The Atham Manor (Slow Updates)

Alexios Varelas

"Xania, hate to rush you, but move faster!"

I panted after Alex, who gripped my hand tight in his and dragged me through downtown Eastwood. My legs were still sore from Henry and my coupling, but I trudged on. I literally didn't have a choice.

Through the fog of fatigue threatening to make my knees buckle, I had half the mind to retort. A scream ripped out of my throat instead.

A strigoi burst through the window of a nearby shop, spewing glass everywhere. Its gangly body rolled across the pavement before righting itself and scrambling after us with slaughter on its mind.

Alex stopped and yanked me behind him in an unrestrained move that had me slamming up against his back. I barely got to look up before he raised his hand and the pale monster exploded, launching blood and gore ten feet in every direction. I was immediately put in remembrance of my elder brother splattering a fat tick with a sledgehammer when I was ten. But on a way larger scale. It's fleshy pieces and body fluid coated the street, parked cars, and storefronts.

My stomach rolled violently, but I didn't even have the energy or time to vomit because two more of the monsters came out from around the corner, drawn to the blood.

While Alex handled them with a flick of his wrist, I tried to stop my lungs from screaming. I'd been running for half an hour and minus Alex teleporting us short distances away, I hadn't gotten a second to stop. My heart was slamming against my ribcage and my chest and throat burned. So did the numerous scratches I'd had from narrow escapes with the feral monsters.

Alex looked and moved better than I did, but he was running out of blood. I could tell when it took him four tries to kill the third strigoi.

After the monsters' innards painted the road like a really fucked up Picasso painting, Alex grabbed me like a ragdoll, yanked me into a nearby alley, and pushed me against the wall. I grasped his arms to steady myself, forcing down the bile rising up my throat. My stomach was lurching, I was dizzy, and the sudden movements did not help.

"We can't keep running like this. I'm sorry, but I need your blood."

I stared up at him for five seconds, trying to make sense of his words before what he was asking for hit me. And I was completely unsure what to do. I haven't seen Henry, Calvin, or Warren, since this attack started, and considering how far we'd gotten away from the school, I probably wouldn't until I was somewhere safe. But I couldn't let him put his mouth anywhere near me. Not when I told them I'd stay away. Not when I'd already messed up.

But this was different, right?

"Don't make it feel good." I swallowed, shifting my weight between my aching feet.

Alex gave me an exasperated look. "Screaming in pain would be a better option? Those beasts are everywhere, koukla, it'll just draw them here."

"I'll keep quiet," I said, doubling down.

Alex let out a rough sigh bordering on a growl. I thought he'd snap his teeth down into my neck without warning, but he surprised me by dropping to his knees instead. Grabbing my right leg I'd scratched while rushing through the hallway, his thumb accidentally dug into the puffy skin around the long gash and I winced.

Alex's hands on my thighs momentarily transported me to a memory just thirty minutes ago.

I had my back pressed up against Ms. Lo's door, my face currently competing for the Guinness World Record of widest eyes in the world. "Alex?! What are you doing here? I thought choir class was in the auditorium today."

I foolishly thought nobody would be here but you could bet my unlucky ass the cause of all of my problems would be just hanging around my current place of refuge. Alone. Looking gorgeous.