Page 63 of The Witch's Heart
Behave.
Doesn't matter.
Disobey and pay.
Obey and die.
My breathing is labored as I try to resist the pull of my magic and deny myself the god-awful need to punish the man who stands before us, gloating in his own evil narcissism.
Nurse Schmidt and Sir seem to recover first and begin escorting people from the room rapidly.
Cutter laughs and takes another bite of Maria's heart. My stomach roils at the sight of it.
I envision all the things I want to do to him right now, but I cannot act on any of it, not without condemning myself, my sister, and the men I care about to certain death.
As he consumes what's left of the heart, Cutter's body shudders, and power rips through him, stretching his muscles and bones until he seems to loom taller and larger than ever before. His eyes glow red for a flash before fading back to their normal gray. I blink, thinking maybe I imagined what I just saw. He seems normal now, but I know he's not.
Within him, something is growing.
Something dark and powerful.
Something I will have to stop before all of this is over.
Dr. Livingstone grips my arm so hard I expect a bruise by tomorrow, but I'm not upset. Not at that. He's barely hanging onto his own control, just as I am.
"We need to get out of here," I say, tugging at his hand, while my other drops to the wolves by my side.
I spare one more glance at Maria before turning sharply on my heel and forcing myself to walk out of the hall, two wolves and a pissed off vampire at my side.
We head straight to my room, Dr. Livingstone joining us, closing the door solidly behind himself once the four of us are all safely within.
"I can't stay long," the doctor says, his fangs still prominent. "I have to feed." He glances away, ashamed of his urges.
"How?" I ask. It's something I've wondered about for some time.
"There are blood bags," he says, but I can tell by the tone of his voice it's not enough. Not tonight. Not after that trigger.
I glance at the brothers, who are still in wolf form. They will protect me if what I'm about to do turns out to be a stupid decision.
I step forward and tilt my neck. "Feed on me," I whisper, my throat suddenly dry.
Dr. Livingstone steps back, bumping into our door, and Dean and Declan step forward, growling menacingly.
I eye the wolves. "You two, stop. He stood ready to protect me tonight. He's not going to hurt me. If he does, you can step in, but only if he truly does, got it?"
The two whine but dip their heads just enough to let me know they understand, though they're not happy about it.
The vampire apparently needs more convincing.
"You won't hurt me," I say, edging closer to where he stands with his back against the door. It’s ironic, how much he looks like my prisoner now. "And if we have any chance of going up against that asshole out there and winning, we need to be at our strongest, and we need to stay united."
“I don’t deserve your help,” he says quietly.
“Let me save you from yourself,” I tell him, repeating the words he used on me that first day.
Behind me, the wolves are restless.
I make eye contact with each of them. "We are a pack now," I say. "We won't survive without each other." I have no idea how the twins will feel about me including the doctor in our pack, but I feel the truth of the words as I say them. He’s part of us, for better or for worse.
