Stab.
“Stay quiet.”
Stab.
“Don’t make a sound.”
Stab!
Judging by the burning in my arm, I think I accidentally cut myself during the frenzy.
Doesn’t matter.
It’s not really the stabbing that gets me high. It’s the way life leaves their eyes right in front of me. I’m the last person who sees them alive.
Their fucking god on earth.
A rustle yanks my attention, and I whirl around, ready to fight Jude over who gets to finish this motherfucker off. “You better back?—”
I stop.
Because it’snotJude.
The figure in black, leaning against a tree with his arms crossed like he owns the whole damn forest, is definitely not my best friend. The build is similar, sure, but this one wears a solid white mask, and he smells different.
Leather and forest.
Like something that stepped out of the dark just to…what?
Watch me? Hunt me?
“Who are you and how would you like to die?” I tilt my head, probably looking monstrous with blood dripping down my arms and my knife buried in the squirming man’s torso.
The stranger—and heisa stranger, because this forest is off-limits to literally everyone, even Vencor—doesn’t answer. He just straightens from the tree and crooks a finger at me.
Come find out?Is that what he’s saying?
Jude’s heavy footsteps pound somewhere to my right, and in the blink of an eye that I take to check, the stranger is already darting between the trees.
Fucking hell. I can’t believe I’m abandoning a kill, but there are bigger issues here. Such as,why is a masked stranger in my fucking forest?
I yank my knife free and sprint after him. Annoyingly, I lose him and start to slow near a large tree.
There’s a hum in the air—a tension that crawls under my skin, sliding from my spine to the tips of my fingers.
All of a sudden, a large, gloved,very familiarhand wraps around my throat from behind, dragging me back against a hard chest.
Tingles explode across every inch of my skin as hot breaths brush the shell of my ear.
“Hello again, baby.”
7
MARCUS
There’s been a slight change of plans.
It’s my attempt to adapt to the current state of affairs and all that.
