Page 116 of Bloodlust

I narrow my eyes. "If you don't form a coherent sentence, I am taking you to the hospital. Speak. Now."

"I'm fine," she whispers, sniffling. "Go away."

"Here." Norman comesinto her room, handing me a first aid kit. "There's some gauze in there that oughta help." Norman looks down at Camilla "Should we call an ambulance?"

"No, no ambulance," she slurs, eyes flickering. "I'm fine...fine."

"Stay still," I command, taking her hand as I disinfect her wounds. “Stay still!"

Camilla winces, whining as her eyes close. "Fuck’s sake."

"We should get her to the hospital," Norman says.

"No," I swallow, perching down on the edge of her bed as I wrap her knuckle in gauze. "I'm a doctor. I'll stay with her." I glance over my shoulder at Norman. "You can leave. Thank you for letting me in."

"This ain't the first time I had to come in," Norman admits awkwardly. "She gets like this...ever since…" he swallows. "Ever since that boyfriend of hers died."

"Boyfriend?" I ask, glancing down at Camilla as her chest rises and falls. "He died?"

"Five years ago," Norman says. "It's when it started."

"Oh," I hum, my stomach churning with something foreign. "I see."

"Take care of her, Doc," Norman says before he leaves.

"I will," I mutter, the weight of the bug growing heavy in my pocket.

As she lays on the bed, eyes closed and innocent, it physically pains me when I attach the bug to the inside of her lamp.

Unable to leave her, unable to even look away from her, I stay until dawn, until I see her stir, until I know she'll be okay.

And then I leave her.

But a part of me stays.

"Camilla was the best daughter a father could ask for," Tony says, addressing the funeral party as he holds her ashes in his hand, his tone shaky, almost trembling. My trigger finger twitches but I take a breath.Fucker. "She lived and died by duty, by loyalty. My daughter always put this family first, she always did what she had to do to ensure that we,La Familia,were number one, on top!" His voice grows louder. "My child, my own flesh and blood, died so that we could live! Camilla was stronger than we all gave her credit for! She was a true queen! A true force to be reckoned with! She was?—"

Just a girl.

She was just a sad, lonely girl with a heart so broken she didn't think it even existed. But I saw her heart.

It was enormous.

So large that when it broke, it shifted the earth beneath her feet.

"I don't have friends, Doc," Camilla says, bending down to grab the stick. She pets Pinto's head before tossing it into the air. "Friends are liabilities."

"Liabilities?" I ask. "Friends are essential, Camilla. It's imperative to have people in your life who love you. It's what makes life worth living."

"No." Her jaw clenches as she glances over at Pinto. "It's what makes life unbearable to live." I swallow, staring off into the distance in silence. "You want to know the real danger?" she asks and I nod tentatively, frowning. "It's love, Doc. It's the most dangerous type of evil."

I've never put much stock in love. I've never seen its healing properties. I've never believed that love was a remedy for pain. It wasn't for me. But as my gaze flicks across herhooded, defeated eyes, all I want to do is touch her. I want to melt away the ice in which she's encapsulated. I want my arms to break the ties, the shackles, the cage in which she's trapped inside.

"Has love betrayed you before, Camilla?" I ask in a low hum, unable to stop the question from pouring from my lips.

"No," she whispers. "Love didn't betray me... I betrayed love."

I want to set her free.