Page 45 of Kiss the Dawn
ORINA
After the Ministry days, when Nyx, Quinn, and I had been out in the big world, running our own little business, trying to make it work, we’d gone out drinking. A lot. The morning-afters had always been awful, but they’d never deterred us from doing the same thing a few nights later.
Waking up now felt like one of those morning-afters. My head felt like it was twice the size it should be, and I could barely open my eyes without it throbbing.
“Drink this,” Lorenzo said from somewhere close by.
The bed dipped as the jigsaw puzzle that was my memory attempted to organize itself, and the cool rimof a glass touched my lip. I drank, then gagged as a bitter taste filled my mouth.
“Don’t spit it out,” he ordered. “Swallow.”
I did so with a giggle that sounded slightly manic even to my ears.
“Really, Orina?”
“I’m sorry.” My voice was a croak. “What happened?” I should be more panicked at the fact I couldn’t remember, but Lorenzo was here, so I was safe.
“Give it a moment or two,” he said. “Drink some more.”
He fed me the awful concoction, and after a little while, my head started to feel like less of a lead balloon, the incessant throb behind my eyes died, and…Oh. My. God. “They tried to kill me?” My eyes flew wide, and I took in his unshaven face and bloodshot eye whites and…What the fuck? We were back in the RV? “How…when?”
“Late last night, and I carried you.”
“Down the mountain?” My voice rose an octave.
“Yes,” he said.
I had no words. No. That was a lie. I had plenty of words, but they were all jumbled up like my thoughts.
I was strapped to the table. Helpless. Vulnerable. Faced by people who cared nothing for my life. “They injected me with something, and then I saw you, but it wasn’t real. I was dying then…then you came for real.”
Dying.
Helpless.
Trapped.
A fist closed around my heart and squeezed.
“Breathe, Orina. Breathe.” He took the glass from me and rubbed circles on my back, leaning in and enveloping me in his scent. I used it to ground me and stop myself from spiraling into horror. “It’s over. You’re safe. You’re fine. You’re with me.”
This wasn’t me. I didn’t fall apart. I was used to danger. The possibility of death was a given for an Order operative, but being strapped to that table…totally vulnerable with no hope of escape…That moment when I’d known it was over…
I exhaled and pressed back the memory. It was over.
I was safe. “How? How did you do it? They injected me with something.”
“Yes. I was successful in purging the poison from your body. The Circle arrested the witches, and I demanded they open a door for me to bring you home.”
He’d found me in time, and God, I was grateful for that. I wouldn’t think about what would have happened if he hadn’t gotten to me. No. I refused to do that. “Daphne just agreed to let us leave?”
“She had no choice. The attempt on your life broke the contract the Circle had with the consortium. Daphne knew she was on thin ice.”
A shiver raced over my skin, and I pulled the coversup, desperate for heat. “I can’t go back there. I won’t mate with those bastards. Ever.” My stomach trembled, and my teeth threatened to chatter because they still needed me. They needed my immunity because we’d failed in finding a loophole but… “Please don’t make me go back.”
His gaze was hard as stone and as cold as ice, and for a moment, I thought he was going to say that I had no choice, but instead he said, “I willneverlet them have you. They lost that right when they tried totakeyou from me.”
Lorenzo never made empty promises, but the conviction in his words failed to temper my anxiety. “They’ll keep coming after me. They’ll send hunters.”
