“Oh fuck.”
“Come on,” Luke says. “Let’s figure this out and get Matteo back.”
He doesn’t look at me like someone who just held a knife to his friend and revealed he’s known what they were doing. He looks like the friend I’m used to interacting with.
12
ALEXEI
The Sinners andI gather around Matteo. I’ve got him by one arm, Brad by the other. As Luke removes the gag, Matteo—or whatever entity’s possessed him—turns to me. Now that I’m up close, I can’t distinguish between his irises and his pupils. They’re black as night.
The entity struggles, leaning toward me and sticking Matteo’s tongue out. “Come on, I want a quick taste. See for myself why he thinks it’s so fucking good.”
“Seth,” Brad says through his teeth. “You gonna handle this or what?”
“I want another taste of you too,” Matteo says, gnashing his teeth at Brad, mimicking biting him again.
“Seth!” Brad snaps.
“Alexei should see the consequences of his actions,” Seth insists.
“Oh really?” I say. “The guys who unleashed the monster last semester are gonna judge me?”
“That’s not what happened.” Cody sounds so confident about it, but maybe he just hasn’t made the connection between what they’ve done and the monster that escaped from the Rift.
“Come on. Lean in for me,” the entity says, and Brad spits out, “Seth!”
“Stop moving,” Seth commands.
But Matteo keeps struggling.
“I said fucking stop!”
Matteo stills in my hold, hissing and growling, his body trembling as he fights Seth’s push.
“Answer my questions, and answer them honestly,” Seth says. “Tell us why you’re here.”
Matteo rests his head against the floor, taking a deep breath.
Seth repeats his question, and Matteo chuckles. “I’ve returned from hell. I escaped through an opening, found my way back into this world.”
“So you were alive once?” Seth asks.
“I’m alive again now.”
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Seth says. “What’s your name?”
“Jonathan Farras. You may know me as the Buford Night Stalker.”
“Night Stalker?”
“It feels so good, I can’t resist the hunt. And now I have this body to get that delicious sensation again…that can only be felt by spilling blood.”
This guy was a murderer. And judging by his moniker, maybe a serial killer?
“Ask him if he knows about that thing in the woods last November,” Cody says.
“Answer him,” Seth demands.
