Bloodlust (The Blood Series #1)

Chapter 11

I take a deep breath as all the warning bells go off in my head. Oh my God. He's real. The psychopath from my nightmare is real. How the hell can he be real? I've never seen him before, yet I dream of him and then he shows up at my house? Who is this guy and what does he want?

He looks completely normal in the light of day, handsome even. His eyes aren't red, they are the color of bright amber. His hair is blonde and I think I catch a glimpse of a dimple on his left cheek when he smiles nonchalantly at me, waiting for me to answer him. He doesn't look dangerous. He looks only couple years older than me. I just can't see the psycho in him that I saw in my dream. Maybe I've just got him confused with someone else?

Nevertheless, seeing a character from my dream come to life freaks me out and I back up, never turning my back to him. "Right there by the door is fine", I'm able to squeak. The place for the alarm is just about the last hing on my mind, especially when the person I probably need to keep out is already inside. My feet keep moving while I talk but he doesn't seem to think too much about it. Maybe I'll be able to get out of here without dying.

I'm almost in the living room when I hear him speak. He sounds taken off guard. "Why is your heart beating so loudly?" he asks me, puzzled.

I freeze. How can he hear my pulse? Is he just guessing? Maybe he noticed my terror when I looked at him. Maybe he's just trying to freak me out. Even as I ponder these thoughts, I already know the answer. He really can hear my heartbeat, as crazy as it sounds.

"Are you scared, Haley? Is that what this is?"

He knows my name. Am I wrong? Have I met him before? Maybe we ran into each other during my "lost weekend". But if that's true, why didn't he say anything when I opened the door and he saw my face?

"Did Nathan warn you? Did he warn you that there was someone after him? Is that how you knew right away?"

Nathan? What does Nathan have to do with this?

"Are you scared of me?" he yells the last part and I whimper. He's going to kill me, I know he is. I start to run towards the backdoor in our kitchen. Only thought in my head is "away". My fingers curl around the doorknob and I pull the door open only for it to be slammed closed.

He grabs the back of my neck and then slams me into a wall. "Now how could that be when you've never met me?" he coos into my ear. I struggle to break free from his hold but he's too strong. The more I try, the harder he presses my body against the wall. My arm that he's twisting behind my back to keep me motionless hurts like hell and I can practically feel my bones getting closer and closer to cracking. One little yank and he'd break it.

Suddenly he whips me around so that I'm facing him. "Oh but now I know. You haven't met me but you have seen me, haven't you Haley? Right... in... here", he whispers and lightly taps my temple after every word. Tap. Tap. Tap. I shudder away from his touch and he grins at the motion. He loves knowing that I'm scared of him. His eyes are mischievous as he drops his left hand onto my throat and gets the startled gasp he wanted to hear.

He knows about the dreams. He knows that they are the reason I recognized him as soon as I saw him.

"That's right, baby. I know your little secret. And what an interesting secret it is!" he laughs the same manic laugh I recognize from my nightmare. His face then turns curious. "How does it work? Why do you see them?"

I shake my head. "I don't know what you're talking about", I claim although he can tell that I'm lying by my rising heartbeat.

He smiles at my lie and holds my throat a little tighter making me scream. "Yes you do, silly girl. The same way you knew me, you know what I'm talking about. No matter, your abilities aren't that high on my list of problems. If you knew how to use them, they would be but it's obvious that you're completely clueless. Let me guess, you started having weird dreams about a month ago? Sometimes your dreams came true but you shrugged them off, unwilling to believe."

How can he possibly know that? I never thought too much about it but I have been seeing some weird things. Once I dreamed that a bridge would crash and a week later it did. I had been a little freaked but then realized that there had been a lot of talk about the bad quality of government built bridges. I figured I had just been so wrapped up in the bridge issue that it had followed me to my dreams.

All of the sudden I hear a loud bang and then my door opens with brutal force. Nathan Blood barges in, leaving the front door hanging in an unnatural angle like it has been ripped off. The man holding me against the wall doesn't turn when he hears Nathan come in. Instead he smiles like he is not at all surprised that Nathan's here. I on the other hand am dumbfound.

"Until next time", he whispers to me and literally vanishes into thin air. I drop to my knees and cough as his fingers leave my throat. Nathan is by my side in the matter of seconds. He supports me as I get back on my feet. As soon as I'm up I flinch away from him.

He doesn't seem to care, those green eyes are too busy inspecting me in case of any injuries. "Are you okay?" he asks urgency evident in his voice. "Did he hurt you?"

I don't answer. I stare at him. What is he doing in here? How did he know that I was in trouble?

His brows furrow. "Haley, please answer me. You're scaring me. Did he hurt you?" he asks again, worry written all over his handsome face.

"Why are you here?" I finally utter. I may sound ungrateful but after everything that has been going on, the break-ins, Nathan and now this psycho, I think I have the right to be a little cautious of anyone who just barges in like it's nothing. And not to mention the fact that my door was locked when he burst in.

Surprise flashes in his eyes. He wasn't excepting me to ask him that although he should have been. Any normal person would like to know why someone they barely know burst in right when they were needed. It's a little too lucky to simply be a coincidence.

"I was in the neighborhood", he tries to smile but I'm not falling for it. All of these strange things are happening around me and somehow they all seem to be linked to the same certain person, to Nathan Blood.

"You're lying", I accuse.

To my astonishment he nods. "Yes I am. But the truth, the whole truth, is a lot worse than anything you could imagine so it's better if you don't know."

I narrow my eyes at him. "Or maybe you just don't want to tell me truth."

Again his answer bewilders me. "You're right. I don't want to tell you. But I would if I thought it would make a difference", he replies honestly. He doesn't flinch when I explore his features and try my best to decide whether to push further or not. I'm getting the feeling that it won't matter how much I urge him, he won't tell me unless he wants to. He is a Blood, after all. Rumor has it they are all trained to keep their mouths shut when needed as soon as they even learn to speak.

I abandon the idea of forcing him to tell me and try another question instead. "Then just tell me one thing. How did you know I was in trouble?"

"You got lucky. I was coming by to pick up my jacket when I saw that guy holding you up. I busted the door but then he... left", Nathan smoothly explains. He looks angry and it takes me a moment to realize that he's not angry at me but at the intruder. "When I find the guy who did this..." he mutters and I get the impression that I don't want to know how that sentence would end.

Nathan shakes off his dark thoughts and says: "My turn. Did you know who it was?"

I shake my head. "I don't think I've ever seen him before. But he knows you. He asked me if you had warned me about him."

"He what?" Nathan snaps. "What else did he say? Tell me everything."

I oblige but I leave out the parts about my 'abilities' as the guy called them. When I finish, Nathan is quiet for a long time, lost in his thoughts. I wish I knew what he is thinking about. His phone beeps, calling him back to this world. He checks his phone and groans when he reads the message like he's late for something. Unexpected feeling fills my head. I don't want him to go. I feel safer when he's here, even though he's annoyingly cryptic and refuses to fill me in on what the heck has happened between us to make him care so much about me.

I look behind him to break the sudden silence between us, to find something else to say. My gaze comes to a halt when I spot my door on the ground. It looks like someone tore off its hinges. No, not someone. Nathan.

"You broke my door down", I end up muttering while looking at the remains. It will be a blast to explain this to my mother. Not only was the alarm guy not an actual alarm guy but some psychotic weirdo so we don't have our security system up and running like she had planned. But now our front door is broken down, too? She'll hit the roof when she gets home.

But I forget all about my mother and the 20 questions that await me once she gets home when I gaze into Nathan's green eyes. His expression is so gentle that each and every one of my suspicions and doubts fall silent in my head.

His voice is soft when he simply replies: "I heard you scream."