The Love Bite [boyxboy]

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen (Alexander)

"Agh--- Choo!"

"What was that for?" I asked, glancing beside me at Mark, who stumbled through the leaves and rubbed his nose, groaning.

"I'm thirsty. I'm bored. I'm tired. I'm cold. I want to sleep." He complained in agony, making me sigh and shake my head before looking up to see that Storm had stopped. We all stopped behind him, shivering in the cold as the temperature dropped with the sun, plunging us into darkness. We were lucky to have our heightened senses and the lights from the town ahead to guide us.

"What?" I asked sleepily, pausing to yawn widely in turn making Mark and Amber yawn. Storm searched the trees, his blue-green eyes darting quickly.

"I thought I heard something." He stated. Amber rolled her eyes, folding her arms tightly over her chest as she leaned to one side, cocking her head.

"Yea, it's night time in the middle of a Michigan forest, you dolt. It's probably a wolf or deer or something. It's huntin' season here." She added. I raised an eyebrow, looking at her flatly.

"Say that again."

"That again."

"Amber."

"It's huntin' season here."

"... It's hunting season here."

"That's what I just said."

"... Right, anyway," I said, looking away from her as she began to mouth her words over and over again in confusion and Mark stifled a laugh with the sleeve of Storm's jacket, "Are we any closer? I know we can't die of hypothermia or anything, but we can still freeze or die of lack of nutrition and I don't know about you guys, but I could use a good pint of AB positive. Hell, I'd even settle for O position."

"I couldn't agree more." Mark stuttered past chattering teeth. Storm frowned and turned to look at us, his eyes jumping to each of our faces before he turned away.

"All right... Yes, we should be closer. I can hear cars from here. Maybe that's what I heard before. Seems like we just have half a mile to go before we hit the town. Unfortunately, I'm also on the verge of passing out from lack of sustenance. As soon as we reach the edge of Red Field, we're hunting." He announced, then proceeded the trek forward.

I moved too, pausing only as Mark slowly caught up to me, biting his lower lip nervously.

"What's wrong?" I asked. Mark glanced at me.

"Hunting? He means... killing humans?" He asked. I smiled gently, touching his shoulder and watching him lean into the warm touch. This time, I leaned in close to him as we walked shoulder to shoulder.

"I've never been hunting either. It's all right. And it's four of us. We'll... only be killing one. Hopefully we can find one that's dying. Otherwise, we'd be breaking the laws and knowing Storm, he'd starve before killing a healthy human being." I assured. Mark looked at me for a moment, then at the ground as we walked.

"I don't think Storm likes me." He said at last, keeping his voice quiet. Although, knowing Storm, I had a feeling he could still hear us. Unless all his energy was being used on walking. I risked the conversation topic and responded.

"Why do you say that?"

"He never looks directly at me. He avoids my eyes. He acts like he can't stand to look at me. I know he's been... pretty nice to me and probably not all that nice to you, so I feel like it has something to do with you. I just... I don't understand."

"I'm sorry, Mark. I don't know. Maybe he's trying to control himself?" I offered, making Mark scrunch his nose up and look at me in confusion.

"Control himself from what?" He asked obliviously. I stared at him for the longest time and it seemed to finally click in his head, his cheeks turning red with heat as he gave me a shove, but came back quickly so our shoulders touched.