A Hybrid's Hunger

Chapter 67

Chapter 67

Cold air rushes into the house and the hair over my skin rises. It's as if death itself has walked in through the front door, on this night of all nights. And maybe it has. She's here—my mother—she looks a bit different. But, the moment her gaze lands on me, it morphs, heavy with a sudden storm of emotions.

"Aurora?" Her voice is a whisper and it barely makes it to me.

"Mom," I step forward, forgetting there's blood on my neck. It's too late when I realize. "What are you doing here?"

The blood, evidence of Zade's violent hunger, catches her eye, and she rushes toward me in panic. "Aurora, what did he do to you?"

Horror creases her face. Fear etches into her very skin. She grabs my arm and for a moment, we both are caught in the gravity of what she has always feared. A chill leeches onto me. I can feel it coming, the worry, the tension, the fear. I never wanted her to know, I never wanted her to be right in this. In anything but this.

With a jerk, I step back from her and pry my arm away. Distance is my shield. "It's nothing, Mom."

"Aurora—"

"Mom, please. Just go—why are you even here?"

"He's hurting you!" she yells, breaking through the normal front I've fought so hard to maintain.

"No, Mom. He's not, okay? Just please, go. Now. Please." This cannot be happening right now.

My eyes flicker behind her, and I see Zade coming down the stairs. My mother hears him too and she turns around in front of me. I watch him come closer to us, his eyes meeting my mother's. She stares at him with disgust before wrapping her hand around my wrist.

"Come with me, Aurora. Now. I won't leave you here," she insists, her eyes pleading with me. "Not with him."

I shake my head but before I have the chance to subject, Zade gives his own input.

"You should go with her."

His unexpected agreement startles me, and for a moment, I'm frozen, confusion clouding my thoughts. How could he ever agree?

I look at him, really look at him, trying to find the trap in his words, the catch. In his silence, there's an unspoken message, a painful realization—he's willing to let me go.

"No, Zade—" I breathe, tears blurring my vision. I pull my hand away from my mother. "Mom, please go."

She corners me to the wall. "Look at yourself, Aurora. Look what he has done to you. He's hurt you and he'll only keep hurting you. Please, Aurora, come with me before anything more happens. This isn't love."

"Stop. Please," I beg her, my voice breaking while my eyes follow Zade leaving the house and going outside. "Just go home, Mom. Please."

I run from her as she yells my name over and over again, but I don't hear her voice when my own heart is beating so loudly. Bursting out of the door, I search for Zade and find him walking into the garden, further away from me.

"Zade!"

"Go with her." He doesn't turn to face me, doesn't take back his words.

"I don't want to go with her," I catch up to him, grasping his arm to stop him, forcing him to face me. "Why are you even doing this? Why would you ever let me leave?"

"You were willing to go last time." His sharp words cut through the air and he stops.

"But I stayed, Zade. Despite everything, my choice was here, with you. I want to be with you, I don't want to go anywhere." I plead, holding his hand and gripping it tightly, hoping that he'll take it back, all of his words.