The Realm of Truth (Book 1) [In the process of editing]

Part 2: Setting the Stage

Chapter 17: Changes

(Damien's POV)

I woke up maybe half an hour later, and saw that Odette was no where to be found. Aw, crap. "Odette?" I called out. The first thing I went to was her room. I never really went into her room, but I was always curious if she was ever "sleeping". She's always looked like she had her fist balled up in case she had an intruder, and Odette could punch anyone's lights out if they weren't like her. Thank god I was an exception for her.

I winced and looked down at my arm and saw that I needed to replace these bandages. It was soaked with blood from earlier today and I went to the bathroom to cleanse it off. Once the blood was washed, sterile, and cleaned, I took a good look at the scar. It was in the shape of a crescent moon, shaded in the darkest color of purple from how hard she bit down on me.

I wondered how close she was to draining me completely of the blood I had left in me. Did she, in that moment, think about turning me so she wouldn't have to be alone in this?

There were thoughts running through my head of all the possibilities Odette could've done to me. I wondered if the reason she stopped was because she didn't want me to suffer through the changes. I wish I could ask her these questions, but she was nowhere to be found. I wanted to find her, and to be with her. She was simply unique to me, and she let me in her world where she didn't want me to be.

I turned around and saw Odette and to be quite frank, she startled the living daylights out of me. "I'm gonna have to get used to you doing that." I smiled at her. Her emerald eyes had been glowing all this time still and she stood there silently before me. She was frowning. "Are you alright? Did you go hunting?"

I guess not.

I looked at her carefully. She was still wearing her nice, black lace dress, and her flat shoes were removed. She had her hair tied and halfway parted down past her shoulders. I thought about how beautiful she looked, even without makeup or anything. She never really cared to wear stuff like that.

I also noticed she still has blood stains on her arms and legs...and scratches as well. I reached out to touch her but she started snarling at me, backing away with caution.

Even in this state, she knew better than to make one wrong move with me, but I wanted to be with her and hold her to let her know everything is okay. I wanted to help her calm down, but I can't do that if she doesn't talk to me.

We stood there for quite some time and then she grabbed my wrist. She led me outside to the front of the cabin and then all of a sudden, I was on her back for the second time again.

Normally, I would've been embarrassed being picked up by a girl with this much strength, with the whole mucho stamina thing. I didn't mind it. She ran as fast as she could through the woods at night and ran for what felt like a while.

Then she set me down.

I looked around and I was exchanging a look with Odette. "What now?" I asked, and she narrowed a glare at me as if I insulted her. I held up my hands in defense. "Well, milady, you brought me here. I don't know what I'm looking at."

She pointed to what looks like a pile. I looked closely underneath the moonlight and saw that they were bodies.

"Good lord, what did you do, kill them all?" I asked, shocked. Not gonna lie, I thought it would've been a good idea to say it like it was a joke. She usually loves my dark humor.

"Yes, stupid." Her first words finally sang out to me. "I brought them here from the church. Or rather, what's left of them, anyway. They were still warm and I drained the blood from all of them."

I hurried over to check their pulses, which was of course, the stupidest thing I could think of. There was no pulse from any of the families, and I felt their bodies. They were cold and limp.

I looked at Odette. I honestly didn't know what to say.

"Damien." She said slowly. "I can't stay anymore. You have to live your life here. I'm too dangerous to be around with."

"Oh yeah?" I asked, raising one of my eyebrows. "And where will you go? You can't act like nothing's changed in a different state. There will be people looking for you. And how will you know there are other vampires out there? Maybe they're in different countries, you can't say for sure."

"Even so!" She shouted, angrily this time. "I don't want this life stained with blood anymore! I can go into hiding, I can still hunt! I can still survive until this whole fiasco blows over!"

"Odette, you just drained the bodies of these humans after how many years?" I said back to her. "Who knows what changes you'll go through now!"

"I'm fine." She said tightly, and I knew she said it through her lying fangs. "You can't keep worrying about me after knowing me for two years."

"Who's to say you're probably feeling frenzied up inside?" I reminded her. "I bet you, you want to keep killing more."

"Damien, I swear to god." Odette clenched her hands into her fists. "Do not make me kill you too."

"Okay, bet." I stood up and crossed my arms. "Go ahead, I'm standing right here with fresh blood in my system. And let's face it, Odette. You wanted to turn me, too."

She stood there for a moment and punched through a tree. It got snapped from the bottom and I watched it fall over, making a loud booming sound. I felt the hairs in my skin stand up, but I stood my ground.

"We're leaving." She said, after a moment of frustration. "If you can't stay here, then I guess you'll have to go on an adventure with me."

"Okay," I said, calmly now. "Where are we going?"

"To Salem, Massachusetts." Odette said.

"Why there?"

She looked at me with her emerald eyes finally back to its original state. Odette held out her hand to me, "You wanna know more about me, right? Come on, let's get going."