Page 150 of Our Sins in Blood (Coven of Sin 1)

This was bad, really bad.

Vincent Feral was as tense as stone, his muscles pulsing, every tendon in his body as taut as steel cables. It was as if his monstrous instincts were lurking just beneath the surface, ready to explode any second, and the only thing he was waiting for was me.

Even the announcer seemed worried by The Feral King’s imposing demeanor. I could tell by the way he stopped talking, leaving the ring to speak to other Salem vampires that gathered on the other side of the caged-in ring.

They put their heads together, whispering, casting their worried glances at Feral.

They knew he was about to try something. And whatever stunt he was about to pull, all these humans had no business being here for it.

“I have to stop them.” I moved to crawl onto the platform to get closer to the cage, but Corry caught my wrist, holding me back. “Red, no. You’ll just make it worse. Whatever that other side of him is, it’s not safe. You can’t reason with it. And Eros won’t back down either. All we can do is watch and hope they control themselves enough to keep from killing one another.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but all words froze in my throat when my eyes locked with Vincent’s. His bloody lips pulled into a vicious smirk. An invisible hand clawed down my back, sending little shooting branches of ice through my whole body.

“Good. She’s here. Now I can kill you.”

Eros’ eyes turned to slits. “What?”

I crawled up onto the platform, kicking off Corry as he tried to pull me back down. Clinging to the cage, I pressed my face up against the mesh. “Vincent, listen. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. We can talk this out. You don’t need to do this!”

I tried to pour all the guilt and regret that tangled my insides like barbed wire into my apology. But I knew it didn’t matter what I said or how I said it. He was already beyond reason, lost to the monster inside him.

Feral’s lips peeled back into a gruesome snarl, his fangs coated all in black. His veins bulged, and his muscles seemed to grow bigger as his whole body expanded.

Then his eyes turned not green, not red, but obsidian black.

That’s when I felt it. My every nerve was in agony, like something was trying to pull my whole skeleton from my body.

Whatever that side of Vincent was, it wasn’t vampire. It fed on pain.

It dawned on me that he was using the pain I felt from my guilt to gain strength, to grow bigger. Then he mouthed something to me that made the blood in my body crystallize. “Watch this, Princess.”

Since he was facing me, Feral’s back was turned to Eros, who quickly came up behind him. Eros threw a blow that probably would have been fatal to any mortal man. Apparently, he was looking to end this and fast. There was no panic traceable on his face, but by his grave expression, he knew he had to end the fight now before Feral was too far gone to whatever monster lurked inside him.

It was too late.

The vampire-hybrid was already too big, having grown larger than a normal man ever should. He was tall before. Now he had to be at least eight feet in height. His ink-filled veins, his coal-black eyes, and a bone-chilling sensation smothered the whole warehouse. It was too much. The crowd murmured, and a rush of panicked voices signaled the first stage of total and complete hysteria.

A handful of Salem coven members came up to the cage, ready to step in and halt the fight.

But just as Eros’ fist was about to smash into the back of Vincent’s skull, his blow met nothing but smoke. The Feral King burst into a cloud of dark smoke, and from the plume, a raven emerged and flew behind Eros.

Vincent morphed into a man again. Eros, disoriented, didn’t have time to react as Feral grabbed his hair and slammed him face-first against the cage where I stood.

Pure chaos broke out among the crowd. Humans screamed and bolted upright from their seats. People bolted, pushing and shoving at one another to get to the exit.

The veins and the black eyes could have been excused as makeup. But growing huge in one breath and turning into a literal fucking bird in the next couldn’t be brushed off as stage magic. And there was no faking the violence that oozed off this dark creature like a gas leak.

It was all too real.

The Feral King had come completely unhinged.

“Holyshit!” By Corry’s reaction, he’d never seen Feral’s raven form before.

But I had. It had to be the same one I’d seen outside of Sterling’s tower on the night of my heat cycle.

“He’s never done that before!” Corry’s hands were in his hair, his eyes as wide as dinner plates. “Shit, babe. I gotta go help the other vamps round up the humans. They have to be mesmerized. If any of them escape, we’re gonna have a colossal mess on our hands.”

Like that, Corry was gone, leaving me alone with Feral and Vincent.

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