Chapter 6 The Taste of Power
Cressida's POV
The second gang member begs differently than the first.
"Please, I have a kid!" Diego sobs, clutching his broken arm. "I'll do anything!"
I stand over him in the abandoned warehouse, my knife still dripping. My power shows me his sins glowing around him like fire three assaults, two robberies, and he hurt Isolde just as badly as Rico did.
"You should have thought about your kid before you beat an innocent girl," I say.
The darkness inside me purrs with satisfaction as I carve the word "COWARD" into his shoulder. He screams. The sound echoes off the warehouse walls.
And I smile.
That's new. Last week with Rico, I felt sick afterward. Shaky. Now? Now I feel alive.
When I'm done, I call the police from Diego's own phone and leave him crying on the floor.
Three down. Two to go.
By Friday, I've hunted four of the five gang members who hurt Isolde. Each time gets easier. Faster. More brutal.
The fifth one a kid named Marco, only nineteen actually tries to apologize when I corner him.
"I'm sorry!" he cries. "I was stupid! I was just following the others! Please don't hurt me!"
I look at his glowing sins. He's assaulted six people. Robbed a homeless woman. Sold drugs to middle schoolers.
"You're not sorry," I tell him. "You're just scared."
I break his leg and leave him for the police.
When I walk away, I catch my reflection in a car window. My eyes flash black for just a second. My smile shows too many teeth.
I should be horrified.
Instead, I feel powerful.
Work becomes a joke. Marcus struts around the office like he owns the world, and I know every dirty secret he's hiding.
On Monday, he calls an all-staff meeting.
"Due to budget constraints," he announces with fake sympathy, "we're letting someone go. Jenny from accounting, your position is eliminated effective immediately."
Jenny's face crumbles. She's a single mom. She needs this job.
And Marcus is firing her to hide the $47,000 he stole.
Everyone looks uncomfortable, but nobody says anything. They never do.
I watch Marcus smile his oily smile, and the darkness inside me starts screaming for his blood.
Tonight, I promise myself. Tonight, he pays.
Marcus lives in Platinum Heights, in a house he bought with stolen money. I pick the lock on his back door at 2 AM and slip inside silently.
His bedroom is upstairs. I can hear him snoring.
I stand over his bed, watching him sleep. He looks smaller now, vulnerable. Not the monster who's tormented me for two years.
I press my knife against his throat.
His eyes snap open.
"Hello, Marcus," I whisper.
He tries to scream. I press the knife harder, and he freezes.
"Remember Jenny? The woman you fired today?" I lean closer. "You stole $47,000 from the nonprofit fund. You falsified donation records. You blackmailed Jenny into covering for you. You sexually harassed three women."
His eyes go wide with terror. "How how do you "
"I know everything." I pull out my phone and show him the financial records I compiled. "Every crime. Every lie. Every person you hurt."
"Cressida," he gasps. "Please. I'll fix it. I'll rehire Jenny. I'll confess. Just don't "
"Too late for that."
What happens next feels like watching someone else move my body. I beat Marcus until he stops moving. Not dead I can see him breathing but broken.
Then I carve the word "EMBEZZLER" across his chest.
He doesn't even scream. He's unconscious.
I take pictures of everything and send them to the police, the company board, and every news outlet in the city. I attach all his financial records as proof.
When I'm done, I should feel guilty.
I feel nothing but satisfaction.
At home, I wash the blood off my hands. It's become routine now hunt, hurt, clean up, sleep.
I'm changing into pajamas when I notice it.
A thin black line runs from my chest up toward my shoulder. Like a vein, but darker. Wrong.
I touch it. The skin feels cold.
I pull my shirt down further. The line starts directly over my heart and branches up like roots from a tree. There are smaller lines too, spreading across my ribs.
"What is this?" I whisper.
My phone buzzes. A text from Sable: "Congratulations on a productive week. The marks are beautiful, aren't they? Physical proof of your power growing. Don't worry they'll spread slowly. You have plenty of time before the transformation completes. Keep hunting. Keep feeding the darkness. You're doing wonderfully."
Transformation?
My hands start shaking.
I run to the bathroom and strip off my shirt completely. In the mirror, I can see the black lines clearly now. They pulse faintly, like they have their own heartbeat.
I'm changing. Actually, physically changing into something else.
"No," I breathe. "No, no, no."
But even as panic rises in my throat, another part of me the dark part whispers that it's fine. It's worth it. The power feels too good to give up.
I'm still staring at my reflection when my apartment door crashes open.
I spin around.
Thaddeus stands in my living room, his mismatched eyes glowing. He's holding a sword made of pure light.
"Found you," he says.
Behind him, four police officers rush in with guns drawn.
"Cressida Halloway," one officer shouts, "you're under arrest for assault and vigilante activity!"
My mind races. They found Marcus. They connected it to me somehow.
I'm trapped. Police in front, Thaddeus blocking the door, and nowhere to run.
Thaddeus raises his light-sword. "Officers, step back. She's more dangerous than you know."
"We'll handle this," the lead officer snaps at him. "Put the weapon down!"
For a moment, everyone freezes police yelling at Thaddeus, Thaddeus focused on me, me calculating which window I could jump through.
Then my phone buzzes one more time.
I glance down at the screen.
The message makes my blood turn to ice: "Your brother Landry just woke up. He's calling for you. Better hurry. S"
Landry. Awake. After seven years.
I look at Thaddeus, at the police, at my only escape route.
And I make a choice that will change everything.
I run straight at the window.
"Stop!" everyone shouts at once.
I don't stop.
Glass shatters around me as I crash through into the night, six stories up, with no idea if I'll survive the fall.
But I have to get to Landry.
Nothing else matters.
Not the police. Not Thaddeus. Not even the black veins spreading across my chest.
My brother is finally awake.
And I'm not human anymore.