Page 82 of After Darkness Falls

The creature's eyes flashed. "Not quite."

Then, he was gone. A burst of wind heading up the stairs.

With her new immortal eyes, she'd been able to detect Levi's movements, but she couldn't see his. She doubted anyone could. Frail, powerless, decaying.

Eirikr was none of these things.

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Monsters

She heard the screams. The heart-wrenching yells. The pleas.

"Spare me, I beg you. I'll serve you!"

And the horrifying crushing sound of bone breaking.

Then the smell. Blood. So much blood flowing.

Chloe heard suctioning, gulping, and then an appreciative moan.

She was going to be sick.

After killing and draining she didn't know how many of her pursuants, Eirikr walked back down to the cave.

Chloe couldn't believe her eyes.

The dry corpse was gone, replaced by a man so handsome he put Levi to shame. The portrait in the huntsmen’s quarters in London hadn’t done him justice. Lean, with a muscular, well-built frame. The rag on his hips looked like the remnants of a kilt that once had some color. There was mud and blood on his golden skin, which she felt looked very natural and appropriate on a predator.

Eirikr looked like her brother Tom. He even had the same hair as the rest of her family—dark at the roots and then unnaturally light an inch later.

No one would have doubted that they were family. A family of crazy, beautiful creatures that didn't belong to this world.

"Better, don't you think?"

She had no words.

Eirikr brought his wrist to his lip and bit down, drawing blood. At least she thought it was blood. But it was midnight blue—dark as night.

She looked up to his eyes as he reached out, close to her mouth.

Nothing had ever smelled as appetizing. Not even candy. She wanted that blood like she wanted her next breath.

But there was something else she wanted more.

"I can't…"

She closed her eyes, the smell of his blood making her feel dizzy, mindless. Uncontrollable.

"I can't be a monster," she finished.

She couldn't become her father. Or end up locked in a cage like Eirikr because everyone was afraid of her. Better for her to leave this world now, when everyone could recall her with fondness, than to linger as a thing from their nightmares.

Eirikr tilted his head.

"Then who will? I have no way out of here, and your brother is no leader. Who will stand when the world needs justice?”

She shook her head, too weak to argue. Plenty of other people were more suited to the task. Tris, Jack, and the rest of the huntsmen. Levi, who could move like lightning and command the likes of Cat and Mikar. Anyone.

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