Claiming the Vampire Slayer

Chapter Eight: Remembering the Sun

I can't take this anymore.

It's been days since I tried to kill Marcellus, and each one of them brings heavier remorse.

I need to find a way out.

I reconsider my plan to seduce Marcellus. It's a viable option—he's a predator, through and through, and it's my duty to find a way to kill him. If I can't do it myself, then I should get out of here and find someone who can.

Jasper, maybe? My ex is an experienced vampire slayer. He might be willing to do this.

Not for me, no. He doesn't give a shit about me. He'd do it for the glory of having slain a vampire lord.

The problem is getting close enough to him without him discovering what I've become.

Disgust crawls through me. I hold my arms out and examine the changes in my skin.

The dusky hue is still there, but there's a waxiness to it, an unnatural sheen that only vampires possess.

I trace my teeth with my tongue, feeling the strangeness of the sharp points where my fangs rest.

The dryness in my throat causes it to convulse. Dawn is coming. I feel it in my bones, a steady tug that cinches inside me and tugs on my eyelids.

The sun makes me sleepy, which sucks. I love the sun. All I want is to stand in the golden rays and let it sink into my skin.

But I'll never have that again.

I feel like I've betrayed everything that my parents instilled in me. I was supposed to be better than this. They would never have let a vampire turn them.

There's no happy ending to becoming the thing I swore to destroy. For me, the future is nothing but torture and death.

I'd never bring myself to drink human blood from the source, either. Putting my fangs to a person's neck is unthinkable. I'd rather die.

I stretch my legs, feeling the silk sheets glide over my smooth skin.

I chose a room with a balcony and a bed big enough for three people. It's luxurious without being ostentatious, a room I could get used to living in... if I deserved to live at all.

What would my parents say if they saw me right now?

I imagine my mother's sharp look, the disappointment in my father's eyes. Everything they taught me, all the lessons they instilled, are worthless to me now.

I'm worthless.

The fact that I'm still alive is a stab in their backs.

There's only one thing I can do.

Ending my life is the only way to make up for my mistake. It's what they would want—what they would demand—if they knew what happened.

I roll from the bed and grab some clothes from the closet. Marcellus had clothes brought in for me that happen to fit perfectly, which pisses me off even more.

These aren't what I really want. What I do want is the sun on my face.

If it's the last thing I'm going to see, then at least I'll die happy.

And I will die today. It's the least I can do for my family. I never should have woken up in the first place, every moment since Marcellus bit me being a moment I've stolen.

End it, my mother's voice whispers in the back of my mind.

I rush out onto the balcony connected to my room. The sun is just cresting the horizon, spilling over the grassy knoll and climbing the villa's walls, creeping toward my feet.