Hell Flower

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"Ouch." I winced as Alex cleaned the cut on my foot with hydrogen peroxide. "That fucking stings." My toes curled against the pain.

"You shouldn't have gone running across the parking lot of a gas station without your shoes on, then," Liz scolded. She sat next to me on the couch, arms crossed over her chest.

"Just hold still, Allison," Alex said. He sat cross-legged on the floor in front of me, a first aid kit open next to him. He was meticulous about making sure my injuries were treated thoroughly. My gaze went to the bite on his neck that was still left open. I wondered why he didn't do the same for himself when he was hurt.

Maybe he didn't want to look vulnerable.

The bus went over a bump, and Alex accidently slammed the cut on my foot with the chemical-soaked cotton swab. I gritted my teeth against the jolt of pain, trying not to scream.

"I think there's a piece of glass stuck in it," I whined. "I can feel it in there."

"There was shattered glass and broken bottles all over that parking lot," Veronica cut in. She and Reggie sat together on the far end of the couch. "Maybe there is something stuck in there."

"There isn't," Alex said. "I checked."

"Well, it feels like there is." I crossed my arms and blew a strand of hair out of my face. "This is your fault, by the way." I glared at him. "If you would have listened to me, I wouldn't have needed to run across the parking lot like that to try to escape."

He continued to clean my wound, ignoring what I was saying.

I ground my teeth as rage churned inside me. He was so convinced he knew what was right, and I was wrong. How could he know what was going on in my own head better than I did? He wouldn't even fucking listen to me.

"I hate you." My voice came out as a low growl.

Alex froze, and his jaw clenched. He pinched his eyes shut. "I'm sorry." His hands shook as he wrapped a bandage around my foot, taping it on the top to secure it. He looked up to meet my eyes for a second, but he didn't say anything else.

I swallowed a lump in my throat. He really believed what they were doing was helping me, didn't he? He really believed my wolf was something evil I needed to be freed from.

It was true—when I'd lost control to her, I'd killed someone.

What if he was right?

He couldn't be, though. I knew my wolf. I'd talked to her. She was confused. She was trying to protect me.

But what if she was lying?

My thoughts wound around, tying knots in my head.

What made Alex and Liz any more trustworthy than my wolf? They had the spirits of my parents within them, but they'd abandoned me when I was a child. How could I trust them after that? How could I trust them after they'd tied me up and held me against my will?

I couldn't. That was the answer.

Regardless, as my rage cooled, the fear set in. What if I didn't find a way to get out of this? If my wolf didn't regain her strength in time, what would happen? I remembered the conversation between Jake and Alex I'd overheard at the gas station. I remembered Alex and Liz talking on the bus last night.

They'd said they would do what had to be done if the exorcism failed. Did that really mean what I thought it did—that they would kill me?

But that was only if I lost control to my wolf the way James did, right? She wasn't trying to take control like that, so if the exorcism failed, they'd realize I was right. If I couldn't escape the exorcism, would making sure it failed be enough?