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In that moment, I wasn’t just fighting Rob. I was fighting everything he represented. Everything he stood for. My body exploded into action, renewed kicking, bucking, scratching. “How can you feed with no fangs?”
“I’ll feed. ” Rob gave me a gloating smile. “That’s why you’re here. It’s the blood in you girls that makes us strong. ”
The moment the words were out of Rob’s mouth, Yasuo went ballistic.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Yasuo went nuts.
NUTS.
He flew at Rob, ripped him off me and flung him against the fence, repeatedly slamming his face against the post like a person might beat the dust from a rug. There was a hideous sound, a splat and crack like a hammer on meat, and Yas tossed him away, a bloody heap in the muddy snow.
“What the hell?” Toby shouted, backing away.
Danny dove to kneel beside Rob in the slush, watching helplessly as his friend writhed and spasmed, then glared over his shoulder at Yasuo. “Have you totally lost it?” Rob’s jaw hung loose, no longer resembling a jaw.
The Draug began howling like crazy, rattling their cages, because now they scented fear and blood.
But Yasuo just stood there, panting, his mouth agape, fangs longer than I’d ever seen them. Sharp and gleaming.
“What the hell…? What the hell?” Toby was paralyzed, rocking in place, looking like he was going to tear his hair out.
“You should get out of here,” I whispered to him.
“Screw this. I’m gone. ” Danny hopped to his feet and burst into a jog. He called out a final, “Enjoy, mates,” before running off.
At least I heard him run off. I didn’t take my eyes from Yasuo, who was now staring like a statue. It was a terrible sight, that stillness. It was menace and hatred, frozen as marble. And it was all aimed at me.
Toby—good old Toby—must’ve sensed it, because he said, “Dude, let’s just talk about this. ” He sounded as uneasy as I felt.
I sidled closer, telling him in a low voice, “You should follow Danny. ” Yasuo was spiraling, and it was obvious he was all too happy to take Trainees down with him. Besides, the farm boy was a distraction. I desperately hoped the old Yas was still there, buried deep in that glaring creature, and this might’ve been my last chance to summon him. “Really, I’ve got this. ”
“All you’ve got is the kiss of death,” Yasuo hissed.
“There’s death all around this island. Don’t pin it on me. ” I edged sideways, but there was no escaping that stare. He was laser focused on me and yet completely oblivious to my words, my emotions. “Come on, Yas. Try to remember how we used to be. ”
“Kiss of death. The sure thing. ”
I put my hands up, taking a few steps back, thinking maybe I preferred crazy-unhinged Yasuo to this cold, calculated-fury Yasuo. “I heard you the first time. ”
“People around you don’t die in normal ways. They meet grisly, fucked-up ends. ”
“Take it easy. ”
“It will be easy. ” He lunged at me, and I darted aside.
“Don’t do this. ” I’d been avoiding another confrontation with my old friend, but I was in survival mode. If he attacked, I’d fight. And I didn’t want to fight.
He flung himself at me again, but again I managed to duck and spin out of the way.
“Get a grip, man. ” Toby was bobbing on his toes, unsure how or if to get involved. Why didn’t he just leave? Was he looking out for me or for Yasuo?
“It doesn’t have to be this way,” I pleaded.
“It does. ” Yasuo was panting again, that madness once more descending like a film over his eyes. “Does. ”
He attacked again, a broad swat at my head, then another. But his movements were erratic, and I evaded them easily. This wasn’t the old Yasuo—the old Yas had been eclipsed by a monster. This was a creature driven by fury but unable to strategize. Incapable of tactics. His weren’t maneuvers; they were motions, crude and predictable.
