"Where did you go after dinner?" Coco asks as she walks into the library. "I've been looking for you."
I stop picking at the blood stuck under one of my nails to look over at Coco. "Showering," I semi-lie; I did shower, but only after going through my whole ordeal with Michael.
She looks at my wet hair and seems to buy the lie. "That must've been one hell of a shower," she scoffs. "You were gone forever."
I shrug. "It's not like there's anything else to do in this outpost."
She sighs as she sits next to me. "I don't think you understand how much I despise everyone else here," she complains. "You're the only person I can tolerate, yet you have been MIA ever since the day after Langdon arrived." She slowly turns to me. "Wait, you and Langdon aren't hooking up, are you-"
"Bitch please," I scoff. "I hate that man's guts almost as much as he hates mine."
She chuckles. "What did you do to make him hate you?"
I shrug. "Gave him a piece of my mind. He did not appreciate it at all and now seems to pester me every time he sees me."
"Oh, Valentina, you have to make amends with him," she complains. "I need you at the Sanctuary with me."
"I think I'd rather die here at the hands of feral cannibals than make up with that incompetent ass," I scoff. I suddenly begin to feel the urge to tell her everything that's on my chest. "He uses these mind games and manipulation tactics on all you guys, but then I can tell what he's doing so I call him out on it - which he does not appreciate - so then he spends every minute he sees me trying to fuck with my mind."
"Um, Valentina-" Coco begins.
I ignore her and continue ranting. "He really has the audacity to feel like he owns me and shit. I simply cannot believe him. And I keep making it abundantly clear that I want him to stay the hell away from me, but no, he just can't accept that-"
"Ms. Callistra," Michael interrupts.
I jump to my feet and turn to see Michael standing behind me.
I turn to Coco and lower my voice. "So that's why you were trying to interrupt me?" I whisper.
She nods silently.
"Great," I sigh as I turn back to Michael. "So you were there for that whole thing?"
He nods, an amused yet angered look on his face. "I was, from the 'would rather die by feral cannibals' to the 'I want him to stay the hell away from me.'"
"Yeah, well can you take a hint?" I sigh. "I think I've made it quite clear that I want you to stay the hell away from me."
He smirks. "Oh, you have earned yourself quite the opposite of staying the hell away from you," he states as he walks toward me.
I cross my arms as I stand my ground. Coco watches the interaction with interest, excited to have something interesting happening for once. "What are you going to do, kill me?" I mock. "You happen to have a witness here."
"I could easily make her forget," Michael challenges as he stares me down, attempting to make the one-inch height gap between us feel larger. "Coco, leave us alone," he demands without looking away from me.
"Coco, stay," I insist.
"No, she will leave," Michael argues.
"Too bad, I say that she stays."
I begin to push him away, but he roughly grabs my wrist. "Coco, leave or else I will tear you apart limb by limb then serve your body as dinner and use your head as the centerpiece," he states, his eyes on fire, making it clear that his threat is not at all empty.
She quickly stands up. "Sorry, Valentina, but I'm not looking to become dinner meat anytime soon," she says apologetically. She scurries out of the room, not wanting to risk having Michael kill her.
"You'd better get your fucking hand off of me or your head will be the one at the dinner table," I hiss as I pull my hand back; however, he doesn't release it.
"It's about time you were put in your place," Michael states. "I am more powerful than you, and I can easily end you; fall in line."
"Go to hell," I spit. I begin to turn away, but I scream in pain as my wrist snaps. "Did you just break my wrist?" I gasp, doing everything I can to not give him the satisfaction of seeing the tears forming in my eyes.
He smirks smugly as he looks down at me, my wrist still in his hand. "There's more where that came from," he states. He gives my wrist a harsh squeeze before releasing it.
I quickly pull my wrist into my chest protectively before glaring at him. "You're fucking psychotic! I don't know why the hell your father thought that we'd be good allies, but he's a damn fool!"
"So that's what it takes to get a rise out of you," he scoffs. "I only had to break your wrist."
I use my good hand to backhand him. "You and your deluded father can go to hell," I seethe as he catches my wrist.
"Don't make me break your other one," he mocks.
I smirk as I clench my hand into a fist. He gasps, holding a hand to his head, and he falls to the ground. "What the hell did you do?" he groans through the pain.
"No big deal, just a tiny aneurysm. Don't worry, your father won't let it kill you," I smirk.
He is barely holding himself up as he tries to speak to me, but his threats come out inaudibly.
I chuckle as I push my heel into his side and he rolls over. "I can't believe I kissed your pathetic ass," I scoff.
I step over his barely conscious body and leave him lying on the library floor, bleeding out internally. Of course, I know that his father will save him; he'll just have to deal with the pain until that happens.
A thought in the back of my mind tells me that I was too cruel, but I quickly push it aside. That bastard broke my wrist first; whatever happens after that is fair game. I don't know what the hell he's playing at, but breaking my wrist a day after kissing me is a line that I'm shocked even he would cross.
God, I don't even know what our relationship is anymore. It seemed that we made a bit of progress earlier with his saving my life (although he was the one to put it in jeopardy). This is too damn confusing.
I turn my attention back to my wrist that I'm clutching against my chest. I brace myself and take a deep breath before snapping it back into place. A gasp escapes my mouth, but my wrist soon heals itself.
I sigh as I continue on my way out of the library. Yeah, that asshole definitely deserved it.
......
"Excuse me?" I yell across Langdon's office.
He sighs as he leans against his desk. "I said that I would like to put what just happened behind us."
"You fucking broke my wrist because I was disrespecting you; you're delusional if you think I'm just going to forgive you that easily."
"You already got your revenge with that damn aneurysm," he sighs as he rubs the temple of his whitened face; I will admit that he does look extremely sick. "I can still feel the ghost of the pain."
I hold up my bruised wrist. "So can I. For some reason the fucking bruise won't go away."
He rolls his eyes. "Is that really the most of your worries?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, should fixing our 'little problem' be higher up on that list?"
He sighs. "I thought we were making progress. I seemed to get a slight emotional response from you after that whole blood ritual, and that's the most vulnerable you've ever been in front of me."
"Oh, I'm sorry you had to push me to the brink of death to get me to show my vulnerability to you," I scoff as I cross my arms in front of me.
"It was an accident, and I'm truly sorry about it."
"Listen, I don't even know what our..." I motion my arm between us. "Relationship is, but I do know that going from kissing to breaking wrists isn't at all appropriate. Speaking of, what the hell even was our kiss?"
He sighs defeatedly. "I have no clue. It felt right at the time, but now I don't even fucking know. What was it to you?"
I pause, not knowing the answer to that question myself. "I don't know, I guess just a release of frustration and confusion." I quickly shake my head. "It doesn't matter, because any hint of a feeling a had for you was fractured along with my wrist."
He looks down, his face unreadable. When he looks back up at me, his eyes have a storm of thoughts behind them. "Why is it that for every step forward, we take ten steps backwards?"
I scoff as I step backwards, making my way towards the door. "Bitch, I don't know, maybe you should ask yourself that before you break my wrist."