Jagged Embrace

Chapter 54 - Maeve

Maeve's eyes slowly opened. She was cold. Turning her head, she found that Will wasn't in his usual spot behind her. Confused, she pushed up with her arms and peered around. Her vision was still blurred, but he was sitting in a chair, naked, and staring at her.

"Will?" Her mind was still muddled and her body was caught between feeling amazing and in pain. She smoothed her hair back. Ouch, her shoulder hurt. Her eyes flicked to her shoulder and saw Will's teeth marks imprinted there, covered in dried blood. Heat rushed to her cheeks when everything she'd done flooded back to her. What was wrong with her? Why had she acted that way?

Will said nothing, just stared at her with a crease between his brows.

"Are you okay?" Her fingers trembled in her hair before she reached for her necklace. As her eyes moved over him, she noticed the fresh wounds on his chest and arms, but didn't understand where they'd come from. Her throat constricted and made it hard to swallow.

He laughed, but it was twisted and wrong. "You're asking me if I'm fucking okay?"

She gripped her pink flower necklace tighter, not sure how to respond, and pulled her teeth over her bottom lip. Ouch. Her fingers released the flower and raised to her lips. Oh god. Maeve swallowed and tried to think of a way she could talk to Will and not trigger him.

"I just meant you're hurt and-" she began calmly.

He bolted out of the seat and was in the bed with her before she caught her breath. His fingers dug into her chin. "I'm hurt? I'm fucking hurt?" His voice sounded raw. The grey in his eyes shifted from dark to light and then back to gunmetal.

As she peered at him, she recognized the madness, how on edge he was. She had to bring Will back to her. Her fingers jumped as she raised them to his temple and slid them to his neck. He let go of her chin and averted his eyes.

"Everything's okay," she whispered.

"No, it's not!" he snapped and brought his hard gaze back to her. "Look at what I fucking did to you." He turned away and swallowed.

"It's not that bad."

At her words, he hauled her off the bed, drug her into the bathroom and flicked on the lights as they entered. Maeve tried to keep her expression from changing, but wasn't successful.

It would be a lie to say her own image didn't disturb her. Swollen bloody lips, dark bruises on her thighs and throat. The teeth marks on her thighs, breast and shoulder made her pause. The bite on her shoulder was the worst. It hadn't clotted over yet. Not bleeding, but still open. It appeared deeper than the others.

Her view drifted to Will and found his lips were also swollen and bloody. It was then she remembered she'd bitten him, too. She'd never bitten another person in her life. Why had she done that?

Her eyes flicked to his in the mirror. The self hatred she found reflected there gutted her. A hazy image from her soul touch clawed at her memory. The blonde girl when he was fourteen, her bleeding shoulder. No, she wouldn't let him do that to himself.

The longer Maeve was awake, the more she understood she'd unintentionally, or maybe intentionally, brought that out in him. She'd wanted him to lose control because she wanted his uncontrolled desire, his rage, his violence. She hadn't just wanted it, she needed it. Needed it more than anything else she'd needed in her life.

Maeve struggled to take shallow breaths. Fear of what that could mean about her strangled her. No, she had to fix this first. She pushed concerns about what it made her into the deep recesses of her mind and turned to face Will.

Her insides still vibrated, and she had to concentrate to keep her voice from mimicking it. "Please don't do this to yourself. You didn't want to hurt me."