chapter 16

I wake up face down on the floor in a heap, arm draped awkwardly over my head and limbs splayed out on the hardwood, disorientated, choking on my own blood, and gagging on bile. Gathering my wits and trying to get my bearings, I struggle to move, dazed for a moment, and then I remember where I am, and what he s doing to me. It s like a rush of water flowing back to a dry riverbed when the dam is broken.

That surge of furious self-preservation, instant awareness as the room comes back into focus and I jump up, heart tearing through my chest with pounding thuds, claws appearing, mind a burning mess of anger. Ready to take him on in a battle to the death and fueled by something inside me I never knew I possessed.