Page 58 of She Who Was Once the Sea

But he needed to think otherwise.

"I… saved you," he repeated, voice shaking.

I nodded ferociously. "Yes," I said. "And you probably saved a hundred other women from them as well."

His gaze fell from me down to the man again.

"He was a bad man, Garrett," I continued. "He was more of a monster than you or I could ever be."

His throat dipped.

"He was a bad man," Garrett repeated.

I pulled his face towards mine, so that he was forced to look at me once more. His blue eyes were still wide and frightened. "I need you to drink from him now, Garrett," I said, as calmly as I could manage.

He started to shake his head, but I tightened my grip on his face. "No, Garrett, listen to me. You need to feed. If you don’t, you’ll just get thirstier and thirstier, until you can’t control it."

He looked like he was about to cry, and I almost choked on my own words.

"And if you lose control, you could end up hurting someone else—someone innocent," I emphasized the last word heavily. "Do you want to hurt someone innocent?"

Slowly, he shook his head.

"Good," I said, releasing my hold on him. I gestured down at the man beneath us. "Now, drink."

He held my gaze for another couple of seconds, just long enough that I could see the brokenhearted resignation written across his face.

Then, he did as I told him to do, and I returned to the fat man behind me.

His blood tasted less sweet as I bent over and sucked him dry.

Chapter 25 - Garrett

Ikilled someone.

I killed someone.

I killed someone.

I killed someone.

The words tumbled through my head over and over and over again, rattling around like loose change.

I wanted to scream.

When I finished feeding on the man—the man I’d killed—Marella looped her arm through mine and began leading me away from the bodies. I could barely keep my feet beneath me as she steered me through the streets, and the walk back to her apartment seemed to take forever.

I half expected her to leave me outside, and the thought filled me with fear. How could I go back after what I’d done?

I was supposed to be hunting monsters. Not humans.

He was a monster.

Marella’s words pushed into my thoughts.

She unlocked the front door and shoved me inside, then pulled me up the staircase. With every step we took, she glanced back at me with a worried, scared expression.

Finally, the door slammed behind us, and the knowledge that we were alone was enough for me to come unraveled.