Page 119 of Cold-Blooded Creatures

Tarri. The one I’d seen in the hall during dinner my first night here. So that was the reason why Jayla had said something about Tarri having had rehearsed for today.

I shuffled on my feet in search of a more comfortable position and froze at the familiar stickiness coating my thighs. So familiar, I trembled as I carefully moved my dress aside without exposing myself to take a better look.

Air sucked itself out of my lungs as I gaped at their cum dripping down my legs.

They had finished inside me.

I’d let them do it.

I hadn’t checked their status. I hadn’t asked about it.

The color, the color, what was their color?

They didn’t have colors.

No wristbands—no colors. And no answers to the pressing question.

I’d sworn to myself to always know whether they were green- or black-banded before giving anyone my body in exchange for what I needed. I couldn’t allow the unplanned consequences of the bargains I made to take root. They’d give away my secret.

“Kali? Is everything okay?” Eislyn asked.

Milky liquid dribbled down my thigh, the drops cool on my heated flesh. The noise of moans and groans died out. The scent of sweat and sex permeated the air to the point of such stuffiness that suffocation latched its claws on me.

I tried to suck in a breath, but my lungs refused to expand. The world tilted on its axis. My dress slipped from my grip, and the fabric stuck to my leg along the trail of their fluids.

“I— I ha— I have to go.” I backed away from the table on trembling legs.

I spun around, searching for an exit. The multiple lights on strings burned my eyes as the world blurred and fogged up.

Blinded by my tears, I caught myself on the hallway wall, rushing out,out,out,out, and clawed at the collar on my throat. A vertical crack caught on my nails, and I scrambled for the handle.

The door gave way, and I bolted to the window, practically tearing it off the hinges. But my throat constricted, refusing to take in the crispness and dewiness swirling in my nostrils into my airway.

I leaped out of my skin at someone twisting me around.

“It’s me, Kali, it’s me. Can you tell me what’s wrong?” Sadira searched my face. “Go get them,” she told someone. “I saw you talking at the table, and then you suddenly ran past me and Ryder and out of the hall.”

I yanked at the collar, but it wouldn’t come off,it wouldn’t,it wouldn’t, and I choked on a sob. I was going to strangle myself.

“Calm down, calm down. I will take it off, but you have to stop twisting it around.” She fumbled around the buckle, and I jumped as the collar tightened, but then it was off, my neck free of the leather preventing oxygen flow.

Yet it didn’t come.

I pleaded with my lungs to restore it, but they rejected my ask. Wavering, I clutched the windowsill to hold on to something as I leaned through the open window in hopes of finding something,anythingI could inhale.

A loud bang of a door hitting a wall made my diaphragm convulse, and I sucked in a gasp.

“Where is she?” Gedeon barked, and two pairs of dull footfalls closed in on me. “Kali, what is it?”

I wanted to yell that I couldn’t breathe,I couldn’t,I couldn’t,I couldn’t,but my voice was gone, stifled by my cramping muscles. I twirled around, and my legs twined, the weakness snatching my feet from under me.

“Shit.” Gedeon caught me as I collapsed. He righted me back up and turned me to face the open window, the night air a non-existent aid as my throat had closed up. “Can you feel my hand on your back?”

I nodded the best I could. My pulse roared in my ears, as thunderous as my heartbeats bordering on fracturing my ribs.

“I need you to listen to me. I will make you a deal. Inhale as I stroke upward and exhale as I bring it down, and I will get you all the puff pastries you want. Can you do that?”

“I— I can’t—” I raked my nails along my throat in hopes it’d remove the obstruction halting my breathing.