The sirens change him.
I see it happen in real time, like a switch flipping behind his eyes. The wild confidence drains out of his face, replaced by something sharp and frantic. Panic does not soften him. It sharpens him into something more dangerous, more reckless. The kind of fear that burns away restraint instead of producing it.
He moves fast.
Too fast.
I hear Elena gasp before I see it. The sound is sharp and terrified, ripped from her lungs without warning. Fingers fist in her hair, yanking her backward with brutal force. Her body jerks hard, her balance gone instantly, and her cry tears out of her, high and raw, pain and fear tangled together. Her hands scrabble uselessly at his wrist, nails digging in as he drags her against him like a shield, like an object, like leverage.
“N
