Destruction

19. What Friends Are For

 IMPORTANT AUTHORS NOTE AT THE END!!

Athena

The kiss was filled with so much anger, so much fear, so much pain, it was Zachary's own personal way of telling me he was sorry, and I wanted to forgive him. To tell him that I was hurt that he had been so absent, that I was annoyed because he dismissed me while in front of everyone else like I meant nothing.

But he was here.

He'd risked the rising sun to come find me. It was horribly romantic, and like this house it was something that belonged in a dark twisted Jane Austen story, but I didn't want it any other way.

Then it was all wrong.

He was detached, he sucked in a sharp breath, his once coal black eyes morphed back into a glazed over fiery red as he collapsed to the carpet.

I screamed.

A high pitched scream which expressed my anger and pain. It was as if I couldn't shut myself up as Zachary lay face down on the hard floor of Lawrence's office, a rusty steal pipe protruding from his back, staining his once crisp white shirt a mucky orange colour.

I grabbed the pipe and pulled it out in desperation as I craddeled his head in my lap, running my fingers through his short thick hair.

"You have some explaining to do."

I looked up to see Lawrence standing by Zachary's feet, his eyes filled with an unreadable emotion, while Jude still laying on the floor by the a large dent in the wall.

I swallowed, my throat hurt from all the screaming and from the gentle sobs that kept escaping my body. "What do you want to know?"

"What the fuck do you think I want to know?" He asked in a strained low voice.

I couldn't look him in the eye.

Instead I stared at the large hole in the back of Zachary's shirt, taking in every thread, every pull, it didn't come as a surprise when I heard the sound of a gun being loaded.

This was just all so messed up, I didn't want to die, not like this not at the hands of someone I might call a friend.

"Answer me!" His voice was no longer quite, it was a fog horn, and painful to my sensitive ears. "Fucking answer me Athena or I swear I'll blow your fucking brains out. Now tell me what the fuck happened!"

I couldn't believe this was happening, what had I done in a previous life that meant my life now had to be so shit?

"What happened to me?" I laughed, it sounded hollow and lifeless even to me. "What happened to me is I left." I look up, catching his eye. "I had enough of your bull shit Nazi regime and decided to try and make it on my own because anything would be better than being bossed around by you for another day."

It was as if I'd slapped him, his eyes blazed with anger. "This is exactly why we do what we do!" He no longer attempted to keep his voice low, I was sure by now everyone had heard our conversation. "Because those monsters can take something so innocent, so pure and turn them into a disgusting monster like themselves.

So really Athena I'm saving you, before you lose yourself complete."

He was right, I was a monster, the way I attacked Jude was evidence enough.

I was a monster.

Zachary was dead.

What was left?

"Goodbye Athena."

I was prepared for the bang, for the smell of gunpowder, for the force of the bullet as it hit.

What I wasn't prepared for was the loud thud or the male grunt which accompanied it.

"Is he going to be alright?"

I couldn't believe it.

I slowly raised my tear stained face to see Jude standing by an unconscious Lawrence, while holding a hole punch and sporting a pretty nasty cut on his head.

"I don't know." It came out as a sob, that caused my whole body to shake, while I hugged Zachary's head even tighter.

The rustling of fabric was my only warning of Jude approaching. "He looks pale, I mean paler than a vampire should look."

"I don't know what to do. Please tell me what to do."

I couldn't think, all my mind could focus on was the fact that I was holding Zachary in my arms, the man who saved my life, the man I had sworn to hate for forcefully turning me into a vampire, the man that I was slowly begining to love

.Jude sighed, shifting uncomfortably on his feet, as if what he was about to say pained him. "Well he's a vampire, who's lost blood, so I'd say he needs to drink."

I stopped sniffling, it was so obvious, I almost hated myself for it. How could I be so stupid? Of course he needed blood.

"You're right."

I shuffled Zachary closer, so that he was cradled in one arm, as I brought the other arm up to my mouth. My eyes clenched at the initial pain, but before my wrist had a chance to close up I shoved it towards Zachary's mouth. Letting the blood smear across his lips until he opened his mouth with a gentle sigh and began to suck on my wrist.

Have you ever tried sucking really thick milkshake through a straw and it all gets clogged up until there's just a dry sucking sound and a dry throat?

Well that's how it feels like when the person drinking your blood makes no effort to be gentle or kind, it feels as if your skin is slowly sticking to your bones and you're simply going to shrivel away. The sensation was horrible, I felt weak, I felt like a victim.

"I'm sorry." My voice broke the awkward silence that had settled over us.

"For what?" Jude's voice was tight and restrained, as he faced away from me on the office chair

"For attacking you and." I dry swallowed. "And drinking you blood."

"Really?" He spun around. "You're sorry?" His voice was practically dripping with sarcasm. "You're a vampire Annie, a fucking vampire." He runs his hands through his hair and sighs. "You should have told me, you should have made more of an effort that night to talk to me, to tell me everything that was bothering you and we could have worked on fixing it." His voice broke slightly as he ended the sentence as he laid his head in his hands. "It's just I don't know how to fix this."

"That's because it can't be fixed." I mumble to myself, as I ease my arm away from Zachary's mouth.

"Soooo." Jude raised his head with a cheesey grin plastered on his face. "Who's this guy?"

I laughed, it was just like Jude to ignore the massive elephant in the room which was an unconscious Lawrence in the corner. " Zachary Henri Alfred Bonaparte."

"Alfred? Like the butler from Batman?"

I couldn't help the giggle which forced it's way out of my throat. "I suppose."

T minus 2 minutes to sun rise!

The electric sound of shutters followed the announcement, signalling that we were now locked in.

"I suppose this means that we're locked in a house full of vampire hunters for the day ma chère."

Hello again!

To be honest I wasn't going to stop it here, but I wanted to get something out, at the moment there is no clear plan for updates, it's whenever I have time to work on my stories while juggeling my work load.

So I hope you liked this,

I would really appreciate any thought i.e. what you think will happen next.

thank you x x