Page 83 of The HalloQueen

“Oui, my love,” he soothed, glancing at me again to ensure that I was intact, “I am yours. You know how ridiculous mortals can be. Let’s go find Yusuf and go home,oui? Let’s go help you get better.”

“Kill the witch and I will go with you! You kill her and show me your loyalty, or I will kill her to show you how much it hurts to lose someone you love!”

He was almost within grabbing distance of her, “I know exactly how that feels, Mo. Remember? I am the one that woke up alone in our home one morning. Let’s leave the simple witch be and go find Yus. You did well getting the house back, so let's go home.” He put his arms out as if to beckon her into his arms.

She glanced between the two of us and even though I knew he was lying, it still hurt. He lovedme. I could feel it in his gaze, his touch. I knew it, through all the bullshit and all the hurt and all the complicated circumstances. He loved me. The fact that should have been reassuring, broke me as I knew he would give his heart back to her for my safety. I whimpered at the idea he would sacrifice our happiness for my life.

I shifted against the counter and her eyes locked back on me, imploring me to work with him, “Tommy?” I spoke softly, following his lead, “Tommy, I think you two should go. I can call Yusuf for you and have him meet you at the store.”

“That is a great idea. I need you to call Yusuf. Do you hear that Monique? We will go meet Yus and go home. Come on, love, take my hand.”

She flinched, some part inside of her fighting against her bloodlust. Some part of her was still in there and she shook her head as if to clear an argument inside of her that no one else could hear. “Kill her, or I will kill her, Thomas. Show me your love.” He looked at me pleadingly, and I nodded, glancing at my back door, wondering if I could get it unlocked and get around the house to the street in the time it would take him to grab her. If I could just get the lock undone… “Thomas!” She screeched, “Kill her!”

“No, my love, let us leave this place and she won’t bother us. Let’s go home.” He was within grabbing distance of her now and flicked his eyes between us over and over again, playing scenarios out in his head.

“No!”

It happened so fast. He reached for her and she hit him with the back of her hand with unnatural force, snarling and screaming at him then she turned to fling herself at me. I screamed too, scrambling for the back door but crashing to the floor as Monique grabbed my ankle. Pain radiated through my shoulder, combining with the ache from the stairs. I moaned, seeing stars, but quickly refocused, kicking at and screaming at the creature trying to crawl its way up my body. We slid along the brick floor as the blood from my back and her face combined in our skirmish.

“Thomas! Thomas please!” I cried out in fear, slamming my forearm into her neck, struggling to keep her away from my face. She knew biting me wouldn’t do it. She couldn’t change me, she’d have to kill me with her bare hands and she was determined enough to shred me into pieces. I knew as my strength wavered in my arm, adrenaline far past spent, that this was how I died. This was the end.

34

THOMAS

The room exploded in seconds. One moment I thought Bels might get out the back door and I could grab for Monique to contain her until Yusuf arrived, and the next Monique was snarling and snapping at Bels’ throat as I held my head, trying to steady myself from the impact of her backhand.

“Thomas! Thomas please!” Annabel screeched, the fear in her voice causing me physical pain.

“Bels!” I roared as I flew across the space to them, grabbing Monique and throwing her, her body smashing into the island, splintering the butcher block as if a boulder had hit it instead of a small female.

I shoved Annabel behind me, her shaking hands clutching at my shirt as I crouched defensively, prepared to lunge at Monique if she dared head back this way.

“Thomas, if she leaves she will just come back. She’ll keep coming back - she’s sick.” Annabel’s usual confident tone wobbled with fear while she spoke into my back. “What do we do? What can we do? You can’t let her leave.”

“She’s not going anywhere,mon coeur, I swear it.” I ran my hand over her leg behind me, attempting to ease her nerves.

Monique unfolded herself from the rubble. Her leg was bent the wrong way and a piece of her forearm had punctured her skin.

“How is she still moving?” Annabel whispered in disbelief and my blood chilled at the site of a corpse slogging its way back to us. If Monique was this far gone, it meant it was too late.

I pushed her back toward the back door, every instinct in me insisting that I remove her from danger, “Bels, you need to get out of here.”

Her fingers dug deeper into my shirt, pulling me into her front, “she can’t turn me, she can turn you - let me-”

“My love, she is the monster under the bed. I will not-” I roared, Monique’s razor-like nails digging into my calf and ripping into my skin with the delicacy of a rusted steak knife. The jagged marks bled profusely and the pain was so blinding that my vision wavered.

“Get off of him!” I could hear Annabel screaming and felt her moving under me like she was kicking in desperation, “Please, leave him alone!”

“He is mine. He is mine!” The creature screeched. She was no longer Monique, no longer the woman I’d loved, not even the woman I’d tolerated for Yusuf’s sake. This was the demon depicted in Hollywood and literature. This was death wrapped in festering flesh. She was a virus with the sole mission of destroying any semblance of humanity in hopes of reclaiming it as her own. With inhumane strength, she grabbed my thigh and threw me over her head, smashing me into the floor on her other side.

“Don’t touch her!” I spoke weakly, feeling a sharp pain in my side, and ran my hand over it, seeing it covered in my blood when I pulled it away. I hissed, feeling a piece of the butcher block embedded into my side.

“As you wish, Thomas. I will not touch her. I will touch you instead.” She lunged on top of me, gnashing her teeth and despite my best efforts to remove her from me, her claws dug into my neck and when I reached up to remove them, I was crushed against her mouth, fangs digging into me and branding my skin. I screamed. The venom of the undead made my blood boil and my eyes rolled back in my head. Somewhere in the distance, I heard Bels. I heard the terror and heartbreak ripping from the depths of her heart. My arms sprawled out as my power left my body, oozing away like my life source.

“I will kill her anyway, you must know this.” Monique’s words burned against the holes in my neck, “and it will be all your fault. We could have left together. We could have started over.”

I gasped, feeling weak in a way I hadn’t experienced in hundreds of years, “you started this, Mo. You left me. You…you ended us. You didn’t need to come back.”

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