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Karma shudders, and Thad runs a hand through his hair before he groans.
“The rest of them are trying to figure out what you’re new little sired girl will be like with the combined powers of her anointed blood and your night stalker blood. So far she’s already different. But we’ve only seen her for a few minutes at a time since you rescued her, since she’s been trying to keep you away from us until you were you again.”
That entire damn explanation just confuses the fuck out of me.
“What?” I ask, still trying to get the drunken state of my mind to work like a sober person’s.
“She’s the only person you weren’t growling at when we got back. She only came down when you’d pass out, which is common after siring someone,” Dice goes on, and my blood chills as my entire body stiffens. I replay his words over and over, trying to make them mean something—anything—else.
“You might have killed one of us for getting too close while you were all black-eyed and crazy boy,” he continues. “I didn’t get to see it when they were solid black. Per the usual, I missed the good shit. But just seeing the little bit of black was pretty fucking crazy, man. What’d you eat?”
“You’re such a damn dick,” Gage snaps, glaring over at Dice who looks utterly confused.
“Why? He asked. I told. The ‘what’d you eat’ part was obviously a joke, but the rest was legit!”
Gage rolls his eyes, but I’m too busy processing. My mouth feels like cotton and my head feels even dizzier than when I first stumbled out of bed.
I’m going to be sick.
“She’s not acting like a normal new night stalker,” Chaz says, but the words blend with the white noise going on in my ears. “She’s not starry-eyed and mindless… Two times she… I heard her… She’s acting the same… That’s why we’re…” I only get a few words in between the loud noise that continues to disrupt my head, and then it turns to an even louder ringing as my world crashes down on me.
I did the one thing I always promised I never would.
I became the monster I swore I’d never be.
I stole a life.
I’ve destroyed her.
Chapter 25
LEAH
The door kicks open, and I scramble to my feet. Victor’s eyes meet mine, and his gaze narrows. What the hell is he doing in my room?
“What do you want?” I ask, climbing out of my bed.
“You keep getting kicked around at school. I’m sick of seeing the bruises. I’m sick of seeing you play dead. You’re a fighter, even if you’re too scared to admit it.”
What is his defect?
“I’m fine, Victor. I don’t like fighting. Blood is gross and inflicting pain doesn’t get my jollies up the way it does yours.”
“You can fight, Leah. You’re just too scared to learn how. Swallow the fear.”
He grabs me by the arm, and struggling becomes pointless. He’s nothing but a wall of muscle as he drags me outside, past the few strays that have crashed here the past couple of days.
“Stop! Victor, please, stop!”
He continues dragging me, and I silently curse myself for not riding with Aunt Masie into town. My bare feet try to dig into the ground, but he jerks me behind him like I weigh nothing and pose no problem.
When we get to the barn, he shoves me inside, and I stumble over myself as my heart dives to my feet. On the ground, all three Leonard boys are on their hands and knees, staring at the barn floor full of hay and dirt. A couple of Victor’s friends are smiling as they hold shotguns like they’re toys. One of them even laughs as he pokes Tommy in the back of the head with the barrel.
“Tell me they don’t deserve to be fought, Leah. Tell me that fury doesn’t rage inside you when you see their faces. Tell me you don’t feel anything when you think of all they’ve done to you.”
I swallow down the bile in my throat when I see Tommy shed a tear, trembling all over and wearing nothing but his underwear. They’re all just in their underwear. Degraded, humiliated, and scared out of their minds.
This isn’t karma, though. This is cruelty.
