Fatal Fascinations

Chapter 23: Hell And Back

Rose's POV:

I burned the world to the ground.

The fire consumed me, shooting from my hands with no control nor any resolution to stop.

The chains around my wrists were the first to melt off, becoming liquid ore on the ground. The metal iron singed my skin, but affected me less so than if I had been a normal human.

Because I wasn't a normal human.

I was an Acari.

The flames burning the room around me to ash only confirmed it. The heat encapulsated me, threatening to choke me if I didn't move.

Astrid fled, like the coward she was. And Jace, he had disappeared in the cloud of smoke which filled the small cell. I groped blindly, reaching the door as my vision doubled. All the while, bits and pieces began clicking into place like puzzle pieces.

Spark. You're just like them Astrid had said.

I threw myself into the hall, rolling on the ground to avoid the thick smoke. My hands no longer shot flames, but the drapery around me burned quickly, adding fuel to the fire. My dingy hair flicker back and forth, sticking to my sweat covered face.

The eyes. Susana Acari's dark eyes. The recognition. My brain connected the pieces.

I crawled on all floors, making for the nearest exit in the small building I seemed to be trapped in. It was only after I had reached one of the walls that I realized the entire building was made of wood.

I was in a fucking log cabin.

And I had just set it on fire.

Retching, the smoke threatened to consume me, squeezing my lungs tight.

Sliding my warm hands along the wall, I followed it, hacking the entire time in an attempt to preserve my clean oxygen.

Susana Acari knew my name before I even told her. She cornered me the night of the prisoner attack.

Finally, I reached an escape path. Not a door, but a window. Tinted in dark glass, I slammed my fist brutally against it, my heart thundering.

Wood crackled all around me. The glass did not break. 

Luca's face when I told him my name. The scene replayed for me as tears brimmed my eyes. His dark hair. My dark hair. He messed his own hair ruefully on top of his head. The way his lips parted as if to repeat me own name.

Does Luca know?

I let out a battle cry, pounding again, my frustration consuming me like my own flames consumed the wood. The tears brimming my eyes made it hard for me to see as I smashed my fist painfully over and over.

The Mercari vampire. The one who first attacked us. The one who tasted my blood.

'First you' he cooed to Annalina. The words replayed on a loop in my head. 'Then the Acari girl.'

Acari girl.

Acari girl.

I pounded my first, snapping my pinky finger in the process.

Acari girl.

Acari girl.

My first broke, smearing my own blood against the impenetrable glass.