Page 96 of Savage Don

“You two seemed awfully chummy for strangers.” Sonia’s dark brown eyes are blazing. But I don’t dare look away. You can’t take your eyes off of someone as dangerous as her.

“I think you might have just seen what you wanted to see,” I say, remembering how pissed off and exhausted I was that day.

“And what do you think I was looking for?” Sonia teases.

“Don’t ask me what happens in that twisted mind of yours.”

To my surprise, Sonia laughs.

Fuck. She cackles like an evil witch and my fingers tighten back around the fork I have hidden behind my back.

“You’re more like your mother than you could ever know,” she says, her laugh stopping all of a sudden as she glares down at me.

This is a test, I know it. She wants me to break and do something stupid. But no matter how much I see past her little game, there’s nothing I can do to stop myself from reacting.

The fork is out of my hand and flying towards her before I can even blink. It connects with Sonia’s forehead just as the fire inside of me reaches its peak.

“Don’t you ever talk about my mother!” I cry, my voice breaking with anger and sorrow.

“You bitch!” Sonia curses, bending over as she grabs her forehead.

The second I see the blood dripping through her fingers, the rage and the sadness drop from my heart, replaced by pure dread.

She’s won.

The bitch got me to break. Now, she has an excuse to do whatever she wants with me.

“I’m… you…” I stammer, unable to steady myself as the world spins around me.

Standing back up straight, Sonia reveals her new vampire facial to me. If I thought she looked terrifying before, it’s nothing compared to how she looks now.

Dark red blood drips from a gash in her forehead, running down the ridge of her brows, framing those flaming brown eyes.

“You’ll pay for that,” she hisses. But she doesn’t come after me. Instead, she turns on her heels and marches towards the door. “We’ll see how much you can hide when someone is always watching you.”

Ripping my bedroom door open, she bursts into the hallway and calls for the guards. They hardly arrive outside of my bedroom before Sonia orders them to tear down my door and take it away.

“Ma’am, are you alright?” One of them asks, startled by her bloody face.

“Do as I say!” she yells, before looking back over her shoulder at me. “I’ll see you first thing in the morning, princess,” she sneers. “Don’t think your father can stop me.”

With that, she finally scurries away, leaving a trail of blood in her wake.

There’s nothing I can do but stand there as the guards take a second to process what they just saw and heard. It doesn’t take them long. Worse has happened in this house before.

They’re already taking down my door by the time I even think to stop them. Not that there’s any point. Sonia is right. I have no power here.

Still, to have it shoved in my face like this hurts worse than anything she’s ever done before.

My chest aches as I slip down my bedroom wall and curl up on the floor. Inside, I feel empty.

No rage. No sorrow. There’s hardly even any dread weighing me down.

I’m nothing, and I feel nothing.

Nothing except the noose wrapping around my neck.

There will be no escape tonight.