Chapter 26

Of all the times I had experienced heartbreak throughout my life, none of it compared to the broken, horrified look on my brother’s face as Addie’s body hit the ground. He’d been on the stairs, half a dozen steps behind her—half a dozen too far.

Eliza hadn’t noticed him yet. A scream rose in my throat as my heart shattered into a thousand, unfixable pieces. The world went blurry, moving too slow and too fast at the same time. Red rimmed my vision, pulsing with each of my screams.

Somewhere in the background of my horror, Eliza screamed—a raw, strangled noise that rose in pitch only to fall entirely silent.

I crawled toward my friend on the ground. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t see. My heart felt like it was going to explode out of my chest, though I wasn’t sure whether I would be sick before or after that happened. I clutched Addie’s limp head in my lap, nearly losing everything in my stomach at the gruesome crunching noise her neck made when it moved.

I was screaming, howling the name of my friend. I couldn’t see my hands very well, but I was sure they shook uncontrollably as I hoisted her into my lap and clung to her. Maybe I apologized. Maybe I only screamed her name.

And then, there was Holland.

That devastated, shattered, agonizing look was still on his face. Blood streaked down his cheeks as he kneeled in front of me and said something, but I couldn’t hear him over the white noise in my ears.

This couldn’t be happening.

I couldn’t lose her.

She was my best friend.

This was all my fault.

“Sophie!”

Holland’s bloody hands on my face snapped me back to reality. I clamped my mouth shut, quaking as I stared up at my older brother. His lips were trembling and he clenched his jaw, but he held tight to me like I was the only thing keeping him sane.

“She’s going to be fine,” he whispered, blood dripping down his mouth.

“She-” I couldn’t breathe enough to speak and pulled Addie closer to my chest.

Holland dropped one of his hands to brush her hair out of her face. “I—we—I can’t breathe.”

Unsure how I was able to put any thoughts together, I moved my dead friend into her lover’s arms and threw myself over them both. It took everything in me not to continue screaming.

Don’t be dead.

Don’t leave me.

We need you.

Finally, Holland croaked out a few words. “You need to call Willa. I can’t, I’m sorry. I can’t let her go.”

I looked at my brother and nodded. Peeling my hands off him and Addie, I stumbled to my feet, using the kitchen island to keep myself standing.

That’s when I saw her.

Eliza’s body lay crumpled in the doorway, dark bruises marring her throat. Her lips and tongue were swollen, and her eyes were wide and unseeing.

She wasn’t dead. It took more than that to kill a vampire.

Even so, I thought I should feel something. I’d spent weeks running circles around her, and at least the last twelve hours in bed exploring her. And yet, I felt nothing as I stared at her dead on the ground.

“Sophie,” Holland cried, reminding me what I was supposed to be doing.

I stumbled to my room, grabbing my phone off the nightstand. Dialing Willa”s number and holding the phone to my ear took every ounce of strength and self-control I had.

“Hello,” Willa answered in a sing-song voice on the third ring.

“Come home,” I rasped.

“What’s wrong?” She breathed. I could already hear her moving and telling Wren to get out of bed.

“Please,” I cried, falling to my knees again. “Come home. It’s Addie.”

The front door crashed open twenty minutes later, and the hysterical sob that came out of Willa’s throat would haunt me for the rest of my days. The most Holland and I had done was close the front door so no passersby would see what happened. Eliza’s body lay strangled in the doorway, and Holland leaned against the wall with his legs outstretched, Addie’s limp body clutched against his chest. When I’d tried to help him move her to the couch, he’d nearly torn my throat out, only to dissolve into a fit of sobs and apologies. Instead of moving anymore, I kneeled beside him and placed my hand on Addie’s ankle—as close as I could be without intruding.

Willa crumpled, held up only by Wren’s quick reaction; his arm wound around her waist to keep her standing. He shoved the door closed and kept her on two feet for seconds longer before lowering her at my side, where she took Addie’s limp, freezing hand.

“Please, no,” she sobbed. “Addie, no!”

“What happened?” Wren asked, the only one of us that had any semblance of control over himself. When I looked at him, though, bright red tears dripped down his face.

“I don’t know,” Holland and I whispered in the same instant.

“Okay,” Wren said, though his voice shook. “Is she?” He broke off.

Recognition flashed in Holland’s eyes and he swallowed thickly, finally raising his gaze from Addie’s face. “She’s going to be fine,” he breathed.

“What does that mean?” Willa snarled, moving a little too close.

Holland’s return growl sent her back onto her knees. He’d said the same thing earlier, but I hadn’t been listening then. “It means she had my blood in her system when she died.”

“How long ago?” Wren asked carefully.

“This morning,” Holland breathed. His eyes rested on me, and the cold look in them was enough to freeze hell. “What happened?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know.”

“You were the only one on this side of the door!” He roared. I was certain, if he hadn’t been holding Addie, he would have attacked me.

I scrambled backward, trying to control my breathing. “Eliza and I were arguing. She said—something, I don’t remember. I told her to get out. Then, Addie opened the door, and, and, and.” I couldn’t finish.

The snarl my brother released was the sound of nightmares.

“Okay,” Wren interrupted again, taking a few deep breaths. “We can’t move Addie until the sun goes down; there are too many people outside who might see. Holland, would you like to take her home then?”

“Yes.”

“And what about-”

Right on cue, Eliza drew in a gasping breath as life flowed back into her. A strangled cry escaped her mouth.

Holland moved as fast as death itself, resting Addie in Willa’s waiting arms while he lifted a half-conscious Eliza off the ground and pinned her against the front door. She kicked her feet when he lifted her feet off the ground, flailing wildly.

“Sophie!” She cried, her voice strangled. “Sophie, please!”

I said nothing.

I felt nothing.

I watched as my brother snapped her neck and let her fall to the ground.

“I’d like the next round,” Willa growled.

“We’ll see,” Holland replied, returning to the ground to hold Addie. He buried his face in her hair. “I’ve got you. I love you.”

This was my fault. I brought a monster into our home, and it destroyed everything.