Page 148 of Boys Who Hunt

Cora.

I try to swallow, but something’s in the way.

“Wait, Cora?” Heath mutters, gazing at Max. “You said her neighbor’s name was Cora.”

Max begins to flush heavily. “Um …”

“You lied.” Heath forms a fist.

“Sorry,” Max mutters.

“They’re scaring me,” the little girl whispers, huddling closer to Ivy, who throws me the sternest look I’ve ever seen. They radiate even more violently than my mother’s eyes, which is an impressive feat.

“They won’t hurt you,” Ivy says. “Right, guys?”

Max smiles and approaches the kid, patting her on the head. “Of course not.”

Ivy looks at Heath, who shakes his head. “I couldn’t hurt a kid. Not ever.”

Her eyes land on me at last, the look in her eyes deadly as can be. Maybe even more murderous than mine, and it silences the angered voices in my head.

“Silas. Promise me.”

So …thisis the reason.

This is why she fought so hard, defied me so many times, stole from me without a conscience, and gave up her body to feed my wicked desires.

This girl.

I feel frozen to the floor as I stare at them both while an unfamiliar sense of caution overwhelms me. Like my body is being torn to shreds from the inside out. My hand instinctively rises to grasp my heart, as if it knows somewhere deep down something about it has irrevocably been changed.

But that doesn’t make any sense. My heart doesn’t beat for anyone else but me and my deranged desires to rip everything in my vicinity to shreds and watch it bleed to death. It beats for blood to rush through my veins so my muscles can keep on killing anything and everything that walks like the monster I truly am.

But this heart is beating violently as if it’s been stabbed by the very same knife I carved her skin with.

Fuck.

What is happening?

“Promise me you won’t let her get hurt,” Ivy reiterates.

My lips have gone dry. “I swear.”

She breathes out a short sigh of relief.

“Well, that was tense.” Max laughs.

But I’m still not fully here. It’s as though my mind has wandered off somewhere else.

Heath clears his throat as he looks at me like I’ve gone crazy. “Silas?”

Something warm rolls down my nose, and when my fingers swipe along, I can clearly see the blood, but it doesn’t register with me at all.

Suddenly, a hand wraps around my arm and drags me away from the living room and into the bathroom. The door is shut, and I’m pushed down onto the toilet.

“Sit.”

Ivy’s blocking the door with her arms folded.