Forget About Midnight (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #9)(25)

Kale and I glided through the frat house with a shared intent: murder and mayhem. To feel only the release that came with opening a vein.

A drunk guy, slurring so bad we could hardly understand him, offered us a drink. I smiled and accepted the cup of beer he shoved at me. It sloshed over the side and onto the floor. I took a quick sniff, finding that it smelled toxic, like it was drugged. As soon as he turned away, I ditched it on the coffee table and continued on.

The house was filled with the hormone-charged energy of drunk co-eds. I breathed it in, relishing the anticipation. The build up was almost as good as the release.

Slipping from room to room, we found everything from strip poker to drinking games to a naked woman flouncing about. Finally I found what I wanted. A couple making out in the hallway upstairs were whispering quietly to one another. Despite the noise of the party, my keen hearing picked out their conversation.

He was trying to convince her to go to a bedroom with him. She told him she wanted to wait, that she wasn’t ready. When the big meathead didn’t get his way, he proceeded to reach beneath her skirt anyway. She squealed and tried to push him away. It only encouraged him.

I waited until I saw him clap a hand over her mouth to muffle her protests. Then I stepped up behind him with a smile. Maybe he was a symbolic choice for me. It didn’t take a therapist to put this one together. A man forcing his will onto a woman was my victim tonight, and through him I would unleash whatever inner turmoil I could.

With one hand on his shoulder, I hauled him off her. He turned with a shout, clearly expecting to see a man. The shock on his face when he saw little old me was priceless. I would save it in my memory forever.

“What the fu—” he started, his words cut off when I slammed him against the wall.

“I believe she said no,” I growled into his face, pleasantly surprised to find that it was wolf fangs I bared at him. Even better.

Everything that happened next was a blur. The power roared in my ears, and the darkness overtook me, consuming all I was. I lost track of Kale, the girl, everything but the man I tore to shreds.

In a blackout of rage and violence, I lost myself. Whatever it was that attacked that man, very little of it was my true self. Or perhaps this was my true self now.

I tasted blood and fear. So much fear. Screams rang out, but they sounded far away. I paid them no mind. My senses blazed as the energy filled me. At some point I cast the mutilated remains of my victim aside and went for another. Where he’d come from, I wasn’t sure, and I didn’t care.

This one wanted me because I wrapped him with my succubus power and turned him into a whimpering, begging mess. When I was done with him, I went onto the next.

By the time I came back to myself, I was sitting on the floor in the living room with bodies strewn about all around me. Blood stained my clawed fingertips, and the taste of it was thick in my mouth. I felt light headed, the euphoric high carrying me as if I walked on air.

The music had stopped, and the only sound was the heavy, tragic silence. I stared around at the slaughter and felt strangely detached. I’d done this. I should feel something.

One long, agonized scream echoed from an upstairs bedroom. That’s where I’d find Kale. For a while I just sat there, looking at what I’d done. It flashed me back to Las Vegas when I’d killed a hotel room full of guys after being drugged with wolfsbane. There was nothing and nobody to blame now. Only me.

I didn’t know who I was anymore. Between the vampire and the wolf, where did I fit in? Did I even exist anymore, or had I truly died that night in Arys’s arms?

As quickly as I’d lost myself, I came back. A cry ripped from me as what I’d done began to sink in. I gazed about at the slaughter, and I hated everything I’d become. I should’ve stayed dead.

Sinister laughter broke the silence. It caused my heart to stutter. I’d know that laugh anywhere.

The air moved behind me, and I turned to find the demon enjoying my moment of pain and remorse. Dressed all in black, his ebony wings tucked in close to his body, Shya appraised the scene with obvious delight.

“See, Alexa,” he quipped. “I told you that the dark would claim you.”

Chapter Eight

The dragon on my forearm tingled in his presence. He’d likely used it to find me. Ignoring it, I slowly got to my feet. Shya didn’t frighten me. Not anymore. He couldn’t possibly scare me more than I scared myself.

“Don’t you have some sulking and wound licking to do?” I asked, my tone ice cold. “Pretty brave of you to show your face here, isn’t it?”

Whatever reaction he’d been expecting from me, he didn’t get it. I could tell by the displeased frown he wore.

“I suppose you’re quite proud of yourself. Not only did you succeed in keeping Lilah’s empire locked away, you lured my right hand man into helping you. I guess I can’t compete with a succubus. You clearly have something I don’t.” He gestured rudely at his groin, and I smirked.

“Aww, Shya, do you have a case of vagina envy?” I snickered though it lacked mirth.

If he thought I’d f*cked Falon into helping me, he was all kinds of wrong, but I had no desire to enlighten him. I didn’t really give a damn what Shya thought. Falon had been acting on Lilah’s behalf, or perhaps his own, but nothing he’d done had been for me.

“Apparently one is required when it comes to Falon. Pity. He was one of my best. But I didn’t come to discuss him.” Shya waded through the mess, picking his way carefully around the bodies as if afraid to get blood on his fancy shoes.