Page 155 of Claimed By Fangs and Darkness

They were lowlifes hanging out near the university who had taken over a once-popular restaurant. They were an unspoken threat to progressive students and faculty—a reminder that Conrad had the city under born control.

A reminder that they werepowerless.

This group wasn’t who I wanted to kill, but that didn’t matter once I barged into the restaurant and saw them lounging back in chairs or leaning over the bar. They were all cocky smiles, spread arms, and archaic clothing with blood red accents.

Not a care in the fucking world.

Until they saw me.

I rampaged. I didn’t care if I showed my godlike power, the strength I’d been carefully concealing for eighty years. What did it matter if they knew?

They were about to be dead.

The sigh that left my lungs was a pleasurable relief. Blade stood in front of the exit. Harmony stood a few steps behind me, channeling her defensive shields as backup.

With deathly speed and precision, I grabbed the nearest born with a shadow limb and tore open his neck. I ignored the shouts and orders as born leaped to their feet. Magick deflected off Harmony’s shields. I tore heads from bodies. Now the only person in this room smiling wasme.

I groaned at the sensation of blood dribbling down my face, coating my hands. I savored the rawness of a kill using only a dagger and my bare hands. The feel of broken flesh under my fingers, the crunch of bones as shadows squeezed, eternal life reduced to corpses.

I did to the born what they did to us with no remorse. What they had always done and what they would continue to do if left unchecked.

Blade annihilated the first coward to approach the doors, using his favorite short swords to skewer them through the chest.

A dagger flew at my head, and I caught it midair with a smoky tendril. My predator’s gaze found the born woman who’d thrown the weapon immediately.

I threw it right back, letting it strike her between the eyes as a swarm of shadow consumed her.

The primal release of magick and rage was a scalding snake that slithered through me. Every time I heard Aster’s voice calling Evie’s blood unique and perfect, I made my next kill that much more brutal. It was as if I were trying to fill a bottomless pit of hunger that could never be sated. Not even doused in blood, born power fueling more of my own as I drank their putrid essence.

“I think he’s dead, buddy,” Harmony said softly, patting my shoulder.

I was currently standing over a born man, letting my shadows impale him over and over as blood sprayed.

I felt nothing at all.

“In fact, I believe they are all dead.” Blade slowly approached us. “That wasn’t exactly quiet. We may want to get out of here before more show up and this turns into something bigger.”

“Let more show up,” I hissed.

Before my comrades could attempt to talk me down from my admittedly unhinged behavior, I scented something different in the air.

“Wait,” I said. “Do you…”

“Human blood?” Harmony finished. “I think I hear something too.”

I took a breath, attempting to bring myself down from this peak of madness by at least an inch.

“If they killed Alfie to take over his restaurant I’m going to go on my own killing spree,” Blade growled. “I loved that guy. Also, there weren’t any human servers when we came in.”

The three of us had the same thought at the same time.

Once we found the basement door, we braced ourselves for the worst. Yellowish witch lights lit our path as we descended the dinky wooden stairs.

Someone whimpered. Blade cursed.

“Fucking hells,” Harmony gasped.

Restaurant storage items had been shoved up against the walls to make room for one of the most nauseating sights I’d seen in the past decade.