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“Don’t. Don’t touch me. It will heal.”
His claws retreated, but his hands continued trembling. His body went rigid while his head spun, and yet he still couldn’t stop looking at her.
“What was that…?”
“I think…” Sona inhaled deeply. Then she let it out with a choked cry, swallowed back as she battled to keep her emotions in check—emotions that hadn’t been there before. “I think that was how I felt when I murdered Oscar. The hunger. The determination. I looked like that, too.”
“Like what?”
“Like I enjoyed it.”
There was no playfulness in her voice now, only resignation. All the mocking and smugness were gone as if they had been his imagination, and her raw grief reached out to him.
“This is…”
“Insane,” she finished. Then, “Charlie.”
“What?”
“You need to figure this out. What drove me to kill him. Why I felt so deliriously happy earlier? He was my friend. We were all meant to protect him.” Her voice shook. “You would never have attempted to kill me under different circumstances, either. But I felt your happiness earlier, and it was as intense as mine.”
“I was angry at you.” But he didn’t deny the other claim. “Sona…”
“Go. I refuse to kill anyone else.”
“If that’s how you see it, then I should be in jail with you—”
“No. Solve this. Please.”
Something nagged. “Did you hear voices in your head?” he asked. “Did you dream, too?”
There was a long pause.
“I don’t know.”
Sick to his stomach, it took Charlie a long time to get over what he had done and even longer to leave the room, reluctant to keep her there after witnessing what she felt—after what he had done. It kept his body tense as he marched the halls, torn between purpose and questions…afraid to bump into one of their friends and feel that same intense delight all over again. But a figure appeared before him, anyway, in clean clothes and with her arms crossed.
“It’s not her, is it?”
There was so much hope in Riva’s voice, but she was braced for the bad news. When he shook his head, all defiance left her as she slumped.
“Then why is she still there?”
“Because all the evidence points to her.”
Her brows furrowed. “You just said it wasn’t her.”
“It’s not her. It’s…something. Using her. I will explain later. For now, I have to—”
“Stop it!”
The warning rang in the air, loud and brimming with alarm. Riva was already streaking away before he caught up, their footsteps rampaging across the grounds as they shadowed the sound. Then more sounds floated out, each one louder than the last and punctuated with fear.
Charlie reached the corner turn first and threw his body in between two entwined ones until all three tumbled down. When he came up for air, his gaze locked on Diego, who scurried up to get away. But Malifeskos grabbed his shirt and pinned him down, hands wringing the vampire’s neck and pushing with all his might. The sickening familiarity had Charlie scrambling again, landing on top of Malifeskos and pulling the man back.
“Release him! Mal, no!”
Riva burst into her partial wolf form and pushed, but the large man didn’t budge and didn’t even look at her. Charlie shifted, too, and got some leverage when his partial bear form managed to push Malifeskos flat to the ground—except even when trapped, Malifeskos still didn’t stop choking the vampire out.
