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Chapter Twenty-Five
Skylar
Everything hurt. I felt like I’d been used as a punching bag. A pounding headache throbbed behind my eyes. I knew once I opened them, I’d be facing whatever the hell had caused me to feel this shitty in the first place.
The scent of sage and antiseptic filled my nostrils and everything came back to me. I opened my eyes, the light making me instantly regret it. Squinting, I let myself adjust a moment before opening wider.
The ceiling looked familiar. I’d spent enough time searching for shapes within the dots of the ancient popcorn plaster. It was graying with age and meant I could only be in one place. As if the smell hadn’t given it away.
With a groan, I sat up and looked around Shelly’s familiar infirmary-kitchen. “Shelly?” My voice came out in a croak and a searing pain on my neck made me hiss.
Okay, so the memory of Queen Marcella nearly killing me was real.Fuck.What had happened after that? I’d survived but how? And where were my mates?
“Hello?” I risked speaking again and winced at the pain.
“You probably shouldn’t be talking yet,” a voice said. “I have no idea how you survived that. There was so much blood.”
I shifted, turning my whole body instead of just my neck. The assassin was sitting in a chair in the corner. She was in a sports bra and had bandages wrapped around her chest and stomach.
My pulse raced and my first instinct was to flee. Or punch her in the face. Either would work. But I noticed that she was unarmed and made no sign of moving in the slightest.
And there was the whole thing about me being passed out in the same room with her. Why would she let me sleep if she was going to do something threatening?
“You look nearly recovered.” Speaking was getting easier with each word.
“They tell me I had a protection spell,” she said. “They also tell me you tried to roast me alive. So thanks for that.”
“You tried to kill my mates. You nearly succeeded once, too,” I said.
“Well, I can’t really blame you for trying to kill me, then,” she said. “They called you Skylar. That’s your name?”
“Yes.” I narrowed my eyes at her. This whole conversation was extremely odd. Why the fuck was she sitting here making small talk? As if we hadn’t both tried to kill each other?
“I’m Madison,” she said. “At least that’s what my ID says. I don’t really remember.”
“I’m confused,” I said.
She laughed. “You and me both.”
“You don’t know your name?” I asked.
“Shelly told me they compelled me. I guess I’ve been working for vampires for the last five years. I didn’t even know vampires were real. I thought I was having a nightmare but as soon as Shelly removed the protection spell, I could feel everything. Nightmares don’t hurt like that.” She shrugged.
I blinked at her while I processed everything. She had no idea what she’d been doing for the last five years. That meant regular sessions of vampires applying compulsion. There was no telling what else they put her through.
“I’m so sorry I tried to kill you,” I said.
“Honestly, now that I’m hearing about the things I did, I’m starting to wonder if you should have killed me. If I’ve been going around hunting people…” she shuddered.
“That wasn’t your fault,” I said.
“You two have met,” Shelly said as she swept into the room.
“Shelly, thank you,” I said.
She stopped in front of me, bright red covered lips pursed as she took me in. Her hands were on her hips. “You were supposed to leave me out of this.”
“I know,” I said.
