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My grip on Harlen’s jacket loosened as I watched Chanel approach Morgan.

Chanel wrapped her arms around Morgan. But Morgan didn’t return the embrace. Morgan stood very still.

“Sorry, Coco.” She said with a voice that was familiar but different. “We had... a situation.”

Chanel backed a few feet away from her, suddenly uncertain. “What’s up with you? Are you okay?”

A blanket of silence covered the loft. Morgan slowly removed her sunglasses. I heard Chanel’s sharp intake of breath.

Morgan’s eyes had changed color. Her gray irises now had an unnatural brightness that would wear off in a few weeks.

“I’m different.” Morgan said softly.

I turned back to Harlen, enraged even more than when I first laid eyes on him. “What the fuck did you do?”

Donté moved closer to the women. His expression clocked in at somewhere between shock and recognition. He knew exactly what he was looking at. He’d seen it in the mirror right after I turned him.

Chanel’s hand trembled as she reached toward Morgan’s face. She stopped short of touching her. “Morgan. No!” she wailed.

“I’m still me.” Morgan said, trying to smile. “I’m still a baddie, but now I have fangs.”

Morgan’s joke was ignored. My brother had turned Morgan into a vampire without my knowledge or consent. The realization sent shockwaves of fury through my body. Harlen had stolen Morgan’s humanity. He changed the course of her existence forever. He did it all without a single word from us.

The room seemed to spin around me as I stared at the newborn vampire who used to be Chanel’s human best friend. What I spent months protecting Chanel from had happened. My supernatural world had interfered with her life and claimed one of the people she loved.

The quiet rage exploded inside me and was seeping out. My body launched across the room, colliding with Harlen’s chest. The impact sent us both crashing into the wall so hard the plaster cracked. My balled fist connected with his jaw. The sound was like stone striking stone.

“Why?” I roared, punching him in the face. “Why? Why would you fucking turn her?” My blows to his face came in rapid succession.

Harlen didn’t fight back for the first few seconds. He took my fury like he believed he deserved it. Then his survival instinct kicked in. He twisted out of my grip and shoved me back, sending me stumbling into the glass coffee table. It shattered beneath me. Crystalline shards exploded across the hardwood floor.

I jumped up on my feet instantly, barely registering the glass embedded in my palms. My wounds would close as quickly as they opened. Regular fresh human blood from the vein accelerated my vampire healing in seconds. I wasn’t done. I charged at him again, tackling him over the back of the sofa. We rolled across the floor, knocking over a floor lamp that crashed against the wall before landing on the floor.

“Please stop!” Morgan’s voice cut through the chaos, but I didn’t care. I owed him this fight for so many things he’d done in the past.

I punched Harlen’s face again and again. “You! Had! No! Right!” Each word was punctuated with a blow to his face.

Harlen blocked my next punch and kicked me off him with enough force to send me flying into the bookshelf. Hard-covered books rained down around me.

“I had no choice!” He shouted back, with blood streaming from his split lip.

“Bullshit!”

I launched myself at him again. We crashed into the dining table. The heavy wood splintered under our combined weight and supernatural strength. A chair went flying, striking the wall and breaking into pieces.

When I stood, Donté wrapped his arms around my chest. Harlen relocated a few feet away to stand beside Morgan.

“Father, chill!” Donté's words crippled me for a second, but I couldn’t help but charge back at Harlen again.

“Enough!” Morgan shouted. Her new voice stopped my forward movement. Her tone carried an edge I’d never heard from her before. Power. Vampire power.

I stared at her in disbelief. Three days ago, she was human. The reality of what Harlen had done and what couldn’t be undone hit me all over again.

Chanel was frozen in place and standing by the window. Her tears streamed silently down her face. She hadn’t moved or spoken since the fight began. Her eyes were fixed on this new version of her friend.

Morgan seemed to notice at the same moment I did. “Coco, it’s still me. I promise.”

“Zand, I had no choice.” Harlen said quietly.