Fourth a Lie

A sob caught in my throat as I fell to my knees.

Sully’s beautiful blue gaze was a morbid black, staring at nothingness.

Drake let me go, his snicker morphing into a self-congratulatory chuckle as I crawled over the floor, shoved my hand through the bars, and linked my fingers with Sully’s.

The second I touched him, he broke.

His face twisted, his head tipped back, and his lips parted in the most heart-stopping, belly-stabbing howl. “FUUUCK!”

The chemistry between us. The connection. The bond.

It hurt.

It hissed from his skin to mine. It electrified, it condemned, it hummed along its conduit with a lick of lust and love—a link that shared our pain, our promises, and every other pitiful thing we’d become.

“Eleanor...Jesus Christ.”

I clung to his hand, bowing to kiss the dried blood flaking from each finger, frantically pulling out the nails that’d been driven into his pads.

Blood.

So, so much blood.

I couldn’t speak.

I couldn’t breathe.

All my fight.

All my bickering, feuding challenge died a miserable, despairing death as I drowned beneath crippling grief. “Sully...”

He shook his head, shaking the cage around him. “This isn’t real. You can’t be here. You. Can’t. Fucking. Be. Here.”

I pulled out the last nail of his left hand. He didn’t even flinch, as if his threshold for pain had been crossed hours ago.

“I’m so, so sorry.” I kissed him. I kissed his knuckles, his palm, his fingers. My lips stained red from his blood as my tears splashed onto his feverish skin. My gaze stuttered over his body, unwilling to look, violently sick at what Drake had done to him.

His chest oozed with plasma and blood. His wrists lacerated from the handcuffs, his ankles bleeding from the ropes. A large bandage hugged his thigh. It might’ve been white, once upon a time, but now it’d soaked into a rusty carmine.

“What were you thinking coming back?” His voice cracked with misery; his eyes unseeing. “How can I survive now that you’re back?”

I reached through the cage, straining to touch his face.

I couldn’t reach.

It killed me that I couldn’t reach.

I have to touch him.

Have to kiss him.

Have to help!

A sob crawled up my throat and broke free. A sob born from seeing the worst thing of my life happen to the most important person in my world.

I couldn’t do it.

I literally couldn’t cope.

I couldn’t live in a world where men like Drake could kill hundreds of animals with a single bomb, then torture his own flesh and blood for days.

I...I can’t.

My mind fractured.

I lost all links to my girlhood, to goodness, to grace.

I became feral.

Single-minded.

One purpose.

Him.

Help him.

Now!

I screamed as I scrambled at the cage, desperate and frenzied to get to him.

My ears rang from my sobs.

My gaze stung from my tears.

And I snapped.

I can’t touch.

I can’t help.

His eyes.

His body.

Fuck!

I swooped to my feet, and I threw myself at Drake.

His smug smile tumbled as we plummeted to the ground. I slapped and scratched; I hit and punched.

I couldn’t see to strike.

I didn’t plant strategic fists.

I just couldn’t contain the violence.

The hunger.

The rage.

I vaguely heard someone screaming.

Felt someone tugging.

I went weightless as I was hauled off Drake.

Commotion bellowed around the villa.

Sully’s shout, Drake’s curse, men’s panic.

As quickly as I’d entered the black stupor of mania, I slammed back into my body.

I hissed with a fire that lived in every artery and vein.

I trembled with hate that screamed to hit, maim, and kill.

“Eleanor!” Sully’s gaze couldn’t find me. His face twisted in my direction; his sea-glass blue eyes utterly destroyed.

My legs gave out again as I stared into the black pupils and red soreness of Sully’s blind stare. Sweat drenched him as he fought his imprisonment. More blood poured, diluted by his sweat, rolling in thick droplets off his body.

And the opposite happened.

My fire turned to ice.

To snow and sleet and blizzard.

Balling my hands, I shoved off the two men holding me and strode to Drake where he nursed four deep scratches on his cheek.

He snarled as I approached, but I didn’t fucking care anymore.

I wasn’t afraid of this bastard.

“Get him a doctor. Right now.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Commands now? A breakdown followed by demands?” He snapped his fingers at the men lurking around me as if I’d decimate them all. “Tie her up.”

A redheaded man headed toward the perimeter of the villa, returning with a length of rope.

I didn’t flinch as he jerked my hands behind my back and began tying. Ignoring him, I hissed at Drake, “He’s dying.”

“Do I look like I give a shit?” He wiped his cheek with the back of his hand.

“Eleanor. Shut up. You’re going to get yourself fucking killed!” Sully continued fighting in his cage, costing himself valuable energy he didn’t have.

It pissed me off.

It angered me that he was so reckless with his life when he’d burned through so much of it without me. “Stop moving, Sullivan!”

I used his full name.

I injected venom into my voice.

He paused, his throat worked, his blind stare seeking mine again.

My stomach spasmed. Tears clogged my throat, and sobs begged to release.

He’s blind?

Don’t focus on that.

I couldn’t focus on that.

Not yet.

Not yet!

“Get him a goddamn doctor!” I stepped toward Drake, forcing the guard still tying my hands to trip with me.

Drake crossed his arms, narrowing his eyes. “Never thought I’d see the day.” He looked me up and down with loathing. “You are in love with him. Thought that was just a joke.”

“Of course, I’m in fucking love with him, you bastard!” I squirmed against the rope.

Too tight.

Too restrictive.

“Eleanor. For fuck’s sake, just be quiet,” Sully growled. “Don’t give him any reason to—”

“If you love him, prove it,” Drake snapped.

I froze. “Prove it how?”

Sully snarled, “Shut up, Jinx—”

“You want him to have a doctor...and I want...” His lips spread in an apocalyptic smile. “And I want what he’s had.” Grabbing a handful of my semi-dried hair, he murmured, “Show me how Euphoria works, Goddess Jinx. Take the elixir. Beg me to fuck you like a whore. And I’ll agree to bring in Dr Campbell to keep my baby brother alive for another day.”

“No. No fucking way.” Sully thrashed harder, the handcuffs ringing so loud. “Leave her the fuck out of this, Drake! Use another girl. Any other girl. I don’t care. Just—”

“I’ll gag you if you keep talking, you little cocksucker,” Drake muttered. “Be quiet, the adults are talking.” His washed-out blue gaze landed on mine again. “Do we have a deal, Eleanor Grace? Your body for his. I break you while the doctor fixes him. I’ll even be generous and give you two the day to recover.” He laughed softly. “After all, you’ve had a long journey, and Sully...well, he hasn’t had much sleep lately.”