Chapter 12 · Another Lila

The vial breaks inside my shoulder and I feel my own blood go wrong.

Not just wrong. Backwards. Like every drop is trying to crawl back out through the wound and find the girl it used to belong to. The hunter jerks the syringe out and I hit the stone floor hard enough to crack something. Can't tell if it's the floor or me.

Cain's across the room in half a second. He slams the hunter into the wall so hard the guy's mask splits and I see a flash of teeth, too many teeth, before Cain tears his throat out. No hesitation. No ceremony. Just gone.

I'm trying to breathe but my lungs feel like they're full of glass.

"Lila." He's on his knees next to me, hands hovering like he doesn't know where to touch. "What did he put in you?"

"Mine." I can barely get the word out. "Old blood. From before."

His face goes white. "Before you shifted the first time?"

I nod. Everything's spinning.