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Struggling to take in the changes that had happened to my friend, I crossed my arms and faced her down. “Janet went quietly, just as she wanted to. Thank the gods—and I never thank them lightly.” Frustrated, I held out my hands. “How could you bite her, after al these years? How dare you bite her? She was helpless and couldn’t fight back. You know she didn’t want to be a vampire, but still you drank her blood. Janet was your best friend, your staunchest al y al through your life, and you betrayed her at the end. You made her afraid of you!”
A flash and I saw the old Sassy peering at me through the reddened eyes. “Oh, Menol y. Oh my God, what did I do? No, my sweet, poor Janet. Is she . . . I didn’t . . .”
“No, you didn’t force her to drink. But you drank from her when she was at her most vulnerable.
Oh, Sassy, you’re slipping. Erin told me about the girl. What have you become? ” I didn’t have much truck with the gods—they’d never done much for me—but I prayed. To the Moon Mother, to Bast, asking them for the same strength they gave my sisters.
“I hurt her . . . didn’t I?” Remorse fil ed the elderly woman’s face and she covered her eyes with her hands, bloody tears streaking down her cheeks onto the Chanel suit. The old Sassy would never have al owed such an expensive faux pas, but this Sassy didn’t even notice.
“You made me promise you something . . . six months ago, you forced me to promise you that I’d stop you from becoming one of the monsters you hate.” I spoke softly, in an attempt not to spook her.
Sassy lowered her hands, staring at me. “I’m not ready. I’m not ready . . . but . . .” Helplessly, she glanced at the stairs, looking up toward Janet’s room. “I hurt my best friend, my oldest friend . . .”
“You’re slipping into your predator, Sassy. Pretty soon you won’t care that you hurt people. It’s not easy to control, and you don’t seem to have the ability to contain or channel the hunger.” I watched her face as it convulsed from remorse to anger.
She slowly began to circle me, studying my face, her expression slipping into an ugly cunning.
“Suppose I’ve changed my mind? You took Erin away from me, didn’t you? You don’t want her with me.”
“Not when you’re like this. She doesn’t love you the way you thought. She saw you with that girl.”
“She does too love me!” Sassy blinked. “Why didn’t she join me?” A low hiss escaped her throat. “I wanted her there.”
“Yeah, I’l bet you did. But it’s not going to happen. Erin isn’t like you, Sassy. She’d rather learn to control her instincts. I thought you could help her, but you’ve lost your way. And I don’t think you can find the path back.”
Sassy tilted her head to the side, eyeing me like an owl might eye its prey. Her fangs were down and her eyes were bloodred. On one level, she looked like my old friend, but when I stood back, distance al owed me to see her as she had become: a traitor to friends, betraying even her beloved Janet.
I knew then it was over. She was ready for a fight and she wasn’t going down easy. I glanced around the room. We were in close quarters. We’d trash the place, but I didn’t have time to quibble. Sassy was strong, but I had Dredge’s blood on my side, and my Fae heritage. Sassy, on the other hand, had the strength of being firmly in her predator.
“Bring it on, Fae-girl. Pretty little girl who has no qualms taking down the bad guys. Wel , let me tel you this: Most mortals are bad guys. Humans have trashed the planet and each other since the dawn of time, and I was no exception. Have you looked on the Internet lately, Red? Have you seen how much little boys and girls are going for—and not to the vamps. No, but to other humans.
Predators, al . Do you know you can buy a twelve-year-old to fuck and beat up in Thailand for five bucks, if that? Humans do that, Menol y, not the vampires.”
“I know the kind of scum that are out there.” I sidestepped to the left, mirroring her movements as we circled one another. “That doesn’t mean it’s okay to unleash our own predators—not without knowing who our targets are. We are far more powerful than most of the breathers. They can’t fight back against us.”
“Do I real y care? I spent so many nights repressing my urges, trying to believe in Wade’s cause. But now . . . it’s so simple. Al you have to do is let go, Menol y. Al you have to do is give in to the voice inside. This is what we are: Predators. Violent, vicious, predators. We are top of the food chain. We could own the world if we wanted to.”
And any glimpse of reason in her face was gone.
To win, I’d have to let go of Sassy as a friend. Of Sassy as the cultured, funny woman I remembered. I let the floodgates open, just a little, and welcomed my hunger. Sassy’s snarl spurred me on, and the image of who she was faded as she loomed large—my opponent, my enemy.
I let her make the first move. As she leaped toward me, I danced to the side and she came down hard, shaking the floor with her impact. I whirled to face her and my feet made contact, knocking her forward as I flipped over her head and came down, rebounding off her back. I landed in a crouch and immediately leaped to my feet and turned.
I’d knocked her back against a china cabinet and winced as delicate cups shattered, jarred by the impact.
Sassy snarled and raced headlong for me, head-butting me before I could duck out of the way. I landed against her sofa with an oomph, knocking it over. Somersaulting backward to my feet, I grabbed the nearest chair—an eighteenth-century reproduction—and smashed it over her head, immediately fol owing it up with a lamp off the nearby table.
She shook off the broken glass and grabbed the coat rack, aiming it like a spear. Crap, that would make the world’s biggest stake! I jumped out of the way as she sent it sailing through the air toward me. It went skidding into the wal , leaving a crack to slowly filter down the wal .
“I’m stick-a-fork-in-me done with this,” I whispered, pul ing out the stake from my boot. Racing for her, headlong, I realized I could run faster than she could, thanks to my Fae background. I skimmed over the furniture, lightly leaping from the back of a chair to a tabletop to the floor as she raced out of the room, fear in her face now.
She headed for the front door and I fol owed. The minute we were outside, she turned to the right and headed off toward the trees surrounding her house, and I sped up. The violent night was alive as the snow fel silently to the ground, burying it in a shroud of white.
I was gaining on her and, before I realized it, had caught up. Grabbing her by the arm, I whirled her around to face me. She snarled. My enemy. My friend. The mirror of what I could become.
“Oh Sassy, I’m so sorry. But I promised. You’d hate who you’ve become, if you were stil in there.” And even as she clawed at me, leaving one long scratch down my face, I brought the stake down on her heart, piercing the Chanel suit, piercing the flesh, driving it deep into her. What started as a bloodstain was fol owed in seconds by dust and ashes as she let out one long shriek and vanished before my eyes into a smal brown stain against the snow. I knelt beside the pile of ashes.
“What was life has crumbled. What was form, now fal s away. Mortal chains unbind and the soul is lifted free. May you find your way to the ancestors. May you find your path to the gods. May your bravery and courage be remembered in song and story. May your parents be proud, and may your children carry your birthright. Sleep, and wander no more.”
