Page 27 of Chain Me

“No.” I shrugged, eyeing my trembling hands. “Not even a phone call.”

I had mulled over the various reasons for the silence. Maybe she hated me for not being the special, chosen one? Maybe I hated her. For leaving me when I needed her, and then coming back…

But only to clean up a mess she’d made.

Dublin would have never poisoned me without darling Georgiana. Despite everything, I thought I could ignore the deception—but betrayal was a strange animal. One day, all might seem well again. Those fresh wounds might even start to heal, scabbed over with assurances of love and heartfelt promises.

But a promise couldn’t soothe the underlying infection for very long. Georgie, despite her apologies, had been unwilling to enlighten me on any aspect of her life. She didn’t possess Dublin’s penchant for brutal honesty, either, and every day that I saw her there, wandering the halls of Gray Manor as if nothing had changed…

The housewasmine, technically, as was the fortune.

I just never expected her to forfeit it all so easily.

“You haven’t tried to contact her?” Dublin pressed, his suspicion palpable.

“And what could I say?” I blinked and moisture spilled down my cheeks. In vain, I tried to banish the tears with a swipe of my hand. “Hello, Georgie. I’m… I have vampire cancer?”

It all had the makings of some sordid, morbid drama my mother would read when she thought no one was looking. I hadsomeself-respect.

Enough to realize when another subject change was in order.

“How could this happen?” I directed the question his way, expecting a clear, succinct answer.

It’s a tumor, Eleanor, honestly.

Anything but, “I don’t know.”

“Sorry?” I blinked, convinced I’d heard him wrong. I even patted my ears in case they’d become clogged.

“You heard me.” His gaze shot to mine and nothing had ever terrified me more than his expression. Not the nightmares. Not the hunger. The hue of his irises flickered a burnished silver and in them I saw the truth before he uttered it out loud. “I don’t know.”

A sound trickled out of me that might have been another laugh. It definitely wasn’t a sob. I hadn’t fallen that far. Not yet. More tears weren’t what spilled out of my eyes to paint my cheeks. Just sweat.

“What do you mean, you don’t know—”

“Eat.” He nudged the side table, jarring it closer to me. The bowl of soup wobbled, precariously close to the edge. “I can hear your stomach growling from here.”

“No.”I shoved the bowl away. “I don’t want the damn soup. I wantanswers—”

“I don’t know!” Thunderous, his rich baritone rang out, stinging my ears in its wake. He had shouted.Wasshouting. “You want answers? Well, so do I. Do you think this is a common occurrence? Well it isn’t. Neither is a woman who willingly sells her soul and can’t seem to stay out of danger no matter the risk—”

“Sir?” Footsteps raced down the hallway and a woman in a white uniform peeked out from behind the door. A nurse. “Is everything okay?”

I almost envied her. She felt something. Fear, most likely. My physical senses might have returned, but my emotional nerves lacked reception. I still felt…hollow, even as a vampire raged a few paces away.

“It’s getting late,” I began while lurching to my feet. The nurse rushed forward to assist, but Dublin beat her to it.

His hand caught my arm reflexively, but I wrenched out of his reach, forced to grip the bed frame to steady myself.

“I’m fine,” I insisted. “In fact, I should be leaving.” I staggered for the door, pushing past him.

“Where are you going?”

“What does it matter?” I tossed back, limping over the threshold. “You can leave without a word, but I can’t?”

It had to be late. The main lights were dimmed in the hall, leaving just a faint glow to see by. Up ahead, I spied an adjacent corridor that must have led to the central ward. Rather than head for it, I turned and advanced farther down the hallway. I needed silence. Darkness. Escape.

“I asked: Where are you going?”