Diary of An Unnatural (BOOK #2)

Catch Me If You Can

Liv' s Pov

            I stumbled over tree root after tree root, my face nearly hitting the ground at some point. I could hear voices in the distance calling my name--familiar voices, yes, but I couldn't think of the names of the people they belonged to. All I could think of was how much my throat burned.

            I remembered waking up after a long nightmare-filled coma surrounded by a blur of faces and a scent so mouth-watering. Then I spotted him. He crouched down over me with his blue eyes shining with concern, an expression I saw so little before.

            Memories flashed in my mind--his face possessing all of them except then he had a sly smile across his lips just before a searing pain touched my skin.

            I immediately ran. The boy I had found so fascinating to first night we met soon became a monster. His sharp incisors pierced my neck. At first, I was bewildered and consumed as I noticed the blood pouring from my body and into his mouth. But then I felt a sudden ease. It almost felt good.

            After that, he would look into my eyes and tell me he'd see me later. But I had to forget what he did to me. I wore scarves over the puncture wounds not even questioning it. Then holes started appearing in my memory. I felt like I was in an endless drunken daze.

            My parents, who could've cared less before, started showing concern. They threatened to send me to rehab for my seemingly horrible addiction to booze. But there was so much more. Acts of violence, broken mirrors, screams as I woke up from nightmare after nightmare--bad things kept happening.

            He came through my window one night--a black knight standing over me in my sleep. He told me to meet him at the old Catholic church in town. I thought how ironic for a vampire to want to meet in a church. The thought left with him though, and screams and confusion took its place.

            The next day, I found myself walking up the front steps of the Catholic church I used to attend as a kid when my parents dragged me there for mass. The building was empty and dusty, lit up by the sun shining through the stain-glass windows.

            "There you are," a voice came from the dark shadows beside the pulpit.

            I slowly stepped towards it. "What do you want? Why did you ask me here?"

            Only a second passed before he pulled me to him so that we both stood in the dark. His arms wrapped around my face, his breath on my ear. It was mesmerizing, just like he always was when we were together.

            "You smell even more delicious than usual today," he whispered.

            I leaned into him. "I'm trying out a new perfume. It's called Bite Me. You like it?"

            "Very much so," he said, before putting his lips to mine.

            Our kisses always went the same way: gentle at first growing furious as time went on. My hands ran through his dark hair, over his built chest. His flew under my shirt, and then he grabbed my scarf. He pulled at the knot I had tied until he finally worked if off.

            He kissed the marks he had made before coming back to my face.

            "You're so beautiful," he said, his voice low in his usual mysterious demeanor. "I don't know why I passed you up that first night."

            I thought back to the party I'd walked into half-wasted with Ava. The way we both spotted Hansen across the room, but she had already claimed him. Like always, Ava had first dibs.

            I turned my face away from Hansen's. "Because you were too preoccupied with Ava. That's why."

            His eyes darkened. "Now, now. People make mistake. And mine was clearly going in pursuit of her. But trust me, I had my reasons and none of them involved any sort of affection I might've had for her. I only show interest in you, Liv."

            I face him again. "Then, why did you go after her?"

            "Like I said, dear. My reasons. Reasons who could never imagine. I go way back with Ava's family. Farther than your tiny mortal brain could fathom."

            I felt his fingers brushing down my spine. "How old are you?" I asked him.

            "Twenty." He shrugged. "Plus a few hundred, I'm guessing. What year is it again?"

            Little did I know, that throughout our days together, I'd been growing weaker and weaker. Hansen continued to drain my blood from my body and compel me to forget our time together over and over again. He would sometimes recompense with giving me his blood. "To heal you," he told me.

            "What?" He pulled my chin so that I was looking directly at him from where we stood in the middle of the church. "What are you thinking so diligently about?"

            "Do... Why..." I took a deep breath, trying to find the right words. "What do you plan on doing with me? Are you going to kill me? Make me like you? Where is this going?" My heart was pounding so hard I could hear it in my ears. "I...I can't breathe...I feel like I'm..."

            And then I collapsed in his arms. On the edge of consciousness, tears came to my eyes. I never cried. I refused to. I always told people I cried myself out as a kid. But right now, with Hansen cradling me in his arms on the floor of the church. My heartbeat slowing down--if I was hooked up to a monitor, it would be almost at the point of flat lining.

            "Liv?" Hansen's voice floated into my mind, his face hovering over me.

            "Why put me through all that?" My voice came out as barely a whisper. "Why would you do that to me? You made me think I was crazy, made me believe that I was losing my mind. My parents thought I'd been drinking too much or was on drugs, but I knew it was something else. You took away the truth. You made me forget what you did to me until I saw you again. You used me. Why?"

            The lights faded. My eyelids closed, the last image being his face. Twisted with concern and sympathy. Like he was truly sorry for everything he'd done to me over the past months. A sharp, familiar pain found my neck. My body fell from underneath me as a new pain entered, one I had never felt with his teeth.

            New voices entered the room. They shouted and the weight of Hansen body fell onto me followed by a groan.

            Now I was in the woods away from the life I had. With voices I couldn't place calling my name. I fell down beside a tree and willed the tears to come, but they wouldn't. Once again, they were gone.           

            "Liv! Please!"

            I could spot a dark figure in the distance. The moonlight caught her blonde hair--something I used to be so envious of when we were younger.

            "Liv! I can explain everything if you just come out!"

            "Ava," I whispered. I tried to scream it back, but my voice wouldn't get any louder.

            I felt myself going out of consciousness again. "Please," I told myself and her all at the same time. "I'm so sorry, Ava. For everything I ever said. Everything I ever did. For being so awful at Dean's party. For being jealous of you and Hansen. For turning my back on you and not believing you when you came back that night. For thinking you weren't capable of love. Please, Ava. Hear me."

            My eyes fell closed again. I felt a body over me. Warm, rough hands rubbed my temples and opened my eyes for me.

            A guy with green eyes and swooshing hair stood over me dressed in black. He willed my eyes to look right into his as he whispered the word "Forget" over and over again. The word entered my brain, taking memories in its grasp twisting them and reshaping them. "Don't feel," he said.

            Don't feel.