Chapter 93

Francium cursed. I dropped the phone, putting my hands up to stop her. I kneed her in the stomach and shoved her back. She snarled at me and lunged back at me. Her eyes were filled with light and maddened, glinting in the far. Francium was screaming at her. I couldn’t make out the words. I could smell him bleeding, but his blood smelled nothing like mine. Then I could barely smell my own blood. My senses were going haywire. She grabbed me, trying to force my head aside as she reached with her tongue towards the open wound in my shoulder. I shuddered as I felt her panting over the wound like a beast.

This wasn’t Claire. This wasn’t my best friend, but she was in there somewhere, wasn’t she?

I could barely hear Armageddon through the speaker. The car jumped again, bouncing her off me and me onto the floor. I was trapped in the small space, but it gave me enough space to kick Claire a little harder. She flew back and snarled as she landed against the door. I kicked again when she lunged forward, a little harder, then again until the glass cracked and the door dented outward.

Her eyes rolled back, and she slumped aside onto the seats. I didn’t know what that meant, but I sucked in air and tried to keep the world from spinning any faster. My heart was beating so hard my chest hurt.

“Fuck,” Francium cursed.

Her eyes rolled weakly. I smelled her bleeding. I could see the blood running down her neck.

“Knock her out,” Francium said. “A solid punch should do it.”

I wiggled out of the space between the seat and got up. She lifted her head, baring her fangs and I punched her as hard as I could. Her neck or jaw cracked. Her head turned sharply, and her body went limp. She wasn’t even breathing.

My heart lurched. “Oh, goddess, did I kill her?”

I didn’t think I could deal with that kind of guilt. I felt sick at the thought of it.

“No,” Francium said. “Don’t panic. Focus. You only have a little time. Let down the back seat and get Claire into the trunk.”

“The trunk?”

“Hurry!”

I heard something crackling. Claire’s head jerked back into the right angle. I jerked back, startled by the movement. I thought back to Candido telling the forces to separate that vampire’s head from his body for an hour and shuddered. I pulled the lever that let down the seat and pushed and shoved Claire’s body into the trunk. She was heavier than I thought, or I was just weaker. I felt my arms and my whole body shaking with the effort it took to her into the back seat. The scent of blood was stronger back there and made my stomach turn. I didn’t smell any scents that made me think he’d been transporting dead bodies, but it definitely smelled like blood had been spilled back there.

“Use the hooks in the trunk and above you. There are restraints back there.” Francium said. “Be quick about it!”

I slumped against the trunk door as my stomach heaved. I didn’t feel good. There were so many sensations that I just couldn’t make sense of or push away. My hands slipped and slid across the bottom of the trunk and along the sides, searching for some sort of tab or handle that would open a compartment. Then, I found the tab at the edge of the trunk. I pulled it up and grunted at the small compartment. The chains were dark and looked pretty short. The manacles were made of the same material and thick.

I felt myself slumping at the thought of how heavy they had to be.

“What are they made of?”

“Get them on her first.”

“Will they hurt her?”

“If you don’t get them on her, now, she’s going to hurt you!” Francium yelled as we went over another rough bump, jostling us. Claire groaned softly. “Now, hurry up!”

I didn’t remember him ever being so forceful. I wasn’t sure that I liked it either, but I believed him. fastened them around her wrists and ankles before attaching them to the loops around the trunk. Her arms wouldn’t be able to move far, neither would her feet, but she wasn’t completely restricted. If anything, she seemed to be pretty comfy.

“Grab a pack of blood from the same compartment, put a straw in it, and put into the holder by her head.”

I grimaced as I found the compartment. The pack was huge, at least a liter. It was slightly warm, like it was fresh. There were other bags, but none of them were marked. Did vampires have a preference for the type of blood they got, or did it matter? My stomach lurched as I found one of the long straws he mentioned and put it into the bag. I curled it slightly so it fit into the holder near her head. The straw leaned towards her. I could barely smell the blood as it started to come up the straw.

“Now what?”

“Get from back there and put up the seat.”

I looked back at her one last time before climbing back into the back seat. I put the seat back up as we went over another sharp hill and down into a dip. The blood came up the straw and dripped onto her arm. I swallowed as her brow furrowed and she turned towards it.

“Are you going to tell me what those restraints are made of?”

“Bloodstone and silver.”

My heart lurched. “Silver? She could—”

“It’s coated, it doesn’t hurt, it just keeps her restrained,” Francium said and cleared his throat.

I picked up my phone and found that Armageddon was still there.

“Are you all right?” He asked.

“I’m okay.” I looked at Francium. “Claire told me that she smelled blood in your car. That you were acting strange. I told her to stay away from you.”

His lips twitched. “Are you asking me why my mate didn’t listen to you or stating facts?”

I growled at him. “You killed her.”

“I didn’t kill her,” he said stiffly. “We’ll get into that some other time. How is she looking? Pale? Is she moving at all?”

I looked back and shook my head. She was still slumped in the restraints. She let out a little sound every time she was jostled, but she didn’t move other than little twitches of her face.

“Not really. Should she be?”

“No,” he said. “It’s taking her a bit longer to come out of it. She’s fine.”

“The vampire gives you pills, what do they do?”

“… fight silver poisoning.”

My eyes widened. “What?”

“As I said before, not everything is cut and dry, Hedy. The people of New Moon, the real descendants of the pack, have issues with both sides. Vampires and werewolves haven’t done much for us. I… was approached before I ever met my mother, my real mother. I knew that my stepmother wasn’t my real mother. She’d told me enough. But I was already in too deep when I learned the truth,” he swallowed. “I thought the pills… increased my strength, like it did others, but it was far more complicated for me.”

He coughed again, choking a bit. I thought back to the coughing fit he had at school.

“Damian is the fourth prince,” he said. “He has a different agenda from his brothers.”

My stomach plummeted. “There are four of them?”

“There are eight,” Francium said. “They’re all powerful, but Damian’s… cunning. He’s not quite leading the vampires, but he is leading the downfall of werewolves.”

He shook his head. “My mom says it’s a long-standing power battle on that side. They don’t have anything like an alpha king or a clear line of succession since their king was killed.”

I swallowed. “You still betrayed werewolves.”

He scoffed. “Don’t get on your high horse—”

“I—”

“You left your pack,” he said. “Because you could. Me leaving mine wasn’t an option.”

I frowned. “What are you saying?”

“… how else can someone poison you if you aren’t around them all the time?”

My stomach lurched and then I heard Claire moaning.

I turned around. “Claire? Are you okay?”

She groaned. Then I heard the greedy pulls of her mouth on the straw. I shuddered as I peeked over the edge of the seat. She was drinking from the large bag of blood greedily. I shuddered. When it was empty, she panted and shuddered before looking up at me.

“Claire?” I asked tentatively.

She blinked and her eyes watered. “H-Hedy? Did I—I didn’t.”

“I’m fine,” I said. “I’m okay. Did you… know about the pills?”

Claire frowned. “What about them?”

“Did you tell him that I had been poisoned?”

Claire’s eyes widened. She shook her head. “Of course not, I—”

The glass of the back window shattered and burning heat ripped through my shoulder. My stomach lurched as the pain surged through me.