Howls of the Lost | Now Published!

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

I felt Xander's smirk against my skin before I felt the pain. As he buried his fangs into my flesh I gritted my teeth against the dull throb. A small gasp escaped me, but other than that I didn't make another sound, refusing to give him the satisfaction of screaming. Only when he began to feed from me did the pain really start.

That's when I screamed.

The pain was unbearable. It felt as if he was dragging my heart and soul out of me. The earsplitting cry rang clear throughout the woods and all heads snapped in my direction. Shock crossed every face as they realized what had happened. With Logan's injury and my inability to move, I didn't blame them for forgetting about me. My eyes found David's and in the time it took to blink he was on his feet and running towards us. I felt Xander's smirk and I knew it was too late. Just before David reached us Xander sent us flying up into the trees.

He maneuvered through the woods with an unnatural grace. To the point that I was never once jostled. In what felt like less than a minute we were inside a cave. Xander gently laid me down on a cot and I was relieved for the briefest of seconds before he climbed on top of me. Growling in warning, I glared at him as best I could through my pain. Even though he wasn't feeding anymore, it still felt as if someone was slowly turning me inside out. His silver eyes softened slightly before he lowered his already bloodstained mouth to my throat.

He ran his fangs over my skin until he found the previous puncture wounds and he repositioned his fangs inside them. He began feeding off me again and more than anything I wanted to fight back, but I couldn't. The pain was causing a haze over my senses so that I didn't have much – if any – control over my own body. I had been bitten multiple times by vampires and I knew that this was a side effect of the poison that coated their fangs. It somehow shut down your reaction abilities, rendering you completely helpless.

One of his hands was cupping my cheek and the other was resting on my waist so I didn't have a clue as to how he was supporting his weight. As another small whimper of pain slipped past my tightly closed lips, I felt the hand that was on my waist clench into a tight fist.

What seemed like months later he finally pulled away from me. My eyes felt heavy as he stared down at me. A wave of weariness swept over my body as the pain slowly subsided. Xander's presence left the cot, and I began cursing him in my mind. He's just going to leave me here to die, I bitterly thought.

The words had barely crossed through my mind before the bed dipped beside me. Strong arms wrapped around my waist and drew me closer to an ice cold body: Xander. His mouth met my throat yet again, and he kissed the puncture wound before running his cool tongue across it. My strength was nearly gone due to loss of blood, so it was no easy feat to turn onto my side so that I was facing him. I couldn't have run away even if I tried. Once I had forced my eyes open, I was staring into pools of liquid silver. "What do you want from me?" I whispered, not daring to raise my voice any higher.

"Right now? I just want you to gain a little of your strength back so that I can return you to Logan," he replied, his voice calm and collected.

"I'm going to kill you for this," I threatened, though it was pathetic even to my own ears.

"You can try," he murmured, leaning in so that his nose brushed mine.

An extremely unwelcomed blush crept up to settle onto my cheeks at his proximity. "Back off," I spat, glaring at the sheet beneath me.

A light chuckle escaped him as he traced a cool finger along my cheekbone. "Why are you blushing, darling?" he questioned, laughter leaking into his voice.