up my spine, as the woman’s mouth opens much wider than humanly possible, and she screams in my face.
My ears ache, as the scream breaks through the remaining windows surrounding us. Glass grazes my skin, but I stare inside the monster’s mouth, since it’s all I can see before me.
A dizzying, black-and-white pattern lies in the throat that is still vibrating with the never-ending scream.
She snaps her jaw shut, grins as she touches my fur, and then there’s nothing but a whisper of cold air before me.
My hair still standing on end, I spin in circles, searching for which direction she went. Though I have no idea if my feet would allow me to follow right now.
The wind howls, as the rain begins falling again, though I have no idea when it even stopped. It patters against the pavement in an increasingly steady stride, as thunder rumbles overhead hard enough to surely startle the bones in the cemetery.
My own bones are a little shaky as I take an uncertain step. I pause in front of a cracked window, seeing my reflection, once the sky lights up with the distant, yet blindingly bright, streak of lightning.
There’s a patch of fur—where her hand touched—that is solid white. There’s another strip on my other side near my ear.
Fuck. Me.
She scared me so bad I now have white patches in my fucking fur. I’ll never hear the bloody end of this.
Shaking out of my own head, since I’ve apparently gone into too much of a stupor to find an appropriate reaction, I take a seat.
In the pouring rain.
In the middle of the street.
Idun was fucking desperately fleeing, and my fur is white.
The music distantly echoes back to me, because it’s apparently moving with the impossible rush of electricity.
With somewhat shaky motions, I shift back to two legs, and stand at my full height.
The rain slaps my face for a moment longer, until the storm begins to ebb.
Exhaling a shaky breath, I stare into the reflective surface once more. My hair doesn’t have any white patches in this form.
“Well, that’s new,” I manage to say, after clearing my throat a few times.
Pandora’s full power is barely a memory, but I certainly don’t remember it being this intense. This storm has raged for hours now, and Talbot Lane can control the lightning.
How much stronger is he than the woman who started this fucked up world?
My feet start moving, chasing the lightning once again. My instincts are in a frenzy, because I don’t even know what to do if I find her again.
I just froze.
I fucking froze.
At this point, I haven’t seen a single sign of Violet since her monster took possession.
Another scream in the distance has me racing that much harder, because now I don’t trust that Idun’s going to be the only toy of the night.
What if Hyde is here to stay?
It’s certainly fucking enjoying its freedom, and I know it took some of us a long time to push the monster down after the initial change.
What if the gentle Violet can’t control her monster ever again?
Chapter 47
ARION
Pushing up from the ground, wincing in some pain, I stand to my feet, staring ahead at the road that has been split apart by the most ferocious lightning strike yet.
Blinking against the rain, I watch as a blue-haired belly-dancer gives Idun a lap dance. And by lap dance, I mean she’s dancing only on Idun’s lap, because Idun is in two pieces.
Idun’s upper body is desperately clawing at the ground, heaving her top half away as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, the blue-haired, pink-eyed version of Anna laughs with the red-headed apparition of Anna.
The triplets dance in a circle around Idun’s top half, moving along with her, singing Ring Around the Rosie. Every time they ‘all fall down,’ Idun cries out in pain and slams to the ground with them.
They laugh merrily each time, while Red-Headed Anna sings to Blue-Haired Anna, giving her a beat to grind her hips to.
I…have no idea how to feel about any of this.
Staring on, unmoving, I watch through the rain, listening to the sound of Idun screaming again. The only male ghost is dancing with a ring of female ghosts. Then that group comes to join hands with the triplets, expanding their circle around the ‘unstoppable’ alpha.
Idun’s next scream is twice as loud when they all fall down.
Idun scrambles to move, practically racing toward me on her hands, with her eyes frozen wide in…terror. I’ve never experienced anything like I’m feeling right