There was only one way to describe the creature: a Demon.
Straight from the burning depths of Hell.
Blood was everywhere on its body. One of its eyes was hanging out of the socket, while the other stared at me—seemingly seeing right through me.
The skin on its jaw was missing, so my eyes connected with rows and rows of sharp teeth sitting inside its mouth through a hole where its cheek should have been.
And it was fucking fast. I sprinted down the sidewalk and took a sharp left into another alley, but it didn’t take long for the creature to catch up to me. It slammed into my back, and not a second later, I felt the gooey texture of its skin against my body, blood and soot soaking through my shirt. I screamed again—so loud I thought my eardrums would burst.
I was so fucking scared.
We fell to the ground, and I heard the bones in my wrist crack, the pain of the break licking up my arm before racing to my lungs and stealing my breath. I bit down on my lip hard enough to break skin as I fought to breathe. Blood dripped into my mouth and fell down my chin from the hole I’d made.
Using my good wrist, I tried to lift myself up and throw the creature off, but it wrapped its arm around my waist and squeezed.
Oh hell no.
I slammed my head back into its chest, and I heard the sternum crack under the force of my skull. Yeah, that was the strength I was talking about. I shouldn’t have been able to do that—no Human would be able to.
The creature let out a guttural scream so loud I was sure I’d be deaf after this fight was over, but it gave me the chance to scramble away. I stepped two feet from it before turning around and using the distance to give my body the chance to gear up for my next hit.
Leaping forward, I landed flush against its chest and used my elbow to slam its chin skyward. I figured if I hit it hard enough, the head might fall off. The bones in its body weren’t covered in solid skin—just ash, fat, and fucking muscle wide open for the world to see.
Or at least for me to see.
The move worked well enough to crack a few bones in its neck, forcing the head to lull to the side, but not enough to get it clean off the body.
That’s when the thing fucking laughed. A high-pitched sound that made my stomach bottom out. I swallowed the bile that came up my sore throat.
The sound proved my theory—otherworldly, multilayered. His laugh was made of screaming souls.
This thing was definitely not Human.
I went for the next hit but was quickly forced back as it reached forward, snaked its bony hand around my neck and squeezed.
All the air was immediately stolen from my lungs. I tried and tried to kick it off me, but my foot just sank into its wet, bloody body.
Spots started to dance along my vision. I’d have about a minute before I passed the fuck out. I had no options but to keep kicking.
I tried clawing at its arm, but I only managed to pull muscle off the bone. My stomach churned at the sight, but I fought the nausea and focused on my options, trying to come up with a plan.
I closed my eyes briefly to find Bestia. She was foaming at the mouth in her rage. The sound of her roars filled my head as her whole body seemed to get bigger, filling out the metal bars of her cage. Her hair was coming through the bars on top and at all three sides.
She was pissed, terrified, and completely feral.
But still, she couldn’t get out.
I tried to break the padlock that held her in, but I couldn’t find a way to open it. I’d been the one to put her in there, now I couldn’t figure out how to open it. I gripped the bars, slamming myself against them, tried pulling on them, kicking them. They wouldn’t budge.
That’s when the angry tears started, I couldn’t hold them in anymore. Letting out a raspy scream, I kicked and kicked at the creature holding me, but it just kept making that horrible haunting sound—his attempt at a laugh.
I was giving up. I was dying.
I couldn’t win this one.
Whatever this thing was, I needed Bestia to kill it. I was no match for the creature in front of me, and without her help…I was going to die.
I closed my eyes and thought of Brinley. It had been seven years since I saw her sweet face, but in the moment, I needed the calm that her memory provided. She was one of the two bright lights of my past and the only good thing that ever happened to me.
If I was going to die, I would die with her memory.
“Annalise!” I heard my name being called from somewhere near me. My left side, I think. “Fuck, ANNA!”
I couldn’t see where the voice came from, and I couldn’t open my eyes, but I knew that melodic sound. It was Blue Eyes, one of the three guys who haunted me. One of the three gorgeous faces I couldn’t wipe from my mind.
“She’s got less than thirty seconds until midnight,” I heard Quint say, his sexy voice sounding panicked and unsure. “Get the Demon, now!”
Midnight? What did that have to do with anything?
Suddenly I was thrown to the ground, my bad wrist hitting the concrete first. A strangled cry came from my bruised throat as I fought to breathe. I wheezed through the pain.
Fuck, it hurt so bad. My whole body was stinging, throbbing.
That’s when things changed again.
I was on fire.
My very bones started to heat up.
What was happening?
I opened my mouth and tried to ask them, but no sound came out.
“Annalise.” My name came out as a barked command, a plea to open my eyes. I struggled but eventually opened them to see Seafoam crouched in front of me. His face was etched with concern, a deep line in the center of his brows where they pinched together. “Anna, you have about ten seconds before you’re fully in Transition. It’s going to hurt like fuck, but you’ll get through it. We’ll take you back to our place after and clean you up. You’re going to pass out, so when you wake up, just…” He brought his hand up to cup my cheek. His skin was freezing cold against my clammy skin. I wanted to pull him closer but couldn’t move. “Don’t freak out.”
Transition? What the fuck was he talking about? Why was he taking his hand away? NO! Where was he going? Did he say it was going to hurt? What was going to hurt?
Then I felt it.
I screamed an earsplitting sound I didn’t even think I was capable of.
Blinding pain.
I thought I’d lost my vision permanently as flames licked my organs—every inch of me seemed to be burning. I looked inward, searching like hell for Bestia, trying to get her out of her cage before she burned too.
Running for her in confinement, I fought the heat. I slammed my fist down on the padlock and stared in shocked relief as the metal lock blew into a million metal shards. Bestia roared, slamming me on my back with a slash of her sharp claws.
I felt the horrible sting of the gaping wounds on my chest, but I couldn’t stop watching as Bestia stepped from her cage and grew.
And grew.
And grew.
Until I could no longer see anything but the underside of her midnight belly above me.
I closed my eyes and tried to bring myself back to the outside world, but as I fought for control, I somehow brought her with me. I couldn’t do anything but watch in horror as the tips of her massive wings started to push through the skin on my back.
I screamed and screamed as, one inch at a time, her wings sliced through the muscle and bones that made up my back. Her spirit bent and folded itself within the feathers on her wings.