Love Sucks

Love Sucks - 28

Chapter twenty-eight;

The words were forming and shaping from Ashton's lips, but I couldn't hear anything. There was this shrill, intense ringing in my ears as the metallic, sickening taste of fear rose in my mouth. Poppy and Cherlindrea sat there silently, staring hazily out the window. Claude's eyes were narrowed at a talking Ashton. Alex's emerald eyes met mine from across the room where he'd moved to, and he held my gaze steadily. Once more, his face was blank and bleak, but his eyes seeped the fear he was withholding from us all. His eyes were also apologetic, as if he'd done something wrong, but his lips were pressed tightly shut. But all too soon, he turned his attentions to the rest of the vampires, words twisting silently from within him as his lips, trembling ever so slightly, moved slowly.

But I was somewhere else entirely.

Thinking about how much of my time was wasted here, like this. Like the monster I was possibly becoming, opening myself up to bloodsuckers. Isolating myself from a real life, and any form of normality. Hiding myself, hiding secrets from my own mother and not even caring as she got better from drug abuse. I'd wasted all this time on a life that shouldn't even exist, on a side of me that should never have arose, all to be told that we'd failed. And it was over.

That we were finished.

I'd lead such a... twisted, appalling life so far in under three months, I'd fought just to be alive and I'd made myself an enemy to just about everyone in every dimension - all for absolutely nothing.

"So that's it then?" The words escaped my lips before I could even think or stop myself. They all turned and looked at me, frowns creased into smooth foreheads, eyes soft, yet slightly afraid, lips tugged down at the corners into grimaces. Only when I reached up to brush a part of my hair from my face did I realise my hands were trembling.

"Have we failed?" I asked quietly.

Just like that, my heart began to thud painfully against my ribcage as I feared for a world that wasn't mine. As I worried over a world that shouldn't exist.

"We're not sure yet," Claude responded, his tone controlled and calm. "We are awaiting the King to be in touch. We don't know how long that will be, but until then we can only wait."

"You're joking, right?" Alex snapped rather harshly. "You don't see? It's their plan. This is what they want. They were the ones that sent you, Ash and Cathy to the Ghost Plane. Poppy and Cherlindrea care for you both in a way that I can't begin to get my head around, and you both feel the same. While you-all were stuck, unable to come home, we three wallowed in our own despair thinking you were all dead. This led to us to be weak and our defences came down. They knew you'd return though, so they murdered Eleanor, Cathy's mother. They killed off all the things that were most important to us. But most of all..." He turned and looked at me, his green eyes ablaze and his head cocked to the side a tad. "They made your defences fall, and now you are the weakest one of us. They've got what they wanted - a clear passage to the throne. Now all they need is an alibi and... and Cathy's abilities to flex the vortex. It was all a game to get us distracted while they cleared their way towards the King."

My knees were weak beneath me, and my mouth, lips quivering, was ajar. I looked frantically at the rest of them, hoping one of them would deny Alex's theory and come up with a less painful, less destructive thought.

"That is an excellent point," Ashton said sternly, his glance towards me grim. "I am sorry love, Alex has a good theory on his shoulders. This means we're going to need to split up... They will be after Cathy, but they will also be after the King. We need to protect them both. Alex, you are at as much risk here as Cathy, what with Scarlett..."

"Recruiting might be a useful tip," Poppy suggested. "I know Alex turned a few people back in July, but they poisoned themselves so they are not use to us now. Their lives are limited and just as weak as Cathy. We need others... stronger vampires."