Struck (A Vampire Novel) ✔

Nine

Xander’s blood had sent me off into a restless sleep, unlike the first time he had fed it to me. It had a feel to it like being ill, in which I found myself motionless and asleep but occasionally gained consciousness throughout the night. My dreams were a mess of chaos involving black eyes, blood, and screaming fear. But they were normal dreams and not the sleepwalking dreams that plagued me.

At some point, I half woke up to the sound of unmistakable sex. A glance to my side showed the image of Aveline riding on top of Xander, moaning as he bit into the flesh on her shoulder. I couldn’t even bring myself to blush in complete mortification before I was back in the darkness of unconsciousness.

When I finally awoke from the effects of the blood, I felt refreshed and oddly determined. Something had clicked in my head that told me I couldn’t stay here much longer without losing my mind completely. I knew that I was typically an introvert and that a good week for me was staying inside watching movies and pretending society and the real world didn’t exist. But a life stuck inside with unreal creatures waiting to find out if I was going to die now or later couldn’t be what was left for me.

I carefully turned to the side to see if Aveline and Xander were there still and found them cuddling next to me in their own cocoon of happiness. Both appeared to be steadily asleep, which according to The Biology of Vampyre meant it had to be daytime outside. Due to a vampire’s inability to walk in the daylight, they were naturally adapted to sleeping during the day and active during the night. The only exceptions were Royals, who were the only vampires able to move in the daylight. Still, the book had informed me that vampires didn’t need to sleep during the day, so I had to be quiet.

I crawled off of the bed, thankful that this time I wasn’t in between the two vampires. Of course, that would have been awkward if what I had seen in my half-sleep state wasn’t a hallucination. I looked down to see I was still wearing my white shirt and jeans, only now they had dried blood from my now healed wounds still on them. I didn’t feel like this was a good time to change clothes though… I slowly moved across the floor of the bedroom in bare feet, reaching for the door with my breath held. I felt like the doorknob sounded entirely louder than usual when I turned it, but I kept my eyes closed as though it would make me invisible should either Xander or Aveline wake.

Then I was outside of the door, closing it softly behind me. I felt like celebrating my small first step to victory. My first decision was deciding if the nearest exit would be towards the direction of the kitchen or more where the stairway led to the third floor (where Jacobi’s room was) and the first floor… where no doubt an exit would be. I decided to make my way to the stairway, hoping my memory would lead me towards the correct way.

At first I nearly crawled towards my destination, as though someone would wake up if I moved too fast. Then the further away from the bedroom I got, the faster my feet moved. At the same time I feared I would move too fast, supernaturally fast. But so far it didn’t appear so. Instead, I sprinted down the hallway until I came upon the stairway that led both up and down. I quickly descended down the stairs until I reached the bottom floor, and then looked around in hopes of seeing an exit or perhaps some windows.

Perhaps I had been mistaken in thinking it was the first floor, though, because the only things I saw were wider hallways and less doors. I moved to the first one on the right and reached for it, but was too frightened to open it. What if someone was in there? Maybe I should have stayed with Xander and Aveline. Maybe I should go back.

I almost sighed in frustration, but kept quiet before continuing down the wide hall. There had to be an exit. All buildings had that main front area, like a lobby. And typically large buildings had multiple exits. Whereas the top floors were apparently residential rooms, these had to probably be more business related rooms. Maybe this was the areas where the coterie had their meeting. In that case, I probably shouldn’t go opening doors blindly.