Afterlife

Chapter 1

DPOV

I haven't been cold many times in my life. Growing up in Siberia would do that to you. It was like everyone born there automatically got resistance to cold ingrained in them the moment they took their first breath. The Montana climate was almost like spring to me. We had spring and summer in Siberia, just not a lot of it. I had stood in the snow with nothing but shorts. I had been in blazing snow storms walking home. I had never felt the cold. But I feel it now. It was a bone breaking cold that seeped into your very being.

I suspected it had something to do with the blood leaving my body and being sucked up by a Strigoi like a damn Slurpee.

His fangs were securely attached to my neck and although the endorphins had entered my body leaving me mostly numb, I could still feel the sting at my neck. Somehow my body wanted to experience something real one more time before I would die. Because I knew I would die. I knew it by the cold that entered my body, I knew it by the hold the Strigoi had on my body and I knew it by my heart rate slowing down.

I had accepted that fate. I didn't want to die. I didn't want to think about what would happen to my body. I also didn't want to think about the people I would leave behind. But the reality of my current state left little wiggle room for fantasies. In a few moments, I would leave this world for the next. It was just something that was inevitable like the day making way for the night. And as sure as the moon would rise each night I knew I would not be alive by the next dawn.

For a moment the Strigoi stopped draining me, detaching from my neck and I felt a small moment of reprieve, no piercing fangs and no increasing cold. My mind was hazed and I was drifting. I was at the point where I couldn't feel anything anymore. Somehow I hated the numbness but was grateful at the same time. There wasn't any pain anymore, and I wasn't feeling the cold anymore either. There was a sense of peace in this limbo place, where the world just stopped existing, where I stopped to exist.

I heard an ear piercing scream somewhere in the distance. I knew that voice and I knew what her scream embodied. Her screams were getting further and further away from me. And it wasn't because I was slipping, no, it was because she was getting further away from me.Judging by her protests, I didn't think it was her choice. But it was for the best. I didn't want Rose to see me like this. I didn't want her to join me in death, which would happen if she stayed. So whoever was making her run, I would be eternally grateful.

I could hear the pain in her voice as she accepted that she couldn't save me. She was desperate, grieving and heartbroken. And it was because I wouldn't come back to her. I imagined her face stained with the tears I could hear breaking in her voice and it broke something inside of me too.

I felt the pain returning and my body feeling cold again. My heart rate increased and I could feel a small sliver of life returning to me. Rose's scream had jolted me back a bit and I knew I had to fight, fight to somehow get back to her. The universe was giving me a single moment of deciding I wanted to live a life with her or die.

I was able to move, just slightly, but I was moving. The Strigoi had stopped for a moment and was preparing to feed me his blood. Although the prospect of being turned was terrifying I was grateful he had thought of turning me, otherwise, he would have drained me in one go. At least this gave him a moment to pause. My hand twitched at my side and brushed against a stake. The stake felt warm against my skin. Strangely, the metal from the stake had always felt cold in my hand, but now the temperature of my hand was lower than the stake's. It didn't matter, I still wrapped my hands firmly around the warm steel and waited for my moment.

The Strigoi and I were the only ones left in this cavern. I could hear others further in the cave, but they were far away. They seemed to be feeding.