Blood Brothers

Loss of Control

One moment I was ready to be raped. The next, Dominic was gone. I scrambled away, trying to yank my pants back up and put as much distance between us as possible simultaneously. I tumbled off the bed and pressed myself back into the wall as I heaved in panicked breaths.

I gasped as Matteo wrangled Dominic away from Ciro and back out the door. Ciro quickly turned his attention to me, glancing me over as he rounded the bed. He hesitated as he reached for me, then grasped my forearm when I grabbed for him and tugged me to my feet. He wrapped a comforting arm around my shoulders, almost trying to shield me as he pulled me out of the bedroom and into the office instead.

I stood in the doorway when he let me go, trembling and numb. I barely registered him rifling through the desk, though I could feel half of his attention on me. I flinched a little when he was suddenly in front of me again, reaching for my shirt. He winced apologetically and buttoned it back up with terse efficiency.

"Let's go." Niklas called from the main room. Ciro gently pushed me around and got me moving. The smell of blood had me stiffening, and I looked automatically. The sight of Dominic's mangled body made me go cold and my skin to crawl. They hadn't just killed him. They had turned him into a message.

And after what he had tried to do to me, I couldn't summon up an ounce of pity or remorse about it. There was only morbid satisfaction. Along with the dreadful sense that there were, not only monsters all around me, but that I was one of them.

I managed to get up the stairs and out of the house. Even managed to break into a run with the others and clear the back edge of the manicured property and into the wilder growth beyond. And then the stress really hit me.

I caught myself against a tree and heaved. My stomach twisted as I emptied it onto the forest floor and coughed weakly. My limbs shook and I dug my claws into the tree to remain on my feet. I wiped my face with my sleeve and glanced to one side when someone laid a hand on my back. Ciro was trying to get a look at me, worry on his face. I didn't blame him really. I was panicking and I couldn't rightly say why.

Matteo yelled something, I was sure an order to hurry up. Ciro yelled something back and his fingers tightened around my shoulder when I forced myself to straighten and put one foot in front of the other. We had to get out of here. And I had showed enough weakness. I could keep up. I wasn't broken.

Ciro tried to stop me and something happened. The sight of Niklas and Matteo disappearing into the dark forest was replaced with a face full of forest floor. And that was less worrisome than the feel of a body beneath me and my fangs in their throat. I let go and scrambled back.

Ciro sat up, blood trickling down his neck from where I had bit him. He raised his hands, watching me carefully as he did everything he could to show he wasn't a threat. I licked his blood from my lips and panted, trying to figure out what had happened. It had to have been when he stopped me. The idea that he was trying to take control from me again had made me snap, and I had attacked him.

Guilt twisted my stomach. As well as terror that my attempt to regain control had caused me to lose it. Ciro had only been trying to help and I had responded with fangs in his throat. I panted and drew my knees up, putting my head between them and sliding my fingers through my hair. I was shaking again.

I heard the rustle of leaf litter as Ciro shifted up onto his feet, but I didn't hear him walking away. I peeked up at him and found him squatting in front of me, arms resting on his knees as he watched me, waiting for me to get it together. I dropped my gaze back down between my legs and breathed in deep.

I could do this.

A hand appeared in front of me as soon as I lifted my head and I hesitated for a moment. Ciro just smiled encouragingly, the offer of help still extended. I grasped his forearm and he pulled me to my feet, then tugged me along before letting go to take off sprinting through the trees after our comrades. I kept pace with him, staying on his heels and hoping he knew where we were going. Or that there was some plan and place to meet if we couldn't find Niklas and Matteo again.