Page 28 of Brushed By Moonlight

Roux ducked, and my heart leaped, because Henrik’s momentum nearly carried him into the china cabinet.

“Stop it right now!” I yelled.

Henrik had his back to me, and I grabbed his shoulder.

“Watch it,” Bene called from behind, though the words were lost in Marius’s roar of warning.

A warning I didn’t heed, because that was my grandmother’s china. I’d promised her I would care for it as diligently as I cared for the château. I had to. My family’s legacy depended on me now.

“I said, stop!” I cried, tugging Henrik back.

He spun and ducked just as Roux let out a vicious punch.

“Watch it!” Bene yelled.

Too late. Like a deer in headlights, I stared at the fist flying toward me in fast, then terrifyingly slow, motion. Then my head snapped back. My teeth rattled. An explosion thundered through my mind, and I was dimly aware of falling backward.

Dimwas a fitting word, because darkness closed in around me. I remembered falling, falling…then hitting the floor.

And then, there was nothing.

Chapter Eight

MINA

Pain pulsed through my head. My skull seemed to have shrunk, squeezing my brain like a vise. My left eye screamed. Everything was blurry, and the only movement I could muster was a weak scratching motion over a rug. Was I sprawled over the carpet?

Voices erupted above me, every word a sledgehammer to my ears.

“Dammit, Roux!” someone yelled.

I winced.

“Crap.” His voice wavered. “I didn’t…I didn’t mean to.”

“Well, you did. You hit her.”

“Fucking Henrik,” someone else growled. “It’s your fault.”

“How the hell is this my fault?”

Boys, boys,I wanted to chide.My head is already exploding. Do you have to add to the agony?

But my lips didn’t move, except to croak out a groan.

When someone stepped in briskly, I jerked an arm over my face. Would I be trampled next?

Someone leaned down, touching my forehead softly. Then he growled, and I felt two thick arms slide under me.

I tried to flail, but my arms wouldn’t obey. I did not want to be touched. I did not want to be lifted.

Get away from me,I wanted to yell.

“Hang in there, Mina,” I heard Bene say. Was he the one lifting me, or was he a few steps away?

Up I went, and the movement made my head swim. I groaned.

“Watch it,” someone warned my valiant protector. Was that Roux? Marius?