Page 15 of Too Cursed To Kiss
“Untie me and get these off me,” I ordered, shaking thehair out of my face and looking up at my reflection in his sunglasses.
“Another twen?—”
“Twenty minutes,” I finished for him. “What the hell did your girlfriend do to me?” I nodded at the bathroom door. “Give it to me straight. Am I dying? Am I going to be a vampire now? Or some serpent thing?” I narrowed my eyes for effect.
His lips curled with amusement. “No, you’re not dying, and there are no vampires. The bite was to counteract the poison. It did not have the effect I expected. I apologize for that. It should work properly now.”
“What, your girlfriend sinking her teeth into me fixed it?”
He shook his head. “Britannia is not my girlfriend.”
The tension in my shoulders melted away. Great. Not his girlfriend. Plus, his tight expression said he wasn’t fond of her. We had something in common. “Let me guess. You can’t touch me again, right?” I asked as he approached.
“It wouldn’t be a good idea, no. How do your hands feel?” he asked, nodding at them.
“Numb,” I replied. I couldn’t move my fingers much.
“Not sore?”
“I don’t think so. How about you take these gloves off me, and we can find out?”
“Good, then the salve is working. You should not hit things.” His lips quivered like he was suppressing a laugh.
“Says the man with the biting… Britannia. Who is she?”
He paused, his bottom lip twitched. “Jealousy is unexpected. Endearing.”
“Arrogant much? I’d have to not despise the ground you walk on first.”
“She is my sister. I will return.”
“Another sister? Don’t you dare leave me,” I said hoarsely. “Water. I need water.”
Wald turned his head toward the bathroom. I blinked, and he was gone. I closed my eyes, sure this was all some horrible dream. When I opened them, he was back with a glass of water and a stainless-steel straw.
“Here, drink, but take it slow.” His S’s bristled like a cheap makeup brush. He angled the straw, and I puckered around the cold metal. His gaze focused on my slow, careful sips, and I was too aware of how he was watching. I wanted to chug it just to break the moment.
Glass shattering turned my bones to ice, and I snarfed water.
Wald whipped around and set the glass on the side table as I coughed up a lung. “Silence—and don’t move.” He blurred slightly before virtually disappearing. Still choking, I cowered against the headboard as a shower of white glass skittered across the bedroom floor.
The shower stall had clear panels, but the bathroom skylight was frosted. My heart battered my ribs. Boots thudded in the bathroom. I couldn’t see them from the bed, but it was more than one person, and Wald had been scared of them. Guttural growls etched my ears, like a SWAT team taking on wild animals.
I smothered sobs as crunching glass and wall-shaking thuds were added to the grunts and snarls. Picking the door lock would take hours, and the windows couldn’t be shattered. Without an axe, going through a wall wasn’t happening. Folding into a ball against the headboard, I prayed for something other than death and that Wald had won. Another crash was followed by a second showering of glass in the hall. That would be the shower stall. Then a loud thud,followed by more shattering. Sink and mirror? China smashing. Toilet?
I bit my tongue as the sounds stopped. The silence deafened.
Oh my God. What if the boots now crunching over the glass wasn’t Wald?
With one hand cuffed, I put as much of my body under the bed as I could. Every hair on my body stood up as the thud of the boots approached.
The boot person grabbed my gloved hand that was tied to the bed. I yelped.
“We must go.” Wald’s hot, smooth voice sent ripples of relief through me as he cut the string. His face was raw with bruises and bashes. A cut over one eye dripped blood over the sunglasses rim. It was red. Somehow that soothed me, but every cell of my body wanted to peek into the bathroom. “You’re hurt.”
Wald didn’t wait for me to crawl out, effortlessly dragging my body from under the bed. He set me upright and pushed me toward the door. “Now.”
“What happened? Who was that? Are they still alive?” I asked, taking a step toward the bathroom.
