Images flashed of me on top of Ren, moving against him in a bloody, wild joining of our bodies. Had we . . . ?
“Where is Ren?” I demanded, trying to sit up. “And why am I tied up?”
“Well, you see, that’s kind of a long story full of plot twists and probably a plot hole or two.”
“Tink!”
His gaze met mine, and I remembered him yelling at Ren, because—oh, God, I’d been feeding on Ren. I’d fed on him.
The unease unexploded into full-blown dread. “Where is Ren?” I shouted. “Where is he, Tink?”
Little Dixon stirred in Tink’s lap. He folded his hand over the kitten’s head. “Calm down. Dixon needs his fifth nap of the day.”
My eyes narrowed. “I swear to God, Tink, if you do not answer me, I will straight-up murder you.”
“See, that’s the problem, and why you’re tried up. It’s just precautionary. Now that you’re awake, Tanner will be up here—”
“Why is it precautionary?”
He didn’t answer for a moment. “You’ve changed, Ivy. We didn’t think that would happen. We had no way of knowing.”
My pulse skyrocketed. “What in the hell does that mean, Tink?”
The brownie cringed. “Well, let’s just say your skin kind of shimmers now.”
My mouth dropped open.
“Like a fae,” he added.
Chapter 8
It took several moments for me to process what Tink was saying because there was no way I had heard him correctly. “My skin is shimmering?”
“Yes. Like a fae,” he repeated. “You’re not full on silver or anything like that, it just looks like you’ve used the same kind of lotion I imagine strippers use.”
I stared at him and then my gaze darted to what I could see of my skin. I was wearing long sleeves—a shirt that wasn’t mine, but I wasn’t going to focus on that fuckery at this moment—and with my damn wrists secured, all I could glimpse was the top of my hand. The skin looked normal. I squinted as I managed to lift my hand an inch. The light caught—
“Holy fuck!” I gasped, eyes widening. My skin did shimmer like I’d lubed myself up with glittery lotion. “Holy shit, my skin is—”
“Kind of shimmery, yes, but hey, it could be worse. You could look like Edward in the sunlight, all glittery and shit.”
My gaze shot to him.
“It’s barely noticeable. So is the thing with the ears.”
“My ears?” I shrieked.
“Yeah.” He drew the word out. “They’re a little pointy now. Like mine.” He tiled his head to the side, showing off his ears. “Nothing anyone would really bat an eye at. Plus, you have all that hair to cover them if you’re feeling insecure.”
Oh my God, I couldn’t even process what he was saying. I liked my normal, rounded human ears and he was now telling me I had pointy, fae-like ears?
And my skin was shimmering?
Tink snapped his fingers, getting my attention. “Look, there is more good news. Since you’ve been out for a couple of days, you’ve slept off the worst effects.”
I took a deep, even breath but it did nothing to stamp out the building panic. “What are the worst effects that somehow don’t include my skin shimmering or my ears becoming pointy?”
Dixon took that moment to stretch his little legs out in front of him. Tink reached down, scratching him behind the ear. “Well, while you were asleep, you weren’t always asleep. Sometimes you were awake.”
Vague memories surfaced, flashes of rage and desire, of the need to—
I sucked in a sharp breath, squeezing my eyes tight.
“There were times when you were hungry, like zombie craving brains kind of hungry,” Tink said softly. “That’s why you’re tied down. Faye seems to think the worst has passed. Sort of like you’ve done the detox part and now you’re just having to deal with a few cravings.”
I remembered.
Knots formed in my stomach. I remembered Faye whispering her compulsion. Feed. That one word had echoed over and over and I had fed.
My eyes flew open. “Is Ren okay?”
“Well, you know—”
“Is Ren okay?” I demanded, breathing heavy.
Tink lifted his hand from Dixon’s head. “Ren is fine. He’s alive. He’d be here, but Tanner and Faye were worried that you being around a human right now wouldn’t help with the getting over the whole wanting to suck them dry thing.”
Relief crashed through me, but a raw emotion built behind it when what happened truly processed. “You . . . you all made me feed on Ren.”
“We didn’t have a choice, Ivy. You were dying and there was nothing else we could—”
“You should’ve let me die!” I shouted, and Dixon jerked in Tink’s lap. I tried to calm down, but my heart was lodged somewhere in my throat.
His brows furrowed. “That’s a fucked up thing to say, Ivy.”
“It’s fucked up that you made me feed on Ren!”
“He was down for it, Ivy. Ren would do anything to save you.”
“Even force me to do something so horrible?” I asked, eyes blurring. “Ren volunteering for this doesn’t make it right. He could’ve been killed.”
His expression smoothed out. “But he’s okay and you’re going to be okay.”
“Except apparently my skin and ears have changed. I’m not okay.” And that wasn’t all. I’d fed on Ren and then we had sex—bloody, crazy sex.
“Well, there is that. We didn’t know that would happen, but—”
“The Prince did that to me. He made me—” My voice caught. Anger burned through my bone and tissue. “What have you all done to me?”
“We saved you—”
“What have you done to me?” I screamed.
His eyes widened. “We don’t . . . we don’t know, Ivy.”
I couldn’t believe it. Dying sucked. Yeah. Duh. But they forced me to feed against my will—feed on Ren, and it changed me into God knows what? Nausea crept up my throat. How would I ever look at Ren again?
How would I ever look at myself again? Dealing with being the Halfling wasn’t something I’d fully accepted and now this? I couldn’t. I couldn’t deal with this.
“It’ll be okay.”
“Get away from me,” I whispered.
“Ivy,” he gasped.
Violent rage and bitter fear swirled like a storm inside me, feeding strength I didn’t realize I had. I lifted my left arm, tearing the binding in half.
“Whoa.” Tink shot up, holding Dixon close to his chest as he stepped back from the bed. “Ivy . . .”
Snapping the cloth around my other wrist, I sat up and turned to Tink. “You need to get the fuck out of my face right now.”
Tink was still for only a moment, and then he got out of my face and left the room.