Page 41 of Witchblood
“He doesn’t want you, Sebastian. I’m the only one that ever has.”
What wolves? Not Liam. Of that much I was sure. “You’re so full of shit you’ve got flies coming out of your ears. How did you even find me here?”
“Apasaid you’d be drawn here, so I had those wolves keep an eye on the area. They told me you were here.” When he took another step I pushed as much power through the ground as I could.
“I said stop.”
“No more games, Seb. You belong to me. You’ve always been mine. I knew by the time you’d hit ten that you were meant to be mine.Apademanded I wait. Those years…I think you became too independent in those years. Now it’s just lost time.”
“What?” Ten? What kind of sick bastard was he?Apahad known?
“You’ve spent years refusing to bond with me. I should have just convinced you to do it as a child. Would have saved myself all this trouble.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I said. Of course I’d refused to bond with him. I might have thought I’d been in love with him, but I’d never felt a bond to him. Had thought it a myth until Liam. Fuck, Liam…What had he done to Liam? “Go home, Felix. We’re done.”
He reached for me. “We’re not.”
“If you’ve done something to Liam I will tear you apart.”
“You can’t hurt me, Seb. We belong together. I can prove to you we are true mates. Just let me bite you. Once I come inside you and feed on your blood you’ll see. Liam is nothing. You’ll see.”
The idea of him holding me down and raping me again just ripped the control right off my anger. I flew at him with all the rage the last year on the run had bottled up. My fist met his face and he staggered back. It couldn’t have been the punch; I wasn’t that strong. Surprise then. Fine.
No mercy, I thought. He’d never had any for me. Before I even realized what I was doing, he was on the ground beneath me as I pummeled him. Blood coated my fists and splattered on my face. His and mine.
“Enough,” Felix growled at me.
I caught a glimpse of his eyes as they flickered in the moonlight with that eerie luminescence that animals shared. Then he hit me back. His punch equaling about a thousand of mine. One second his fist was barreling toward me, the next the world fell into oblivion.
Chapter 19
Old blood has a sort of rusty, spoiled smell. Like a package of beef set out too long. It’s a distinct odor. Even my dreams couldn’t filter out a reason for the scent. Instead I just woke, groggy, in pain, and smelling blood. Mine or someone else’s?
My head throbbed. Another concussion? Probably not a good thing since I’d still been healing from the other one. My stomach roiled with nausea from the pain and the smell. I was careful not to move my head too fast. Throwing up all over myself would have only made the churning in my gut worse.
A lone window bathed the room in pale moonlight. Same night or had I been out that long? It took a while for my eyes to completely adjust. One was swollen enough that I knew it had to be quite the shiner. With my one good eye I could make out a small room, with a twin-sized bed, and happy cartoon animals stuck to the walls. They’d left me in the bed, and from what little I could see from the window, I was on the second floor. No trees nearby, just the vast darkness covered with pinpricks of stars. Which meant they didn’t expect me to jump out the window to my death, and probably had guards on the door.
Was this Nicky’s room? Had Felix followed them home just to use them as hostages? The shadows mixed with the shades of darkness of the room, leaving it hard to tell if blood stained anything, or if it was just me I was smelling. Though old blood had a different smell than fresh. Maybe I’d been bleeding and out for a while.
I sucked in a deep breath and tried to center myself through the monster weight of anxiety rising in my chest. Panic got me nowhere. Liam would be looking for me. I wasn’t alone anymore. Dylan made it clear that the pack wanted me here. Even if not all of them agreed, whatever bond Liam and I had made them all sit up and listen. Or at least be open to accepting a fox in the wolf den.
Felix’s words came back to me.Apahad known how troubled Felix was long before our relationship began. Yet he still allowed it. Once again I felt betrayed. The only man I’d ever had as a father figure and he’d let his son abuse me. For what? To keep a crazy wolf alive? Simply because Felix was one ofApa’sblood sons? He had others. Had even put others down in the past. Why had Felix been so different?
I closed my eyes and ground my teeth, trying to yank myself out of the self-pity. Now was not the time. Freedom first. Safety first. Hadn’t I spent the last year in a non-stop battle for just that? Maybe it was time to stop running. Was I ready to face the monster? My stomach roiled again with the thought. Memories of that final beating and rape rose in my head. Faded, but never gone. I rolled instinctively, as if to escape the attack again, and covered my head as though I could push the feelings away.
I hit the floor with a thud, shoulder stinging with the pain. The throbbing in my head intensified for a minute until I thought I’d pass out, then finally subsided enough to allow me to breathe without pain. Tears leaked from my eyes. Not from the memories. I refused to keep crying over what had happened to me. But I lay there for a while, curled up in a ball, listening to the world around me, and crying. I waited for them to come from the noise of my fall. Muffled voices trickled up from below. None moved closer. The smell of death surrounded me.
The stench was close enough to touch. I cried harder. I didn’t have to open my eyes to know my sacrifice had been for nothing. The kindness of giving a child a cookie had stolen his life.
Not my fault.
Living surrounded by monsters had never been my choice. I’d run from them for a year and still been unable to escape. Nicky hadn’t stood a chance.
I opened my eyes, having to see, though I knew it would be something I’d never forget. He looked peaceful. Like he was sleeping. If it hadn’t been for the blood drenching his clothes, I’d have shaken him awake. His face stained with dirt, blood, and streaked with tears, looked so innocent. I lay there a while, lost in sadness, vaguely listening for approaching footsteps and hearing myself breathe.
Only it wasn’t me I was hearing. I frowned and stared at Nicky, watching him intently for the rise and fall of his chest. I couldn’t hear a heartbeat, but he was also several feet away. Though my hearing was better than most humans, it wasn’t as good as any werewolf. Finally, I saw it. A tiny blip of movement. I held my breath until I caught it again. He was alive!
I crawled beneath the bed and wrapped my arms around him. He startled awake instantly, and I covered his mouth with my hand before he could scream. His eyes were wide and terrified.