A Shade of Kiev 3(29)

I stared at her. I doubted that there was anything wrong with the food I’d given her. It had smelled fresh enough.

She finished wiping herself down and got back into bed, shivering as she pulled the covers back over her.

I handed her the bottle of perfume.

“You need to cover yourself with this. Use the whole bottle if you have to.”

“Puke and perfume,” she muttered, eyeing the small bottle. “Great.”

She sighed and got out of bed again, walking toward the bathroom with the bottle and closing the door. I waited outside the door until she’d finished.

She stepped out after several minutes, holding up the empty bottle. “Ugh, I reek.”

The scent of her blood was still very noticeable to me, but the perfume masked it a lot better than I had thought it would. It was strong stuff.

She began walking back over to the bed, but her knees gave way before she reached it.

I caught her just before she made contact with the floor.

“I feel d-dizzy,” she gasped, her eyes shut tight.

I carried her over to the bed and laid her down on it, pulling the covers over her. Worry gripped me as I looked at her fragile state. “I’m going to need to find some more food for you. You can try to eat it again in a few hours. You have to get something in you.”

She looked up at me weakly and nodded. “I’ll try.”

I felt her forehead. It felt warmer than before. Too warm. I placed two fingers against her neck. Her pulse felt weak. Something wasn’t right.

There was a knock at the door.

Anna looked up at me, panic filling her eyes. I scooped her up and rushed her back into the bathroom.

“Lock the door,” I hissed.

When the bathroom door bolted shut, I answered the front door. I breathed out in relief to see that it was just my brother.

“Erik? What do you want?”

He was about to open his mouth, but he paused as he sniffed the air.

My stomach churned.

“That smell… women’s perfume?”

“Oh, Helina. She visited me.” I cringed internally, praying that he wouldn’t confirm this with our sister.

“Helina, huh?”

His eyes darkened, his face shrouded. His chest began to heave and then, to my shock, he gripped my shirt and shook me.

“You’ve been sleeping with Julisse!” he hissed.

Julisse?

I gripped my brother’s hands and yanked them away, his claws tearing through my shirt in the process.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“That’s Julisse’s perfume.”

“No! This is Helina’s perfume.”

“Don’t lie to me, Kiev.”

He launched at me with speed I’d forgotten my brother possessed. I staggered back and attempted to slam the door against his face, but it was too late. He’d entered the apartment and was beginning to rip my bedroom apart. Upending tables and tearing through curtains.

I was stunned. I couldn’t remember ever witnessing my brother lose his temper like this.

I leapt on him and wrestled him to the ground. I held him in a choke until his breathing became a little steadier.

“You dare accuse me of sleeping with my own brother’s woman?”

He scoffed. “You sleep with enough women to lose track of who belongs to whom.”

“I’ve never touched Julisse,” I growled, tightening my grip around him.

“Then explain why your room reeks of her perfume,” he choked.

I breathed out in frustration. Helina must have been borrowing the bottle from Julisse.

“I took the perfume from Helina’s room.”

“Oh, to satisfy your lifelong urge to try out women’s perfume?”

I knocked his head against the wooden floor.

I held my breath. I knew now that he wouldn’t believe any other explanation but the truth. But the memory of the way he’d stormed Matteo’s island was still too fresh. I didn’t trust him, just as he didn’t trust me.

“I’m telling you, I’m not sleeping with your woman,” I said through gritted teeth. “I don’t need to explain my every movement to you, and if you don’t believe me, you can go to—”

A retching came from the bathroom.

I swore.

That second of distraction became my downfall. Erik kneed me in the stomach, loosening my hold around him. He scrambled toward the bathroom and forced the door open with one powerful kick.

His mouth fell open as he stared at the floor.

“No,” I hissed, rushing to block his view of Anna.

But it was too late.

She was crouched over the toilet, vomiting again. Her whole body trembled.

Erik took a step back, dumbstruck.

“I-I’m sorry,” he stammered.

“You’ll be more than sorry once I’m through with you,” I growled.