Awakening (Awakening, #1)

Chapter 12

The room goes silent. Everyone is so quiet, you could hear a feather if it were to fall off of a bird in the distance. Everyone except for Elijah who is roaring and growling and screaming at me, and I don't know what's wrong. I was protecting myself. 

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god," Violet says over and over. I didn't mean to cause her any distress; I have no idea what's even happening.

All of the guys just stand there with huge eyes and wide open mouths. Whatever just happened, it can't be good. I clearly have just done a really bad thing. "Get him in the cellar!" Violet yells. When no one moves for a few more moments she says louder this time, "Now! Right now!"

They seem to snap out of their trances and all work together to move Elijah's body. Violet charges at me and grabs me by my shirt collar and throws open the sliding door. She drags me outside, and I'm starting to panic a little. I can sense she's upset with me and that's the last thing I want. When we're past the mouth of the woods, she throws me against a tree and paces a few times in front of me, and I just watch and wait.

She walks away and returns with a sharp looking stone of some sort. She's huffing and puffing and snatches my hand from my side, and I flinch. I've never seen her like this, she's scary this way. Violet just stares her blue orbs into mine, burning a hole inside of me somewhere. "Don't you dare." she says in an angry but reserved tone. I don't know what she means; I haven't done anything since we've been out of here. I open my mouth to ask what, and she holds the sharp stone up to my neck.

I gasp and she only presses it in harder, so I decide shutting up is the best option. "Don't you even dare act like you're not strong. Don't think for one second that you're not the top of the food chain. You. Are. A. Machine. What you did in there? You bit him. Because why? Because he was going to snap your neck. Even though you wouldn't die, is not the point. The point is, in there you asserted your ability to protect yourself."

I'm just staring in awe as she says these things. I was almost sure she would be extremely upset with me or even worse, throw me out of the house. But instead, she's telling me how strong I am. I don't know how I should take this.

"Vampires have dominated werewolves for years. Hence the main reason out of many why we all couldn't coexist. Awakened vampires were the next new breed of animal. Werewolves fled out of fear. But if you learn one thing about me, you'll learn that I'm. Not. Scared."

I nod slowly. It's slowly starting to make sense. "So, you're not mad? I didn't mean to hurt him. I really didn't. I hope he's okay-,"

"Well he's not," she says. "When vampires bite their prey, they inject some of their saliva first, so when they're done feeding, if they leave the prey alive, it'll heal up the wound and erase any trace of them ever having been there. After they wipe the memory, of course." To be a werewolf, Violet sure seems to know alot about vampires and their ways of doing things. I don't question it though, I just let her go on.

"But to werewolves, vampire saliva is quite toxic in large quantities. But even in small ones, if it's not treated with an anti-toxin, it could escalate into something worse." she says. But this makes me think, isn't Elijah in there slowly dying right now?

"Hey," she says. "Elijah'll be just fine. But listen to the rest. In the past, our ancestors despised each other. Went to war, we were unsuccessful many times. Awakened vamps would kidnap werewolves as prisoners of war and do these sick tests on them; biting them but only injecting small amounts of saliva waiting, wishing, for the right amount to work. To turn the wolves into bloodthirsty, savage, Hybrids. Half vampire, half werewolf killers. There were no known records of them having any success. Most of their tests ended in the wolves actually receiving the reverse affect of the tests. They became human again."

I stare with my mouth wide open. "So does that mean-"

"No," she says. "You didn't bite long enough. He'll need some of my blood though."

"Yours?" For some reason the thought fills me with a little bit of anger. Why, I don't know. "Why yours? Why not any of the guys'?"

"Because Elijah is my pack assigned mate. It's in the Written Accords we were sworn to follow when we were bitten by our great-grandfathers." She says this very nonchalantly like it's not a big deal. When I don't say anything, she continues. "It's our job to protect each other. If I don't help him and he dies because of me, it'll be the rest of the guys' obligation to vote me out of the house and the pack and I'll have to go Rogue. So despite how I feel about him; I have to do this. Come on."

This is so much to take in, but I get it. I understand. But then I say, "Are you guys married?" The whole 'pack assigned mate' seems to sound alot like an arranged marriage. The thought seems so preposterous.

She just laughs. "No way. We could be; but I would hate to have a husband like Elijah."

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Violet goes down into the cellar and I wait upstairs, but she motions for me to follow. I hesitate because I know for sure I'm the last person he wants to see right now, or ever for that matter. "I need you down here too."

I reluctantly follow her down into the dark cellar I was held in when I first was brought here. Elijah's lying in a stack of blankets on the floor with an uncomfortable looking pillow under his head. Violet kneels down next to him and he refuses to meet either of our eyes. His arm where I bit him looks gross and infected. Like a nasty case of chicken pox and poison ivy. I immediately feel regret and guilt wash over me like a summer rain.

Violet goes to a bit cabinet and withdraws this strange looking contraption and puts on rubber gloves. Not even sure why those things are down here. "This house is ancient. Used to be an apothecary." she says.

She kneels in front of me and puts the weird tool by my mouth and asks me to pretend the tool is a squirrel or something. And when I imagine in my mind that it is; my fangs pop out. She tells me to keep thinking about it and when I open my eyes again, she says "Good."

I don't know what just happened, but I watch as she takes a syringe and withdraws some of her blood. She makes a small noise as the needle goes into her vein and it makes Elijah furrow his brows. "Calm down," she tells us. "It doesn't hurt."

"Yeah, well I hate for you to have to do all of this for me." Elijah tells her. 

"Shut up." She says. "You know it's not for you."

"Well I can always dream, can't I?" He whispers so softly, I know she didn't hear it. But I did.