Taking What's His

Chapter Twenty

[Cyril's POV]

So...she was back.

It was only a subtle change in the air, but quite noticeable, considering I had been focusing all my attentions on her and her alone. Well, not completely...the other two certainly did not escape my scrutinizing while she was away. It was quite the entertainment, watching the two fret about looking for the one thing they had taken upon themselves to valiantly protect. How incompetent they were; for the entire week, wondering, worrying whether she would return, whether she was alive. I distinctly remember even the hot-headed female invading my forest to try and look for the girl here. Of course, I wouldn't allow her near my place of solitude so easily.

I knew without a doubt that she would return. While, as a human child she was quite a fickle girl, she would hardly desert her own mother. Despite the abhorrent way the woman disregarded her, quite obvious in the way when I appeared on her doorstep, she was still her mother. Humans were such curious creatures in that sense. Even at the brink of abandonment, they still clung on to the thread of hope, until it snapped.

If I had to look back and speculate on the girl's existence, I could easily assume that the problems in the relationship between her mother and her were well due to my actions, but as a Vampire who was thousands of years old, I had stopped looking back to a past that could not be altered. Even if it were a possibility, I'm quite certain that I would not alter what actions I took; that simple night, a simple dinner, and a most miraculous find...all has led her here to me.

I hardly expected her to end up in the palm of my hand, while all this time I had convinced myself a visit on the night of her 18th birthday would be the most adequate thing. Consecutive visits to her residence over the years had kept me informed as to her whereabouts and her lifestyle, and while in one respect she was the most fascinating of creatures, she was also exceedingly dull. A simple teenage girl living an ordinary life, despite the brutal and most certainly "supernatural" death of her father she had witnessed years before.

Standing at the edge of the forest by her current home, I could hear the tires of her car screech into the driveway. Even over the sound of the engine, I could hear her labored breathing, the desperation in which she yanked her keys from the ignition and hurried, nearly stumbling out of her car. She knew as well as I that her friends were hot on her tail. While they had first taken off towards the road connecting the small town that was Woodbine to the rest of the state, she had sped right past, another vampire following behind.

'Don't tell me...another pest.'

I hardly dared to move an inch.

"I'M GOING TO SLEEP!"

I wasn't planning to bother her.

I merely listened; her jangling keys being forced into her front door, the door slamming behind her...She didn't even bother to lock it. Her running footsteps up the stairs, the sound of her undressing...I sucked in a sharp breath, clutching my suddenly quivering hand tightly behind my back. I could hear the rustle of her sheets...and then, it all stopped. Silence. Humans were quite amazing creatures; she was already asleep. I was so intently focused on her...I let my guard down. Out of the corner of my eye, nearly a second too late, the hot-headed brunette came flying at me, her fangs flashing. Her nails tore at my shirt as I evaded a head on attack, and I quickly retreated back into the forest. I could hear her attempting to follow me, her vulgar language echoing through the trees. There was no way a baby vampire like her could take me on, especially in my own territory.

All my instincts were itching to fight back, but I knew in the current situation, it would not be wise for me to lay a finger on even a hair of their heads. Already, Delilah was wary of me, and I did not doubt her friends had fed her information to even avoid me completely. Nevertheless, nothing could keep me from what I desired.

Those two even united would not stand a chance against me, and a human like her stood no chance. I would take what was mine. It was as simple as that. Who even were those two...Ashton Riddle and Ruby Hartfield to even dream of interferring? I was the one who had encountered her first, and I had claimed her as mine. Whether they kept up such foolish intervention was up to them...it would only end with their demise. Nothing would stand in my way.

Nothing at all.