Page 106 of Cruel Destinies

Shea

I groaned, lifting a hand to my pounding head. Everything was fuzzy. I wanted to roll over and go back to sleep, but the surface beneath me was hard and unforgiving. Frowning, I sent a hand out to feel around. Towel. I was on a towel on the floor, and as I cracked my eyes open, the room that came into view was the last place I expected—Julian’s living room.

I sucked in a breath as I bolted upright but groaned again as the room began to spin. My stomach did flip-flops, and I pressed my hand against the towel, trying to gain my bearings.

“Shea?” Julian was kneeling next to me in the next blink, smoothing back my hair.

I leaned into his touch, focusing on the gentle, comforting sensation to ground myself against the nausea.

“What happened?” I croaked. I cleared my throat, then swallowed.

“What do you remember?” That was Caesar’s voice. I hadn’t seen him standing nearby, but he came to sit beside me on the floor, his hand finding mine and flooding me with a much-needed warmth.

“I—”I what?

I’d come to Chicago to deliver presents. And afterward, I’d run into Adam... Had he roofied me? But no, I was with Julian and Caesar, not Adam. Wait, JulianandCaesar? Together?

The jackhammer digging at my brain made it hard to think, and I wanted to close my eyes again and slip into blissful sleep.

“Caesar, get her some water,” Julian said.

I looked between the two men in confusion. Caesar frowned, seeming reluctant to leave my side for even a moment, but finally, he let go of my hand and rose, disappearing into the kitchen.

I distantly heard the rush of water from the faucet, the sound only amplifying thewhooshin my ears.

Caesar returned with a glass of water, and only then did I realize how desperately thirsty I was. I licked my cracked lips, eyeing the glass as he handed it to me, and then greedily guzzled the entire thing. The cool liquid was a balm to my dry throat, even if the weight of it filling my belly did make my stomach knot with discomfort.

“How are you feeling?” Caesar asked, rubbing a hand up and down my back as I swallowed the last gulp.

I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, closing my eyes to steel myself against the continuing spinning in my head.

“Confused. Am I hungover? What’s going on?”

An ache lanced my neck, and I clamped my hand over the spot, my palm meeting a raised scar.

Why is there—?The vampire.

The memory of the attack crashed through my mind and rattled my nerves—the glowing red eyes, the sharp pain in myneck, the animal desire that spread into me from the bite. Cold fear washed over me, and my eyes darted around the apartment. “Where is—?”

“He’s dead,” Julian said, rushing his hands to either side of my face and rubbing his thumbs over my cheeks. “He won’t hurt you ever again.”

My eyes darted back and forth, roaming blindly in my attempt to recall everything, until they landed on the body lying on the floor a few feet from us. Panic shot through me, draining all the blood from my face as recognition slammed into me.

Instinctively, I curled up my knees to scramble backward, and Caesar wrapped his arms around me, tucking me into his arms and cradling me protectively against his chest.

“It’s okay, baby,” Caesar cooed, rocking me against him. “Like Julian said, he’s dead.”

“But how did—why is—when did—?” I couldn’t manage to form my words into the questions I so desperately needed answers to.

I felt Caesar nod against the top of my head, and his strong arms tightened around me. “I came as soon as I got your text. When I found you, you were lying on the ground in an alley. The vampire that attacked you was peeling himself off the wall above you, as if he’d been glued there.”

“That’s right,” I said, still staring at the corpse over the sleeve of Caesar’s sweater. “I cast an entrapment spell as he was…” I couldn’t finish the sentence. We all knew what that monster had been doing to me.

I felt Caesar nod again. “He ran off before I could stop him, and I knew I should’ve gone after him, but you were bleeding out and whimpering, and I just couldn’t leave you. I needed to get you help immediately. I couldn’t take you back to the Dome. It wouldn’t be fast enough. You’d lost too much blood. So I called Julian.”

“And I didn’t answer because your attacker decided to come here and start a fight,” Julian explained. “A fight which I finished.”

“So I brought you here anyway,” Caesar continued. “Julian healed you and replenished the blood you had lost.”

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