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My stomach rolled at the idea, but I didn’t have a choice. I didn’t reallywantto push him, especially since the more I dealt with him, the surer I was that he hadn’t done it but rather whatever was in the room. I couldfeelit, too. The slightest tingle along my spine, like a leftover charge, a shadow of magic. Still, after the bodies, after it all, I needed answers. “You killed Rachel,” I said and came closer again. I yanked the photo from him and held it up to his face. “She trusted you, loved you, and you murdered her. I saw you rip out her throat, tear her to pieces.”
He wentwildat the accusation. A sharp curse left Grant before he increased the speed of the words he muttered, but I didn’t let up. This was the only reaction I’d pulled from Olin, and as much as tormenting him wasn’t my idea of a good time, I needed answers and I wasn’t sure where else to get them.
“She’s dead and it’s all your fault!” Without thinking about how monumentally stupid it was, I reached out and gripped his chin to try to force him to look at me.
The moment we made contact, that electrical charge I’d felt from him sparked. I couldfeelit slithering through him, controlling him.
As soon it happened, the black in his eyes faded a bit, as if the shadowy presence inside him had been forced back.
He blinked slowly, his lip falling to cover his fangs. His gaze remained on the photo I held up, and the longing in his eyes broke my heart.
“Rach,” he whispered, the sort of nickname given when people knew each other well. I could almost hear him whispering it in the dim light of the day when he was forced to stay inside and would tug her closer as though to tempt her to stay a little longer.
“I didn’t mean to,” he continued. “I would never hurt her.”
“But you did,” Grant said from my side.
It was then I realized he had no idea the difference, that this was Olin now, not whatever was controlling him. I only knew it because of the feel.
Olin nodded, though he refused to pull his gaze from the picture, as though that was all that mattered.
Then again, it was all he had of her, wasn’t it? All that remained of whatever they’d had.
“So it seems.”
“Tell me what happened,” I pressed.
“I don’t know.”
“Try.” I gripped his chin harder, trying to force that shadow back farther, to bring Olin out more. It fought me, struggling blindly as though it wasn’t fully aware that I was there but knewsomethingwas interfering. “Don’t make her death mean nothing.Helpme.”
Thatgot his attention. He turned his gaze to me finally, a determination there that spoke volumes about how he cared for her. “I don’t know. I rested there after…” He swallowed as if he couldn’t say it, as though the memory was too painful, a moment he’d never get back, that one fleeting second before a storm. “Then it all went black. No, not black, but rather as though I were in heavy smoke. I saw what happened, the things I did, but it was as though I could only observe, only watch, and only through that smoke.”
“Is it an infection? A sickness? Magic?”
Olin shuddered, and that shadow inside him grew. It clawed to regain control, to take over again, and, despite my fighting it, it would win. I had no idea how I was keeping it at bay right then.
“No,” he said. “It smells of brimstone and hellfire. It’s something…dark.”
The shadow, the thing we discussed, gained ground. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get ahead of it. The shadow surged forward, throwing me backward with a blast of energy, something stronger than the lingering presence it had been.
He again broke free of Grant’s spell, and I had that split-second to get right with god. The way he snarled, the way his eyes lost the sanity he’d found for a moment told me Olin was gone. This was the shadow, the thing that inhabited him, and it had shown it had no mercy.
He lunged, but before he touched me, before he buried his fangs in my throat and tore it free, a fire consumed him, seeming to crack him apart, glowing orange at the seams, and everything turned to dust.
It left me covered in dead vampire and Grant standing there, flames dancing along his hand as though under his control.
So much for answers.
