My vision doubled, but I was certain I saw a pair of female legs standing in front of me. The woman said, “You really thought you were about to leave, didn’t you?” Beside her stood a werewolf.
It took a second, but my vision fixed itself. I was surprised when I realized the woman standing in front of me was Cora.
“Cora?” I asked, confused.
She shook her head, agitated at my escape attempt, and then knocked me over the head with a large piece of wood. Right before I passed out, I heard her say, “I’m getting better at this knocking people out thing.”
Chapter Thirty-One
MELANIE
“For an immortal being, you sure are easy as fuck to knock out,” Priscilla quipped.
My senses slowly returned to me, and the first thing I felt was the rough material of something restraining my wrists. I was also seated upright in a kitchen chair. “What’s going on…” I mumbled.
“You tried to leave, so I sent Max after you,” Cora said.
“But I made you not say anything…”
“Until you were gone. Looks like it wore off the second you left the hotel.”
“A cute little loophole to your hypnosis,” Daggett observed. “I guess you have to be much more literal in what you tell someone to do.”
I finally peeled open my eyes, and I subtly jumped when I realized all five of them were hovering over me and staring. I then tried to wiggle my arms free, but they were tied down to the chair. “Is this necessary?” I asked.
“You tell us,” Max responded. He was wearing a white undershirt and jeans, which was probably a spare outfit from the one he destroyed coming after me last minute. Random thought, but it looked good on him.
“I can’t believe you would brainwash your own cousin,” Cora snapped.
“I did it to protect you,” I grumbled.
“You did it knowing that it would tear me up inside. How could you?”
“This isn’t about your feelings.”
“No, it’s about yours. Right? Screw the rest of us. Right? If you really don’t care about our feelings or your safety, then at least think about what would happen after you turned yourself over.”
“He was going to spare you. I said that already.”
“What, for five minutes? Until he became so powerful that he's slaughtering dozens of people at a time? We don’t know what his long-term plan is. Letting yourself die for an uncertain future is…well, it’s stupid.”
“He can’t kill everyone on the planet.”
“No, he can just wipe out as many as he wants until he’s left to rule the place. That sounds like a good plan.”
I don’t think I’d ever seen Cora this pissed before. I honestly thought I was doing her a favor by letting her live and getting me out of the way.
I was continually surprised at how much she seemed to genuinely give a shit about me. I hadn’t done anything to earn that level of loyalty.
“What happened to us sticking together through it all?” Cora asked.
“What good is sticking together if that’s what gets us all killed?”
“Nobody is dying,” she snapped.
Cora was getting herself worked up, so much so that Max had to pull her back and calm her down. “Take a breather,” he told her. His hands were on each side of her body, holding her in place and forcing her to relax.
Cora exhaled slowly and whispered, “My heart won’t stop racing. We almost lost her.”
Through the high-pitched voice and the seething face, I knew she still loved me. To experience unconditional love like that was an unexplainable feeling.
Max lowered his hands from Cora and said, “Go downstairs and find something to cut her out of the ropes.”
It didn’t even dawn on me we weren’t downstairs. I had been too preoccupied to notice I was seated next to a bed in someone’s hotel room. It was most likely Cora’s.
“You really think we can trust her?” Cora asked.
“We’re gonna have to.”
Cora exhaled once more and then left the room. I knew Max had sent her away so she could cool off for a minute.
“You almost gave that woman a heart attack,” Max said to me. I felt like I was being scorned by a parent.
“I was trying to do the opposite.”
“I know exactly what you were trying to do, and shit, I’m not gonna fault you for it. But if you come up with some crazy scheme like this, the least you could do was run it by me first.”
“And have you stop me?”
“I’m not Cora. If you want to kill yourself, I won’t stop you, but I would try to talk some sense into you.”
“Which is why I left the way I did.”
“Makes you think you weren’t too sold on the idea, doesn’t it?”
He had me there. It took all of my strength to find the courage to turn myself over. I was scared shitless, and had Max been there to talk me out of it, I would have caved and stayed behind. And then our situation would be stalled.
I knew I was gonna have to wait till they went to sleep and attempt to leave once more. Cora would most likely keep a watchful eye on me all night, but at some point, she would have to rest. Then, I’d make my escape.
I glanced over to the corner of the room and suddenly saw Dana. Her arms were crossed over her chest but with one hand raised over her mouth in thought. Above her curled fingers, her blue eyes glimmered with sadness. She was watching me, but she wasn’t saying a word. She looked…heartbroken. Was that my doing? It was one thing to hurt and disappoint your family, who is used to it and will forgive you no matter what,
