Page 128 of Such Sharp Teeth

And it’s something about her tone. It’s something about her expression. It’s something about her perfume. Her signature overpowering gardenia perfume.

I don’t smell it.

She’s not wearing it tonight.

I take a step back.

“Rory.”

Her boots.

I know those boots.

They’re my boots. My vintage boots. The ones I was wearing the night I was bitten. The ones I lost the night I was bitten. The night I first saw Ian again, the night he’d been with Mia . . . and she bailed early, got all weird and flustered, up and left. . . .

The same night.

“Mia,” I say, my voice low, practically a growl, “where did you get those boots?”

“I found them,” she says. She doesn’t blink. Doesn’t flinch.

“Found them where?”

She rolls her shoulders back. “Let’s go somewhere to talk.”

“It was you!” I yell at a pitch that could shatter glass.

“We can’t do this here. Just calm down. I—”

“This whole time. It was you!”

“Shh,” she says, grabbing my wrist.

She’s strong. Almost as strong as me. I break free.

“Do you really want to have this conversation here, with all these people around? Ash? Ian?”

My vision tints red. My teeth gnash together.

I’ve got her by the hair. “I don’t care. I’ll rip your fucking throat out in front of everyone. You did this to me. You did this!”

The anger I feel is otherworldly. I want to tear her head off. I want to eat it.

Someone I trusted. Someone I was close to. Someone I let in.

She’s taken things from me, and I’m going to make her suffer for it. I want gore. I want revenge. I want to snatch her eyes out of her skull, to squeeze them to jelly in my hands.

“I didn’t mean to,” she says, wriggling out of my grip.

I’m left standing with a chunk of her hair in my fist. She presses her palm to her head, covering up a smear of silver blood.

“It wasn’t on purpose. You know how it is. I lost control.”

I take a step closer, and she pushes me back. I crash into the bar. Bottles clink. Solo cups go flying.

“Oh, shit, catfight!” some guy says.

“Shut up,” we snap at him in unison.