+25 BONUS
LIANA’S POV
I didn’t care what the hell they were arguing about out there anymore, I didn’t care what truth they were so desperate to keep from me, all I knew was that my body was burning, my skin was hot, my bones were aching, and it felt as if my insides were on fire, like something was crawling beneath my flesh trying to break free, and I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Killian!” I screamed, clawing at the sheets as if that would somehow bring him to me, but it didn’t, nothing helped, and I couldn’t stay there while they were outside going back and forth like I wasn’t fucking dying in here.
I stumbled to my feet, half–blind from the heat pulsing in my eyes, from the way my vision was swimming, and I rushed into the bathroom, desperate to do something, anything, to cool myself down. I was panting, dripping in sweat, shaking, my hands barely steady as I grabbed for the tap.
Then I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror.
I stopped.
And gasped.
Who the hell was that?
“What the fuck-”
My skin wasn’t mine. It was red, no, crimson. Like fire. My eyes… they were glowing. Blood–red. Like some kind of monster. The strange tattoo Killian gave me, that stupid, painful thing on my neck, it was glowing too, burning so bright it looked like a fucking brand.
“No, no, no, no–what the fuck is this?” I whispered, stumbling backward until my back hit the wall.
And then I growled.
Not cried. Not screamed. I fucking growled. Like an animal.
“No, no, no-” I covered my mouth. My heart was pounding in my ears. My body was shaking.
And just as I made another sound, something else changed… My teeth.
They were growing. Sharpening. I could feel them shift inside my gums, as if they were pushing through, as if my body was rebuilding itself into something I didn’t recognize.
“Killian!” I screamed again, louder this time, because whatever this was, it was not human, and I didn’t understand it, and he was the only one who ever made me feel like I wasn’t crazy, even when he was being a bastard.
Mom rushed in first. She froze. Her eyes widened and her hand flew to her mouth.
Dad followed and he looked as if he saw a ghost.
“WHAT’S HAPPENING TO ME?!” I yelled, stepping back toward the mirror. “Why the fuck do I look like this?! WHAT IS THIS?!”
Neither of them answered.
They just stood there staring at me, as if I was some kind of freak, and I was losing it, losing my goddamn mind, because my body wouldn’t stop burning and no one was giving me a fucking answer.
Mom started crying “Andrew… please. Please call him.”
Dad shook his head, his jaw clenched “She’ll survive this. She has to.”
“If she dies, if she breaks. if anything happens to her because of this, I will never forgive you!” she shouted, voice raw.
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+25 BONUS
I couldn’t breathe. My hands were shaking. I wanted to tear my skin off. I wanted to scream until my lungs bled.
“WHERE’S KILLIAN??!” I roared.
And then something shifted deep inside me.
HEHHIEL
I marched forward, eyes locked on Dad, grabbed his shirt, and shoved him back against the door. My fingers tightened
around his collar.
“FUCKING. CALL. KILLIAN!” I growled.
My voice, it wasn’t even mine anymore. It was darker. Thicker. Deeper. The kind of voice that didn’t ask. The kind of voice
that commanded.
And I could tell it scared them.
Mom and Dad both stared at me as if I’d turned into something else. Maybe I had. Because right now I didn’t feel like Liana. I didn’t feel like a woman. I felt like something wild. Something that could rip through anything in its path.
The room started to shake. I could feel it. The mirror trembled. The floorboards creaked.
Dad and Mom rushed out.
I didn’t wait. I went to the tub, turned on the water, and sat inside. It wasn’t soothing. It hissed. It fucking hissed the second it
touched my skin, as if fire meeting water.
Steam filled the bathroom. I sank deeper into the tub, letting it scald me, needing it to burn away this ache, this hunger, this
need.
My hand moved under the water. I didn’t even think. It was automatic.
I needed him. I needed Killian so fucking badly it felt as if I was dying. I whispered his name again. Over and over.
“Killian… Killian… Please… Fuck…”
I gritted my teeth, desperate for release, desperate to feel something that wasn’t pain, something that wasn’t fire.
And then the door creaked open.
“Liana,” Mom whispered, her face pale, her eyes full of something between fear and relief.
I looked up at her, panting, body still trembling.
“He’s coming,” she said, her voice cracking. “Killian’s coming.”
I froze.
Finally.
He was coming.
I let out a breath and for the first time in hours, I let myself fall back into the water, my entire body buzzing with the knowledge that he was on his way.
Because if he didn’t come soon, I wasn’t sure what the fuck I’d turn into next.
