The Silver Cross - The Path Of A Monster (Book One)

Chapter Eleven - Freedom

He lay there, looking up at the stars, grunting as the silver burnt him, his chains rattling. His blood boiled with the taste for vengeance, anger fuelled the flames that once disgusted him. The idea of taking an innocent life, a human life would have once repelled him, shamed him but the idea of killing the pair that had betrayed him, sickened him to the core. Nicola, who damned him to be a monster, and his own brother who did not offer a quick or merciful death. Shutting his eyes worsened the pain, he had nothing to concentrate on, no glittering balls of light he once believed would guide him to the gates of heaven, nothing but the pain of darkness, of hatred that boiled within his blood. They had made him, the vampire whose blood had cursed him and the woman whose blood had damned him to live forever with such a cursed life.

Hatred fuelled the flames that glowed within him, their faces spinning around his mind as his blood covered the blade his brother had cursed him with. He tried to sit up, to rip it out of his skin but the chains halted such a plan, keeping him down like an obedient dog. All he could do was hope for the sun, hope for death from it, pray for it if it were to save the people whom he once called 'family', the betrayers.

"Jack," a voice whispered, echoing so horribly in his state that he could barely concentrate on the sound. "Jack," it repeated, hair of golden sunshine brushing his cheek as a hand wrapped itself around the knife. With a swift motion, it was pulled from his chest, covered in his blood as a grizzly, disturbing reminder. "What have they done to you?"

"Same thing they do to all my kind," he whispered as he pulled on his chains.

"Hold still, you'll get yourself killed," she snapped as she shook the key at him. She shoved it into the lock, hard, turning the key, she released the beast from his prison.

He rubbed his wrists, looking up at her, at her familiar face. He barely knew her, barely cared to get to know her, and yet she helped him, asking for nothing in return from him.

"Why risk your life for something like me?" he questioned as he stood, moving wobbly from her, keeping his distance.

"Because I know why you did it, for your niece. Why should someone like you be punished for that?"

"Because I'm not human anymore, not in their eyes, you'd do well to remember that, to run, run away from the monster who could claim your life," Jack warned in a threatening tone.

"Monster or man, it's up to you, Jack. You're free to go, I'll cover this up with some ashes, they'll think you're dead and I won't tell them otherwise."

"Thank you," he whispered softly as the winds blew.

Fear struck him like a bolt to the heart, he'd never been so far from his brother before but he had little choice, he couldn't stay there, not where the hunters were, ready to call him monster and have him executed for attempting to save another.

He grunted, holding his wound as it bled, his hand stained with his own blood. His appearance hardly mattered to him, he needed blood to close the wound but wasn't yet monstrous enough to feed off the one who saved him, she didn't deserve to die in his place, not when she'd been so kind... carelessly kind.

There were a few things left on his mind, the hunger raging within him, the stain on his shirt and the vengeance on them both, his brother and his brother's wife for what they'd done, the betrayal and the hurt, the upset and pain they knew it would cause and yet didn't care.

He ripped off his shirt, leaving it in tatters. The silver cross burnt his skin, sizzling it like a pan of oil. He yelled out in pain as he grasped it, ripping it from his neck, he left it behind, turning his back as he began his walk into his new life, his freedom.