The Beast Within

Chapter 9

~Emily's Point Of View~

I FELT NUMB all over and barely acknowledged Eli as he took my hand in his own, grasping onto it and giving it a tight squeeze. I was too wrapped up in my own thoughts. Marcie. The name itself sent shivers down my spine. I had tried to bury that feeling of hatred deep inside for years only to have it resurface in the instant I heard that name.

My mother was only twenty-seven when it happened. She had been given a special mission from the Alpha to slip into the King's palace and assassinate the general. It was a dangerous task, but it paid a hefty amount of gold. My mother couldn't turn down such an offer. After my father had been killed the year previous from an unknown illness, we were running low on funds. She had been missing for weeks before someone finally convinced the Alpha to send a party out to look for fer. Found dead with that awful deep gash in the side of her neck.

I sighed. I did want revenge for my mother's death. I myself didn't know why I wanted to. She wasn't a very good mother. Cold, emotionless just like the rest of the Clan, but she was a mother nevertheless. I felt a connection to her. I came from her flesh and blood.

Eli was right. I needed to keep a level head. If I just rushed off and found Marcie now I would only suffer the same fate. I leaned in against Eli, pressing my body against his. "Come on. Let's see if we can find a more suitable place to stay."

"Yeah. If only we knew where the next village was." Eli said. He wrapped his arms around my body again. In an attempt to try to sooth me I guess.

"At least we have food that won't kill us when we eat it now." I tried to sound hopeful. I really did. I had high hopes when I left that camp behind. Now everything felt like a blur. Everything had gone wrong, from the moment I walked out of that camp. Who was I kidding? I couldn't make it out on my own. Not with my past. Not with who I was. Not with what I was. There was no forgiveness in the kingdom for being an assassin. Death penalty more like it. I was more likely to be hanged than to find a new life. My fate was as good as the one my mother had fallen to.

I looked at Eli and sighed. Well, not everything had gone wrong. At least I still had Eli by my side. I buried my face in his shirt and let out a sob. I felt him rubbing my back.

"It's going to be okay," he whispered into my ear. "It is all going to be okay."

"H-How do you know..." I sobbed. Tears flooded my eyes, but they refused to fall. "Oh Eli, I am so sorry..."

"For what?" He asked.

"For dragging you into this..." I was so afraid I had brought the only man I had ever learned to love to doom.

"You didn't drag me into this." Eli said. "I wanted to come. Emily, I would follow you to oblivion and back, babe. There is no place I would rather be than by your side."

I said nothing, balling his shirt up in my fist. My body shook with another sob.

"I promise." Eli added.

After a few moments I nodded. Eli tilted my head up and wiped my tears away, giving a reassuring smile. His lips locked with mine in a short, but heated and passionate kiss. My body shivered against his when he pulled his lips away from mine.

"Let's get going." He smiled.

I nodded. "Yeah. Best to get going. We can't let them catch up to us."

Them. Our enemies had no specific name now. There was two huge groups after us. The Aiker Clan and the vampire mercenaries. The Clan was the one I was more worried about.

Aiker. The Clan was named after the first assassin. The one who started it all. Aiker was the man who all assassins, not just my former Clan, took after. He set the example. He set the boundaries. He set the the Code.

The Code. I shuddered at the mere thought of it. It was what we all lived by. It was the law. No emotions. No mercy. Trust no one on the outside. Never learn to love. All marriages are to be arranged and the arrangements are final. A child must start their training at the age of seven. Those and a ton more made up the very code I had grew up learning.

In an assassin clan, you are taught to read and write just like any other school. When you reach seven, you just happen to take on another class. The class that will teach you to murder. Each of us was paired with someone of the opposite gender. Since there was no girls his age, Eli was paired with me. Each pair of us was given to an older assassin as a mentor. That was who we learned our skills from. We were taught everything from how to handle a dagger or knife to how to shoot a bow.

It made me sick. I never was like those other cold-blooded killers, even though I was born in that horrible place.

"Emily?" Eli's voice brought me back to reality.

"Sorry, baby. I was just thinking. Come on, let's go."

Eli nodded. He kissed my forehead and lead me through the trees, my hand grasped in his. I smiled slightly and let him. I felt so safe with him, though I didn't know why. My duffle bag dangled in my loose hand. I kept a tight grip on it. We couldn't afford losing what supplies we had. My stomach was growling, but I decided to ignore it. We need to preserve our food. No telling when we would get another chance to get any more food. We had to find out how to ration it equally.