Page 51 of The Monster of Hotel No. 7
Her entire form is unyielding, as if she is made of stone.
“Yes,” she answers him, her voice broken and slurred with her earlier tears that have quieted now.
My pulse is ricocheting throughout my body. I lean forward, hands clenched, vivid imagery of me twisting and breaking every bone in Stein’s hand playing inside of my head.
“Good girl,” he says to her, a smile curving his lips, and I cannot breathe. “I will meet with your parents after I am done with my son.”
He stops touching her.
He reaches for the flashlight once more.
And the moment before his hand grasps it, the exact second that I see Constance loosen his fist around it,Karia moves.
She snatches it from the air between the two of them and flicks it off, plunging us all into darkness.
“Sullen.”She gasps my name, then I hear her steps.
She is running. Her soft footfalls echo over the cement. The same sound she made when she ranfromme.
But now…she is runningto me.
A shriek leaves her mouth, though, a loud, heart wrenching sound.
“Donotshoot,” Stein says, his voice angry and garbled, and I know it is because of his ascension and her parents that he does not want a stray bullet flying into our bodies in this room.
But I think he has her, from that sound she made.
And he has the sedative.
He has the fucking sedative.
I am already there. I don’t even remember moving, but I am there in the dark, and someone is wrenching at my arms from behind, but I am grabbing Stein’s wrist, the first time in my life I have touched him in this way, shadows of bodies curled around us all.
He must have her in his grip because she makes a jagged, whimpering sound, and I can smell her, feel her shoulder against mine as I press down on his bones.
“You do not want to do this, Sully,” he snarls as he raises his arm, trying to get the needle away from me, and someone is forcefully jerking me backward but I plant my feet and I do not let myself be moved.“Shewill pay for it, if you do.”
There is a loud thud, then she gasps, as if she has been hit, and I know while a guard is on me, there were two more.
Anger is like fire in my veins as her body crashes into mine.
I reach for her, one arm wrapped around her torso as I bite down around Stein’s wrist with my fingertips, as hard as I can, strong arms still attempting to force me away from both him and my princess.
Until they stop.
Until I feel Karia’s body jolt, and she cries out, stiff in my hold.
I think they are jerking at her hair, and Stein is refusing to let go, but then Karia twists herself, pivoting in my grip, and I hear the impact of a flashlight cracking against Stein’s skull.
I know the sound now, since this is the second time I’ve heard it.
A smile twists my lips as I slide my hand up Stein’s wrist, and his fingers splay, dropping the syringe.
I close my hand around it, wanting to drive it into him, but before I can, Karia hits him again.
He staggers back.
There is the thud of something far away, like she threw or dropped the flashlight.
