Chapter 81
Chapter 81
“But if you are good, we’ll leave the boy to fate. Maybe he’ll die, maybe the other dogs will find him in time. The choice is yours, love. Do you want him to have a chance? Or do you want to kill him
yourself p>
Tremors wracked her body so violently that, if it hadn’t been for
Alex’s hand around her neck, Tessa would have sunk to the
न.
“Time’s ticking, love. Will you fight me, or will you be good.
Her vision blurred with hot, burning tears. “I’ll be good,” she
answered hoarsely.
Alex leaned in, brushing his lips against her ear. “There’s a smart girl.” He adjusted his hold on her, shifting his grip to the back of her neck, and then his lips were on her throat, colder than ice. She heard the parting of his lips and then the sudden punch of his teeth through her skin. She gasped at the pain.
“Shhh…” Alex soothed. And then his lips sealed around the wound he’d made, and he began to feed. Tessa felt her blood siphoning into his mouth. Her stomach churned and cold shivers chased over her
skin. He swallowed a hot mouthful, and then his lips were on her again, drawing the life from her veins. Over his shoulder, she could see Daniel laying still and lifeless in front of the open door.
Tessa began to grow light–headed and staggered backwards, crashing against the table. Alex moved with her, steadying her as he continued to feed. The wet sounds of his mouth working against her throat filled her ears. The light–headedness turned into swirling vertigo. Black spots appeared in her vision, prickling and dancing. She put a hand behind her, bracing herself against the table. Her hand skidded over some debris, and she almost fell again. But Alex wrapped an arm around her back, holding her against him as her
Chapter 81
knees gave out.
The black spots sparked and grew wider. Tessa lost sight of Daniel as her head lolled back. Her hands felt cold and numb. She lifted one idly, clumsily, as Alex continued to drain her. Something was stuck to her palm. She squinted. Her vision was fuzzy and dark. It took her a few seconds to figure out what she was looking at.
A matchstick.
She’d left them scattered across the table. Her heart leapt, a vision seemed to sharpen briefly. With numb, cold fingers slowly maneuvered the match so that she was gripping it by base. Her vision was fading back out again. Everything was getting so dark. And she was so cold. Her arms had no strength. She dragged the match across the edge of the table, but it was too slow to do
anything.
Alex shifted his grip on her as he bit into her again, releasing a fresh flood of blood. He cradled the back of her head–bringing Daniel back into her dim view. Tessa drew on all of her fading strength and flicked the match head hard along the rough edge of the table. She smelled the sulfur before she saw the flame. With a wobbling, clumsy hand, she pressed the lit match to Alex’s sleeve.
It took a second for his sleeve to catch, but once it did, it went up quickly. Alex’s lips suctioned wetly as he pulled back from her, making an inarticulate sound of confusion. Without his support, Tessa crumpled to the floor. She felt her own blood as a wet gush down her neck. She lay limply, splayed like a rag doll, watching as the flames licked up his sleeve.
“What–what did you do?” Alex gasped, beating at the fire. “No!” He tried to pull the sweater off, but he only succeeded in spreading the flames–cheap acrylic yarn was incredibly flammable. In seconds, his entire torso went up like a late–January Christmas tree. He staggered backwards, letting out an ear–shattering scream that sounded neither human nor animal, but something unearthly and
Chapter 81
wrong.
He thrashed as he tried to put the flames out, but they only roared hotter and higher as they consumed his body. He stumbled against the kitchen counter. The paint caught fire immediately, and the old dry wood beneath it followed suit. Alex’s screams continued to shatter against Tessa’s eardrums, but she watched it all happen from deep inside her head, lost in some cold, dark, faraway place.
“Tessa!” His voice shrieked from within the blazing inferno that had consumed him entirely. “Tessa!” he screamed her name, at again. It echoed in her mind for what seemed like forever
The world grew darker and colder for Tessa, even as the flames grew hotter and higher. Alex’s voice finally twisted away into a shrill nothing. His body slumped to the floor, just a big, motionless,
burning mass.
In the distance, a howl sounded. Then another. And another. They
were so far away.
The world was so dark now. Tessa could hardly even see the fire. But she knew it was spreading, knew its heat was raking over her. Dimly, she sensed the glow of flames licking their way along the kitchen cabinets, climbing the wall. They spidered across the floor from Alex’s body.
She was so cold. And so tired. Her eyes drifted shut. Or maybe her vision failed entirely. She wasn’t sure, and she didn’t really care,
either.
“Tessa!” A new voice–a familiar voice. Why did she know that voice?
She blinked hard against the darkness, but she couldn’t see anything. She could hear other voices, but none of them stood out to
her like that one.
“No! No, no, no no, no–Tessa! Gracie? Please, honey, wake up.” Her
Chapter 81
heart pinged weakly as she finally recognized that voice. Declan.
“Please, Gracie,” he begged.
The agony in his voice tore at her soul, but there wasn’t enough of her left to try and comfort him. She tried to speak–tried to at least say goodbye–but the world tilted beneath her, and then the darkness ate her up entirely.
(4)
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