Chapter 31

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"FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!"

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"FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!"

Rain drenched the night. Rivulets of red-stained water splashed the cobblestones, gushing through the courtyard in a steady flood. I stumbled down the steps of the courthouse, my whole body trembling. I could hear the screams echoing in the darkness, faceless bodies crying out for blood, for justice, for pain and it was too much, too loud, too exciting...

The urge to change rose in my blood and a growl rumbled through me, so powerful that I shook with the force of it.

"FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!"

She came at me with bared teeth and eyes that glowed a feral red. I barely had a second to react before she leapt across the last few feet, a blur arcing through the night, with her fingers stretched and twisted into claws as she grasped for my throat.

Adrenaline and excitement burned in my veins.

I whirled at the last second and her claws glanced off my side, tearing through my clothes. The scent of my blood hit the air and the screams rose to a frenzied roar. A savage bloodlust tore through me and my vision blurred red.

Kill her, kill her, kill her!

I spun to face her as she came at me again — and then we were tumbling to the ground, tearing and biting at whatever expanse of flesh our teeth could find. It was messy and rough and so agonizingly painful, like I was being ripped apart from the inside out.

But I couldn't stop.

I sank my teeth deep into her flank and blood poured into my mouth, hot and heady. Pain tore down the length of my throat but I didn't care; all I could think about was the need to destroy, to savage, to kill her...

"KILL HER! KILL HER! KILL HER!"

I growled my approval as I said drove my teeth into her stomach, ripping and wrenching until her colon was coming apart between my jaws and spilling out over her side. Bone crunched under the weight of my grip as I worked my way up over her body, teeth and claws, and there was so much blood.

So much blood...

And then I was staring down into her bruised and battered face. Her glowing, red eyes were glazed with pain and bloodlust, her thin mouth twisted into a vicious snarl, and her red hair was spread out beneath her like an angry halo. She looked like some kind of angel of vengeance.

She looked...

Shock blistered through me like a bullet — because she looked like me.

"KILL HER! KILL HER! KILL HER!"

The roar of the crowd echoed the pounding of my heart against my ribs as she — I — smiled, cold and feral, and dug my claws into my throat. My head started to spin, my vision blurring, until it felt like I had no control over my own body. Suddenly, it was my own hands clutching at my neck, nails sinking deep and slicing through veins and arteries like they were made of little more than wisps of smoke.

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