“Let her go!” Brutus demanded.
“Stop it! Let go of me!”
Jesus Christ.
Scratch marks down the poor girl’s face.
“Let! Me! Go!” she shrieked as she bucked against him.
My brother had his arms locked around her body, trapping her arms. “You’re hurting yourself. I won’t let you hurt yourself.”
“King,” Brutus barked.
“She’s hurting herself!” he barked back.
I heard footsteps thundering behind me as I slipped past Brutus and headed for the woman. Her hair was wild around her face. Blood pooled against her skin from the gash marks raked down her face. I looked down at her hands. Skin. Blood.
“Hey,” I said softly as I held up my hands in a sort of mocking surrender. “You’re bleeding. You need to see Doc.”
That woman reared back and slammed her head into my brother’s face before she leaned forward and screamed in mine.
“GET ME OUT OF HEEEEERE!”
“Let me through,” I heard Doc mutter behind me.
“Let her go, goddamn it!” Brutus bellowed.
My ribcage literally rattled with the sound. King’s eyes bounced to me like I was supposed to help him out of the damn situation?
“Seriously, if she doesn’t want to be held?—”
“Hey, I told you so,” my brother muttered.
He released her.
The instant my brother released her, she lunged for me. Someone yanked my arm back, and I stumbled backward before slamming into something rock hard and immobile. An arm banded around my waist, but I didn’t care much about that.
Because I watched that woman as she hit herself.
“Let me out, let me out, LET! ME! OUT!”
“You’re out,” my brother said in a voice I’d never heard before. “I swear, you’re out.”
It was like everything happened in slow motion. Doc stepped forward, and she lunged. Her nails were out like claws, jagged and scraped into points, as if she had intentionally filed them that way. Doc attempted to reach for her, but the slash of her hand opened up skin on his forearm that made him hiss.
“Hey, no one is going to hurt you,” Doc said through clenched teeth. “We just need to?—”
“NOOOOOOOO!” she practically roared like a dragon.
I shoved the arm around my waist away and took a step forward before holding my hands in the air and practically yelled at the woman.
“No one is touching you!”
Her eyes whipped around, wild and unfocused. Her hair, already matting to the blood that was drying on her face.
Her gaze found mine.
“Girl,” she whispered.
