Page 21 of Veil of Blood and Bone

This isn’t thirst. This is whatever wakes up in monsters when they find something that once belonged to them.

The raven pecks at the troll's other eyes and draws blood.

All those human screams have faded, replaced by the terrible grunts of battle. Helene has always worked silently and allowed her actions to do the talking for her until she gains victory.

She somehow gets the troll on its ass. Its movements are sluggish now, slow in the face of her competence.

Helene lifts a table leg with a growl and sends it flying through the troll’s gaping mouth, pinning the creature to the ground.

Any hint of the sister and her wheelchair is gone now. Hopefully the poor frail little thing has moved on, far away from this fight.

“I guess this settles it.” Nicholas groans. “Now you’ve started the cycle by drawing her to you, now that Forest got close⁠—”

“Agreed,” I interrupt.

He whips his gaze around to latch our eyes together.

“There’s no reason not to approach her,” I finish with a smirk.

“Separately?”

I nod curtly. “Of course.”

Masculine laughter echoes off the trees, and Nicholas and I turn in unison.

“Gods. What an asshole. Hot,” I say loudly.

The raven is gone, and Forest—fucking Forest Ulfson—stands in its place wearing a gauche cape of feathers, his hair now a violent reddish-blond.

“Wow, he’s a son of a bitch.” Nicholas skulks to the edge of the gloom and hisses.

“Let’s leave his mother out of it. The poor woman gave me the fuck of my life when I bent her over his furs,” I laugh, although I agree with him and his sentiment wholeheartedly. “I’m partial to her.”

Nicholas scuffs the dirt and flashes fang. “He’ll ruin everything.”

“He’s never shown himself this quickly in a cycle before, either.”

A man can only make so many excuses, can only offer enough understanding, for someone in Forest’s position. Bird brain doesn’t remember that he doesn’t remember. And yet....

I tap my finger against my chin. The and yet part bothers me. The pieces have fallen into place like cogs in a wheel every single lifetime. Life after life, repetition makes things boring while the stakes continue to mount.

I’m a man on a rack being pulled in four directions.

“Ruin is a strong word,” I reply to Nicholas. “Perhaps this is exactly the way it needs to be.”

He descends into the gloom, silent, until only the whites of his eyes are visible. Stupid vampire.

The clock has started. This time it feels different.

Chapter 5

Helene

There’s no time to think.

Seconds slip away, and muscles warm, my body flowing the way it’s been trained to my whole life. No. Not the same way…

More.