Part Ten

1

          “I want you to do it, Stell,” he said grabbing a hold of my shoulder and lightly shaking me.

          I slowly opened my eyes, making a grunting sound as his big green eyes just stared me down. “Let me sleep…” I lightly swiped him away, trying to stay hibernated.

          I needed to stay hibernated.

          “You’re dying!” His voice had some urgency in it. I never heard it speak in that tone before. “Just suck up that damn pride for once and accept help! You’re not killing me, this is willingly! It’s different!”

          “No.” I groaned, wincing my eyes shut. Get away Louie, you starting to smell too damn irresistible. I thought bitterly.

          I was suddenly yanked up by the collar of my shirt. He was forcing me to look at him, his nose close to mine. My eye watered as the smell was too strong, why couldn’t he just stay away from me. “I said no…just go. Please!” I forced out, feeling my fangs already sharpening.

          “You’re not this monster that you think you are, alright?” He said. Why was his face and features so calm? He was closer to death than he realized. Did this kid just love playing hero? “I hear you moan in your sleep about it and it drives me crazy! You saved my town and tons of people just by making sure their doors are locked. You saved my sister and I wouldn’t even be alive if it wasn’t for you.”

          “Louie-”

          “No. Shut up, Stella, just listen!” He barked. “Why don’t you just take a look at what you do, instead of what you could do! If you were going to be a monster you would have already been one! You’ve been like this for 500 years! If you had evil in you, it would have come out by now!”

          I could feel my face tightening. “I…can’t…Louie, you don’t know what this is like!”

          “Let someone goddamn save you for once, Stella!” He yelled. “It’s like you’re just going to keep punishing yourself because…I don’t even know why.”

          My nails were no longer nails. They were expanding to their clawish talonish shape and I shuddered. I closed my eyes to try and retract them like I used to, but it didn’t work. I pushed Louie away my shirt ripping in his grip.

          “Go away,” I whimpered biting my fangs further into my lip.

          If I wasn’t so out of it and if I wasn’t so hungry, I would have noticed grayish mist floating in the room. But I was too preoccupied with not killing Louie, that I didn’t even realize I had nothing but a bra on now. If I couldn’t even pay attention to that there was no way I’d notice that small detail.

          But if I did…

          Louie just shook his head. “Piper’s right, Stell. She’ll do something worse to you if you don’t do it.”

          “NO!” I yelled. “I’m not dragging you to my hell! I’m not! You’re going to get out of this!” My hand laced on my golden cross to think.

          Cross.

          I felt incredibly stupid, and blonde, at that moment. I ripped the gold chain off me, holding it out to him.

          He stared at me dumbfounded, for just a moment, before shaking his head no. “I’m not taking a cross you got from your dad!”

          My eyes narrowed. “Yes, you are. You goddamn are! They haven’t chained us because they have a hard time touching me with this thing. Piper deals with it sometimes but you notice she grabs a hold of my clothes. You’re going to take it and use it to get your a*s home to your sister and Uncle.”

          “I will if you nip me,” He challenged. “That way we’re both out.”

          The smell….I could feel something snap inside me. It was probably my sanity, and it was holding on by a tiny thread.

          I grabbed his shirt and yanked him closer, my lips pressed to his ear. He wasn’t shaking…he should have been shaking. “It’s too late for nipping, Louie,” I cooed feeling whatever strings were left snapping with every word. “I’m starving…craving. I’ve been craving for a week. Once I start, I won’t be able to stop. Take the damn cross.”

          His neck was unbearably close but I was able, by some miracle, to shove the cross into him pushing him away.

          Louie just stared at me, opening his mouth to say something.

          “He got out! Holy s**t, Henry! He got out!” One of the cronies yelled from a distance. Louie cocked his head, tilting it in that confused way of his. I never looked to see the commotion…my gaze was still on him.

          “How?” One of the cronies squeaked. It echoed through all the jail cells.

          “Woah woah woah!” Was that Piper? “You guys let Damian out?! Well, I wouldn’t want to be you, Henry. Luna’s gonna be on you like a wild monkey on a banana.”

          That was when I could see the mist.

          Damian’s tiger slash is still p***y and bleeding! It won’t even scar!

          He wouldn’t be in here! He was taken care of. It was just my sanity…it had to be my sanity.

          I wonder if you should lose that other eye of yours.

          I could hardly breathe seeing it get thicker. “Get that cross on you now Louie!” I yelped.

          “What’s going on?” Louie asked, keeping the chain loosely in his hand while raising his brow in doubt

          This ought to teach you to never interrupt me again.

          “NOW!” I yelled. My legs felt like stone but I forced myself to take a step back. My mind was racing faster than my vision could perceive. He wouldn’t come after me like this. It wasn’t Damian’s style!

          But…it was…he would do just about anything if I really had caused him a mark that wouldn’t heal.

          I felt cold muscular hands lace around my arms. I tried jolting them forward but they were pulled back swiftly before I even had a chance to let my mind grasp on any rational thought. Goose bumps spread across my body as I felt hot breath along my neck.

          “You smell better than I remember,” His lips were pressed against my ear. They were cold, though his voice was lyrically luring. Though to me, his words felt like nails on a chalkboard.

          “What the hell!?” Louie gasped grabbing at his shoe. I didn’t know why and I didn’t want to know why. Maybe it was some human thing nowadays to grab shoes in the face of danger.

          “Put the cross on,” I gritted through my teeth. I felt Damian press harder to my skin, as if he was just reminding me how trapped I really was.

          “Did you really think you got rid of me that easily?” He laughed giving off that same lustful voice. Why was he speaking like that? He knew that sort of thing didn’t work on our kind. It was meant for humans, like bait if you will. Vampires only used it on each other if…

          They found a mate….

          “What do you want?” I hissed trying to elbow him in the gut but he had a firm hold of me. And I was already weak to begin with.

          “I think he’s down here!” Piper’s voice echoed through the corridors. “Stop hyperventilating, Henry! You’re not going to save yourself and catch him if you’re on the ground sucking your thumb like some stupid baby!”

          I felt his fingers lace through my hair. More goose bumps spread and I began to wonder if I’d soon run out of spots for them to spread upon. “I think you know,” he laughed. “You’re just going to pay me back for this lovely beauty mark.”

          He spun me around violently making me face him. There was the mark, the one I made when I could barely think when I was trying to rip myself away from past memories. It wasn’t bleeding like Luna said, but that hideous tiger slash was crusty and red, four giant scabs. It was definitely going to scar and I didn’t understand it. Why hadn’t it healed? Vampires healed from just about any wound, except ones given by a lycan. His dark black hole eyes gazed into mine and I felt alone, as if my very soul was shoved into the dark abyss inside of it. I couldn’t control the shiver that spread across from me. I was pulled in against my will and I suddenly felt like I was drowning.

          Then he jerked his head away. It shifted towards Louie, who was still digging into his shoe, and then towards the cell gates. “We’ll just handle our exchange privately,” he mused. Damian began to turn into mist and I started to feel as if I wasn’t there anymore, as if my body was being pulled apart in a million pieces.

          I realized, because he was holding me, I was turning into that mysterious mist as well.

          “STELLA!” I heard Louie yell. I couldn’t shift my head to face him. If I could I couldn’t do anything anyways. Maybe I could mouth goodbye. But goodbyes are always hard to say.

          “He’s here!” I heard Piper as well. “Damian! What the hell are you doing! GET AWAY FROM HIM, STELL! Punch or kick him, I don’t care! Just GET AWAY!”

          I felt warm hand lace around me suddenly, they were shaking but they tried to grip onto me.

          But then all I saw and felt was cold grayish mist.

2

          I hit the ground feeling mud splash everywhere against my body. I tried to get up but something warm and hard fell on me next. I groaned trying to pull it off. I had a horrible thought that it was Damian trying to grope me, or something worse.

          Another memory I didn’t want to relive.

          I was ready to slash at him again when I looked up staring into two pools of emerald. “Louie?!”

          He smiled at me, containing this heroic look in his eyes. It still amazed me, and irritated me, at how calm he stayed through this whole ordeal. “Who else did you think it was?” he teased, knowing exactly what and who I was thinking of.

          I hugged him; I almost squeezed him to death. Thank god! His smell was still horribly affecting me as my nostrils flared up and down, but I couldn’t contain myself. He was alright! I don’t know how long I held onto him, it could have been forever but it seemed so short. I let go slapping him. “Don’t frikken scare me like that! And you know to stay away from me!”

          “Did the cross work?” He grinned that devilish grin of his. “Because if you were dangerous wouldn’t you be flinching and screaming?”

          I gaped at him for a moment seeing the cross around his neck. I wasn’t sure if I was surprised that he was right or that he actually listened to me and put it on. “I uhhh…I…g-”

          “Look out!” Louie yelled violently shoving me. His hand pressed hard into my ribs sending my weak hungry body tumbling away.

          Where I used to lie was Damian. He twitched looking at me and then back at Louie.

          S**t on toast.

          “Is he you’re little pet?” Damian crooned picking him up by the collar. Louie swiftly kicked him where no man loves to be kicked, but Damian never flinched. He didn’t even seem to care that this hand was burning from my daddy’s cross.

          “Just let him go!” I could hear myself begging, now. “I’m the one that hurt you! You want me, remember?”

          He started to laugh, “Do you actually like him?” tears were coming down from his eyes as his laughter just grew worse. “I knew you were a human lover but look at yourself! In love with a scrawny teenager when you can get someone like me? It’s hysterical!”

          I felt something hard and horrible hit my undead heart. It wasn’t physical and it was a feeling I couldn’t explain. He was going to make me watch and I could do nothing to stop it. All I could do was beg, I was too weak to fight thanks to my sister. Dear Luna, oh how she would love this moment.

          “You want me?” Tears were streaming down my gold eye. “Then fine! I won’t struggle, just let him go! He’s no use to you anyways!”

          Louie kept kicking him in that tender spot over and over again. I didn’t understand why he didn’t realize that it wasn’t working. His sneaker flung off and I saw the biggest wart in the world. I almost cringed wondering how something that huge and long could appear at the bottom of someone’s foot.

          And then it clicked. Digging into his sneaker in the cell, kicking Damian over and over and over. There was a stake in his sock!

          He finally did something smart! Go figure!

          Damian, thank god, was still focusing his horrid gaze on me. “I really don’t think you’re in any position to call the shots, Stella,” He laughed dropping Louie like he was paper. He walked towards me and I took a step back feeling like some trapped rat. “You can barely even stand!” He cackled tapping me.

          I lost balance. My hands quickly grabbed onto a tree branch so I wouldn’t fall.

          For once in your life aim right, Louie, I thought frantically. For once just please aim right!

          His claws clenched onto my jaw. “Now how should you pay me back? An eye? No, I got this because of that, didn’t I? How about that pretty little face of yours.”

          I tried to speak but his claws were far deep in me that my mouth couldn’t function.

          “Actually, I have something even better,” He smiled using that seductive tone again. His claws sank in deeper yanking my face into his.

          I tried to run but my legs betrayed me. I even tried to scream but I had no breath. His cold lips pressed against mine and I suddenly felt like Hell’s fire was seeping through me, burning me worse than when my eye was taken away from me. His eyes seemed to snicker at me as he pressed deeper, kissing deeper, and bringing more pain into me.

          His soulless black eyes expanded to the point where I could no longer see the white in his eyes. I was able to pull away gasping for breathe, anything! Something that wasn’t his hot death stench breath. I felt a sharp point prick my bosom before I pulled away.

          Damian fell on his knees grasping at the stake that went right through his back and right through him. He gaped at me mouthing something I wish I could remember now, but I can’t. Silver mist then started to appear on every part of his being. He tried to grasp at me, pull me in to whatever hell he was going to, but he soon lost physical form and was gone.

          Just like that.

          I looked helplessly at those wonderful green eyes. Louie was shaking, his whole body trembling. It was the first time I had seen him show any sort of fear, which made me smile. He was finally showing that teenager he really was.

          “I…really did it…didn’t I?” his voice was trembling too. He looked up at me but I took a step back.

          I covered my mouth. “You did…but let me eat Louie…” I said through my fingers.

          “Oh yeah,” He smiled, that shaking leaf that he was instantly vanished. He casually placed his hands behind his head. “It’s hard to remember that when you’re staking some vamps.”

          I smiled feebly before slinking into the woods.

          Once again I had to thank God for letting Damian bring me here. At least now I’d have a chance to gain some grains of sanity back inside me and quell the inner monster that I was.

3

          “I guess I should have expected you would find a way out of this,” she said. “You always do.  I should have realized that this would be no different. I mean, come on! I put you in front of the clan to humiliate you so you would succumb and you didn’t even take the blood when I gouged out your eye!”

          I looked up letting my dead elk rest on the ground. I had seen it get killed by a wolf and scared it off. There was my sister, sitting casually up in one of the branches of the trees. Her gold eyes stared deep into my one. There was a burnt cross scar on her left cheek. It was still pulsing red so it was recently given to her.

          “You see your sister and all you can do is stare dumbstruck while eating that s**t?” she sighed shaking her head. “What I don’t understand is why you go to such far lengths to make sure you stay connected to the human world.”

          “I’m not damning anyone, Luna, and you know it,” I said.

          She glared at me leaping down. “Damning anyone?! The world frikken damned us, Stella! You preach about righteousness and preserving life but do you think the rest of the world cares?! We’re like this because no one gives a damn about anyone but themselves!”

          “Luna…”

          “No Luna me!” She snapped coldly. “The humans don’t care anymore! We’re no longer a part of them! We’re just monsters in their eyes! To them we have no feelings, no nothing! And you want to save them? Why? They’ll just kill us off! Plus we need food to survive. Humans kill animals and we kill humans. That’s just the way it is!”

          “Well I didn’t ask for this!”

          “I didn’t either!” She nearly screamed. “You think I want to be like this? You think I don’t give a damn about dad! What Dact…that I can never go to heaven either!”

          She was pacing about letting out all her anger at me. I think it was all the anger she held in for just about 500 years.

          “What did Dactylius do?” I asked finally catching onto that word. “Did he…is that why we never saw Dad again!?”

          “Just forget it!” Luna snapped. “Unlike you I moved on! I frikken had to move on! And you do too! I’ve been trying to make you for years but you’re too damn stubborn. You and you’re “God” have been a pain in my a*s for years.”

          “You used to believe in him too!” I retorted reaching for my cross, but it wasn’t there. Louie had it.

          “Well, if there is a God then why did he damn us? Why did he forget about us when we needed him! You think a good God would watch two girls get raped and then turned into monsters?”

          “Luna…”

          “Shut up!” She growled. “There is no God and you need to move on!”

          Luna glared at me for a long time. Her face tightened and she straightened herself up trying to look more royal and under control. “But…through some….assistance,” She sighed. “I’ve come to realize that you’re going to have to move on by yourself on your own time. So I won’t go after you and I won’t touch that precious town you tried to save. But when Briggs comes home I can’t promise anything.

          “But you can’t come home,” her voice was firm but it seemed almost sad at the same time. “I can’t have you killing the clan. By you going out and about saving people you’re making our food supply short. We need to survive too, Stella. I’m sorry if it pains you to hear that monsters have rights to. But you are one and you need to learn that. I don’t want to see you’re face until you’re ready.”

          She turned away from me clenching her fists in and out for a moment before walking away.

          “Luna…I” My mouth was struggling for words.

          She turned around, eyeing me. “No Lunas…no nothing,” She sighed. “I hate goodbyes. But before I go…why the hell did you tell Piper where I kept the cross Dad gave me?”

          “I did when she was first turned. She asked why I wore my cross, so I told her that you had one too,” I smiled faintly. “But I never told her that you hid it or still had it.”

          She glared at me crossing her arms. “I think I believe you coming home soon more than I believe that.”

          Luna looked up and shook her head. “Better find some cover, sister. You got no home and the sun’s coming to pay you a visit.”

          “You didn’t hurt her, did you?” I piped up.

          “No,” she didn’t turn around this time. “But I will if she does it again. I think her hand lighting up on fire as she smeared my little ‘gift’ in my face was good enough for the both of us….for now.”

          Piper of all people? I was surprised but flattered, I hadn’t really considered her a real friend…but for her to stand up to Luna, well maybe I had to think some things out. “How’d she sneak up on you?”

          She snapped her head back glaring at me. “You think it’s funny don’t you! You want me to change my mind on letting you go?”

          “You got to admit it’s sort of funny that we each now have a mark,” I teased.

          Her eyes narrowed. “At least mine will heal.”

          Grayish mist filled the area and Luna was gone.

          I hadn’t seen her since…

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued…

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[Danny J.H.]

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