, and I’d want to go outside if I wasn’t so damn tired. It was as if the nightmare itself wore me out all over again. I concentrated on the weather, letting the air that crept through the window cool my hot skin and racing thoughts.
“Better?” Bastian asked after a few moments.
“Yeah, how did you know?” I murmured, feeling my mind and body calm.
“I can hear your heartbeat. It’s no longer beating like a war drum,” he said, and I began trying to push off the floor to get back to my feet.
Nox and Thorne both gripped onto my elbows on either side and helped me back to the bed.
I frowned. “Sorry for waking you. I’ll be out of here tomorrow.”
“What do you mean?” Bastian asked.
“I’ll be going back to the motel tomorrow. I said I would work with you, but I never agreed to stay here.”
“It’s safer here,” Bastian argued.
“Yeah, because being in a home with Vampires is any safer than the motel,” I snapped back, pulling my arms free from their hold as I made the last few steps to the bed alone.
I didn’t need their comfort…No, I did need comfort, but I didn’t want it from them.
I shouldn’t even feel comfortable enough to be around them as long as I have been. They were monsters, regardless of the life they lived behind closed doors. I needed to remember that.
This wasn’t a friendship; it was a temporary partnership of four people wanting the same things.
Bastian sighed, and it almost sounded like a growl as he shook his head and turned to leave as if he couldn’t stand to be in the room with me a moment longer. The dresser moved easily back into its spot with one quick shove from his palm before he stalked out without looking back in my direction.
Thorne and Nox followed, none of them having anything more to say.
Good. My walls needed to stay up. Especially around them.
12
Serina
Ihadbarelybeenable to dress and shower this morning without wincing or groaning, so taking my bike to Mickey’s didn’t seem like a good idea, but I had never been known for those anyway.
I pulled up into the diner parking lot and gawked at it as if it would catch on fire if I stared at it long enough.
I hadn’t been back in the diner since my birthday last year, and with my birthday coming up around the corner, it was also the one-year anniversary of my father’s death. The thought made me swallow down the lump in my throat and blink away the sting behind my eyes.
The loud truck I knew all too well to be Sam’s pulled into the parking lot, and she parked a few spots down from my bike that I had been leaning against waiting for her to get here.
She turned off the truck, and the driver’s side door creaked as she hopped out. We stared at each other for a few moments before a smile stretched over both of our faces.
“Long time no see, cousin,” she said happily, wrapping me close in her arms, and I stiffened from the pain. Sam tugged me back, holding my shoulders. “You look like shit,” she admitted, and I rolled my eyes.
“Thanks for the reminder.” I nudged her in the shoulder as her arms dropped to her sides.
