Page 15 of Blood Feud

“I’m sorry, where have you been this whole time, because Eoin does the same thing.” When I was angry, I tended to spit out vitriol. Sable appeared to be an innocent bystander that had been sucked into the evil web Eoin weaved, so I would try my damnedest to not unleash my full rage on her for her misplaced trust.

But it was a close thing.

My anger needed an outlet, and Sable was the only one within striking distance.

“When? How? When did he torture you?” Her tone implied that she fully believed he never had.

“He used me!” The words tore from my throat, harsh and biting and guttural. “Repeatedly! He used my body against me.” I was crying without knowing when the tears started streaming down my face. All of my helplessness, all of the fury I felt, all of the grief for my brother that I’d been bottling up came streaming down my face. Fuck my body for choosing now to release this torrent of emotions. I swiped angrily at the tears and deliberately looked away from Sable until I could pull myself back together.

Sable’s face dropped as her whole body slumped. “Oh. Oh, Ottavia.” Her voice was soft, pitched into a soothing tone. “Pheromones can be so awful and overwhelming when you’re not accustomed to them.”

The dark-haired girl scooted toward me on the bed, but I flinched harshly away from her outstretched palm.

“Don’t you touch me,” I hissed. Sable felt fully untrustworthy to me right now. She had so much misguided faith in Eoin Ó Ceallaigh that it made me sick to my stomach.

Holding her hands up in a soothing gesture, Sable backed away to her original seat. “Listen, I just—” she broke off with a sigh. “I know what you’re going through. I was in the same situation once. I just thought I could help you out a little, make you feel more at ease with the situation.”

“If you want to help me,” I started, glaring at her. “Then help me get out. Set me free.”

“You know I can’t do that.”

“You can. You won’t,” I countered. My head was pounding in time with my racing heart. I touched my temple, feeling the bandages and the soreness of the bruised knot. I felt dizzy, and painfully weak. My hands shook when I held them out before me.

“Here, you need to eat something. And drink some of this water. It’s been nearly two full days since you’ve had anything.” She grabbed the paper plate with the sandwiches and held them out to me.

With trembling hands, I grabbed both and set them on my quilt-covered lap.

The sandwiches smelled strongly of tuna, with the sharp bite of dill pickle. My stomach rumbled as my mouth watered. I picked up the water bottle, checking that the cap was still secure before uncapping it and downing the contents. It was hard to poison a sealed water bottle, so I was willing to take my chances with it. But the food? As I gulped down the refreshing water, I eyed the sandwiches.

They appeared innocent enough. Nothing out of the ordinary. But if Eoin had ordered his people to drug them, I likely wouldn’t be able to pinpoint the drugs anyway. With his vampiric abilities, Eoin probably didn’t need to resort to drug use when he could compel humans just as easily with his eyes, but I was too doubtful to test it out.

Once I emptied the bottle of water, my gut felt sloshy and weird, painfully full of liquid, but I didn’t regret chugging it. I could practically feel my organs soaking up the water like a desert flower getting its first rain after months in a drought.

As I had been drinking, Sable had tugged a towel and washcloth, as well as another change of clothes, from her bag. “There’s already 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioner in the shower, and soap as well. I was going to bring you a toothbrush and toothpaste, but they wouldn’t let me, seeing as how you tried to stab Eoin with yours.” She smiled as she said it, as though she were picturing me fending off the Abhartach with only a plastic toothbrush and realized how futile it was from the image.

Rage, my steady companion, boiled up once more.

“You think that’s funny?” My words were quiet, full of held-back fury.

“I—what?” Sable looked confused, unsure of what had made me flip into anger so suddenly.

“You think me, fighting for my life,fighting to survive, is funny?”

Now, Sable looked equally pissed. A frown marred the space between her brows and her full lips pouted at me. “No, Ottavia. Obviously not. But you seem to keep forgetting that you’re not in any actual danger.”

I opened my mouth to retort, but Sable cut in before I could. “You keep getting yourself hurt with your inane escape attempts. Have you considered, I don’t know, just talking to Eoin? Being calm for a moment and allowing him to speak to you without him being forced to restrain you or use pheromones to calm you down?”

Harsh laughter sprang from me. “Oh, so now being used against my will with pheromones is my fault?”

“No!” Sable yelled. She was standing now, my fury plainly echoed on her face. “Jesus, you—ugh, you’re impossible. I knew you had been raised like a princess, but you don’t have to act like such a spoiled bitch all the time.”

Shock reigned through me. “Are you serious? I’m literally beingheld captive. I’m the victim here!”

“Oh, and we can all see that! Poor, sad Ottavia, captured by the big, bad vampire that never would’ve bothered her had she not attacked him first.” Behind her, the door opened and Declan’s huge form filled the doorway. He called Sable’s name, but she ignored him, instead choosing to continue to grace me with a look of disdain. “With a dead mother and a dead brother, she’s obviously the only person in the world that bad shit happens to. Grow the fuck up.”

I was too shocked to reply, so instead I grabbed my plate of food and flung it at her. The sandwiches landed squarely on her chest, splattering tuna salad along her bright yellow shirt.

Sable gasped and Declan stepped inside the room, glaring at me with his stormy gray eyes as he touched Sable’s elbow. He murmured softly to her and she nodded in reply, grabbing the duffel bag but leaving the towel and washcloth.

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