There was a vampire sitting beside her. One I knew. Holly Valenti, the oldest vampire in the city. Velour’s mother. She had light skin and blonde hair.
A human man walked by, bumping Harper’s arm as he passed us.
Just like that, she snapped.
Her fangs were in his throat too quickly for him to react.
He fell to his knees.
She fell with him.
Shocked gasps and panicked shouts echoed around us.
Feeding vampires was normal for the Guild, but this wasn’t.
Harper’s hunger kept the man alive long enough for Timber to rip her away from his throat and take her to the ground.
Someone kneeled next to the human man, their hand on his throat, trying to stop the flow of blood, but I didn’t see who.
I couldn’t see who.
Couldn’t look away from my best friend, who was… gone.
Timber wrestled her snarling, fighting form as he struggled to roll her over, pinning her face down on the tile.
Her fangs sliced his arms in the process, his blood dripping to the sticky tile on either side of her face.
The whispers and gasps morphed into screams and shouts of terror.
“Harper was turned!”
“She’s a monster!”
“She’s the murderer the werewolves are looking for!”
One voice rang out loudly, above all of the others.
A cold but familiar one.
“KILL HER, TIMBER.”
Oh, god.
It was Neve.
Timber looked at me, but I couldn’t meet his gaze, couldn’t look up from the woman on the floor—the one person I loved and trusted more than anyone else on the planet.
I was shaking my head.
He couldn’t.
“NOW.” Neve’s command
The bar’s doors flew open, crashing against the walls, just before the humans within the building managed to pour out.
I finally looked at Timber.
Apology and dread warred in his eyes.
