Ella
My eyes flick to Jessica’s to find her gaze already on me. I stare at her, hoping she can intuit, hoping she has the courage to run when –
“If you think my human sister is a bitch,” I say, taking another precise step forward, forcing Xander to rise his foot to take his final step back. As that foot falls, I bare my teeth. “Then just wait until you really meet me.”
And as Xander places that foot down, and it falls on the edge of the stair that he didn’t know was there, I bare my teeth and transform in a flash.
Xander’s foot slips and slides unsteadily to the step below, unbalancing him. He flings out an arm to balance himself and while he keeps one hand steadily on Jessica –
As I hoped, the hand he flings out for balance is the one that holds the knife.
The moment she feels the cold press of it leave her neck, Jessica screams and rips herself away from Xander. His hand is still knotted in her hair and I swear I hear it rip from her scalp as I leap for him, but I can’t turn and see
Instead, I’m already in the air in my wolf’s body, sailing for him, my teeth bared. His eyes are wide as my paws slam into his shoulders, as I take him down to the ground.
A garbled scream falls from his mouth as he whips the knife in his hand toward my side, but it’s too late.My teeth are already closing around his throat, digging deep.
The dagger cuts me, I can feel it, but it slides away from my skin to clatter on the ground as Xander’s body crashes into the stone steps. My jaws close, my teeth meeting, and instincts take over as I shake my head, ripping the life from him as I tear his flesh.
I feel him go still beneath me quickly, leaving no time for a last gasp or a final word.
I did my job well.
My chest heaving, I stand above him for a moment, looking down into his face, making sure his eyes are dead.
And then I disdainfully step away, wanting nothing more to do with him, wanting the taste of his putrid blood out of my mouth.
above him, my shoulders still heaving, and I drag an arm across my face, wiping the
to protect and back to my
first thought is for Jessica, and I
I see flashes ahead of me and turn wide-eyed back to the stairs. Because I realize with quick horror that while I concentrated only on Xander, and Jessica, and the
the middle of a
of me are crowded with people who look at me in shock. And press, who snap pictures of
then suddenly – quite suddenly – everything is chaos. An arm
hear Jessica’s voice, screaming her
to get to Sarah,” I say on a gasp, knowing that she needs
but he won’t let me go, so I glare up at him. “Seriously, Ella,” he
“But she -”
he says, nodding to me, “she’s conscious – let us take her inside, you can heal her
it, realizing that he’s right. Because I am panicking right now, and trying to do everything at once, and completely forgetting that I’m
step away from Xander’s lifeless form. Conner’s hand is still
I shout, seeing that the girl is scared and struggling against the guards who hold her back from her sister, at whose side medics are already
whips her head to me, her
out my free hand. The guards hesitate but then let the girl go as they see
“The doctors are going to
back,
I say quietly, meaning every word of it. “We just all need to get inside,
doctors – they’re
to my side, but she trusts me and lets me
large form fills it, and my knees go almost
Jessica with me now know that I can’t. Not yet.
from me now, knowing that I’m safe, and he steps back as Sinclair takes a step forward, his face livid and scared and breathless all
glancing momentarily down at
I reach up and place my hand on his cheek,
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