Changeling (Book 1) Rated R

Chapter 30

I forced myself to focus on a pinpoint of light at the end of the tunnel until it ballooned out into a scene of me laying in an unmade hotel bed, Christian and Brandon's room to be exact.

Curly strands of hair lay like lifeless snakes against the stark white of the hotel pillows.

A vein pulsed in Christian's throat while he talked.

It was the only thing I could focus on through the black tunnel in my vision.

Waves crashed over me, relentless. If I stopped fighting them, if I didn't kick my legs and wave my arms, surely these dark waters would swallow me whole.

Christian and Brandon stood by the balcony doors, arguing about something while I struggled to stay afloat.

I closed my eyes and tried to focus. Whatever they were bickering about clearly wasn't helping me escape this place and I knew I had to act fast.

There wasn't much time left.

I could feel it.

And the last time I'd been kicked out of my body by Elizabeth, I remembered stubbornness had filled me.

A stubbornness to live, the only thing that had helped me make my way back out of that place.

So where was this damned stubbornness now?

I searched within myself, the kicking of my legs stopping momentarily.

I wondered if this life of persecution and violence was even something I wanted to go back to? Was it even worth the struggle?

The darkness reeled me in closer.

I was a fish, caught on a hook.

I kicked again and flailed, desperate to hold on, a new anger overtaking me.

But maybe that was just what I needed now to survive—anger, a fuel, a fire.

And heaven knew I had plenty to be angry about.

I was angry at Luke for dying.

Angry at Christian for his mixed signals and lies.

Angry that Stefan was my father.

And if I was being honest, I was pissed with myself for wanting to give up.

Because succumbing to the darkness now would have been easier but it would have been a coward's death and I was better than that.

I, Aimee Mathews, deserved to go out with a bang.

So that left only one option: to fight like hell. I had to communicate with Christian and Brandon and help them find a solution.

I zeroed in on their chatter, straining my ears as if I were tuning a radio to just the right station.

After a moment, I got some static.

"Do you have any idea what this is?"

It was Christian who spoke, with Brandon responding right after.

"A side effect of using too much spirit, maybe? I don't know for sure. I've never seen anything like this before."

"Not even with...Milagros?"

A shadow passed over Brandon's face and he looked down to the carpet.

I saw him swallow hard before responding.

"No, nothing like this ever happened with her."

Christian pinched the bridge of his nose and looked out the window.