“What’s going on with you?” he demanded.
Feed from him.
The words whispered through my mind, and I didn’t care who had spoken them. Hunger gnawed at me, relentless. Yes, I would feed from him, would feast on his spirit. Scowling, I stalked forward. The red flames moved to my shoulders. I swung out my arm, but Cole ducked. He could have launched a counterattack, could have kicked my feet out from under me. Instead, he straightened, his hands fisting.
“Don’t do this,” he said.
Not my will. Do it, I would. I circled him, our gazes locked together.
FEED!
“Go ahead, finish your story,” I commanded, doing what he hadn’t done and kicking out my leg. His ankles knocked together, and he tumbled to the ground a second time. The bottom of his pants burned away, revealing another gash in his skin. A gash I had caused. My feet were also covered in red flames. “Help me be sure I hate you.”
“Is that what it will take?” He stood, saying, “She went down on me. And you know what? I liked it.”
With a screech, I lashed out at him.
He dodged.
I would have done it again, but my gaze caught on the fireworks exploding in the sky. One after the other, the other slayers were shooting off their flares. Everyone, it seemed, had spotted a zombie.
Don’t care.
A twig snapped.
My gaze whizzed to the left, and I saw red eyes peeking from the brittle wall of foliage.
Still don’t care.
Cole moved closer to me, perhaps to protect me from the coming battle. When I scented him, my hunger spun out of control. I growled at him.
He looked at me.
I stepped forward... When I’m done, there’ll be nothing left of him... The world around me began to darken, until a black sheet enveloped me.
“No,” I shouted.
Oh, yes.
I think...Z.A. was trying to take over.
I—she—continued forward in spite of the blindness, tripped.
“Ali,” Cole said, concerned.
Time seemed to slow down as I fell, landed. Sound faded from my ears. Except for one.
Tick. Tock.
Chapter 14
The Slaughter of the White Queen
I blinked open my eyes and realized I couldn’t catch my breath. Why couldn’t I catch my breath?
I took stock. I was standing. My clothes were torn, and I was splattered in black goo from the top of my head to the soles of my feet. I had cuts on my arms and stomach. My entire body was shaking, as if I’d run the treadmill for hours, all uphill.
The forest around me had been torched. The trees were now naked, their leaves burned away, their branches covered with ash. Zombie ash? Or...slayer? The ground was just as bad, black and charred, no grass remaining.
Cole was on the ground, alive. Thank God! There were patches of black all over his skin. He’d been bitten multiple times, and his features were contorted with pain.
“Ali-gator,” he gasped out.
I rushed to his side, and he flinched, as if he thought I meant to hurt him.
I frowned. I remembered...throwing a punch at him. Yes, I’d thrown a punch, and he’d ducked. He’d told me about kissing Veronica, about the other stuff they’d done—even now I choked on a well of pain. A need to feed from him had consumed me, and I’d attacked him in earnest. Then...nothing.
“I’m so, so sorry,” I said, sliding my hands under the hem of his pant leg. The antidote was strapped to his ankle. I freed the syringe, and though I was trembling uncontrollably, managed to shove the needle into his neck.
He’d done this to me countless times, but I’d never had to do it to him. I remained by his side, watching, waiting. At last, the black began to fade from his skin, and he sagged into the decimated ground.
All of the cuts and gashes remained. At the barn, his body had to be covered in blood.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Do you not remember?”