Cora pulled back from her brother’s embrace just before Corry sank his fangs into her throat. It probably would have been better if she’d remained still. Because at that moment, she saw exactly what her brother had become.
“Corry. You’re eyes. They’re…” She fell back into the couch, looking up at him with visceral fear in her crystal blue gaze.
He was on top of her before she could find the rest of her sentence. Everything that happened next happened on a single pound of my heart.
Corry tore his twin’s throat open with the ease of a kid tearing open a candy bar with their teeth.
The couch was stained red.
Sue screamed bloody murder, crumbling to her knees.
Philip bolted to the bedroom. Several seconds later, he returned with a shotgun and unloaded a round above Corry’s head. I wasn’t sure if he missed because he couldn’t bring himself to shoot his own son or because his hands were shaking too badly to find their mark. Even if he had, it wouldn’t have mattered, not unless he was packing silver cartridges.
Corry’s head snapped up, his bloody mouth scrunching up to snarl a guttural warning growl. His mother screamed again, and Philip muttered a string of curses as he almost dropped the gun.
“The devil’s got a hold of him!” Sue cried.
If only she knew how right she was.
Corry released his hold on his sister and bolted to the other end of the room, slapping the gun out of his father’s hand. I flinched as a shot unloaded right into Sue Cross’ shoulder.
Blood spewed over the wall, painting a family portrait of the Crosses all in red.
Just like how I’d imagined it.
I stood there as blood seeped into the carpet.
The screams of Corry’s family slowly faded as he fed on them one by one.
I’d seen a lot of messed up shit over my last few months as the vampire princess, but this ranked pretty high on the “reasons why I’d be fucked up forever” list.
I wasn’t sure how much time had passed. It was probably only a handful of minutes, but it felt like an eon.
Sated on blood, Corry groaned and rolled onto his back to lay beside his mother. His eyes fluttered shut, and when they opened again, there were traces of blue.
He was finally coming down from his youngblood state.
He turned his head, and all traces of color drained from his already pale face, leaving him bone white.
“Mom?”
His voice was so small now, thin with fear. “Mom?”
I raised my hand to my mouth as tears rolled from my eyes. I hated this. I hated being so powerless. With my magic, I could warp this memory and make it end however I wanted. But what was the point of that? This was horrifying because it had happened, and there was no changing it.
No matter what I did, I couldn’t make Corry’s hurt go away. I couldn’t change what he’d done that night or take away the fact that he’d have to live with the guilt.
All I could do was stand and watch as he came to, pure disgust and horror washing over his face as he started to piece together what he’d done. “Mom!”
Scrambling to his knees, he pressed his ear to her chest. Her heart was still going by the look of brief relief that passed over him. He fumbled for his phone and, with bloody fingers, pounded out a single-worded text.
I stepped close enough to see read the text on the glowing screen.
HELP.
Chapter twenty-five
Band of Brothers
