“Would you like to close your account?” the teller asks, and I’m frustrated at how long this is taking. The more time we spend here, the more impatient Andy becomes.
“Um, sure. Please.” I can always open a new one if I survive this.
With an uncertain nod, the man behind the counter opens his drawer and takes out the bills, whispering to himself as he sets aside $1,000, then another $1,000, continuing until he’s counted out the whole amount. He follows it up with a few smaller bills and change, then slips it all into a rather thick paper envelope.
Before he hands it over, though, he examines me one more time, then his gaze jumps over to Andy. When I don’t speak, holding out my palm for the money, the teller reluctantly hands me the envelope.
Andy guides me with the gun at my back to turn around, and I keep the cash clutched tight as we both say goodbye to the teller. Then we’re walking back out, and I’m praying that Andy lets me go.
“Peony!”
It’s Rupert’s voice. Outside the bank, through the glass doors, an immense monster is headed toward us. Racing toward us, rather, his long legs carrying him two steps at a time.
“What the fuck?” Andy says behind me.
“Let her go!” Rupert hollers as the automatic doors of the credit union open for him. The other people in the bank shout and scream as he steps inside, all seven-plus feet of him.
“Rupert!” I shout. “He has a gun!”
But it’s too late. Andy steps out from behind me, lifts the barrel, and shoots.
twenty-eight
. . .
rupert
Peony’s all right. That’s the only thought in my head as the bullet rips into my side, sending blistering hot pain radiating outward. She’s unharmed, but Andy…
He will die for what he’s done.
That despicable blond man is holding on to her by the arm, and I’m ready to tear off his hands just for touching her. He looks terrified, the gun shaking in his hand. Clearly he wasn’t too scared to shoot.
“Rupert!” Peony calls out, trying to take a step toward me, but Andy yanks her back. I let out a bellow of fury as the monster roars to the surface, enraged by the sight.
We’re going to kill him. Rip out his throat, slash him open like butter, tear his guts into ribbons. One bullet wound isn’t going to stop us. I have to get Peony away from him safely, no matter the cost.
Without a second thought, I lunge at Andy, claws outstretched, fangs bared. Peony screams as he raises the gun a second time, andBANG!
Another bullet tears through my arm, splattering blood. The sheer force of it sends me back a few steps. But pain doesn’t matter to the monster, not when it comes to Peony.
Despite the blood now pouring out of me, my thighs bunch up as I spring a second time at my attacker. I slam into him, and Peony shrieks as she slips out of his grip. Andy goes down, and it’s child’s play to rip the gun out of his hand with my much bigger claws. He screams as his fingers all break, and I chuck the gun away across the floor.
My two wounds are burning like lava, but I’m driven by pure instinct and fury. There is no more hiding the monster inside me. We are one, our jaws opening wide, our claws digging into Andy’s flesh and spilling his much redder blood on the floor.
“Rupert!” Peony screams again. I look up to make sure she’s all right. Her mouth is open, her face covered in spots of my bright blue blood. Somehow it’s not as gory, being blue. It makes it easier not to think that I might be dying.
“It’s an emergency,” Kellen is saying into his mobile. “A gun was fired. My friend is injured.”
Andy screeches and thrashes, and I shove him down to the ground harder. I dig my claws into his neck, drawing more blood. My jaws open to wrap around it, to tear out his larynx and hurl it at Peony’s feet as an offering.
“Don’t kill him,” I hear her begging, but she sounds far away, even though she’s right beside me. I’m drooling, growling, ready to obliterate my prey, to get revenge for everything he’s done to her. “Rupert, please. I can’t have you go to jail. I need you.”
She needs me?
The monster gnashes its teeth, ready to end Andy’s pathetic screaming. It would be so easy to silence him.
“Please,” Peony whimpers, falling to her knees beside us where my teeth hover inches away from Andy’s pulsing throat. “Please don’t leave me.”
