Page 48 of Our Sins in Blood (Coven of Sin 1)

I didn’t think about my next move. Just as Corry had instructed, I let my instincts take the driver’s seat. Twisting my head around, there was a pressure in my gums I never felt before. At first, there was a skull-spitting ache and then relief. Before I could process what was happening, a male’s screech of pain rang out, and blood blurred my vision.

Black blood.

The thick, inky liquid gushed from the gaping hole of flayed flesh. Something had torn out his throat.

It’s like my train of thought had left the station without me. What was happening? I was barely keeping up with my actions, processing them after they’d already happened. I’d ripped out the throat of the vampire called Mal. He released me, stumbling back from me with his hand slapped over his throat, thick gobs of oil-like blood seeping from his fingers.

“You–you bitch!” he stammered through a spittle-laced snarl.

He was livid. Surprised by my strength.

Join the club, buddy.

While any human would already be face down on the concrete in a pool of their own blood with a wound like that, the vampire acted as though it were a mere paper cut.

What the fuck.

Before I could decide what to do next, those deep-seated, monstrous instincts were already pushing me into action. I leaped at the vampire, tackling him to the ground. He was surprisingly easy to pin down, like I weighed a thousand more pounds than I actually did.

He hissed at me, his gaze full of murder. He screamed something, but I wasn’t listening. The world around us stalled out as my attention honed in on the gruesome tattering of his throat. Wounds like that weren’t going to kill an immortal.

My hands clamped down over his ears, and with all the strength I had, I ripped his head clean off in a spray of gore. I let the head fall to the concrete with a sickeningthunk. His blood on my lips tasted like euphoria. Like the thing I’d hungered for all these years without actually knowing what it was my body craved.

I was lost in the flavor of it, sucking my fingers clean and licking my lips as his body twitched beneath me, his life draining away.

I was lost to the monster inside me.

Chapter twenty-four

Dirty Deal with the Youngblood

Itwasn’tuntilthefog slowly melted away that I regained some awareness, the ringing in my ears dying away to be replaced with the sounds of a fight behind me. Twisting around on the headless body I was still perched on, my heart lurched when I saw Corry lunging at the remaining vampire. I had to have been out of it for longer than I thought because they were both covered in scratch marks. Corry must have snuck up on him because Al was worse for wear, with his face covered in claw marks, his clothes hanging in shreds. He was having a hard time keeping up with his opponent, who was moving too fast for him. Even I couldn’t track Corry’s movements. All I could make out was Al’s body shuddering with every blow. He must have understood that he was losing the fight because a moment later, he took off sprinting into the dark.

The youngblood raced after him, leaving me completely alone with Mal.

I glanced over at the head, its eyes still open and staring at me with shock. My hands were shaking as those eyes watched me fumble inside his jacket pockets for a wallet. There was no time to panic, no time to process the fact that I’d just ripped off a man’s head with my own bare hands.

A cry of relief dropped from my lips like a prayer as my fingers closed in around a wallet. It was fat with cash.

Ripping out the wad of bills, I scrambled to the gas pump and shoved money into the machine. Between my trembling fingers, my utter lack of knowledge on how to pump gas, and my gaze flicking up to scan the darkness for any more blood-thirsty vampires, I was getting nowhere.

Bloody fucking hell.

By some miracle, I managed to keep myself steady long enough to screw off the cap to the tank. Turning toward the pump, I took the nozzle and moved to insert it into the tank when strong fingers slapped down on my wrist, stopping me.

My chest squeezed as my gaze slowly slid up my captor’s arm to rest on the bloodied features of averyangry youngblood.

“Stole my bike, broke my heart, and you got blood all over my favorite jacket. Plus, I had to chase off some punk ready to take what belongs to me and my brothers. That’s not cool, Red. Not cool at all.”

I was quickly coming to realize the strength I possessed. Who knows, maybe I was stronger than Corry. But I didn’t want to fight him. I didn’t want this to end the same way it did for Mal.

“Let me go, Cor,” I advised, my voice fraying. “I’m not afraid to shoot,” I added, pointing the gas nozzle at him. But my attempt at easing the tension with a joke was futile. Moving lighting quick, Corry slapped the gas nozzle out of my hand with a guttural growl.

“Let me go! I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Hurt me?” he choked out in a dry laugh. His fingers gripped my wrist tighter, and I bite back a wince of pain. “You’ve already done that. You used me. All that shit you said about being comfortable with me, about my life getting fucking stolen from me not being in vain—”

“Itwastrue!”

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