Page 39 of How to Entice a Fiend

Rylee… that’s right. She keeps me centered. Rylee keeps me in control.

“Fuck,” Mads groans as his head tilts back and he grits his teeth.

My eyes latch on to his throat and all I can do is fantasize about sinking my fangs into it, grabbing him as blood fills me.

You’re just a monster. That’s all you’ll ever be. You were created forthis. You were created to kill. Monsters don’t need emotions, they don’t need people. They don’t need anything but the drive. Now kill them.

“Ender, what’s wrong?”

Rylee doesn’t think I’m a monster. She’s told me I’m not. But she’s just a fucking kid. She has absolutely no idea what I am. She believes what I’ve shown her and not what I really am.

I groan as I sink deeper into that feeling of losing control.

“Stop digging your fingers into that chain, I canhearyou breaking them,” Mads snaps. “What the hell are you doing? Is this because of the bullet? Ender, are you with me?”

All you’re good for is destroying. You’re surrounded by death because that is what you were made to do. Look behind you. Look at what you’ve done and realize that you’re absolutely perfect for this and only this.

No! No… I don’t want to do what he tells me to do. I don’t…

Mads kicks me and I feel like he does it to snap me out of it but all it does is heighten the smell of blood in this small room.

The darkness grabs me and tears me straight under. The chains I couldn’t destroy before crack beneath my rush ofstrength as I crash to the ground. I drop hard to my knees, my nails scraping into the ground as I lean down and lick the blood off the floor that has dripped beneath Mads’s feet, but it’s not enough. I need more. I need it all. I need to kill. I need the darkness to end.

“Ender, stop! Ender, what are you doing? Please?—”

I slam into him and he groans in pain as my fingers dig into his hair, jerking his head back. My fangs pierce his flesh, ripping into it as the sweet taste of blood fills me. My mind is nothing more than darkness, not a single thought inside of it my own. I’m plagued by this inability to think or function on my own.

“Ender, hey, please stop,” Mads says, and I can hear his voice. I can recognize the words, but I can’t comprehend what they mean. “You’re going to kill me. Please, Ender… I don’t want to die. Please, it’s okay. I know something’s wrong, but it’s okay. You can get out now. En… Ender.”

I can feel him growing weak in my hands. And even though I know that I’m killing him, there’s nothing left in my mind beyond the desire to kill.

“Ender… please… Ender…”

His words do nothing to me. I don’t even understand why he keeps repeating them. Doesn’t he understand that everyone has to die?

A noise sounds behind me as someone opens the door. I tear back from Mads, pulling one of the swords free from him before using it to cut the intruder’s head clean off. It hits the ground as I see another. The tall man. He looks startled as he comes for me but he’s nothing. He can’t get away. He screams and claws and begs as I rip into his throat and drain him until there’s nothing left. When I drop him to the ground, I see others have joined us. Good. I don’t have to hunt for them.

One backs away while the other rushes me, but he soon finds a place on the floor just like his fleeing friend. I want to consumethem. Eat them, destroy them… but there are more to kill. More waiting for me.

I dash into a large room where I hear someone laughing.

“I see that even being shot can’t keep my little puppet down,” Abel says. “Come here.”

I cock my head as the cloudy part of my mind tells me to go to him. He’s ordered me back to him, so that is where I should go. It’s easiest. It’s best. It’s the only answer.

“Ender, come, now,” he snarls.

But one of his children gets close to me, snapping me out of it. He seems to think he’ll herd me back, but instead, I tear into him. I’m draining him as Abel shakes his head, dissatisfied by my actions, but isn’t this what I’m meant to do? Destroy? Kill? “Ender,now.”

The blood of another vampire is filling my mouth. I need to get up and go to him, do as he says, and he’ll save me from the darkness.

Or ishethe darkness?

The blood slides down my throat as I watch the others closely from where I feast. No one else is stepping forward. Are they afraid of me? I will eat them all just like I ate this man. And the one who harassed me and Mads…

I hesitate as the body falls from my hands.

Did I eat Mads?

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