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My mind flashed back into consciousness suddenly and all at once.
Which surprised me, because going by the agonizing ache in my head, I was nursing a nasty concussion. But it was like my body knew it was in danger and the moment all my synapses were firing, it screamed,Wake up!I didn’t feel the fuzzy aftereffects of the injury yet, but I knew I would, and soon, which meant I needed to plan my next escape attempt carefully.
I kept my breathing even and steady, trying to subtly take in my surroundings without alerting anyone that I was awake. The rumbling vibrations echoing through the leather seat I laid on clued me in to the fact that we were moving at what felt like a decent speed in a vehicle.
Each bump we passed over sent a stabbing spike like an ice pick through my temple and despite my best attempts at remaining motionless and silent, a groan worked its way out of my throat when the vehicle clunked over what felt like a pothole the size of a supernova.
“She’s awake,” a voice said, nasally and laced with anxiety.
“Just keep driving, we’re almost there.” The second voice that replied was familiar, and I clocked it as the vampire that had been acting as the quasi leader at the cemetery.
Just as I was about to lift my head, a hand caught a fistful of my locks right at the scalp and jerked my head up from the seat at an uncomfortable angle. I gasped at the sudden pain before biting my lip to silence any more sounds. I had a moment to take in the layout of the vehicle—two bench seats facing each other, occupied by two men sitting opposite me—before the asshole jerked my head again, so hard it felt like my bruised brain rattled against its skull cage.
I was a few wrong movements away from vomiting.
“This nasty bitch would have to be downright stupid to try and escape from a moving car.” His tone was conversational, clearly still talking to Goon Number One, but the words were a direct threat to me.
Too bad threats didn’t work on me.
In fact, they had quite the opposite effect. They boiled under my skin like lava and made me reckless.
I was bruised and battered and concussed, but I refused to be delivered to Eoin like a blood bag on a silver platter.
Yes, I had an unconventional childhood growing up, but my father taught me important lessons.
Never be outside alone when the sun goes down.
And should I ever be taken, to never, under any circumstances, let someone take me to a second location. Because if they wanted to kill you? They’d have done it at the first location. If they kidnap you, they want to do more than just kill you.
And my brain was tripping over the more.
I didn’t want to know whatmorefor the Abhartach consisted of. So, I threw caution—and possibly my life—to the wind and as fast as I could, I lunged for the door handle and was shoving my full body weight against the door, waiting for it to open.
But the door didn’t budge.
I jerked the handle, over and over, uselessly, futilely. Over the roaring in my head, I could hear the goon squad chuckling it up over my failed escape attempt, and I screamed out my frustration. Rage burbled within me, boiling over until I exploded.
Instead of lunging directly for the men, I leaned back in my seat, bracing my weight against the seat back as I kicked out a leg. My shoe struck Goon Two in the face, blood spraying in an arc across the seats as his nose exploded. He let out a keen that was animalistic before he started screaming.
“Bitch! You bitch! You fucking whore!” His words were distorted, thick and wet from the blood running down the back of his throat.
Goon One was reaching for me but I wasn’t waiting for his hands to grab me. I began pummeling him, using the considerable strength of my legs to beat him back, just stomping the fuck out of him. They hadn’t thought to unclip my heels from my feet, so the stiletto tip was doing damage everywhere it landed. I wasn’t aiming for sensitive spots—just trying to do as much damage as I could before I passed out again.
Because I could feel myself waning. Nausea roiled in my gut. My vision teetered, wobbling for a moment, causing me to see double, before rightening again.
The goons didn’t even have to worry about knocking me out this time, I thought. Because I’d overexerted my worn-out body.
Bad decision,I scolded myself as my legs went limp and I wilted back into the seat gracelessly. Darkness was leaking into my line of sight.Should’ve saved my strength.
The last thing I saw was the sneering face of vampire Goon One before I fell back into the blissful blackness of unconsciousness.
Eoin
chapter Two
My tongue picked at the edge of my teeth as Declan and I rode in silence in the opposite direction of Ottavia and my men. I would have preferred to accompany her to my residence myself, but as it was, I had business to attend to. There was an unspoken tension that clung in the air, one that had been brewing since the death of the future La Rosa Don, one that couldn’t be ignored any longer. Not even at the expense of the feisty La Rosa woman who I was positive was currently cursing my name.
Which was why Declan and I pulled into the dirt parking lot of the west side of the Wastes’s outpost instead of my estate. The smell of rot and musty clothing greeted me unpleasantly as we opened our SUV doors in unison, gravel crunched below my heel as I momentarily met Declan’s gaze wordlessly over the top. His lip twitched as the doors shut, the slight wrinkle of his nose betrayed his own disgust despite how he’d tried to hide it.
