Page 49

Or rather… she was wrenched away from me.

I was seconds away from her drinking my blood and stealing my magic as Nik was supposed to do, but she was thrown to the end of the hallway. Her head cracked painfully againstthe stairway banister. I fell to my hands and knees when her grip on my hair was yanked free, and I inhaled deeply, trying to steady myself.

Nik was standing above me, his black boots and training pants the only thing that would focus in my vision. When my gaze traveled up to meet his, the only thing I could see in his depthless eyes was simmering, unfettered rage.

“How dare you put your hands on her!” His voice was cold as ice as he slowly moved towards Giselle.

She cradled the back of her head, crawling away from him until she hit the other side of the wall. The only place for her to go now was down. Nik’s footsteps were slow and measured, and Giselle cowered away from him.

“Was the scar across your pretty little face not enough of a warning?” he seethed.

Pretty? I shook my head, clearing the thought.

I couldn’t be jealous, and of a Noctani, no less. I was losing my Goddamn mind. I moved to stand, my head pounding and my ears ringing with every beat of my heart. Spots swam before my vision once more, but I tried my best to blink them away.

“I’m sorry, Nikolai.” Giselle exposed her neck to him, as if she were a wolf and he were her Alpha.

Maybe she was a Nightshade. Was it possible that the Noctani were more animal than human now that they had been corrupted with black magic? Had they formed some type of… pack among themselves?

The hierarchy was clear. Nikolai led them, and no one else would stand against him. He was the strongest as a human, and he was the strongest as Noctani.

“Sorry?” he asked, inclining his head towards her. “Weren’t you sorry the last time?”

He kneeled before her, reaching his hand out to push a lock of her dirty blonde hair behind her ear. The gesture was almost… intimate. It had jealousy simmering hot in my gut. As his hand skimmed the back of her neck, his nails became elongated claws, and they dug in.

Giselle threw her head back, an animalistic howl wrenching free from her throat as her head fell back. My jaw fell open as I scrambled backwards away from them. Tears stung the back of my eyes as I reached the bedroom door, my hand on the knob. I wanted nothing more than to close it between us and free my vision from the horror before me, but I couldn’t bring myself to glance away.

He had paralyzed her.

Severed her spinal cord.

I wasn’t sure that was something even a Noctani could recover from. Blood dripped down the back of her neck, staining the carpet with fat, wet droplets. This… this wasn’t Nikolai. The Nikolai I knew was never cruel. Never reveled in such savagery and cruelty.

He leaned into Giselle, his lips whispering against her ear. “This is what happens to those who think to touch what ismine.”

With his claws still digging into the back of her neck, he closed his fist, snapping her neck in one swift movement.Her lips parted on one final cry before her eyes glazed over. He released her, and her bloodied body fell to a heap on the carpet before us.

I turned to retreat into the bedroom, but Nik was already there behind me. He was so damn fast. I flinched away from him, but there was nowhere to go. Giselle’s dead body lay across the hallway, blocking the route to the staircase.

I had lost my only opportunity to escape.

“Are you scared, Firecracker?” he asked, raising his brow at me as he leaned down towards me.

Yes. I couldn’t separate the two… the Nikolai I once knew and the one standing before me. They weren’t the same, but there was so much of them thatwas. The dimple on his right cheek popped as he glanced down at me, and I thought I was going to be sick all over again. What was I doing?

My hand remained on the doorknob, but he grasped it, bringing my palm over his chest.

His heart beat beneath my palm, a rapid, furious pace.

“Am I not your Nikolai?” he asked, raising his brow at me. “Does my heart not still beat?”

It did… but that didn’t mean he wasmine.

No.

Dark magic had made him something… other.

But despite knowing that, despite every instinct in my body telling me otherwise, I melted the moment his lips brushed the skin on my cheek. He wrapped his arms around me, fitting my body to his. He was still so… warm. And he wasright here.