Page 21 of Rebel Fae
She shook her head.
“What’s wrong?”
Her cracked lips opened. “Blood.”
She needed blood. I’d forgotten. The humans running this place had made it nearly impossible for her to survive and now were slowly killing her through negligence. Well, they were here now and would answer for the atrocity.
As Ronnie and Becca slowly made their way toward the door, I hurried past them and flew out.
Crescent and Dr. Watts were sitting on wooden benches that I hadn’t noticed before. Vaughn had transformed into his human form, had dressed in his guard attire, and stood behind them, looking tired, but alert. Bael stood nearby, unsure, and ill-at-ease. I flew down and landed in front of Dr. Watts.
“Regina is not well. She hasn’t had any blood to drink since she got here, and she’s very weak. We need you to do something.”
Dr. Watts opened his mouth to speak, but Crescent cut him off. “Need us to do something?” She mimicked my words as her blindfolded gaze turned toward me. “It almost sounds like you think you are in charge, Tally.”
I prickled at her words and her tone. She might be worse than Silver Bear, but I still needed to work within the system if I was to please Adaline Habermann and get Arryn out of here.
“Regina needs your help... please,” I said, trying to sound submissive, which made my blood boil. “She needs blood.”
“Vaughn,” she said, gesturing over her shoulder, “we’ve brought some provisions. Can you take the black thermos to Regina and help her drink it?”
It was a demand posed as a question, and Vaughn knew it. Without a word, he went into her bag, found the thermos, and walked with it toward the hut.
“Thank you,” I said.
Dr. Watts smiled, glancing around. “Isn’t this a lovely little clearing? We picked it out just for you.”
“It wasn’t lovely last night,” I said. “There was a monster. Didn’t Vaughn tell you about it?”
Dr. Watts shook his head, frowning in confusion. “A monster, did you say?”
“Yes,” I replied, glancing at Bael who nodded in agreement. “Something chased us into the hut. It had strange... appendages, like ropes or something. It tried to drag us away.”
Dr. Watts continued to appear confused as he turned to Crescent.
Her face remained expressionless. “You seem fine now,” she added.
“Only because we fought it off,” Bael said in his deep baritone.
Crescent shook out her overlong hair. Her black lips pursed as if she were considering something, and then she held up a hand. “May I see what happened?”
“What do you need to see?” I replied.
“May I go into your mind, Tally, and see what happened? Maybe it can enlighten me. Maybe it can help us figure out what to do with this...monster.”
I tensed, not wanting to grant her permission to peek inside my mind. She already knew about the monster. It was how things worked around here. But the pretense was for Bael and Becca and Ronnie, who had just joined us. But then if refused, she might do it anyway, even without my permission. Did I have any choice in the matter? Did I ever get to say no to something on this island without dire consequences?
“Will you… will you only look at what happened last night? Nothing else?”
“Do you have something to hide?” One corner of her mouth tilted upward.
“No. But I don’t think anyone would give you free access to poke around their mind unchecked.”
“Noted,” she said, standing. “Now, hold still.”
Panic grabbed hold of me as she lifted her arms and held them stiffly at her sides. I hadn’t even agreed, not really, but she was already beginning to dig into my cranium. I could feel something nudging at the back of my brain, an unwanted presence creeping in. I suddenly wished to peer into her eyes, wished to rip off her blindfold to see what was behind it.
All at once, I was standing on the path leading up to the hut, but it was no longer day time. Twilight made the trees behind the clearing into tall black shadows as the fire crackled and the smell of stew tingled in my nose. The shrill shriek of the monster echoed around me, distant and thin, like the weak twin of what it had been the night before.
