Valentina's POV
Everything felt like drowning in warm, syrupy silence. Then pain like a ripple against the inside of my skull.
I winced. My eyelids were heavy but my head…was heavier. A dull ache throbbed behind my eyes, burning and unrelenting. My throat was dry. My limbs, too light. I felt like I was floating weightless but not free.
I blinked. Once. Twice and then light poured in.
I turned my head slowly. The movement set off a new pulse of pain, radiating from my neck down to my spine. My body didn’t feel like mine. I tried to sit up, my hand barely lifted off the bed before trembling violently.
The ceiling above me was unfamiliar. Pale, high, cold. It was not my room.
I blinked again, this time faster and the memory returned like a flood.
The bite. The heat. Ryker’s hands on me
