Thud. Thud.
His heart drove hard against his ribs. The blood's salt-iron sweetness hit something primal.
A switch thrown deep in the vampire's nature, and what came through the Blood Frenzy wasn't the controlled amplification he was used to.
Thud. Thud.
Something moved through his veins that had no word for it, a heat that wasn't temperature, the red flooding his pupils completely, the canines extending past his lips, the color draining from his face until what was left was pale and sharp and wrong.
Thud! Thud!
His fingers became claws, the edges catching the harpy's terrified reflection as they extended, razor-thin and perfectly still.
He made a sound that didn't belong to a person, grabbed the lower half of her beak with one hand, and drove her head into the nearest stone.
Crack.
Crack.
