Page 140 of Jagged Souls
I’m just so fucking tired.
“The V?” I ask, my voice as broken as I am.
He laughs, and then there’s the sound of shattering glass on the hard floor beside the bed. “There you go, bitch.”
I scramble off the bed as he moves back, presumably out of the room.
“Don’t,” Bear says as I get down on my hands and knees, sweeping my palms out, trying to find the elixir that can set me free.
A piece of glass cuts me deep, and I jerk my hand back on a sharp inhale. But I know where the V is now, and I inch towards it, so desperate to lap it up off the floor. I lower my head as Bear thrashes somewhere in front of me, trying to get free to stop me.
My heart rate kicks up, terrified he will manage, and so instead of going slowly and picking my way around any glass, I dip my head as fast as I can.
Glass cuts into my tongue, and I jerk back on a hiss. I reach up to pull out the piece embedded into my flesh. Then I drop my head and start slurping up the spilled V.
Bear screams for Eduardo.
Fear hits me. Antonio doesn’t want me addicted, so if the witch gets here, he’ll pull the V from my veins and force me to be sober.
To feel all the things I don’t want to feel.
So I drink faster, ignoring the pieces of glass that cut me and slip into my mouth.
And then I stop, realizing something even better.
There is another way out of this hel.
My hands scrambling on the floor, I search for a bigger piece of glass.
Forty-One
NAMELESS
I knock into a piece with the edge of my hand, sending it clattering across the floor. My ears twitching, I scurry after it. When the sound stops, I slow down, inching forward so I don’t send it flying once more. My fingers brush across the wood.
More wood.
More.
Where the fuck is it?
My heart rate increases as I think of Eduardo charging in at any moment and using his magic to take what V remains out of my veins. I can’t go back to being a prisoner without it though. Can’t survive.
My hand touches the cold glass of the broken vial, and I pick it up, running my fingers over it. It’s the bottom half of the piece, a rounded base, splintered into jagged edges. A stab of pang resonates in my soul at the idea of never seeing those I love again.
Never seeing Dayne.
Or Lou.
Never given the chance to learn to love my nephew or niece despite my own pain.
And I think about Varius.
About how I’ll never be able to kick his ass for what he’s done to me. He took my eyes, so I will take his heart.
I hope this hurts like hel for him.
Rolling onto my back, I lay the smashed vial on the floor at the top of my head, the jagged pieces up. Bear screams at me to stop. I don’t know how he’s bound, but he can’t reach me. Can’t save me however much he wants to.
