I’d killed to become one.
And I’d die if I ever betrayed them.
Fifteen
Blair
“Pure evil!”a man shouts.
“The devil!” another screams.
I stand in the water, still, as rough hands wrench my arms behind my back. A burning pain crawls up my arms when old, scratchy rope digs into my wrists.
“Evil!” comes from someone else.
The moonlight shines down on us, and tears fall down my cheeks as I stare down at my wet dress.
I gasp when he dunks my head beneath the water’s surface, never knowing how long he’ll keep me under. It always depends on his mood. Shutting my eyes, I try to relax as water rushes over my face and into my ears.
I learned to stop fighting long ago because the more I struggle, the longer he holds me down.
When he pulls me up, my eyes meet his menacing ones. “Four hundred sentences, Blair,” he says in a razor-edged voice. “You need to atone!”
“Atone! Atone! Atone!” men chant around me. “Atone!”
I jolted upright in my bed with a strangledbreath. Air ripped from my lungs so hard it hurt like the dream had been real and I’d just been underwater.
But it wasn’t real, Blair.
You’re not there. You’re here.
I clutched the sheets, anchoring myself to the cool cotton, and my throat felt so raw that I was certain I’d been screaming.
“Blair.”
The word cut through my anxiety.
I clapped a hand over my mouth as a shadow moved between the torn curtains around my bed.
“It’s just me,” Daphne said quickly.
My hand slid from my mouth to my chest, pressing hard against my frantic heart. “You scared the shit out of me.”
“Girl, you scared the shit out of me. I thought Enzo’s crazy ass was in here, torturing you.”
I reached blindly for the switch beside my headboard, and the chandelier above us brightened, casting a gentle glow around my space.
I couldn’t hold in my laugh when I noticed Daphne holding a pink stun gun.
“Did you bring that here to defend me?”
“Sure did.” She grinned and pressed the trigger.
The sharp crack of electricity echoed through the alcove, making my pulse jump all over again.
“The next time Enzo comes here, you need to let me borrow that,” I told her.
“You got it.” She zapped it again before climbing into my bed across from me. She wrinkled her nose with concern etched along her forehead. “You were screaming in your sleep. Like, really screaming.” She folded her legs beneath her and smoothed out her nightgown. “Nightmare?”
