I Am the Wild (The Night Firm #1)- Karpov Kinrade Page 0,25

We'll handle Liam."

Sebastian grunts and we begin to move. My body is limp, like carrying noodles, but Sebastian doesn't seem to have any trouble managing it.

He takes me to a room with a fire and lays me on a bed. It's not my room or my bed, but I'm too out of it to care.

I feel his hands on my body, on my neck. Water, something cold, then something that stings. Then his wrist is at my mouth, and he forces thick, viscous liquid down my throat. I gag and try to spit it out but he doesn't let me.

"Drink. You need this. Trust me. Drink."

My eyes flicker open and closed, the world swirling in a confusing array of light and color.

A cool cloth on my forehead.

A gentle hand brushing away my hair from my face.

A body next to mine in the bed.

"It's not you I'm always angry at," I hear, as my mind drifts away and my thoughts scatter into dreams.

The Night Brothers

I am a forest, and a night of dark trees: but he who is not afraid of my darkness, will find banks full of roses under my cypresses.

~ Friedrich Nietzsche

"She needs to learn. Do you think he will be as gentle if she mocks him the way she mocked us?"

The voice wakes me from my sleep, but I don't stir or open my eyes. I don't want anyone to know I'm conscious. I hope to glean more feigning sleep than I've managed to learn thus far while awake. Though pieces of the mystery are starting to fall into place, I still can't make sense of any of it. Nothing I've experienced with this family makes sense, actually.

"She wasn't mocking." That's Derek. I appreciate how he always defends me. He seems to be the only one really on my side since I was interviewed and subsequently hired to this job I'm beginning to regret.

There's a deep ache in my neck, and my brain is still trying to put it all together in a way that doesn't make me sound crazy.

"It's to be expected," Derek continues, "that she would have trouble embracing the truth immediately. We have to give her time, not attack her and make her fear us. You nearly killed her!"

"That's nonsense," says the first voice. Liam.

Flashes penetrate the fog in my brain and cut through the pain in my throat.

Liam, his teeth unnaturally long.

Liam pinning me against the wall with superhuman strength.

Liam's teeth sinking into my neck.

Blood.

I feel nauseous and quickly sit up, afraid of choking should I vomit. I see a water basin on the dresser by the bedside and grab it, leaning over it to retch, though there's little in my stomach to empty. Still, my body convulses, and I feel bad for whoever has to deal with my mess.

My head spins, my throat burns and aches, like my muscles are tearing, and I close my eyes, moaning in pain as the hell continues.

Cool hands touch my face, and I open my eyes to find Sebastian standing beside the bed.

"Eve," he says, gently, but I recoil from his touch, scrambling away from him until I'm pushed up against the headboard, as far from him as I can get without leaving the bed.

"Don't touch me!" I tell him, the memories of what Liam did to me still fresh in my mind. Layered over other memories of abuse. Pain. Betrayal.

I glance toward the door, wondering if I can cross the distance to it before Sebastian can catch me, and he seems to read my mind.

"It's okay, Eve. I'm not going to hurt you."

"Right," I tell him, as anger slowly begins to replace my fear. "And you expect me to believe that after what Liam did to me?"

He frowns. "I am not Liam."

"No, but you're a vampire just like he is!" I respond hotly, realizing even as I say it that I’ve given a name to the elephant in the room.

There's no denying the truth of my statement and, thankfully, he doesn’t try. It would just have been embarrassing for him if he had.

He sighs and mentally seems to be counting to ten. Then, "What Liam did was wrong, and I apologize for it. It shouldn't have happened. I've brought you something to help with the...after effects." He hands me a glass of something purple and fizzy. "Drink this. You'll thank me."

I pause. “Why should I trust you?”

“Because I only wish to help.”

Carefully, I take the drink and sniff at the contents. The sweet smell has me