Page 22

Jason. That was the true reason for her rage tonight.

She was grieving her fledgling lover who’d torn out a homeless man’s throat just two weeks ago.

I’d been forced to put Jason down while she watched in the corner, restrained.

I’d given Jason two warnings about controlling his bloodlust, more chances than I usually allowed.

But the third victim… I remembered finding the body, blood painting the warehouse walls.

There had been no choice after that. The weight of signing his execution order still haunted me, as did Eliza’s screams. Now here she was, wild with grief, revenge, and hunger, threatening to make me understand her loss.

“We’re done being controlled by you, Black!”

I moved before she had the chance. One second I stood across from her, the next I had her pinned against the railing. She struggled, so I slammed her head into the metal, her skull smashing it with a crack.

She only grinned, thrilled by the show of violence.

Keeping her restrained with one hand, I drew my wicked dagger from my coat and pressed the silver blade to her throat. As a fledging vampire, she was blessed with incredible strength, but it was no match for mine.

“Don’t give me no choice but to end you,” I snarled, so close I could smell the lingering traces of her last victim on her breath.

For a stretched moment, Eliza stared back at me, lips still twisted in that mocking smile.

Then Eliza went slack in my grasp, her mocking smile fading. She raised her palms in a gesture of surrender.

Relief coursed through me as I inched back, lowering the blade slightly. Perhaps she’d finally regained some semblance of control over her feral urges. I opened my mouth, ready to order her to leave the area before—

My thoughts were cut off by Flynn’s squeak of terror as Eliza struck like a viper, lunging towards him. He tumbled backwards onto the ground, Eliza’s weight slamming on top of him as she pinned him down .

“No!” The anguished cry tore from my lips.

Eliza leaned down, her fangs extended towards the tender skin of Flynn’s throat as he thrashed beneath her.

In that moment, all restraint, all control, fled me. A crimson haze of fury descended as the predator within raged at the threat to what was mine . My fingers found purchase on Eliza’s throat, wrenching her back with all my strength.

She didn’t even have time to react before I snapped her neck with a sickening crunch of bone. Her body went limp in my grasp, but it wasn’t enough. I had to be sure.

I slashed the silver blade across her throat in one vicious stroke, her head lolling to the side as I severed her spinal cord. Thick, cold arterial blood sprayed across my face and coat, but I barely registered it through the haze of wrath consuming me.

It was over in seconds, though it felt like an eternity. Silence descended once more over the marina as Eliza’s body crumpled to the ground.

I stared at my bloodied hands, the dagger still clutched in one fist. Slowly, far too slowly, the red haze receded from the edges of my vision.

Flynn. I had to get to Flynn.

I whirled to find him still sprawled on the ground where Eliza had tackled him, his eyes wide with a mixture of shock and terror. For twelve beats of his terrified heart, we simply stared at one another across the distance, the night air crackling with tension.

Then Flynn scrambled up and backwards, boots scuffing against the concrete until his back hit the railing behind him. He stared at me—the monster I had so dramatically revealed myself to be.

“Flynn…” My voice faltered as I took a halting step towards him. “I… I need to explain… But please don’t run, it’s not safe.”

He flinched back violently, curling in on himself. I froze in place, something inside me shattering at his reaction.

Of course he would recoil from me. What human wouldn’t after witnessing such savagery ?

As much as I wanted to attend to him, to focus only on him , I had a rather pressing problem on my bloodied hands. With one arm, I wrenched Eliza’s body up, while with the other, I jammed the speed-dial button for Kit on my phone, that Felix had installed for me.

I easily lifted Eliza’s corpse and held it aloft, her head slouching sickeningly to the side.

“There’s been an incident,” I barked into my phone. “I need a body bag at my location immediately. Bring Terrier and the van.”

“On it.”

Kit hung up, and I turned my attention back to the body. I studied her face—the first time I’d seen it at peace rather than twisted with rage or hunger. A pang of sadness pierced through the storm raging inside me.

Eliza had been newly turned, just a fledgling struggling to adapt to her heightened senses and ravenous appetites. It was only the vaguest impression of a memory, but I could understand her torment from my own turbulent beginnings.

The thirst, the confusion, losing identity and purpose—it drove many new vampires into fits of violence and depravity before they learned control.

If only Marcus Vale cared enough about his loyal clan of worshippers to actually teach them…

No. I couldn’t dwell on what-ifs now. Eliza had made her choices, had refused my attempts to teach her restraint. Threatening an innocent human, my human, was unforgivable.

My human.

I forced the possessive thought away. The product of bloodlust and adrenaline.

A flicker of movement in my periphery drew my attention. A couple further down the marina promenade, walking this way. I had to act quickly. As gently as possible, I flung Eliza’s body over the railing and onto the deck of the nearest yacht.

She hit the boat with a slap, the waves lapping against the vessel as it rocked in the water .

I was absolutely covered in Eliza’s gore. As disgusting as the idea was, if Flynn wasn’t there, I might have been tempted to lick some from my ruined clothes. While not as substantial as human blood, it would certainly do in a pinch.

And I was starving, the kind of gnawing emptiness that couldn’t be ignored, as much as I wished to.

My gaze flickered to where Flynn huddled against the railing, arms wrapped tightly around himself. He was staring at the mangled corpse facing upward on the deck, a look of abject horror etched across his features.

The couple drew closer, and I had to resist snapping at Flynn to act natural. If they noticed anything amiss, I’d have to resort to my psychic influence—a subtle mind trick that would alter the last few minutes of their memories, compel them swiftly on their way.

Thankfully, Flynn seemed to register the approaching couple through his shock. He mechanically adopted a casual position, though his eyes remained glazed and distant.

Once we were in the clear, he let out a ragged, choked sound that seemed torn from somewhere deep within him. His entire body trembled visibly, his knees appearing to barely support his weight.

“I think this time, I might actually have a panic attack,” he whispered.

“Flynn…” I took a tentative step forward, hands raised in a pacifying gesture.

I wanted nothing more than to go to him, to wrap him in my arms and shield him from this nightmare he’d been plunged into against his will.

To reassure him that despite my horrific actions, I would never allow harm to come to him.

But one look at the way he cringed from my approach told me that any attempt at comfort would only backfire.

“I know that was… a lot to take in. But I need you to stay calm and let me explain—”

“You’re—” he began, then stopped, swallowing hard. His gaze kept darting between my face and the bloodied corpse on the yacht, as if unable to fully process either sight. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

The question shocked me into silence .

Because I didn’t want this very reaction, not when I was enjoying the way you smiled at me so often.

“I was… getting around to it,” I suggested, the sentence sounding weak to my own ears.

“You told me about Kit and Rory.” Hurt leaked into his words. “I thought you were a human, like me!”

Yes, but they turn into fluffy wolves and I’m a bloodsucking monster.

“It wasn’t necessary for you to know.”

Ouch. That sounded harsh to my own ears. I bit the inside of my cheek, panic rising.

“Right.” Flynn laughed hollowly.

“Please…” I half rasped, hands trembling at my sides. What was I so afraid of? “Let me take you back to Killigrew Street, once Kit arrives to help. We can talk more there.”

Flynn didn’t respond immediately. His gaze remained locked on the grisly mess on the yacht, his expression vacant, as if part of him had retreated somewhere far away from this horror.

After what felt like an eternity, he gave the smallest of nods. I wanted to collapse with relief, but held myself rigid.

Through the reek of Eliza’s blood, another scent cut through—sweeter, more tempting. The forbidden fruit, a mere metre from me.

“You’re bleeding,” I whispered.

For one horrible second, I thought Eliza might have succeeded in getting her fangs into him, but then he turned to face me, tilting his face up. Across one side of his chin was a light graze.

“I…” he started, then seemed to lose his train of thought, his hand rising to touch the wound as if just becoming aware of it. “It’s just a scratch.”

I couldn’t help it. My hand shot out, my thumb gently swiping across the length of his wound. I half expected him to flinch away from me, but instead he kept quite still.

The blood on my thumb sang to me, a siren’s call. The hunger coiled within me like a serpent, hissing and ravenous, desperate to be sated .

I shouldn’t have even considered it. I should’ve wiped it on my coat. Flynn had just witnessed me tear another vampire apart. His heart still thundered with fear, his breath coming in short gasps. What would he think of this?

But the droplet called to me like nothing ever had before.