Chapter Nine
Feralyn
The buzzing happened again.
Oh my God, who was making that sound?
So tired I wanted to cry, feeling like someone was rattling my brain around inside my skull, I tried to open my eyes, but I didn’t want to. If Ares was making all the racket, I was going to….
Ares.
Text me when you get home.
Oh God.
Home.
Drive safe.
The accident.
The 4Runner.
I sucked in a wet breath and opened my eyes to darkness.
It came back all at once.
The accident, the cloth over my head, being dragged from the SUV. Suddenly frantic, I reached for my face, but my hands didn’t move, and pain shot up my arms.
Shit, shit, shit.
Don’t panic. That’s what Helios had always said, right? Don’t cry. Don’t panic. I sucked in another breath, flexed my feet, fisted my hands, and shook my head. Sharp pain radiated from the side of my face, and I was choking. Oh God, I was choking.
A male voice said something in another language. Throaty, guttural, the consonants harsh and angry.
“Is she now?” another male voice crooned. “Let’s see, shall we?”
The fabric choking my breaths was ripped off my head, and I was jerked upright.
I blinked once, and a hand shot out.
The slap cracked across my face with such force, I fell back to the floor, hitting the concrete with the other side of my head.
Blood filled my mouth, wrenching pain exploded from my jaw, and my cheek burned. My hands were cuffed behind my back, and I had no way to fight back, but I didn’t scream.
I didn’t even make a sound.
I looked up.
Evil looked down at me. Dark eyes full of violence, twisted mouth curling up with sick humor, the black-haired man with a scar running from his bottom lip to his chin raised an eyebrow at me. “What have we here?”
I didn’t move.
“The little sister,” he drew out, chuckling. “Looks like she is tough like her brother, no?”
Dread pooled in my stomach, and in that moment, I knew.
I was dead.
Ares was deployed. Helios was who knew where, and my father was in Costa Rica. I was alone, and I was going to die at the hands of this man, whoever he was.
In the next breath, I realized what he’d said.
Brother. Not stepbrothers.
Oh God.