Page 4 of Dark

Vision swimming, I clawed at the locked door, fingers raking down again and again until crimson streaks began to appear on the wood. Stray raindrops trickled down from the eaves, dappling my bloody fingertips. The bitter smell of coffee grounds, cinnamon and lemon floor cleaner wafted up from the crack over the mat as I panted, growing ever more desperate. If he didn’t let me in—

The door flew open so suddenly I lost my balance, would probably have fallen if it weren't for Ethan catching my wrists.

"Hayden—"

Raindrops speckled his thick, black-framed glasses, that tiny detail wedging between my ribs like a knife.

I tried to speak. His name caught in my throat.

Maybe it was the stress of twenty-three sleepless nights. Maybe it was the shock of coming home to a town I swore I’d never see again. Or maybe it was the haunted look in his eyes that caused some weak, traitorous part of me to question if he wished he’d tried to stop me that night. To wonder if the three years since we’d last spoken had been every bit as painful for him as they had been for me. Maybe I would always hate him for it. Mostly I hated that I cared.

He frowned. “What are you doing here?”

So. Best way to handle seeing one’s ex after three years?

1) Eyeroll and obscene hand gesture. You fronted for Daisy Addiction. Mosh pits and fanboys groveled at your feet. You gave zero fucks.

2) Order obscene latte art, then go all pumpkin spice on his Cage the Elephant t-shirt. (So, okay, maybe you weren’t quite over what happened three years ago.)

3) Lunge for his throat.

Three guesses as to which one I chose.

Ethan sucked in a sharp breath as I came towards him. But before my fingernails could make contact, he pivoted out of the way and jerked my arm to the side, the building’s unforgiving brick exterior rushing up to meet me. I slammed into it in a burst of stars, vision blurring.

His grip on my arm tightened until I thought I would black out from the pain. Dizzy, I slumped against the cold brick.

“You’ve been bitten,” he said into my ear, and I knew then he must have caught sight of my eyes, irises he’d once in an unguarded, un-Ethan moment told me were the palest shade of glacier blue he’d ever seen. “When?”

I felt his breath on the back of my neck and whirled, trying to bite. The pressure on my arm increased, my thoughts briefly clearing. “A month ago.”

“Where?”

His body hovered over mine, heat radiating off his chest. Despite myself, I shivered. The wind gusted, shifting the clouds overhead. A shudder rippled through my torso. His grip on my wrist tightened.

“Don’t even think about it. You can’t shift here.”

The wet pavement exploded in a dizzying burst of moonlight. A scream ripped from my throat. In the next breath, we were down on the sidewalk. Clawing. Kicking. Cursing. My fingernails drew blood. But he was too fast, too strong. Hauling me to my feet, he dragged me inside Dark.

Heart slamming in my chest, I jerked away from him the moment the door slammed shut, her rage a raw, wild thing so visceral I could barely think, barely breathe for it.

“I don’t want to hurt you.” Hazel eyes I’d memorized at least a thousand times flared a bright, iridescent gold. Just like they had the night he kissed me. And then said it could never happen again.

“I think someone’s trying to kill me.”

Blackness swarmed my vision. I knew what was coming, having watched it play out in sickening detail on the video I recorded on my phone while trying to say one last goodbye to Ellie.

The night I realized I could never go home.

Our eyes locked.

“Hayden,” he started, features frozen in an expression I couldn’t hope to read.

Ethan lunged as I started to slide to the floor. I clung to his voice, desperate to stop the change. To hold on to that last shred of me. But the pain consumed me, a vicious ball of white-hot agony I had no hope of containing. A blade licked across my skin, splitting my flesh, my bones snapping easily as twigs. I sucked in a breath to scream, instead drinking in the familiar warmth of cinnamon and espresso as darkness swallowed me.

Then

Ethan