Mine, Bitten

Chapter Sixteen

     Lily

       Somewhere in her subconscious, Lily knew things were horribly wrong. She couldn't seem to form a coherent thought past the constant fog of how she came to be lying on a leather-bound seat of an abandoned vehicle sitting desolately beneath a street post.

            Strangely, her limbs felt detached and languid, her throat had a peculiar ache and she realized alarmingly that her blouse had been torn clear to the fourth button.

            With a horrified gasp, she scrambled out of the truck and dropped onto unsteady legs.         

            Her head was beginning to clear.

            The horrifying events of the night rushed fleetingly through her mind.

            She felt like crying but that would be foolish, right?

            She pushed away from the truck and realized with a combination of relief then alarm that the truck was planted directly across from her apartment.

            Her heart leaped against her chest and she nearly sprinted across the black pavement separating her from her haven.

            A thought occurred to her, was this another trap lured by her father? She choked on the thought. How could he do these things to her? How could he hire those men to attack her?

            She felt beguiled and betrayed, thoroughly burned.          

            She pushed her soles into the ground and took off across the road, terrified that the Sedan would come careening around the corner.

            She didn't release the breath she had been holding until she was safely inside.

            She moved blindly through her apartment, afraid that the lights would draw attention. Was she being ridiculously cautious? To an outsider looking in, she imagined she looked quite the psychopath, but how else could she explain the chills creeping their way over her skin, or the flowing tremors that raked her body?

            Lily flipped the switch in her bathroom and choked back a scream at the vision in the mirror. The blood that had worked its way down her throat now trailed the valley between her breasts; the bruise that marred her jaw was not as deeply disturbing as the two punctured holes at her neck.

            She stumbled away from the mirror and slammed her fist against the switch, shutting off the light.

             How could she have forgotten! The frightening screams of men being aimlessly ripped apart? The Sedan being torn to shreds as if it were made of shallow tin, and most alarmingly, the man with his dark eyes that had feasted hungrily on her throat!

            Her skin suddenly warmed beneath the surface, having a strange and explicit affect on her.

            Startled by this, she jumped to her feet and fled to the kitchen. She rummaged the drawers until her hands found something sharp and meaningful.

            She clutched the knife to her chest and slipped into a corner.

            When something small and furry brushed against her calve, she yelped.

            Mew!

            Charlie's soft whine appeased some of her fear and Lily swept the kitten into her lap, gently massaging his fuzzy head.