Come In

Chapter Twelve

The meadow was huge, and encircled by an army of trees, giving us privacy that I could never have hoped for in the woods. It was like our own little world. The grass flourished, a bright green, interrupted by a multitude of beautiful white and yellow flowers.
The trees made an almost perfect circle, framing the glorious meadow.

Cam led me to the centre and sat down in the grass, pulling me down with him.

"I wanted to bring you here. It's so secluded and beautiful, I feel like I can do anything I want." He was peering around, a small smile stuck on his face. I began to pick flowers from the ground, then continued to pluck the petals. Looking up at Cam, I gave a devious smile to his questioning look.

I sighed dramatically when almost all of the petals were gone, and put on my best southern- drawl.
"He loves me!" I said exuberantly. "He loved me not..." I said, adding a morose tone to my voice. Cam laughed, and took the flower from my hands, and brought his face closer to mine, his eyes burning into me. The intensity of his stare froze me.
"He loves you..." He whispered, before dipping his head down to gain better access to my lips. I kissed with more ferocity than I had ever kissed him before. In my head, I was thinking 'it's too early! You only just met him' but the way my heart was thundering told me that it didn't matter. I did love him. I realised that as soon as his words registered in my head, because my only reaction was excitement and a heart beat that put hummingbirds to shame.

We spent the rest of the day in that meadow, lazing around, talking freely. Cam seemed more at ease- flitting around with impossible speed (that was hard to get used to).
When the sun disappeared, Cam grabbed my hand and pulled me onto his back, ever-so-gently. He sped off, sending everything in his path away, with the force of his run.

He stopped when we weren't even out of the forest. The absence of the sun plunged me into darkness in the forest, but I could tell that something was wrong by the tension that Cam's body emitted. He let me down carefully, but held his arm out, caging me away from whatever was coming.

My eyes adjusted after a while, and I could make out some shapes, but the dull glow of the moon was nowhere to be seen tonight, so it really wasn't anything to go on.

But I saw Elios sauntering calmly up to us, hands in the pockets of his ripped jeans. I could imagine his devilish smile as his eyes perused his surroundings with lust. I knew exactly what he looked like, and it frightened me half to death. I began to shiver, so Cam moved closer to me. His closeness comforted me a little but I was still terrified.

"Why, Cameron! Such a nice surprise. And you brought your pet. Do you mind if I pet her?" he said, nonchalantly. His words earned a rumbling snarl from Cam.

"Hm," Elios continued. "Perhaps another time then." He said with a laugh that sent shivers down my spine.

"You won't go near her. I've beaten you before, what makes you think you'll win now?" Cam growled. I heard Elios chuckle.

"No, I don't suspect I will touch her" I could imagine him looking over his fingernails with a mock-bored expression on his face, just like in the films when the bad guy is about to throw a spanner into the works.

"But I will." A high pitched, bubbly voice sounded from behind me. I didn't have time to turn before I was yanked out of Cam's arms. I gave out a blood curdling scream, but I knew that no one could hear me.

A group of around ten vampires appeared in the words, all quietly growling and snickering. I was shaking so violently, that the girl who was holding me squeezed me until I stopped.

"NO!" Cam roared, as he leapt toward the girl who was holding me. Suddenly, I was on the other side of him, next to Elios.

"Tell you what, Cameron. As you know, our quarrel is not with the girl. So I will make a deal. We'll leave her alone... if you come with us." Cam was being crushed into the ground my the foot of a huge, burly vampire, who seemed like the type of person whose brains were replaced with more muscle.
"DEAL!" Cam shouted, his pained voice echoing through the forest.
"Cam no!" I screamed, tears running down my cheeks. He couldn't leave me! This couldn't be real!

Elios merely laughed at my outburst, then walked calmly over to Cam's limp form.
"We are going to have so much fun, dear old friend." I heard him whisper. Cam shuddered but said nothing in reply. He let the muscled vampire lift him up, and before I could say anything, I was alone in the forest.

Alone.

Cam was gone.

Oh no!