Page 7

6

ONCE BITTEN

DIYA

I woke up from a strange, distorted dream.

I could almost smell Asher on my body, all over my skin. Like he was just here, touching me, tasting me.

Shaking my head, I hurried to the bathroom and took a quick, cold shower to jolt me out of the haze.

“It was only a dream,” I whispered as I slipped on a skirt and paired it with a navy blouse. “There’s no way in hell…”

Pressing a hand to my racing chest, I made my way to the kitchen. After drinking a cup of chai, I walked out of my cottage, locking the door behind me.

I walked along the narrow trail, flanked by flower bushes past the empty cottages.

There were six cottages around the Hollowhaven grounds. I lived in one. Oswald, the guard, lived in another with his family. Doctor T lived in one. The other three were abandoned. A big concrete wall surrounded the massive ground with the cottages, and another one secured the sanatorium from the outsiders.

Darkness clung to the place eternally, like an obsessed lover who refused to let go, always blanketing the woods in shadows.

I stopped when I heard a faint rustling from the tangle of overgrown trees. Partially obscured by the dense bushes, I saw someone or something staring at me.

“Is that you, Maddox?” I asked. Silence. I hastened my steps until I reached the inner compound. Oswald opened the door for me with a grin. I walked inside the facility and stopped by the nurses' station.

“Morning, Becca. Do you know where Asher is?”

“Good morning. Just saw him in the cafeteria, Doctor Sharma.”

Thanking her, I strolled toward the cafeteria. Asher was sitting alone, eating a sandwich with a sullen look that changed the moment he saw me. His eyes widened, and there was a strange smirk on his lips as he raised his sandwich in acknowledgement.

What the fuck was he playing at now?

Frowning, I stalked toward him and took the chair opposite to his. He gave me a self-satisfied smile that grated against my skin. Something about this man made me feel like I was on a Giant Wheel, spinning faster and faster until I lost control.

“Have a good night, Doctor Sharma?” he whispered. He looked different—less brooding and more smug.

“Kill anyone last night, Maddox?” I whispered, making sure no one was around us.

His smile was a bright flash of teeth.

“Well… I didn’t, but not from the lack of trying,” he said, taking another bite of the sandwich. “Want anything for breakfast?”

“How generous! But I don’t eat with men trying to kill me.”

He chuckled, low and dark. “Ah, but where’s the fun in that, Doctor? Besides…” He leaned forward, a dangerous glint in his eyes. “You told me you like a bit of danger, didn’t you?”

“I have no idea what—”

“You’re a very good actor, Doctor Sharma, but give me a few days, and I’ll solve you.” He leaned closer, his voice a sexy rasp. “I like a good mystery. Especially when it comes with a set of sexy brown eyes and a poker face that’s almost too convincing.”

“There’s nothing to solve.” I scoffed, face straight, but my heart was a mess. I knew it wouldn’t take him long to find my secrets. There were reports, and once he knew where to look and what to look for, he’d find it.

“You’re scared, aren’t you? You weren’t even afraid when I threatened your life,” he said, tapping a finger against his lips, studying me with a wild intensity that made me squirm.

“I’m not scared, Maddox. If anything, you should be scared. Don’t be late for the sessions, or I’ll have to discipline you,” I warned, and his eyes danced.

“Oh, what would you do, Doctor? Spank me?”

Gritting my teeth, I stood up from the table with a glare.

“Run, little deer, run, little deer, run. Bang.” He mimicked a gunshot as I turned around.

Seething, I walked away, leaving his arrogant ass behind. It took me a lot to not punch him in the face.

“Hi, Doctor Sharma,” a familiar voice said from behind me.

I turned to see Vincent walking toward me, his face pinched.

“Hi,” I said. “Something wrong?”

“I’m coming from the coroner’s office,” he said, running his fingers through his hair. “Looks like the killer used something sharp and pointed. Not a regular knife. The wound patterns are all off,” he said as we reached my office.

Taking a deep breath, I opened the door for him.

“Come in, Sheriff Bricks.” Motioning him to a chair, I settled behind the desk. “Is there anything else?”

“The coroner’s been trying to find the weapon that matches the wound pattern, but no luck,” Vincent muttered. “The weapon might have been custom-made. Doctor T wasn’t just murdered. The killer tortured him for information. Whoever did it was after something.”

“It looks like that.”

He paused, glancing up briefly before his eyes flickered back to mine. “Asher Maddox is your patient, right?” His voice went down a notch. “You told me you didn’t trust him.”

“That doesn’t mean I think he’s a killer.”

“Do you think he could be involved somehow?” he asked, his expression inscrutable.

“I don’t know,” I said, my voice steady despite the surge of unease trickling down my spine.

“What does your gut say? Do you think he’s capable of something like this?”

Oh! That was straightforward.

“From what I’ve seen, he isn’t violent. He mostly keeps to himself. I just don’t see him killing someone in cold blood.”

Lies.

It came naturally to me. Some truths were even harder to speak than lies. I had lived in a place where truths were often punished with hunger.

Martha, our foster mother, conditioned us to lie whenever she didn’t want to hear about her husband’s misdeeds.

“You don’t know him like I do. He had anger-management issues,” Vincent said.

“Maybe in the past.”

“But when you grow up resenting half the world for your misfortune… Do you think that kind of anger just vanishes with age?”

Vincent didn’t have any solid evidence yet—he had come to fish. If I just agreed with the sheriff, all my problems would disappear. But I’d be bored again. The chase was fun and exhilarating. The chase made me feel alive.

“His anger stemmed from a deeply traumatic incident that had happened in the past. His friend, Riley, killed herself and...”

Vincent went pale. Sweat trailed down his cheeks as he rubbed his cheek, his eyes flickering away from mine.

“You knew her, didn’t you? What happened to Riley?”

“Riley was a disturbed girl. We tried to save her, but It was horrible, the way she died, but no one could have done anything to stop it.” His voice was defensive, like he was trying to explain that he wasn’t to blame for her death. “Doctor T was the one who treated her, so he was investigated. But of course, he was cleared. He had nothing to do with Riley’s suicide.”

Vincent could be telling the truth, or he just didn’t know the full truth. Some men learned to hide their secrets so deep that they became nonexistent.

I had lived with one such man. I knew how good they were at manipulating the masses.

“We can’t ever truly know anyone,” I said, watching Vincent’s reaction. There was a slight flinch. A flicker of guilt. “Not until we’ve lived with them, seen what they’re like when the masks fall away.” I took a deep breath, pushing away the images in my head. Vile, disgusting images that were like a brand of hot iron on my skin. “Even then…” I shrugged. “We only see what they let us see.”

Vincent’s closed his eyes with a sigh, and I wondered just how much of himself he hid too.

The man who made me who I was now… Max Stills was very good at hiding his true self.

No one would have believed us if we had told our truths. Max and Martha were pillars of the fucking community. Max was a member of the church and the pastor’s closest friend. He volunteered at the community kitchen and homeless shelters. Martha went to Sunday mass with home-baked cookies.

To the outside world, he was everything a real man should be, and she was the perfect wife. And what better way to show off their kindness than to foster three orphans?

But behind the walls of the hellhole they made for us, they were monsters, stripped of the masks they had worn for the public.

Martha blamed us for her husband’s actions. She’d often lock us in a room with no food and water until she was convinced our sins had been absolved; until she was certain that the demons within us had been exorcised.

She starved us to silence us.

“ You’re evil. The devil’s in your head. I shouldn’t have taken you in.”

But we all knew that she wasn’t the one who took us in. It was her husband, and he didn’t take us out of the goodness of his fucking heart.

“Keep an eye on Asher, please. He’s dangerous,” Vincent said, a look of resignation in his eyes.

“I will, Sheriff Bricks. If I find anything suspicious, I’ll call you.”

“I told you. It’s Vincent for you.” Smiling, he stood up and gave me his hand.

“Of course. See you around, Vincent.”

He turned around, walked toward the door and stopped. “I’m… not asking this as a cop,” he said, blue eyes shining. “Are you single, Doctor Sharma?”

Mouth open, I stared at the man with confusion. Was he asking me out? In the middle of a murder investigation?

I nodded.

“Do you want to have dinner with me?”

“Today?”

He was handsome, and finding a decent man in this part of nowhere was hard, especially when I was stuck in Hollowhaven. But was I ready to date a cop? Cops had a built-in sensor to detect bullshit, and I bullshitted often.

“Whenever you want,” he said, a small smile on his lips. “Or if you want to say no, that’s okay too. I… shit, it’s been a while since I tried to flirt with a woman, and now I realize this isn’t the best time to start it.”

“How about Saturday night? I’ll meet you in town?” I said, hoping this wouldn’t become one of my many mistakes.

I had quite a long list of things I shouldn’t have done. I was trying to become better, more sensible. Maybe dating a good man who wasn’t a murderous asshole would be good for my derailing sanity.

The last man I dated—fucked?—tried to eviscerate me. Of course, he was trying to kill me only because I killed his best friend first, but yeah. My relationships were never sunshine and rainbows. Perhaps it was time to break the pattern.

“Saturday. Yes. Of course. I’ll be waiting,” he said, giving me a bright smile before he walked away.

These were the moments when I truly missed Layne and Trina. When I couldn’t just spin around and ask them for advice.

Not that they were particularly good at it. Most of the time, their words of wisdom were less sound and more unadulterated madness.

Sighing, I leaned against the chair when Jimmy walked in with Nurse Dona for his session.

“Hello, Jimmy. How are you feeling today?” Jimmy sat down opposite to me, and for another hour, we talked about Millie and Sarah, Michael and Asher, songs and nightmares, while I successfully put my mind to rest.

When he left, I stared at the clock, tapping my fingers against the table. Another fifteen minutes, and then I had a session with Asher.

I opened the Hollow Heights website on my laptop and entered Vincent’s name. Before he became the sheriff, he was a firefighter. His brother, Holland Bricks, was the Mayor of Hollow Heights.

The town seemed to love him and his brother. They were kind of local heroes.

I dug more and came across an old family photo when Vincent’s father was the Mayor. I immediately recognized Vincent and Holland. Blonde, perfectly styled hair, and an equally perfect smile. Another boy was standing sullenly next to Vincent. He looked angry, and he didn’t fit into that perfect picture. He looked out of place. His smile was forced, stiff, like someone had told him to smile but forgot to teach him how.

“You shouldn’t trust everything you find in the local news.” I whirled around, startled by his voice. I had no idea when he snuck in. “Vincent is… a bastard.”

“He said the same about you,” I said, staring at the picture. “Who is this?” I pointed to the boy.

“That’s Jonah. Vincent’s brother.”

Nodding, I closed my laptop.

“Why are you looking into him?” Asher asked with a frown.

“I always research men I’m interested in dating.”

Asher’s nostrils flared. “So, you’re going out with him?”

“Why won’t I? At least, he isn’t trying to kill me.”

There was a long pause. “Why did you help me, Doctor Sharma?”

“Because I want Riley to have her justice,” I said with a sigh. We all deserve someone who would kill for us. “She deserves it.”

“Is that all?”

“I don’t trust you, Maddox. And to be clear, I don’t like you either,” I said with a frown, and his smirk widened. “But I don’t think what you did was wrong.”

“You don’t like me? You hurt me, Doctor Sharma.” His lips tilted up, his smile devilish. “How am I going to survive this?”

“You use sarcasm as a way to deflect your true feelings. It’s like armor, but it’s okay to let the shield down once in a while.”

“Says the woman who never lets her walls down. Does that make you a hypocrite, Doctor Sharma?”

I sighed. He was right.

“I’m not your patient, Maddox.”

“Well… you should be.”

“Go sit.”

“No,” he said, crossing his arms and making the tattoos pop. I licked my lips, berating my traitorous eyes.

“I’m in charge here, not you.”

His grin widened. “You might like letting someone be in charge for a while,” he said with a wink, casually crossing his arms and flexing his muscles. “I’m offering.”

I disliked how much I wanted Asher even when everything else in me begged to strangle him.

“I’m sure you’d like that, wouldn’t you?” I arched my brow.

“Oh yes. I’d love that,” he said. “I’d love to tie you to your bed and eat you out. Or… or you could sit on my face and let me enjoy the treat.” He groaned. “Oh…”

My pulse quickened as his eyes zeroed in on my lips.

That delicious bastard.

For someone who had kept his silence for a while, he sure knew how to say things to rile me, to push me, to… fluster me.

“Find someone else. I’m not interested in sitting on your face.” Yes, I am.

“Liar. I think you’re very much interested.”

I scoffed. “I think I should review your diagnosis. You’re clearly suffering from delusions of grandeur.”

He feigned a look of shock, pressing a hand to his heart. “Ouch, again! But I think you’re lying to both of us.” He leaned closer, voice velvet and sin. “You want to sit on my face, don’t you? I don’t blame you. It’s a gorgeous face.”

I choked on air.

He laughed, and then the laughter died.

“It’s a mistake to go out with Vincent after after you…” he trailed off, his eyes smoldering against mine.

“After what?” I asked, staring into his evil eyes.

“After…” Asher leisurely stalked toward the shelf. Pulling out a book, he opened it, his fingers teasing the edges like… like he was playing with it.

My mind was dirty.

“After you begged me to eat your pussy.”

I almost died then and there.