Chapter 10: Chapter 10

I sat around at the café. It’s ten at night but we closed an hour ago. I don’t walk in snow. I didn’t like it when I was in South Carolina, I swear I didn’t like it in Maine, and I sure as hell don’t like it here. Maybe I can go back to California. The weather is just a bit better and it doesn’t get below ZERO FUCKING DEGREES. I guess I won’t be leaving tonight, but I have so much studying to do. Maybe I should go now but it looks sort of heavy.

“Its cold outside,” Kellin said behind me. Fuck my life. I hit my forehead with my hand. He just had to show up.

“We’re closed,” I said to him.

“I’m not interested in anything except you,” he was in front of me now. I staggered back a bit, surprised by how close he had gotten. Why does he always mess with my space? Is that really needed?

“What do you want?” I asked.

“I saw that you were stuck so-”

“So nothing, I was about to go home,” I said and turned away from him. He’s so annoying sometimes. I felt his arms wrap around me loosely. What the hell does he want? He pulled me with him to the red sofa close to the back. Now no one outside can happen to see us. I said nothing as he pulled me down on his lap. It was uncomfortable for me but I kept my mouth shut.

“I love you,” he said. I didn’t respond. He knows I would never feel that way for him. I can’t. It’ll just lead to all kinds of trouble and I don’t want to go through that much. But I know how much he feels for me, he tells me everyday. He would die for me, that’s how far he goes with it. He can do what he wants but I can’t feel the same.

“You’re cold.” I said silently, trying to take the tension away from the subject. I could feel his freezing temperature under his clothes. He was like ice now. I noticed his eyes were black too. Let me take the wildest guess, he’s hungry.

“Yeah, I sort of burned all my energy.” he even sounded tired. I wonder how bad it would be if he never ate. Would he shrivel up and die? I didn’t ask, it would be rude. I looked down at my hands for a second, thinking of something.

“Does it um... hurt when you bite someone?” I asked, kind of nervous.

“Depends on their perception of pain.” he shrugged. I remember all the screaming I heard even if it was such a long time ago. I was told to run but where would I have gone? There was no where else and I couldn’t leave them. They died anyway and I still stayed till the police came.

I will never get over this if I keep thinking about it. I miss my parents and I hope they’re giving me strength to deal with this one. But if I keep dwelling in the past, I can never move forward. It hurts like hell but I have to start now. I pushed one side of my hair back to expose my neck to Kellin; I saw how he wanted to bite me, he craved for it actually. His teeth had sharpened as he licked his lips.

“I can’t,” he said. But he wants to. I stayed like this in silence as I waited for his answer to change. I know he wants to, he’s looking at me like I’m food, of course he wants to.

“I don’t care,” I murmured quietly, giving him permission to. I’m sure he felt how nervous I was and its true that I was. I don’t even know what the hell I was doing. But I just need to know.

“You say that now,” he said.

“You won’t have another chance like this,” I said and that hit him hard. Of course he expected to be able to have my blood just once, I know that. But this is just a one time thing, I would never let him do it again, ever.

He moved my hand from my hair as he looked me in this eyes. He was being serious right now but so was I. Maybe he thinks I’ll regret something like this and I probably will. I still just want to know. He drew a finger down my neck slowly; he was so cold that I shivered from his touch. That didn’t make him anymore confident in doing this. If he thinks I’ll be mad, I won’t be. He wouldn’t care if I was. His fingers gripped my shoulder and brought me closer to him; his breath was ice cold on my skin. I held my breath to prepare myself, its going to hurt like a bitch. He licked my skin and a second later, his teeth. They already felt sharp but then they cut through my skin. I bit down on my lip to keep from screaming because it really did hurt like having a mouth full of knives stabbing my skin at the same time. Heat coursed through my body but it wasn’t comforting at all, it burned, starting with my neck. I covered my mouth as I felt the stinging in my eyes. This was the kind of thing my parents went through, all this pain and I imagined worse. Kellin’s teeth were digging even deeper; I choked back the scream that was building up in my throat.

He’s really sucking my blood.

The tears over flowed from my eyes and spilled down my cheeks. I still covered my mouth just in case something happened. I never thought it would hurt this much, how can one mouth inflict so much pain? My vision started to blur but not because of my tears, I was getting dizzy. All the more while, I was going into a silent hysteric. I could remember everything so perfectly. All the screaming and yelling. The killing.

He pried his teeth from my skin and the pain stopped, the burning was gone and I felt nothing. My body went numb on him. I was still crying but I kept silent. I just wasn’t used to it and all, I guess that’s it. That’s what I’ll tell him. There’s no way I’ll describe everything I saw, like my parents death again.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” he apologized quietly. I said nothing as I continued to cry. I just couldn’t deal with it. He held me tightly in his arms and let me cry; he was so warm and smelled nice. I calmed down, feeling safer like this. Its better than nothing.

I fell asleep in his arms. I have never felt calmer before, its shocking but I guess relaxing. It pissed me off though. When I woke up, I was in my room but he laid next to me. He was still warm like he was supposed to be. I didn’t lash out because he was in my room let alone my bed, I have to admit that I felt nice like this.

“Does your neck hurt?” he asked me quietly.

“No,” I answered. I couldn’t feel anything there; I moved up, reaching for my phone to check the time when he took my hand in his. Whatever he’s doing, he needs to stop. Nothing can happen here when Toby’s asleep right across the room. There’s no way, I’m going to stand for that.

He kissed me. I expected to taste blood but I didn’t, he only tasted sweet. Why is he kissing me now? That question is invalid. Kellin doesn’t care where or when, I should know that. It just made me a bit anxious actually.

He got me to open my mouth more for him and then I felt his tongue. It made me mad how he thought he could just do this and not stop. I couldn’t push him away though, my arms won’t move. I let him kiss me forcefully like this. His tongue searched my mouth slowly, letting me taste him. My face burned more as he licked the roof of my mouth. This shouldn’t happen between us, his tongue shouldn’t make me hot like this. And its just his tongue. Who knows what else. I couldn’t think anymore, I was drowning in him and I couldn’t get away.

And then I heard a moan. That could not have been me. No. He laughed silently, still kissing me. Hell no, that wasn’t me, that couldn’t have been me. To think I moan....because I feel good? That’s not right. His hand moved down my back, reaching for my jeans. I shoved him away quickly and tried to regain my breath. He’s not getting any further than this, I swear. If he touches me, I will kill him.

“Nervous?” he asked me.

“Hardly,” I breathed.

“I want to hear your voice more,” he held me closer, his breath on my neck. My voice? I stayed red as anger shout through me. I swear I didn’t do that.

“That wasn’t me,” I said through my teeth, holding my embarrassment inside.

“You liked it,” he was smiling, I could hear it.

“No I didn’t, stop it.” I was about to shout but remembered Toby was sleeping over there. Kellin is pissing me off but making me more flustered than I need to be. He kissed my neck repetitively, sucking on my skin. I squirmed around as I tried to get him away from me but it didn’t work. His breath was warm and his mouth was hot; his tongue licked as he sucked.

I heard the disgusting sound come out of my mouth again. It is me. My hand flew to my mouth quickly to cover up the sound but he ended up moving it. I can’t deny the fact that I was moaning. What puzzled me was that I liked him doing this to me. I hated how he could do this to me without really putting effort into it.

“Kellin stop,” I begged.

“Then say you like it,” he said as he moved from me. I would never let that nonsense come out of my mouth. But then he would never stop. I moved my mouth but all that came out was nothing. “What was that? I didn’t hear you,” he was teasing me. I know he heard me clearly because I did murmur it. Who care if it was a jumble of words, he should be able to pick it out easily.

“I said I like it, okay?” I whisper yelled. If Toby wakes up, I wouldn’t know how to explain anything. Kellin kissed my nose and that set me off. I wanted to punch him in the face but he has skin like concrete, hard to break. I need to remember this more.

“You’re cute,” he said.

“Say that one more time you piece of shit,” I threatened, thrashing around under him. I hate how he belittles me like this. I’m not cute, and I prefer to not be called that at all.

“You know, you shouldn’t talk like that to someone who has more power than you do.” he said. Is that some sort of threat?

“You wouldn’t do anything,” I said.

“I would do all kinds of things.” he said. That made my stomach flip. Its bad that he would even think to do something, but its obvious he would. How long before I have to deal with him attacking me violently? That day will surely come but like hell would it be right now.

“Get out,” I said.

“That’s all you can say when I have you cornered,” he laughed silently. Cornered my ass, I’m being pressured. He moved closer to me, his lips at my ear now. “You’re mine, Pierce. I will have you,” he said lowly, like it was a challenge. I didn’t move an inch, for some reason I got scared. He’s been getting pretty far with it actually.

He wasn’t on me anymore. I watched him leave my room quietly. So he’s leaving, just like that. He doesn’t fight but he doesn’t have to when he basically puts no effort in. I’m making this too easy for him but I don’t have room for hatred anymore. He’s like another person to me now. It pisses me off to say it but he’s not that bad.

“Its another group,” Layne had met up with me at the corner of the street. It was almost midnight and barely anyone was out but no one would be with all this snow. I looked around for a moment to make sure my senses weren’t failing me.

“Is Jeremy part of it?” I asked.

“Dante would know if he was.” he said as he put his hands in his coat jacket. I leaned against the light pole and sighed. Its getting difficult now.

“How do we know he doesn’t?” I sighed.

“Even if, two groups can’t be together, it will only cause dispute.” Layne said grimly, like he’s saying there will in fact be one in due time. The hell is this?

“We were here first,” I said.

“There’s nothing that says Dante can’t be overthrown.” he said. Layne knows too much and he hasn’t been here as long as I have. If anyone was going to “overthrow” Dante, it might be him. But then it hit me, my brain was completely hit. If not anyone else it just might be-

“Jeremy would do it.” I said quickly, going on with my thought process.

“But why? They get along fine, we all know they’re the closest thing ever.” he said, then he caught on. “Oh,” he looked down. I don’t know why Jeremy wants but bringing outside members in this, as in Pierce, is not needed. There’s no reason for this. I just want Pierce to be left out of it. Jeremy can do his own shit, I don’t care, just leave Pierce out.

The scent of blood passed my nose. Both of us whipped around to where the smell was coming from. Some one’s feeding. There was a scream that cut through our ears and echoed off into the night; it sounded more like pain than terror and I know there was something worse going on. This is torment, not just feeding. I looked at Layne, wanting to know what he wanted to do. Our only option was to go check it out...besides stay here. But I wanted to know what was going on.

And we weren’t the only ones. Others with us started heading towards the sound too. We followed behind them, running in the same direction we heard the scream come from. It was a girl, more likely a women between the ages of twenty five and thirty. Some one is probably mutilating her and is going to get it from Dante. He dislikes this sort of thing. We were quick to rush off into an alley way, our group coming from different directions. I saw some looking down on this horrific view that I had in front of my face.

The girl was in fact unrecognizable. Everything was out of her, skin and organs twisted. I wasn’t sure what was what now. The only thing I did know was her blond hair. Everything else was a mess, but there was barely any blood. Of course this was the work of vampire, no one else could have done it. I went hollow as I watched. We don’t do this, we never do this.

These guys weren’t with us, they’re a different group on our territory. Could this be the suspicious third party? I glanced at Layne but I know he could say anything about it. He stared at the dead body, holding back both his disgust and fear. If he could be any paler, it would be now. He looked sick in fact but all of us did. The girl’s body wasn’t the only one here which put us into shock. There were five more, deeper in the alley way. This can’t be happening. When the police or other authorities catch this, we’ll have problems trying to keep secret. We’re already suspicious enough but now we have a burden to carry.

One of them stood up, wiping the blood from his mouth. His hair was black and disarrayed, matching his clothes that were also soaking in red. He was taller than most of us and leaner. He was in fact a vampire, flawless skin, perfect movements. The only thing different was the fact that he hasn’t been alive long. He’s a new born, maybe close to eighty years. But he seemed like the leader of this group cause he was challenging us, all of us. How bold. Maybe I can have some fun.

“Who are you?” Dante’s voice boomed from above. We all looked up at him. His eyes glowed red as he scanned this person in black. He wasn’t liking what he was seeing anyway. He jumped down to meet with him when he didn’t answer. If there’s going to be fighting involved, its obvious we would win. There’s so many of us and a few of them, we can take them easily.

“I asked you a question.” Dante growled as he walked closer to him. He held a smile on his face which pissed Dante of even more.

“I take it you control these guys,” he said boldly as he looked around at us. Dante grabbed the collar of his shirt and brought him up to face him. Dante really doesn’t mess around with killing sprees. Its obvious his tolerance for this is weak.

“Who are you?” Dante asked again, bearing his white fangs.

“Lucas, why?” he answered calmly.

“I want you to leave my territory, Lucas. Got it? I don’t want to see you or your clan,” Dante said forcefully as he gripped his shirt tighter.

“You can trust us,” he smiled weakly, hesitating when he saw that Dante meant every word. Why does he want to be here for? For Jeremy right? Of course. I wanted to yell something but its bad timing, I can’t step out of line just to have Dante kill me first.

“No I can’t. There’s six deaths that will be reported in a matter of days because of your carelessness. I already have an idiot like you, I don’t need another.” he raged on, dropping Lucas like trash. He was mentioning me with disgust. I know I’m that idiot, there’s no one else to take that place. “I will give you one more chance, get off my territory.” he repeated himself more clearly now as he glared down at Lucas.

“Fine, we’ll leave.” he said as he got up, wiping himself off. I doubt he will though. Lucas seems devious, he doesn’t keep his end. I can already tell that. The way he moved gave it away; he would have tried to fight Dante but he realized what sort of threat he is to him. He’d die despite the strength he still has.

I heard growling coming from deeper in the alley way. It was his group as they walked out, towards us. They were leaving but it seemed like they would kill us first. They threatened us, bearing their teeth to taunt us as they walked by. Lucas just let them try and bully us but I expected that. These guys don’t seem so tough though. I can take them.

Dante stayed, looking at the bodies. It was clear that it would be difficult to make it seem like another human did this. Animals don’t even come this way. I looked around for a minute, just thinking when I saw Jeremy standing on top of a building ledge. Why does he look content for? Was he pleased with this? It just proves whatever he’s planning isn’t something Layne and I made up. I looked over to Layne who was still in shock; he’s still shaken up by this but I expected that. Maybe we should leave for now, authorities can take care of it. But no one would actually move away. Out of my two hundred something years of living, I’ve never actually seen this happen. As far as I’m concerned, vampires don’t just mutilate bodies like that to the point of nonrecognition. Its frustrating how this is the first time I’ve seen this. Now Jeremy could use this to his advantage.

Pierce flooded my thoughts quickly. Jeremy can’t even try to, I will kill him. If Jeremy really is in “charge” of these guys he’s going to have to control them before I do something about it and that’s a promise.