Hunted

Chapter 8

(Continued)

I released him like he burnt.

"What did you do?"

"I did what I needed to do."

"What. Did you. Do?"

"What a wonderful question you keep asking, Luce... you can feel it, then, can't you? The power of the blood?"

I could do nothing but stare at him, unmoving, my eyes unblinking, my vision threatening to sink into dark spots.

"It's circulating through your body, pumping your heart with sweet venom." He licked his lips, his eyes eager with hunger. "It's taking over, coming alive right inside you, and you can't do anything about it." 

He shook his head quietly, as if laughing at some inside joke. As if the situation was funny, somehow. "I nearly forget how it feels the first time. It was a long, long time ago when I turned... but it still was glorious nonetheless. It's a marvellous wonder how so many others have not succumbed to us."

As he spoke, another sweep of his hand over his bleeding chest sealed it like magic, the delicious redness disappearing back into his dark essence. He crooked one bloody finger at me, as though expecting me to obey unconditionally. "Come."

I stayed rooted to the ground, hardly breathing. Or, more accurately, breathing somewhat less than being dead.

Because that was what I was. Am. Dead. Or undead. Neither of which made me feel safe.

I didn't like not feeling safe. Nor did I like being undead.

He chuckled. "Right, I forgot I can't hypnotize you anymore. Not when you're just like me, anyway. Now, shall we proceed, milady?"

That did it for me. Suddenly I found myself pinning him to the wall, a drunken, reckless feeling seizing myself in its hold. I didn't mind. I liked it. Oh, how I loved it.

"Get out of my house," I snarled. "Get as far as you can from me and don't come back, ever."

He smirked, somehow perfectly at ease with me at his throat. "You're cute when you're angry, darling."

"Don't call me darling."

He kept the smirk on his face. "That's not what you said last night. Or the night before that. Or, now that I think about it, the last two months."

My cheeks warmed, but I refused to back down. "Have you been planting thoughts in my mind, or do you just come with a facade of unpleasantly alluring charm?"

"Neither, my darling."

He reached up to stroke my face. I flinched, but stayed under his touch. His hand no longer felt cold. It was the same temperature as my own skin, if I could call that skin.

"It has been you. All you."

There were fireworks going off in my head. There was no other way to describe it. My mind was on fire, burning with heat that momentarily destroyed the very corners of my consciousness.

I could remember. Not just pleasant things but terrible, horrible things that I wished had never taken place in this universe nor another. Broken promises that were never there to begin with, indifference masked by mind-bending and cold laughter, and blood, blood everywhere, accompanied by a warm, addictive sensation, spreading from the side of my neck all the way down to the tips of my toes.

For a moment I felt as if the room was spinning, spinning out of my control and whirling all my thoughts together. I spun away from him and sagged against the wall. It lasted for a minute or two until I gathered my senses back, my chest heaving heavily, raking with coughs.

"Why did you..." I started, my voice raspy. "Why?"

He shrugged. He didn't care.

He never did.

My hands trembled. They wanted to wrap around his throat and squeeze, squeeze until he became nothing. Til he was no more.

"Get out."

"Must I, really?" He asked, a wide, toothy - or shall I say fanged? - grin on his face. "So eager to get rid of me?"

"Actually, yes," I said. "Get the hell out of my world."

''''''''''''''

He's gone. Gone as in he went somewhere I don't know. I don't want to know, anyway. Not anymore.

I'm going to hide this diary because no one should ever find it. If they did, I'd be very much dead or burnt to ashes. Then after I've hidden it somewhere I won't mention here, I'm going to help myself, now that there's no one else to help me.

There has never been much else. Anyone else.

THE END...

...OF PART 1

A/N:

Thanks to everyone who followed through on Hunted! We've reached over 400 reads, something I honestly never thought I could accomplish.

This is the end of Part 1. Part 2 will be up in a bit, maybe a little longer than usually because there will be longer chapters!

See you soon,

Elly