The church bells still echoed across the rooftops as I sprinted toward the castle.
My body moved with an ease I'd never experienced before. With each stride covering twice the distance, my lungs barely worked despite the pace.
The transformation had changed everything. I felt powerful. Alive in a way I'd never been when I was actually alive.
The castle loomed ahead, its white stone walls glowing in the dying light. Torches blazed along the ramparts, and I could hear the distant murmur of the crowd still gathered for the ceremony.
I was cutting it close. Too close.
I rounded a corner into a narrow alley that would take me to the castle's side entrance. A shortcut the orphans used when we didn't want to be seen by the main gates.
That's when I saw him.
Jeff.
He stood at the alley's entrance, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. One of the five people I managed to get a glance at.
He looked up as I approached, and his face went through a series of expressions in rapid succession.
Shock.
Disbelief.
Then a cruel smile.
"Well, well." Jeff pushed off the wall, a nasty grin spreading across his face. "Look what crawled out of the dirt."
I stopped a few feet away, my hands clenching into fists. Every muscle in my body coiled tight, ready to spring.
"Didn't think you'd survive that fall, vile." He circled me slowly, his grin widening. "Guess you're harder to kill than we thought. But you look like shit. Still bleeding?"
I said nothing. Just stared at him, letting the anger build.
"What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?" Jeff laughed, the sound grating against my ears. "Or are you just too stupid to realize you should've stayed down there? Should've done us all a favor and died in that ravine like the trash you are."
"Get out of my way," I said quietly.
"Or what?" He stepped closer, emboldened by what he thought was weakness. "You gonna fight me? You can barely stand. Look at you... You're shaking."
He was right about one thing. I was shaking.
But not from weakness.
"I'm giving you one chance," I said, my voice low and dangerous. "Move."
"Make me, vile scum." He shoved my shoulder. "Come on. Let's see what you..."
My fist connected with his jaw before he could finish the sentence. The impact sent a satisfying crack through the air, and Jeff stumbled backward, eyes wide with shock.
"What the..."
I didn't let him finish. I was on him in an instant, my enhanced speed making the world blur around me. Another punch to his face. Then his ribs. Then his stomach.
Each hit landed with bone-crushing force that I'd never possessed before. Each impact sent waves of satisfaction through my body, washing away months... no, years... of humiliation and pain.
Jeff tried to fight back. His fist swung toward my face, but I caught it easily. I squeezed a little, and his bones ground together beneath my grip, and he screamed.
I didn't even squeeze that hard. But his bones broke nonetheless.
"Not so tough now, are you?" I slammed him against the alley wall. His head cracked against the stone, and blood trickled down his temple. "Where's all that confidence? All that bravado?"
"Stop... please..." He tried to pull away, but I held him pinned with one hand.
"Please?" I laughed, and the sound came out cold. "Did you stop when I begged? When I asked for just one chance at the ceremony?"
I punched him again. His nose crunched beneath my knuckles, blood exploding across his face.
"Did you stop when the executioner stabbed me?" Another punch. "When you threw me over that cliff?"
Jeff sobbed, his hands scrambling uselessly against my grip. "I'm sorry—I'm sorry—"
"No, you're not." I grabbed his hair and yanked his head back, forcing him to look at me. "You're just sorry you're on the receiving end now."
His gaze met mine, his eyes went wide, and dread colored his face.
Blood covered his face, mixing with tears and snot. He looked pathetic.
Good.
"You treated me like trash my entire life," I said, my voice dropping to a whisper. The anger pulsed through me in waves, becoming intoxicating.
"You made every day a living hell. And for what? Because vampires touched me when I was a baby? Because I was different?"
"Please—" he whimpered.
"Shut up." I tightened my grip on his hair, pulling harder until he cried out. "I don't want to hear your excuses. I don't want to hear your apologies. You know what I want?"
He shook his head frantically, blood spraying from his broken nose.
"I want you to know what it feels like." I leaned in closer, my face inches from his. "To be completely helpless. To be at someone else's mercy. To know that your life means nothing to the person holding it."
His whole body trembled. Tears streamed down his face, mixing with the blood. He looked so small now. So insignificant.
This is what I was to them. This cowering, broken thing.
The realization should have made me feel better. It should have satisfied the rage burning in my chest.
But it didn't.
Because I wasn't like them. I had never been.
"I could kill you right now," I said softly, watching his eyes widen with terror. "Snap your neck. Drain every drop of blood from your body. It would be so easy."
"Please don't... please—"
"But I won't." I released his hair slightly, though I kept him pinned against the wall. "You know why?"
He shook his head again, sobbing openly now.
"Because I'm better than you." The words came out flat. "I always have been. And beating you to death in an alley won't change what you did. It won't give me back those years. It won't make me feel whole."
I stared into his eyes, and something strange happened.
The world seemed to slow. Jeff's terrified gaze locked onto mine, and I felt... something. A connection forming between us like an invisible thread.