She expelled a harsh breath. “You live withthem, but you don’t want anything to do with Caron.”
“That’s correct.”
She looked like she was about to say something, but instead she clamped her jaw tight.
“Fuck me . . . lay down then.”
“Anytime you’d like to use those same words on me, Dahlia, I’d be open,” Michael crooned, rising gracefully from the couch.
She shot him a look that would have most men running for the hills. On the contrary, I could tell Michael loved baiting her. No wonder he and Ethan were such good friends. They were two peas in a pod.
Grimacing, I lowered myself down, using my arms to take the weight off my torso. Breathing through my teeth, I pulled my legs up until I managed to lay flat on my back. I stared up at the ceiling. Feeling awkward, I pulled my top up.
“It might hurt a bit.” She peered down with a look of apology, and what, worryingly, looked like trepidation.
She placed her palms above the worst of the bruising and began to chant. I’m not sure what I was expecting, a stinging, maybe a pull, but nothing could prepare me for what I got. It felt like someone had dug a claw into my rib cage. I clenched my teeth and tried not to cry out. The claw sank in deeper, and the pain shot like an arrow through my chest. My head pulsed like a blood pressure cuff. Sweat beaded on my brow and top lip. The ceiling began to blur and fade. I breathed and sucked. Sucked and breathed. My fingers dug into the side of the couch.
She chanted over and over and over. The claw kept digging and digging and digging.
I tried not to, but I couldn’t help it, I cried out. “Argghhhhh, God, God,stop!”
She didn’t stop. Instead she chanted faster. The claw hooked under the bone and yanked.
“Stop,” I begged. A rib crunched, like a foot on a beetle, slowly crushing its shell. A fire roared through my chest and up to my head and deep fried the circuits in my brain. The lights went out.
“Amelia,” I heard a voice speaking like we were under water.
I opened my eyes. I could see stars and gray dots and the shadowed outline of Karson hovering above me. The room was silent. A wave of nausea rolled through my stomach. I lay still, the rapid, shallow rise and fall of my breaths the only movement I risked. My chest ached. Sweat clung to my face and neck.
“Are you alright?” he asked, his hand sweeping across my brow. I blinked. The light shone above his head like a halo. A halo made of blinding sun, intent on burning the pupils out of my head. I thought it would have been obvious I wasn’t. I closed my eyes.
I managed, “Mmm.”
“Amelia, open your eyes.”
I didn’t want to open my eyes, I wanted to rest, I wanted to sleep and when I woke it would all go away.
“Perhaps you should get X-rays done.” Michael sounded clear and yet strangely far away.
“Not only is she exceptionally average looking. But the broomstick humping minx’s body is also pathetically weak.” Monique sounded appalled. “From the long list of fragile conquests, you really have outdone yourself this time, Karson.”
I swallowed back the bile in my throat and dragged my eyes open. “I’m not fucking weak,” I rasped.
Karson’s eyes glimmered and his lip hooked up in the corner. He moved with vampire speed to the other side of the room.
“Sorry. You should be okay to sit, I think.” Dahlia grimaced. “But you need to be careful, I think I may have repaired the cracks but I’m not sure how well, it’s not exactly my area of expertise.”
Using my hands, I leveraged myself to a seated position. My ribs ratcheted in my chest. But it was a dull pain and manageable. I sat with my feet on the floor, head bowed, pale and shaking. It was better now, definitely better, I reaffirmed inmy head, as if convincing my brain and stomach that it was all over and they could settle now. They weren’t so convinced.
“I’ll make sure she stays home,” Karson said.
“You don’t get to tell me what to do, Karson.” My voice sounded weaker than I would have liked.
“You heard her,” he scorned, “you will be staying here until it’s safe for you to leave.”
I lifted my head. “Whoever it is, attacked me, not you. I’m not hiding. I’m going out to find out who did it.” Determination gave strength back to my voice. I wiped the sweat off my brow with my fingers, rubbing them on my jeans.
“You’re being ridiculous, until we know who it is. It’s not safe for you out there, so you stay home.”
