Amusement lightens his features. "She said we couldn't kill you, but she said nothing about me teaching you a lesson on respect for those above your station."
Now it’s my turn for amusement. "Above me? Here I am, thinking I am the Chosen and all."
He scoffs. "You are not worthy to hold such a title. You disgust me."
I shrug my shoulders, because he's clearly insane. " You come here trying to kidnap me, and I disgust you? What is wrong with you, and you’re fucked up brother?"
To hell with taking another hit from him. Centering myself, I punch him so hard that he stumbles back, but he won't get any sympathy from me. I don't allow him time to catch his balance, he tries to block the next two jabs to his stomach, unsuccessfully. After a failed attempt at kicking him in the balls, he grabs ahold of my foot making me fall. Quickly jumping up, I lunge for him, but he gets to me first—his fist lands on the side of my head making me feel woozy, and my vision becomes blurry in my right eye. It’s taking all the strength I have left to stay standing.
Keeping Merrie-Beth safe in my mind, I push through the pain. We fight for what seems like hours when it's only mere minutes. Despite the eviler twin being beyond tired, he is still a good fighter, but not better than me. If Lunatic wins this fight, itwill be because of his speed. The amount of blood pouring down his face does give me slight satisfaction.
Startling me, he pushes me up against a wall. Lunatic turns me around, his touch is ice cold, and attempts to tie my hands together. Waiting until the time is right is key. He makes the mistake of bending his head down close to mine. Allowing me to feel his breath in my ear—error number one. I head-butt him but that only makes him tighten his grip, so I repeat the motion twice more. Only after that does he let me go.He falls to the ground and is out cold. I plunge to my knees and start crawling away from him. My head is pounding. My jaw and body are aching.
Merrie-Beth yells out my name and rushes to my side. "Why did you do that?" She whispers in my ear, but blinding pain shoots through me, and I can't form any coherent words to answer my best friend back.
Chapter 4
We are Family
I am her, and I have more family. One makes me happy, the other makes me want to throw things.
-Arabella
Time slips by, and I don't know how much of it has passed. Seconds, minutes, hours, who knows? My head is exploding, but the black dots have subsided from my vision. How long will it take my family to arrive? The nausea hits with a vengeance, doubling me over. Stone cold terror latches in my chest. The other men might try and hurt Merrie-Beth; I need to get up. She needs my protection. Trying to stand, I fail miserably. What will we do?
"Don't. It's okay. We are going to be okay. You need an experienced Healer." Merrie-Beth gently whispers in my ear.
"But…the men, they will hurt you." I attempt to get up again, but she pushes me back down.
"Don't worry. They're gone." A battered and broken Jeremiah comes to sit beside me and tries to assess my wounds.
"How's your brother?" I croak out.
Deen the Cowboy makes his presence known. "Awe, cuz! You worried about me?”
I smile sheepishly at him as my vision clears even more. He looks worse than Jeremiah does. Both his eyes are black and blue. Scrapes and bruises line up and down the visible parts of his body. My eyes stop on his hand. He is clutching the Scots man bun. My eyes tear up from the laughter that I'm too scared to allow to escape, because it will hurt too damn much.
He laughs as he sees my amusement. "I think man buns are overrated."
Jeremiah follows my gaze. Holding his stomach as he laughs at his brother. "Deen, I bet he was pissed! Please tell me there are cameras so that we can hack into them later and watch!"
Deen smiles, pointing at the apparent cameras above us. Before I can process any of this a flash of light so bright blinds us all for a moment. This light is more radiant than before. Hearing the same popping sound from earlier makes me try and climb to my feet, but I’m still too weak.
Several loud shouts sound throughout the room, calling my name and those of the people around me, which stills my movement. Looking up, I moan from the pain, the dots are back, but relief courses through me anyway, as two of those shouts belonged to my aunt and uncle.
Straining through the pain, I attempt to look up in their direction again. Disbelief battles through me, but there they are. Joy sets in all the same, while tears for a different reason sting my eyes. Uncle Jo looks at my beaten-up face and runs toward me.
His face is dark with anger. "Who were they?" He asks quietly, trying to rein in his temper.
I point to the ground a couple of feet away, but the space is empty, remembering only after that Mer said they had left. My vision keeps going from good to bad to worse.
I fight to hold back the unshed tears, but one slips down, and Uncle Jo tenderly wipes it off of my cheek. "I'm so sorry, my dear Ella. For as long as we could, we tried to protect you, but they found you anyway, and we weren't here to help take care of you."
My aunt cries out loud when she sees my battered face. "Oh, my sweet girl. Who did this to you?" She sobs.
Now would be a good time to give her a grin, but my face hurts too much for the action. "That bad, huh? You should see the other guy."
Aunt Georgia smiles a sad little smile. "Worse than you could imagine."
