Chapter 7

After dabbing on the last of my lip gloss, I knew that I was ready for this.

I wore a flowing, majestic-white dress. It was simple, and yet it showed a beautiful and unique glow as the light shone upon its beautiful satin fibre. With a dash of silver on the sides, it showed the outlines, perfectly tracing my body’s curves. I had white, elbow-length satin gloves that matched my dress. Unlike most people who fixed their hair into different styles, I kept mine as it was: past shoulder, and ending in dainty curls. I was always like that. As for shoes, I had on a pair of silver, 3-inch heels that somehow crisscrossed their way up to the quarter of my leg.

I had Lina to thank for the outfit. Out of all the dresses and shoes and gloves, she picked the ones I wore, and they looked so perfect together.

“You look great!”

Speaking of.

“Don’t you ever bother to knock, at least?” I asked as I turned to glare at her. She had a bowl of Lucky Charms on her arms, as always, and Momo was (again) at her feet, purring as she cuddled up to her leg. Damn it. My cat was staying away from me.

“Nah, can’t be bothered,” she answered, bouncing on my bed. I almost had a heart attack: I honestly thought she was going to spill her damned cereal onto my bed. I knew better than to argue with her about her favourite “staple” food, though. “Wow, I have a great sense of style, don’t you think? Maybe I should do your make-up, too! Now that would be fun,”

“I already have make-up on,” I said, knowing better than to trust her with make-up. She could pick a killer outfit, but make-up? She could make powder and lipstick into a mess. I grabbed my silver, diamond-encrusted bag, which I had already put my phone, wallet and spare make-up into. Hey, you can never be not ready for anything. Who knew? Maybe I had to pay for something or whatever.

“Aw. You’re such a killjoy,” she whined as she stroked Momo with her free hand as she used the other one to stuff the spoon of cereal into her mouth. I mean, she couldn’t get enough of cereal. Seriously, though, I understand; living a past life in the 1940s wasn’t such a good experience. She balanced the bowl on her crossed legs. “Oh, and your date is downstairs. You should be thankful your complete file didn’t move the Council to obliterate him. You are so going to melt when you see him,”

The Council didn’t see them as a threat anymore? Well, that was a good thing, right?

“I hope not,” I said, laughing a little at the thought of Dylan in a normal polo shirt. I’ve always thought of him as a rebel/punk/lover boy unlike his half-brother, who looked like the slightly emo/sad/miserable/angry-at-the-world dude. I closed the doors behind me and made my way to the stairs. When I looked down, I seriously didn’t think it was Dylan who was standing there, talking to my butler like the gentleman he was.

When he turned and smiled at me, though, I instantly knew what Lina was talking about.

He was wearing a black, silver-striped, long-sleeved polo shirt with a grey tie. His polo shirt was tucked in, and he wore black trousers with shiny black leather shoes. His hair was neat, and his face was kept clean, without any blood or dirt or anything like that. He stood straight and tall. His hand was kept inside his trouser pockets, while the other held a white rose.

“It seems like I’m lucky tonight, eh?” he said, handing me the rose as I descended down the carpeted steps, feeling light-headed. Was it really Dylan---the outlaw, the rebel, the annoying cocky dude---that was taking me to this date? I have never imagined him like this.

Well, okay, maybe I did.

Once or twice.

He kissed my gloved right hand as I used the other to let my butler handle the rose.

“That makes the both of us,” I said, not being able to stop the flow of words that came out from my mouth. Argh, I have to seriously stop acting like this in front of him. It makes me feel stupid.

Instead of pointing out this irrational act to me, Dylan smiled. Was he amused at my stupidity? Wow, that was so brutal. Dylan wasn’t that cruel, was he?

His innocence and gentleman-ness was proved as he helped me inside his sports car and closed the door for me. He even put my seatbelt on for me. He actually drove normally, considering that he was driving a fairly fast car (a red-and-white Veyron).

Okay, so it was a fast car, but he drove it normally.

“I’m sorry for not talking to you a few days ago,” he apologised so suddenly that I was taken off-guard.

. . .

“You’re probably mad at me for talking to you so cruelly when Schuyler was here, too, so I’m sorry for that.”

. . .

“Oh, and I’m saying sorry for Ryan and Jez, too. They can be really brutal sometimes, but they’re nice people. Jez just doesn’t want to hurt you, and Ryan feels the same. They don’t want to hurt anyone. I mean, Jez sometimes wants to kill you, but she just says that so you’d be mad or scared at us so you won’t---”

“I…uh, I think…that’s enough apologising for today, Dylan,” I said, cutting him off. He was so sweet! So kind, so cute, and such a gentleman…I just can’t imagine a better guy than him. So, I did what I did best. I put my hand on top of his and looked him straight in the eye as he pulled over. He looked at me, too, and his eyes were so pretty tonight. “It’s okay.”

“Really?” he asked, sounding like a sweet, little boy. To me, he wasn’t just that anymore.

Every time I saw him smile at me, my heart would flutter and beat at an increasingly dangerous rate, and my mind would be in a mess. I would try to think and talk and act naturally around him, but rationality just seems to leave me when I look at him.

“Really,” I said, trying to look away so I could think straight, but I was enraptured in the beautiful colour of his eyes. He smiled, and my heart went into overdrive. My stomach flipped upside-down, I think.

“You know what,” he said, taking my hand in his and rubbing my palm with his thumb, showing that he liked it that way. I found that I liked the feeling, too. “I regret not talking to you. It was hard, really. I miss hearing your pretty voice,”

Before I could think of anything else, his lips came closer to mine. Our lips were just millimetres away from each other.

Then, we kissed, and colours exploded from underneath my eyelids. I never felt like this when I kissed my past boyfriends, Nathan included (considering he was my first kiss). The kiss became deeper and deeper, and I thanked my rational mind that I remembered to bring extra lip gloss. Really. It was great. It was the most wonderful kiss ever.

Then, he broke away, and started driving. He was smiling, though, and I could tell that he liked it. I wiped the smears and re-applied my lip gloss, the feeling of the kiss never going away. It was like it would stay on my lips for eternity.

“So does that mean that we’re together, then?” he asked, taking my hand in his and rubbing my palm with his thumb again.

“I…I guess so,” I answered. I wanted to slap myself for saying such a stupid answer, so I tried to resolve it with this: “Yeah, we’re together,”

“That’s great,” he said, squeezing my hand as he parallel-parked his car in front of his gate, among the many rows of luxury cars lined at the side of the road. He killed the engine and kissed my hand. He got out of the car, undid my seatbelt for me, and helped me out. He even closed the door for me.

This just had to be a dream.

I mean, I couldn’t even begin to understand why I’m here, walking hand-in-hand with the Gentleman of the Year.

Even from the outside, the party looked grand. There were lights scattered on the hedge and on the arch, which gave the impression that it was a big deal, after all, and that I actually dressed right. The gate wasn’t open, but the smaller gate next to it was. And it was blocked by a big, muscular, gorilla-faced dude in sunglasses.

There was a dude in a tux at the entrance that was holding a clipboard to his chest. He was stone-faced, and he looked annoyed by something I probably won’t care about.

“Hey, Kris,” Dylan said as we went inside. The dude nodded curtly before stepping aside to let us in.

The party obviously took place in the poolside, since there were new stone steps that led there, and a new hedge was installed. There, at the entrance, stood Luke with a girl that looked like the stupid brunette version of Jez. He looked absolutely great in a tux, and the girl was in a sparkly silver dress, but I knew that he was only smiling fakely.

“We never thought you’d come,” Luke said almost too suddenly, cutting off the girl, meaning that he never was listening to her. “We thought that you’d be pre-occupied with each other in…you know,”

Dylan laughed at this, and I tried to laugh along. My laugh sounded nervous, though.

“That’s funny, Luke, but you know that I’d never get hot and heavy with a girl on our first day together,” he said. Ah, the gentleman. “However, I’d never expect that you’d bring your sister along,”

“Tch. Parents forced me to,” he said. “That party’s a mess, though. It’s kinda tough. I can’t smell her scent properly, since she’s in the middle of it all. Oh, and they’re here,”

“Oh,” Dylan said, his face turning a little too grim compared to what I was used to. “Well. Let Jez deal with that. She can handle it, I’m sure,”

“Paul’s not helping,” Luke said, obviously enraged by this. “What kind of fiancé is he? She’s practically dying there,”

Then, I saw where she was: she was wearing a short black dress, plain and strapless, and it was a little too high above the knee. She wore black heels, and her hair was let gracefully down. She obviously had a fake smile on, and it seemed that she was tired just keeping it there. She was surrounded by tall males.

One of them caught my attention, though.

The same face and height as Ryan, same gemstone-green eye colour like Jez. He looked so professional, and yet he looked like he was roughly about my age. He was frying Jez under his glare. I mean, Jez couldn’t glare like that. His looks were literally for killing. Totally. He looked like a killer.

Dylan caught me staring as he led me past people like Oprah, Taylor Lautner and Rain (yes, Rain. You read it right). I can’t stare at them, though. My attention was caught by that man. I couldn’t pinpoint it, but he looked so…familiar.

“That’s their dad,” he said, leading me to the drinks table. I anxiously held a hand out for wine. “He’s a killer, he is. He abused Jez most out of all of us, ever since our Mum died. He didn’t abuse her physically, but he would make her suffer like it. She looks so dead and devoid of life, like that charade she puts on when she’s around other people in school. It’s sad, really,”

“How does he abuse her, if not physically?” I asked. “I mean, not to be nosy or anything like that.”

“It’s okay,” he said, smiling as we made our way to the backyard after passing people like George Clooney and Nicole Kidman. No joke. They were totally there. Don’t ask me how they got here, but they were here, and that was all I cared about. Besides the fact that Jez was abused, of course. “You see, their dad is Zeus, right? So you’d think that, oh, he’d be the most affected out of all of us since we got kicked out of heaven, but he’s not. Actually, he’s just absolutely happy that we’re all alive and well, even with our curse and all. He’s just happy with Mum, not with that Hera bitch.

“So, when Hera died after being killed by a Hunter, he was okay with it. But when Jez was kidnapped…he went absolutely ballistic. I mean, we could see what was happening to her since Ryan received whatever treatment they were giving her, and it was scary. I’ll admit, I was scared. He would thrash around and he hung in mid-air, like he was tied to something or whatever. When we saw Jez again, it was during the War. It’s a different kind of war, though, not like the World Wars or anything like that. We were literally killing to survive and, since Ares took over Zeus’ place in the Mansion, there was no way we could stop the war without stopping him.

“It just happened that he had Jez by his side, so we couldn’t attack her, or him. Ryan convinced Jez to come over to our side, but it was too late: Schuyler killed Mum the second she went over to our side, but he was killed with the fire that he started. I wasn’t there, so I don’t really know, but I do know what happened, since I kind-of tasted the blood of those who died on the battlefield. I can see the people’s memories when I drink their blood, by the way. But moving on.

“So when she died, Zeus went into this, like, seclusion mode. He locked himself in his office for months. Then when he came out, he started acting as cruel as Schuyler. It all started when he asked Jez to come inside his office. Since Ryan was with me at the time, I was scared again. He face went pale and he started throwing up…and he actually started pulling his hair out. He vented in front of me, and we only knew what happened after we moved in and Jez told us all about it. Her guilt is really eating at her, so she’s fragile most of the time.”

“That’s harsh,” I said, not wanting to imagine it anymore, feeling sorry for Jez for the first time. Then, I realised that we were in the backyard, where the ones with the dates were hanging around. It wasn’t mild. It was just a little dark and foggy with all the smoking, but it was okay. Everyone was with someone, just talking or smoking or just sitting.

I really didn’t know what Jez was going through. Even if I still didn’t understand why she tried to kill me, I wanted to make everything better for her.

“Yo,” someone said, waving some fog away, moving towards us. It was an unknown dude, but obviously a vampire, considering that he was beautiful and all that. He looked straight out of a magazine cover. His abs and muscles were well-defined, and he wore a polo shirt and khakis. His dark-blonde hair was all mussed-up, but he looked great, even with dark orbs for eyes. What’s more, he had his arm around Megan’s shoulders. He smiled at me and held out a hand. “Lucifer III, nice to meet you,”

I shook his hand, and then introduced myself. “Leah Smith. It’s nice to meet you, too.”

“Well, it seems like my cuz finally got what he wanted, eh?” he said, smiling jovially at me. He kissed Megan’s hand, and I was shocked. I mean, of course she was pretty with her pink-and-black dress, but she was taken by her “beloved” Zac. As I recall, she said that she loved him. Of course, she said that with her past boyfriends, too. “Well, I guess we both got what we wanted, Dylan. Have a great night,”

I cast Megan a glare as they made their way past us, but she just smiled and shrugged, meaning that she didn’t really care about Zac. Hoping that I could clear this up, I went to look for Eris, who was obviously watching us. She gave me a look that said that’s-her-so-we-can’t-change-how-she-is. Well, great. Eris went back to smooching Ryan while Dylan and I walked out to the grass. I noted the bedroom above us, which had a tinted glass wall.

“That’s her room,” he said, catching me staring at it. I mean, who wouldn’t? It was tinted, but that wasn’t the point. It seemed like it would take away and give away nothing. It didn’t make light bounce off; the window/wall took all the light in and reflected it just as it is. Even the moon looked the same, and it wasn’t warped at all. “Jez, I mean.”

“Nice room,” I said. Then, I heard a door slam, and people were arguing loudly inside. There were crashes, and all we could do was stare. Dylan, however, seemed to be listening intently.

“Paul and Jez are fighting,” he said, looking me straight in the eye. “She’s dangerous when she argues with people other than her brother.”

“Oh,” I said, looking away and looking at him instead. I mean, I could stare at him all day long and not get tired while doing it. This was great. I think that this relationship will actually last…and I feel good realising this. I found that…I really wanted to be with him. It was like this pent-up feeling was made for this one moment, under the moon.

He smiled at me.

“Say that again,” he said, grinning like a kid. “Your lips look absolutely voluptuous when you say that,”

I smiled, taking this as a comment. He smiled, too, and hugged me. I hugged him back, and I realised that I wanted to stay like this. It was like my body was made to fit his, and his large body was like a shield for mine. We were like two pieces of a puzzle that go perfectly well together. It was a great feeling, just being in his arms like this while he sways and tells me loving words. I’m not really concentrating on them, but I know that I feel the same way, too. He kissed the top of my forehead before pulling away. I wanted to reach out for him, but I knew that this would be an irrational act. He went somewhere else, and those minutes felt like eternity. When he came back, I turned to look at him.

His eyes widened and he dropped the wine glasses in his hands. He was shouting something at me, and I looked up: there was this huge, rectangular thing falling straight towards…me. I wanted to run away, but I couldn’t: It was as if my feet were stuck there. They refused to move. My knees were shaking, and suddenly, I found myself on the grass with Dylan breathing heavily on top of me.

Everyone was staring at what fell, and I looked over his shoulder: it was a water bed. The water bed from Jez’s bedroom. I gaped as I saw the pieces of sparkling glass scattered around it. What’s more, when Dylan helped me to stand on my shaking legs and unstable feet, I saw Jez. Amidst all the muttering and staring, she was there, standing near the edge as her hair whipped behind her.

As I looked at her, I noted how she looked so traumatised. Her eyes were vacant and blank, her face devoid of any signs that indicated that she was still alive. Her chest didn’t even move to indicate that she was breathing. Paul grabbed her shoulders and shouted at her, but she was staring straight, her head lolling back and forth as he shook her wildly. Dylan swept me away and carried me bridal-style out of the party and into his car, but I swear I could hear something close to two mountains colliding.

It was like everything happened in a blur. I couldn’t really think straight. There was something traumatic about that experience, knowing that something big was going to fall on me, but I couldn’t really move. I thought that there was nowhere to move to. The big, rectangular thing had been getting bigger and bigger, and I couldn’t think of anything rational to do. My mind was nullified by my fear.

The whole ride home was silent. Dylan’s knuckles where white with the pressure he was applying to the steering wheel, and I could tell that he was troubled. I didn’t dare reach out to him, because I was afraid that he would swat my hand away like all the other guys do when they’re mad.

Dylan escorted me to my room silently and waited for me to clean up. Still, he was there, sitting on my bed. He didn’t even notice Lina as she glared at him from across the room while eating cereal. I motioned for her to leave, and she did so hesitantly. I made my way to Dylan only after I heard her bedroom door close.

“What were you thinking?” he asked as soon as I sat down beside him. “I told you to run. I knew that I told you to.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, assuming that it was my fault. Of course he would feel guilty when I had been in danger. It was just him.

“Don’t be,” he said as he hugged me again. “I’m just happy that you’re alive. Jez just pissed me off, that’s all,”

“Why would she piss you off?” I asked, not wanting to pull away. “I’m sure she didn’t mean to throw that bed at me…”

“She should have been careful. She should have controlled herself,” he said, his tone cold and harsh. He let us fall on the bed, still hugging. He buried his face in my hair and inhaled deeply. “I don’t want your life to be endangered. Ever. Your life is too precious. Babe, you’re too important for me to lose.”

My heart melted at his words. It felt as if it could carry me to the moon. I was falling deeper in love with him.

“It would be a sin to not tell you that I love you,” he said as he hugged me tighter. We crawled up to a better and more comfortable place on my pillows. I rested my head on his chest and hugged him, while he wrapped his arm around me as his hand was stroking my hair. “I’ll tell you why I love you, Leah. You’re pretty, smart…and you’re a strong woman.”

That was it. I felt like a woman around him, not a lovesick girl who was blinded by love. He opened my eyes, and I knew that he was the right dude, just by the way he did these things to me. It was like I’d known him all my life. That was when I realised that I didn’t miss Jayce anymore. Whenever I was with him, Jayce’s voice would leave my head, and Dylan was all I could think about. That’s what made me glad. Jayce wasn’t a painful memory anymore; instead, he was someone I knew I loved…and got over for. His death wasn’t something I mourned over anymore, and I knew that I would be happy with Dylan by my side. It was a great feeling.

I fell asleep, and being in his arms prevented me from having any bad dreams.

It was the first night that I slept without any of the dreams that I had gotten used to.

*******************

I woke up without Dylan there and, realising that it was a parent-free Saturday, I laughed. Then, I stopped and slapped my forehead. Literally. It hurt, but it was enough to wake me up.

I suddenly had the impulse to visit Jez. Don’t ask me why; it was absolutely a spur-of-the-moment thing. I don’t even know why the thought popped in my head. Maybe it was because I was sincerely worried about her well-being, even if she was the cause that I almost literally died last night.

Yeah, maybe it was because I was concerned about her.

I got up that morning, feeling like there’s nothing else to do, so I figured that I might as well visit the Night family to see how they were doing.

When I was preparing for my visit, I couldn’t seem to get that image out of my head. It was the part when Paul started shaking Jez…and her face. She looked so lifeless…as if traumatised. This wasn’t the girl that threatened my life, and it certainly wasn’t the nonchalant and fearless girl I knew. She looked like she actually regretted throwing that bed, and she never thought that it would fall on me.

Was that the reason why Dylan was angry, I wonder? Was it because he thought that Jez wasn’t thinking, and that she unintentionally almost killed me with a bed? What was so important about me, anyway? Yes, he had told me why he loved me, but was it more than that? Dylan was more important than I am. He might be one person to the world, but to me, he was my world. After last night, I couldn’t imagine a world without him.

My thoughts went like that for the whole trip to Albert Park. As soon as I got there, I didn’t bother to park inside. I just parked at the same spot where Dylan parked last night. I didn’t even bother to ring the doorbell when I entered the small gate (it was open), or knock on the front door (I was too anxious and it was too quiet, plus it was open).

The minute I opened the door, though, someone was there with her arms crossed in front of her voluptuous chest.

It was Bella, and she wasn’t frowning or anything like that. She was just standing there.

“Don’t you know what knocking means?” she said as she motioned for me to follow her to the kitchen. Actually, I wasn’t expecting her to be there in her black-and-pink pyjamas, but it was better than having no one at the door. I was expecting Ryan or Dylan, but Bella was okay. It was way better than have Jez answer the door. “Would you want coffee?”

“Sure,” I said as she handed me a latte. “Nice latte,”

“The skills come with a few millennia of experience,” she said, smiling warmly at me. “So what brings you here to our abode in Albert Park?”

“I just wanted to visit Jez,” I answered, replying her as I finished sipping from the mug. I admit, she was good.

“That’s a flimsy excuse to see Dylan,” she said, smiling smugly at me. Yeah, okay, so maybe I was too eager to see him again. “But sorry, he’s out hunting. He won’t be back in about half an hour, considering that he’s probably losing the best stag to Ryan right about now,”

“How do you know that?”

“I just do,” she answered as she offered her hand out, silently demanding for the mug. I took a huge sip, not minding if it scalded my tongue and my gums. It was a good latte. I handed it to her, and she laughed at me.

“You’re a funny girl, Leah,” she said as she poured the remaining contents of the mug down the drain. That was a total waste of resources, I think. “No wonder Dylan likes you. D’you still wanna see Jez?”

“Yeah,” I answered, getting up as she got out of the kitchen. I followed her without a word, not really thinking about the consequences. I’ll live for as long as I want anyway, so I can mend my wrongs when the time comes. Besides, I was curious about what happened to Jez.

We walked through that familiar hallway again, and Bella opened the door for me. It wasn’t Jez’s room, though. It looked more like an infirmary to me, except that everything was white. There was one white bed, one IV and one bedside table. The room was pure white, and even the fur carpet was ivory. Luke was holding Jez’s heaving form, and as soon as I stepped in, Bella closed the door behind me. I swear that I could hear her laughing outside.

I walked slowly towards Jez, and the closer I got, the more the scent of blood filled the air. Then, I saw her. Luke didn’t even budge. He was just holding her hand.

She looked like she came straight from the battlefield, only worse. It was like she was beaten up and diseased at the same time. She was heaving, and she was ugly, compared to how pretty she usually is. She had bags under her eyes, and her hair was horrible. It wasn’t pretty and silky as it was before. Her eyelids were closed, and you could see the veins there, illuminated by the light. Her face and her body were covered in wounds and bruises. She was wearing normal clothes (shorts and a tee), but it looked so wrong on her. She was trembling, even if it was obvious that she was sleeping. Everything around her was covered in blood. Dark crimson blood never looked so wrong on a person.

Her arms were bruised and bloody, and her lower lip was swelling. Luke saw me staring at her, so he lifted up her shirt. I tried not to gasp at this: he was letting me see those ugly bruises at her ribs and that huge cut on her abdomen, as if it was sliced so it would intentionally look as horrible as that.

She was dying.

I never liked to see anyone die, even if it was my victim or my target (except for Jayce’s dad, of course).

“It’s all Paul’s fault,” he said, as if for explanation, as he lowered her shirt. He kissed her hand. “If he hadn’t…done…what he did to her, then she wouldn’t be like this. If he hadn’t said the words he said, then she would have taken at least a little blood. Her situation is getting worse. Her lungs are punctured and she’s internally bleeding, her wounds are getting bigger, her bruises get worse. If she doesn’t heal soon, she’ll…”

“What about Ryan?” I asked, wanting to comfort him. He looked so broken. “Isn’t he hunting with Dylan?”

“That kind of healing takes days. She only has hours left. Even if Ryan’s healed himself, the wounds will keep coming back, and he’ll have to keep on hunting. It could take a few weeks or so. She hasn’t got that long. So if Ryan’s healed now, she can’t heal, since she isn’t taking in the blood for herself.”

“That’s….”

“Horrible, I know. But if you came here for sympathy, I don’t need it. I need a solution…a cure…something to heal her. I need tons of blood, but I don’t know where to find that much. Jez is against drinking from humans, and her father refuses to help her and send the blood we need. At this rate, she’ll---,”

He stopped. Jez grunted, and she took her hand away. He put his hand to her forehead, and sighed as she weakly shook his hand away. He got up and started going out the door.

“Can you watch over her for a while? I need to go out…for a little air. Don’t worry, she won’t hurt you,”

Oddly, I trusted him. I didn’t even stop him as he went out. Jez laughed hoarsely.

“It’s…good…if he’s hurt,” she said, obviously straining to talk. “That way…he won’t have to…hurt when I die,”

Her words…it was like someone else was talking. This wasn’t the heartless and fearless Jez that I knew. Suddenly, there was this whole new side of her that I was beginning to see. This was the hidden thing underneath all her darkness. This was the person that I saw near the edge last night, and this was the person that I wanted to help.

I knew that it was a selfish act of kindness. I didn’t want to do it for her. I just wanted to stop seeing that side of her…that vulnerable and weak Jez that I was here, lying on the bed in front of me. She was morbid. God, I just wanted it to stop. I hated seeing people like that. They don’t want to live just because of a stupid reason. I let my finger trace the line of blood on her arm, and I licked that finger. I was immediately sent careening into another memory. This time, it was much more recent.

I didn’t know what to do. It was like I had no control over myself at the time, and I regret my actions. I could only look as my once-loving brother glared at me with his woman in his arms. She looked so scared…so broken…so like me. She was too much like me, and I knew that I hated her for that. Still, I didn’t want to kill her yet.

Paul was shaking my shoulders and telling me that I was insolent and that I was worth nothing. Everyone was staring at me and, amidst all of their unfamiliar faces, stood my father. He was there, looking at me disapprovingly and disgustingly at the same time. I was too much of an embarrassment to him and to the family. I was nothing. Paul was right.

I let him throw me down on the floor. I let him slice at me with his Bowie knife, even if my wounds would heal increasingly fast. Slicing my abdomen and stabbing me was not enough for him. Yes, I deserved to be punished. I was a disgrace. It would probably be better if I died. I was, after all, a humiliation and a bother to everyone I know. Paul was right. He kicked at my sides and beat me up, but I didn’t care. No one would come to save me, after all, so what would be the point in fighting back?

God, that was horrible.

I helped her to a sitting position and let her head rest on my shoulder. I just know that she mentioned something about my blood smelling wonderful. If it was, then it would certainly call out to her just as her soul called out to me. Her head rested on my shoulder for a while, and I took my hair out of the way. There. My neck would probably be a clear shot for her.

She took the bait. Then, I felt the stinging pain. It was more like dull pain, actually; it hurt and I knew that I could feel it; it was just as if the pain was far away and in a deeper part of my body that I can’t reach. I closed my eyes and gasped as I heard her canines elongate so quickly and pierce to my bone itself. It went through the nerve. I winced as I felt the life being sucked out of me. I was weakening…and fast. My knees were shaking, and I held on to the bed frame for support. Even my arms were shaking with the effort. It was a horrible thing, but at least I would stop seeing that weak thing she was becoming.

“No,” I heard her murmur as she pulled away. I stumbled and my back hit the wall, and I saw her, as pretty and as fierce-looking as ever. Well. Now that she was back to her usual self, I would have nothing to worry about.

Suddenly, the floor seemed larger and larger. I couldn’t support myself anymore. I fell into the darkness, and my head fell to the floor with a thud.