I kissed him on his bloody cheek and then opened my arms to his mother. She looked hesitant at first, but then she approached like royalty, gliding to my side with a polite smile.
I wrapped an arm around her, squeezing tight, as I slid the other into my pocket.
To be honest, I don’t know how I had the skill or the speed to pull off the next part, but I managed to yank the blade out, wrap my other arm around her, and stab her in the back.
It was at an awkward angle, so the blade went in diagonally. A wound that wouldn’t kill a human. That would barely even draw blood from a human. But, of course, she wasn’t human. Not anymore.
That’s why her limbs stretched out like a starfish, long and thin, as her body hovered in the air. A black light shone from her eyes, coating the room in darkness, and then her body collapsed like Tyler’s had.
Before I could process what had just happened, Derek was on top of me. He jumped on my chest, pushing me to the floor and knocking the blade from my hand.
“Please,” I said as he pinned down my arms. “You know this couldn’t last. She’s a murderer. Maybe she wasn’t before, but she is now. Jesus, she killed Tyler. Tyler.”
