Shattered

Epilogue Part 2

Disclaimer: This is NOT Thaddeus's love interest. This just leads into his story

Thaddeus's POV:

The scent of freshly spilled blood and another vampire hit my nostrils and I stopped, the dirt flying up as I skidded to a halt. It was clear a vampire was out causing trouble. Too many bodies had been found and it was sloppily done. Our kind drawing attention, right when the world was learning our secret, was the wrong fucking time. I had no time to track down this wild vampire but someone had to. I stepped to the right, following the scent, then following the sound as I heard crying.

Nestled down a hill, against a boulder a tree's roots were growing around was a girl with the body of hiker next to her. Blood pooled around him and blood dripped down her chin, landing on her Wizard of Oz sweatshirt.

"Have you lost your mind?"

Her head snapped up, eyes going wide when she saw me. Tears filled her eyes and she looked between me and the body. "I... I didn't mean to."

"Didn't mean to what, exactly?" I asked, coming down the hill. "Waste so much blood or kill a hiker out in the open when we're already in trouble?"

"What?" She asked, her brows furrowing.

"You cannot be doing things like this," I said, gesturing to the body. "Not right now when everyone is out vampire hunting. Do you have a death wish or you just don't care you endanger the lives of fellow vampires? What clan are you part of?"

"You're a... You're a vampire," she said, her eyes going wide.

I had a biting remark but something was off. She seemed confused and as I took her in one more time, I realized she was young. Young and scared shitless. "How old are you?"

"Nineteen," she answered, tugging on the ends of her sleeves.

"No, I don't mean the age you turned, I mean how old you actually are," I clarified.

She seemed confused by that, her eyes darting around a minute before she wrapped her arms around herself. "I... I don't know."

"You don't know," I repeated. She nodded. "Who turned you?"

"What?"

"Who bit you and turned you into a vampire?"

"I don't know," she whispered, tears spilling down her face.

"You don't know?" I frowned. That was illegal. A vampire couldn't just turn another and leave them to fend for themselves. They had to teach them, train them. No wonder her kills were so messy. "How long have you been feeding like this?" I asked, gesturing to the hiker. So much blood was on the ground. It was a waste.

"A few days or weeks, I don't know," she said, covering her face like she was embarrassed. She must be my troublemaker, then. "I don't know what happened, I just woke up and I was buried in dirt and I crawled out and ever since then, I..." she paused, more tears coming down. "I've been craving blood and hungry and killing. I almost hurt my brother."

"You were buried?" I asked, frowning. She nodded. That didn't make any sense. Who the fuck turns a vampire then buries them? Now I had another dumbass to hunt down and ask why the hell they'd turn someone and not teach them anything after.

"I feel out of control," she said, looking up at me with fresh tears. "I don't want to hurt anyone but I keep doing it. I can't stop it. It's like... It's not even me when it happens."

"Yes, well, you know what would help?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "Biting them in the right place so half the blood doesn't spill all over the ground, actually getting a full meal out of a person. You need to learn to hunt correctly."