*Chapter Eight*

                                    

                                          


The colors of dusk stream in through the storefront windows as they mix with the nightfall upon us. The bookstore crowd is what one would expect for a Thursday afternoon an hour from close—sparse with everyone scattered across the store. The in-house coffee shop is the busiest place in here, except for this aisle in the fantasy section. Here, it feels crowded by four too many.
Serena's voice turns to white noise, her alternating between yelling at me for being so reckless and worry due to my external appearance taking a back seat to the weakened heartbeat of the human on the floor. 
Kinley's complexion is pale, her frail body struggling to restore order to the mayhem I caused. 
First, I stole her blood. Then, I took her air. I wonder what I would have stolen next if our private party hadn't been crashed. 
This moment could not get any worse.
Drip...Drip...Drip
Blood splashes onto the back of Kinley's hand 
The demon of mischief stands to correct me.
I know if I were to sweep aside the cascading ringlets shielding her face from the four other vampires here with me, a crimson sheen would be trickling down from her nose.
The next second happens in slow motion. Kinley lifts her chin, her hand cupping her face as if she can hide the blood from me. I'm not the only one she needs to worry about hiding her decadent and deliciously spiced blood from though.
Her eyes widen, her gaze darting from me to Serena before moving past Sabrina and Kalista and landing on Dorian. She seems more concerned with Dorian's added presence than the others. Perhaps that's because he's blocking her escape route. Before Dorian showed up, she could have tried to get away. Now, she's trapped with Sabrina and Kalista on one end and Dorian on the other.
Between the relentless hunger and heat Kinley's blood is causing, and everyone's surprised reaction to the trembling human cowering in front of what she perceives as five bloodthirsty demons, I have little time to think. I react to the slightest movement.
Sabrina's neck snaps with one quick twist. Her body falls to the ground with a thud. More than likely my sister was on her way to compel the terrified human to forget everything. I couldn't chance it. Not when Kinley's aromatic blood is infiltrating the air. 
Confliction tears through me to the point it threatens to cripple me. I want nothing more than to harvest all that crimson that is running down Kinley's face before I rip into her neck and spill her life force. I want to bathe myself in her until she covers and fills every inch of me, yet to do so would be her end. 
How can I end this human when there is so much about her I don't understand? At the same time, how can I afford to let her live if she cannot be compelled to forget? 
Her existence violates the one rule of our kind. Even now, as I long to lodge my fangs directly into her juicy artery again, I can feel her blood evoking the beast in me in ways it shouldn't.
Serena and Kalista remain immobile, too shocked to move as they just witnessed me break Sabrina's neck without a moment of hesitation. It's a surreal feeling as the realization of my actions catch up to me. I broke my sister's neck to protect a human.
I believe in a human's world this is referred to as a WTF moment. 
I can't believe that thought just went through my head. 
It's bad enough to be simultaneously thinking about killing this human while entertaining thoughts of mating with her, but now, I'm thinking about the wretched ways in which humans communicate these days. Someone needs to drive a stake through my heart because I need a system reset.