Bloodlines (The New Order 2)

Chapter 12

Candice

My eyes barely remained open. I tripped back and forth against the wall, trying to stay awake. It terrified me of what sleep could do to me again, especially after I had lost most of the blood in my body. It continued to seep out of the fresh wound in my thigh, dripping onto the cold ground of the cellar I had been in for hours and hours.

I sat over the puddle of my own blood, trying to stay awake. Breaths burned my throat as I tried to take them. An ache rose within me, never-ending. My dry lips parted, I croaked out a groan before pressing my head against the cold wall.

Just then Grandpa's words echoed in my head. 'Let's see what you can become when you're hungry and deprived of blood.' I remebered the vivid and the crooked smile over his face as he fastened the shackles around my wrists and feet, restraining me inside the cellar that he had wickedly dragged me into.

I wasn't sure of how many hours had passed by but it had been a while.

He stabbed me four times, twice in my thighs and twice in my stomach. I kept bleeding but shortly, I healed and the bleeding stopped. He struck me with a pocket knife again, making a large gash every time, ensuring every drop of blood was out of my system.

I grew hungry every second, needing blood. The most I lost, the more I required. He didn't wait to starve me. He took the other route around, the easy one and bled me out.

Not entirely yet.

When I looked down, I found the gash closing up and healing on its own finally, after a long time. A cough burst out of my dry, painful throat and I rested back against the wall, hoping for all of this to pass by.

It wasn't the pain that made me weak, it was the loss of blood.

However, after spending months with the twins, I had learned to control my hunger and not snap into whatever I could become.

That's what Grandpa wanted. He wanted me to turn, to tap into my roots and become the darkness, to become like Gideon. He wanted to watch me as I turned into a mindless creature. I wasn't sure why he wanted me to become like that but he was trying hard.

This was certainly not the way I imagined to bond with him.

He wanted to destroy whatever sane part of me was left. I couldn't let that happen. I couldn't become like the darkness, I couldn't bear to kill people like Gideon did when he tapped into his darkness.

It was a choice.

I didn't want to.

The need for blood finally made sense. My parents always pressured me into drinking as much as blood as it was possible so I wouldn't starve and then turn into the darkness. It wasn't the weak heart that needed blood—it was the monster within me that needed blood to stay sane and in control.

I had been starved of blood a thousand times before, especially when I was in Thornwood. Somehow, I had managed not to turn into the darkness. I could go on days and days without fresh blood but Grandpa was quickening the hunger process by draining blood out of my own body.

My throat tightened. I felt starved. It was rational hunger, consuming me slowly. There wasn't much time left.

Dark thoughts flooded my head as I pressed my eyes shut for a moment. I feared waking up completely out of my control, without any clue of myself. I had blacked out once, when I was young and I had no memories of those days. I had no idea who I had hurt or even possibly killed.

My parents gave me the bare information while Natalie told me I had hurt her and had her hospitalized.

None of it clicked in my head.