Page 110 of Craving Venom

Then, with the last bit of control I have left, I let myself drop.

The back of my skull smacks against the floor.

Pain shreds through me but I don’t fight it. I just let my body convulse. The static in my brain spreads, the sounds around me turning into distant, muffled echoes. But I still hear the guards storming in.

“Fuck, get medical!”

“He’s seizing, move, move!”

A fist slams into my chest.

I don’t respond.

I feel more hands on me, pressing against my throat, my wrists, checking for my pulse, something that barely fucking exists right now. Fingers pry my mouth open, yanking the soaked fabric from my cheeks. I groan and that single sound sends the guards into a frenzy.

“He’s still breathing, get the stretcher!”

Voices blur together, frantic shouts melding into one. My stomach clenches as hands roll me onto my side, pressing hard against my ribs. More hands shove a pen between my teeth, keeping my mouth open in case I start choking, but even as my body fights for air, even as the edges of my mind fray, I don’t care if I die.

If that’s what it takes to get one look at her?

I fucking will.

My brain registers a few muffled sounds.

That’s good. At least I’m not dead.

I let the noise filter in, slowly picking apart voices, tones, urgency.

“…Stable, but weak. His vitals are still fluctuating, and his body hasn’t fully metabolized the drugs yet,” a clinical voice says. A doctor. “He needs at least three days of monitored care before we can even think about moving him.”

“What drugs?”

“I don’t know yet,” he admits. “We need to run a toxicology report and wait for the forensics team to analyze what’s in his system.”

“Are you saying he could’ve gotten his hands on anything? What if it was a goddamn poison? What if someone helped him?”

The first guard swears under his breath. “Fucking great. Just what we need, a high-profile inmate overdosing in our custody.”

“We don’t even know if it was an overdose,” the doctor replies. “It could have been laced—”

“It could have been an escape attempt,” Guard no. 2 cuts in.

“Look, I get it,” the doctor says, sighing. “You’re on high alert because of who he is. But right now, he’s not going anywhere.”

Guard no. 1 scoffs. “Yeah? You sure about that?”

“As sure as I can be,” the doctor replies flatly. “His vitals aren’t strong enough for him to be up and walking around. Right now, all you need to worry about is letting him recover.”

Then, from outside the room I hear a loud clatter.

“The fuck was that?” Guard no. 1 barks.

“Go check it out.”

“We’ve got movement near the west entrance. Possible breach.” Guard no. 1 confirms.

“This is exactly why he needs medical observation. You’re all so fucking paranoid that you’re jumping at every sound.”

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