Thirst: an Academy of Night Novel

burning

Alone. Afraid. Abandoned. She walked around the city with her non-furnature belongings all packed tightly into one huge suitcase. As she walked, she thought of how she could be so naive. Moving in with chase was the worst mistake of her life. And she was only sixteen. Chase had only loved her because she was extraordinary. She was a Vampiar. And she was hurt and alone. The burn in her throat felt like smoke in her eyes and needles in her neck. Thirst wasn't even an appropriate name for such a torture... That was just it... Torture. Roselynne Margeaux had walked, bussed and walked some more from another city, but it felt like another country all together, to leave the person she'd loved so passionately, so insanely that she was willing to walk for days on end to get far enough away from him. From the mistake of a relationship she was in.

The pain. The fire. The burning in her throat was excruciating. Crippling. It was a constant reminder that she could not stop moving until she found someone... Something.

                              • • •

When she'd stumbled past the first Street of homes, all dark and vacant, she had sensed that there were people gathered together at one larger house... Partying?.. She licked her lips. Party's meant people... People meant food, and food meant no more burning. She followed the scent of human blood all the way to the large house. She entered without knocking and climbed the great marble staircase leading upstairs where music blared and people gathered. She paused before finishing up the steps and going upstairs. What was this toxic noise? It was not music. Music sounded nice, this sounded like Beethoven had barfed up a suffering chicken and sat on a cat, causing it to let out a screech that simply raped your ears, and put them all into a poorly auto-tuned symphony.

She shook her head, and continued up the last few steps, then entered the big room where about two small groups of nicely dressed men and women mingled. They smelled delicious. Simply mouthwatering. The blood pumped through their veins fiercely. She quickly checked herself, noting that she'd had on a pair of faded blue jeans and a cropped black t-shirt and some black sneakers. Some of the men closest to the entrance that had spotted her, stared at her. One man's wife slapped his shoulder and turned him so he couldn't see Rose, while another's quickly covered her children's eyes and pulled them along with her as she walked farther down the big room. Trying to get herself away. No use really. She thought. I'm hungry and your here. There was no escape. She strided over to one of the men and embraced him. He stood there in shock, then, stupidly decided to embrace her back. With lightning speed, she bit into his neck, piercing it and causing blood to start pouring into her mouth and causing him to stiffen without noise.

Relief. The blood sloshed down her throat and seemed to cool the burning within her... Subtly. She drained him fast... Well, drained him, but didn't kill him, and was not even close to satisfied. She needed more. Wanted more.

She dropped him and ran to a tall woman with black hair, styled in a sleek bun, obviously an extension considering the bun was about two shades too dark to be her natural... Real hair, and did the same as she had with the man, but instead slashed a tiny cut into the side of her neck with her long, sharp nails, and blood streamed down her neck. Rose quickly dove at her and clamped onto her neck. Drinking deeply, she soon staunched the burn in her throat.