Page 299 of Primal

A flash of red. Her hair.

Left. Right. Zig-zagging.

“I see you!”

She bursts through the thicket. Through the clearing. Straight into my hands. Where she belongs.

She falls chest-first. Hands scrabbling.

I roll her over. Pin her flat. Blade to her throat. Wrists locked above her head.

“Kade …” Her voice is so small. So fucking breakable. “It’s me. Please … don’t.”

The knife skips against her skin.

‘Mmm. Look at you. Big bad Ghostface, all heart-eyes for a bitch who wouldn’t piss on you if you were on fire.’

My blade’s back at her throat before it slips.

Payton’s face flickers—human, monster, the girl who came screaming on my cock earlier.

The world’s spinning. Shadows at the edge of my vision—creeping closer. My mask’s soaked inside. I’m drowning in it. Can’t breathe. She’s everywhere.

Noises in the woods.

My gaze snaps to the trees.

Vanessa back-from-the Graves. Strutting out in latex, heels clicking on twisted roots.

No. No fucking way.

‘Oh, don’t gimme that look.’ Her lips twist into that leer. ‘You know I’m right. She don’t want you, baby. She wants the thrill. The mask. The danger. Bet you take it off and she dries up faster than a wig in a wind tunnel.’

“Shut the fuck up!”

Payton—or whatever this thing is—flinches. Her pupils swallow the green whole, black oil spreading until there’s nothing human left.

I stagger upright.

“Kade?”

Vanessa takes another step. ‘You wanna be free? Cut the leash. Girl like that? She makes monsters then cries about the blood. Go on, lover boy. Do what your daddy never could—put the bitch down.’

Not-Payton scrambles to her feet and reaches for me.

My blade goes straight through cotton, deep into flesh.

Her mouth hangs open. Those black eyes warp into green.

Fuck.

Fuck.

Vanessa howls with laughter.

“Kade … Kade!”

Payton. Shaking me the best she can.