Forbidden (Blood Ties #7)

Cornered.

Frightened.

And alone.

“Easy now.” The guard with the syringe urged. “They told us you’d fight.”

I shook my head as the sight of him blurred when he took a step toward me. My pulse skipped while terror howled inside me.

“No.”I slurred. “No.”

Darkness rose, stealing my movement as the guard I’d punched came closer. Still, I forced myself to lift my head as he neared. He swiped the back of his hand under his nose, then swung his arm back, arcing through the air.

I was too weak to fight.

Or move.

Slap!

I stumbled sideways as agony ripped through my skull. My hair lashed my face, covering the movement. But it didn’t matter, not as the drug they’d injected warped my mind. Warmth slid from my nose as the room swayed and I was yanked forward.

“No!”I bucked, trying to fight as he picked me up and hauled me over his shoulder, carrying me out of the room like a sack over his shoulder.

“Stop.”I clawed the doorway, but we were gone, stepping over the dead guard as we left.

Blood splatter was neon red all around me. It marred the walls and the floor as Coulter’s guard left track marks in his wake.

“No!”I bucked as he carried me along the corridor and turned.“NOOO!”

I fought, kicking and thrashing until he yanked me down. Agony burst through my feet and speared up my legs as they hit the floor. There was nothing I could do as my knees buckled and I fell to the floor. His hand was in my hair in an instant, yanking me upwards.

Tears came, blurring his face along with the drug.

“Fight me again and I’ll knock you out and do whatever the hell I want with you. How does that sound?”

The words chilled me all the way to the bone.

I stilled, and slowly lifted my tear-filled eyes to his.

“That's what I thought.”

My searing scalp pulsed as he released his hold on my hair and lifted me over his shoulder again. I couldn’t fight him anymore. Instead, I held on as the drug slammed into me and I was carried along the hallway toward the conference rooms.

The two-way crackled and Walker’s roar was deafening until the guard reached down and switched it off. “No one is going to save you anymore.” He muttered and turned along a small corridor.

The faint sound of voices spilled out as a door opened, and I was carried inside. But those voices soon quieted as my attacker pulled me down off his shoulder and steadied me when my feet hit the floor.

They surrounded the massive table. All the commanders…and Coulter himself.

It was that same sickening stare that had found me before as he slowly rounded the edge of the table and came toward me.

The door closed with athud.

My heart sank to the floor.

“Strip her.” Coulter demanded.

I didn’t have one to fight or even two, four of them came for me, yanking the straps of the red bodysuit and tearing the lace until there was nothing left. I screamed, slapping their hands, clawing what I could, until I was bare.