Page 48 of Ruin

Fun story. Complete bullshit.

After taking in my stone-cold expression, Sam continued, “He has this ability where he can sense emotions from people. He felt them coming when you were getting into the bath. He tried to take care of it without you finding out.”

I set the empty bottle down and closed my eyes, thinking of the bath. The final moments before everything broke.

Sam’s voice cut through my thoughts, practically pleading. “You were not supposed to come out. This whole thing was an accident! A big fucking accident!”

Confusion, anger, guilt, and everything else I was made of coiled in me like a snake. I screamed, “What the fuck are you saying? Feed? You’re being cryptic and, frankly, I am about to fucking lose it!”

There goes my plan to go along with all this shit and get the fuck out of here.

Round of applause for Claire—fucking spaz to the death. Literally.

Sam stood, his boot kicking the chair back as he squared himself at the foot of the bed. His change of demeanor frightened me and reminded me that he may be young, but he was bigger and stronger than me.

And I was locked in a room with him.

My chest panged as my hand reached up to squeeze it. In that brief moment of fear and realization, I missed Arik. God help me, I felt safer with him.

That’s not love. That’s trauma. That’s madness. That’s me…breaking

STOP. This is Stockholm syndrome at its finest!

Sam locked his eyes with mine, lowering his gaze in a way that made goosebumps form on my skin. He spoke slowly in a hushed tone, like telling a ghost story. “He is over three hundred years old, Claire. He has never said what he is, but based on the stories my Nona told me, we have always thought of him to be il vampiro.”

I laughed, a harsh, incredulous sound. My words coming out between wheezes. “Jesus Christ. I came to Italy and ended up in fucking Forks?” A tear from laughter slipped down my face as I regained my composure.

Sam sighed, taking a seat at the end of the bed. “I’m not joking.”

My anger-filled eyes shot to Sam, voice cracking through the room with a mix of anger and desperation. “Are you fucking kidding me? Is this some kind of joke? Some prank you people play?”

Sam spoke again. “What I can tell you is he is not going to hurt you. Again, he does not feed on women. Period. No women, no children, and no innocent men.”

“Awe, that is just so comforting,” I quipped. “But I still don’t understand why I’m here, locked in a basement like a prisoner.”

“I know Arik pretty well.” Sam shrugged. “And from what I can tell, he is in love with you. He wants to fix this.”

I rose to my knees in the bed, my voice booming through the room. “He attacked me! He touched me and hurt me and violated me! That is not fucking love!”

Tears began to stream down my face again as I remembered the feeling of Arik’s hand in my hair. Then I remembered the look on his face as he opened my robe and looked at me like his next meal. My body crumpled down into the bed, my head in my hands as my sobs filled the room.

Sam remained silent, sitting in the chair for what felt like hours.

As soon as my breathing calmed enough to speak, I locked my eyes in on Sam, asking genuinely, “Are you going to let me go?”

Sam crossed his arms, giving me a look that said everything he could not say himself. “You should talk to Arik. He really is not going to hurt you.”

I scoffed. “Yeah, I believe that. I literally watched him kill a bunch of people and almost kill me. Seems like an awesome, trustworthy guy.”

Sam looked down at his feet, his blond curly hair falling into his face.

“And you,” I said, my gaze piercing through him. “You’re in on this too.”

Sam’s blue eyes glimmered as he raised his eyebrow. “Okay. Think of it like this. You saw what he did last night, yes?”

I rolled my eyes and nodded, crossing my arms tight across my chest.

Sam continued, his words fast and fervent, “If he wanted to kill you, don’t you think he would have done it already? He took out a dozen grown men while you were in a bath. I think he could have handled finishing you in five seconds if he wanted to.”