Chapter Fifty-One

All I feel is darkness. And rage. And the desire for retribution.

And for once, I don’t care.

The shift happens quicker than the blink of an eye, and I’m so dialed up, I sense everything around me. My sight is nearly panoramic, and I hear things from so far away, I swear I can hear Unk and Lennox as they’re just getting home from their night out.

I look down at my hands and see claws and how different my skin looks. It’s literally a midnight black hue, and the thin layer of hair that covers my arms and the rest of my body makes me look absolutely menacing. I feel…taller? I don’t know how to explain it, but my line of sight is so much different from up here. When I stretch my arms out to grab Mark and Reggie, I notice my limbs are way longer than I remember.

What in the world have I become?

All my senses are dialed up to a hundred. Everything, everywhere, all at once. It’s coming close to overwhelming me, and I’m struggling to focus on anything when I know why my nonhuman form has risen to the surface.

I hear the screams from the boys, the abject horror fills their eyes. Instead of empathy, I’m licking my lips in anticipation of what I plan to do to them as soon as I get my claws into them. I let out a hair-raising growl, casting my eyes skyward to bay at the moon, then settle my attention back to them, taking delight in their fear, wishing they knew that it was me inside of this hulking creature.

While I enjoy the hunt for my prey, I can’t help but feel a little distracted the moment I hear Zahra’s voice cut through the noise. She’s trying to get to me, and Kendyl and the rest of the crew is trying to stop her.

“Yasir’s in trouble. We need to get to him now!” I hear her say through the partying crowd around her.

“Z, what are you doing? We need to head that way, not toward whatever the hell is happening out there.”

“You don’t understand, Kenni. I have to get to him. Something’s wrong. Something’s really wrong.”

“Yasir can take care of himself, baby. We have to get somewhere safe,” I hear Kendyl yell out. “You can’t possibly do anything that won’t make things worse.”

“I’m telling you right now, if you want to go, then go, but I’ve got to see what’s going on. You can let me go, or I can force my way through. Your choice.” I can hear it in her tone. She’s gonna get her way, whether they like it or not. “I promise I’ll be okay. I’ll catch up with you in a bit.”

While I’m distracted, Reggie and Mark manage to escape from where I cornered them. That’s okay. I can catch them with ease. I spot Reggie first, trying to hide behind a car. He peeks over the hood, and before he knows it, I’m on top of him, ready to finish what I started. He screams again, running from the car just as I come close to snatching him mid-stride.

The cars are becoming a nuisance, and they need to be out of my way, so I lift and flip and toss everything in my path, not realizing the ease of how I’m able to do it. The sheer strength I possess is unbelievable. I feel like I’m playing with Hot Wheels toy cars, and everything else that’s in my path may as well be paper weights.

The explosions from the leaking gas and engines don’t faze me in the slightest. Metal is screeching and glass is shattering all around me, and I can’t get enough of it. The carnage I’m leaving in my wake only fuels my desire to create even more chaos.

I let out another roar that echoes through the night air, and I feel like my anger and frustration, everything I’ve suppressed in an effort to behave and not cause trouble, is wrapped inside of that howl. Even the horrified screams from the onlookers cowering just inside the entrance to the hall don’t affect me. I won’t be satisfied until they’re eliminated.

“Now this is what I’m talking about.” I feel so powerful, like I can do anything I put my mind to. It feels too good to stop what I’m doing.

“Then let us handle this and be done with it,” Gamba growls as we continue to pursue the boys. “They need to know who they’re dealing with.”

I finally track down and trap Mark against a car. There’s nowhere for him to go without catching my claws, and the terror-filled look in his eyes makes me realize that he’s figured it out, too. I stalk him slowly, my grin widening, and growl, showing my intention to end him where he stands.

“Please don’t kill me, please!” he screams, but I’m fresh out of mercy. All I want is for him to suffer. “Oh my God, please, let me go!”

I can feel my feet clawing through the concrete, leaving prints behind as I continue to stalk my prey. Somehow, Mark manages to crawl under the vehicle, but he’s still not safe from me. I grab the roof with both hands and throw the car over my shoulders, hearing it explode as it lands on top of the mangled heap of metal I’ve left in my wake.

I drop to all fours, using my agility to get ahead of Mark and trap him again. This time he’s in a corner, and there’s nowhere for him to escape. The flickering light from the damaged streetlamp above makes for the perfect backdrop for what’s about to happen to him, the fear etched in his face leading to the fact that he knows his life is over.

I bare my teeth, moving closer and closer to dispatching Mark into permanent darkness.

It won’t stop with him. The other two are still in the area. I can smell their distinctive scents. They won’t be able to escape.

“Hey! Over here! Over here!” I hear a frantic voice trying to get my attention. The pitch sounds different, and I’m having a hard time making sure it is who I think it is, but after a few seconds, my senses sharpen, and I know who it is in a heartbeat.

Zahra.

I turn around, staring her down as I feel the heat swirling around me simmer down to a burn. I don’t know how it’s happening so fast, but I don’t question it. Her eyes draw me in, even in my angered state of mind, and the strangest thing happens in that moment.

She closes her eyes, and while I don’t see her lips moving, I hear what she’s telling me loud and clear. “Karasu horo.”

Hearing it sounds like a thunderclap in my ears, snapping me to attention. I whip around to face her, and she’s staring me down, almost commanding me when she repeats our phrase. “Karasu horo.”

In the next instant, my teeth withdraw into my mouth, my growl turns into a low mewl, and I drop to my knees. I still can’t break through the anger I’m feeling, but it isn’t as hard as before. I breathe deeply, allowing her voice, her energy, to seep into my pores, giving me every reason to settle down and take control again.

“What is happening, Yasir?” Gamba’s confused over why we’ve stopped our rampage. “Why are we stopping? We need to end this, now.”

“It’s my turn to say I’ll explain later, but you will have to trust me,” I say. “That’s an order.”

I turn my attention to Zahra, who hasn’t moved an inch. “I hear you, my chosen. I’m here. I’m scared.”

“I know, baby. I need you to calm down,” she says. “I can sense your pain, but this isn’t the way to deal with it. We’ll figure this out together, I promise.”

I’m at a loss over how we’re communicating telepathically. I don’t know how we’re able to talk like this, but I’m grateful no one else can hear us.

Gamba grabs my arm, shaking me from the connection with Zahra. “I understand now. We need to take control before the beast regains strength. Zahra has it distracted, so we need to concentrate on putting it back in its cage.”

“It’s not gonna want to go quietly. You know that, right?”

“Yes, I know, which is why we need to take advantage of the distraction before—”

“On my mark, unload it all.” Lieutenant Greer, Sargent Bolton’s superior officer, gives the order for the officers to fire on me. The fear in my heart that I might die is overwhelming me, and all I can think about is figuring out how quickly I can escape the bullets that are coming my way. “FIRE!”

I feel the first of them hit my hide, and I realize they’re needles, not bullets. I knock them off as soon as they penetrate, and it hits me that they’re using tranquilizer darts. I don’t know how to feel about that. I don’t want to be killed, but I don’t want to be poked and prodded like an animal once I return to my human form, either. I can only hope that they don’t take effect and I can get out of here.

The next thing I know, I hear the other officers yelling, “Where did it go? It just disappeared.”

No, I haven’t. I’m right here standing in front of them.

And then I start to rise, almost like I’ve taken flight. I feel light and airy, and when I look down at the group of officers, I realize I’m floating over and away from them. How in the hell am I able to do that?

The last thing I notice before it disappears from my view are all the vehicles that are overturned, most of them engulfed in flames, and a whole lot of confused people, including all the kids who have come out of the building to survey the damage. Zahra’s being consoled by Sarge, and it almost breaks me that I can’t be with her.

All I can do is try to find a space to land and get back to myself. I’ve left a complicated mess of a situation to explain.