Vampires.
But not like Crave.
These things are feral.
Eyes glowing red, mouths stretched impossibly wide, fangs dripping with saliva. They move like animals, but are way too fast and brutal, and they lookhungry.
“Get down!” Crave shoves me toward the back of the room as the first wave hits.
I stumble behind an overturned table, my heart slamming so hard it steals the air from my lungs, and watch as the world doesn’t just erupt. It fractures.
Rogue and the others race into the room, so fast I can barely comprehend it. But Rogue’s body doesn’t just transform.
He breaks.
His body twists violently, bones cracking so loud I feel them in my teeth, muscles tearing and reforming beneath his skin. Fur erupts where skin should be, claws forcing their way from his fingers with a wet, sickening sound. My stomach lurches, bile burning the back of my throat.
This isn’t possible.
None of this is possible.
He’s not a wolf.
He’s not human.
He’s something in between, something born from nightmare, instinct, and raw, brutal power.
I clamp a hand over my mouth to keep from screaming as he launches himself at the vampires. Claws tear through flesh like paper, fangs rip out throats in sprays of dark red that splatter the walls. The sounds of bone, choking, snarling slam into me all at once, and my legs tremble, threatening to give out.
His snarl shakes the building, rattles straight through my chest, and something inside me cracks wide open with it.Fear.That the world that I thought I knew is gone. This one that I just learned about, that I feel part of, is falling apart right in front of my eyes.
Even through the chaos and the terror curling tight in my spine, I can see the truth of it.
He isn’t fighting to survive.
He’s fighting his way to Crave.
Holy shit.
Scorch doesn’t hold back either. The moment his power surfaces, the air changes. My skin prickles, heat crawling over me like something alive, and instinct screams for me to run even though my legs refuse to cooperate. His veins glow molten red beneath his skin, pulsing in slow, relentless waves that make my head spin.
I can’t look away.
I can’t breathe.
When he exhales, fire pours from his mouth.
Real fire.
A broken sound claws its way out of my throat, half gasp, half sob, as the heat slams into me from across the room. The air ripples and warps, bending like glass left too close to a flame. Two vampires ignite instantly, their screams cutting off as they collapse into drifting ash. The smell of burning flesh andscorched stone turns my stomach, my vision swimming as terror and disbelief collide.
This isn’t power.
This is annihilation.
Another vampire lunges for him, and I flinch hard enough that my shoulders hit the wall behind me. Scorch catches the creature by the face with his bare hand. I watch, frozen, as the vampire’s head melts, skin sliding like wax, bone slumping in on itself until there’s nothing left but fire and ruin.
My hands shake violently, my pulse roaring in my ears, and the truth hits me all at once, heavy and inescapable.
