☼ Chapter IX ☼

picture; Rene Olicidove

song; "Way Down We Go" by Kaleo

author's note; This chapter is shorter than the rest. I did have a plan to add something else into this chapter, but it would've been way too long if I did, so I stopped before I got into the knitty gritty of the other part. That revelation will be in chapter 8, which is already partially written from before so it might be uploaded quicker.

How are you all enjoying the story so far? Not much romance right now, but there is a lot of clues and important information I need to cram in, but chapter 9 will contain Derik and Sonya's first real date!

If you're feeling pissed at him still for what he said to Sonya, I totally understand! And you should be, because it was hard even to write that because I love Derik.

His reasons for what he said will be revealed in chapter 9 though. That chapter is an essential point in Sonya and Derik's relationship, so stay tuned.

Enjoy, comment + vote!

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Somehow, a curdling sensation inside me had driven me in the direction of Head Vierseut's office. I had been heading to the Centre to meet Lorelai for dinner like I usually did, but something shoved me the other way and eventually I found myself in a frenzied sprint towards the front of the Academy, towards admissions.

Head Vierseut's office was housed right behind the main entrance to the Academy--the first check-in gate, with the admissions station.

The main gate was a ways from the Plaza, classes, the building that held the Mentor's personal offices, and especially the dormitories.

Those were tucked miles away in the very back end of the school.

The dormitories were logically the absolute safest place to be on campus because of how deep you have to travel inside to get there, and how many Protectors you'd have to pass on the way.

Ironic that I was attacked in the place I should be the most sheltered.

On the agonizingly sluggish elevator ride up to the tenth floor where I knew Head Vierseut's office was, my hands began to shake.

A sickening abysmal disquiet birthed itself in my stomach and I began to feel ridiculously nauseous. Every morsel of my body seemed to be shrieking at me that I should not tell Head Vierseut. That I needed to leave the admissions building and go meet Lorelai for dinner.

The panic was slithering amongst my skin and my breaths were coming out in short, shaky pants.

Was I beginning to hyperventilate?

And then, the ding of the elevator resounded in the quiet and the doors slid open to reveal Carson.

A familiar smile had started to spread over his lips before he seemed to realize the kind of state I was in.

"Hey, Sonya. Are you okay?" Carson gingerly touched my arm and weak electric needles stabbed into my skin where his skin connected against mine.

Clenching my hands so tightly I felt my nails bite into my palm, I managed to dredge up a tight smile. "Yeah, man. I was just going to see Head Vierseut, but I forgot I have something really important I have to do down in the Centre." My finger found the Floor 1 button as Carson stepped into the elevator beside me.

"Aw, well. Head Vierseut apparently isn't here anyway." Carson seemed slightly annoyed, but he still offered me a gentle smile. "I wish they would let us know when he's not gonna be here. It would save Novices a trip all the way to the front of the school."

"Yeah," I agreed cooly. Carson cast me a sideways glance, probably confused about why I was being so short, but he didn't comment on my attitude or say anything else the rest of the ride down to the bottom floor. "I'll be seeing you." I told him when the doors slid open, and Derik suddenly infiltrated my thoughts.

Carson cocked his head to the side as he digested my choice of words and a slow smirk spread over his lips. "Yeah, Sonya. Be seeing you."

The walk back to the Centre was peaceful and completely devoid of the crazy anxiety that had seized me so relentlessly before.

I had only ever gotten such a horrible anxiety one other time, and it was a life or death situation.

I remembered the Cetilayn was having some kind of nightmare, and I had connected with her in my sleep as well.

When she woke up, she was craving blood like she never had before, and she had wandered into our parents room. Our dad stirred and saw his daughter looking frenzied and bloodthirsty at the foot of his bed.

Colton had woken Meredith and my mom was able to coax Cetilayn back to her bedroom without anyone getting hurt.

My sister told me she was considering ripping our dad's throat out, and that was when she first realized that she had begun the Change.

Why did I get that feeling again just now when I wanted to speak to Head Vierseut? Was some part more intuitive part of me trying to push me to see I couldn't trust him? Why didn't I get that feeling with anyone else?

I had even considered telling Lorelai today and never got that horrible gut feeling that it was a bad decision.

"Oi!" That familiar Cockney accent shouted straight into my left ear and I nearly jumped out of my skin before whirling to smack Lorelai over the head. "Daydreaming about your lover boy, are we?" She waggled her brows at me as she rubbed the spot where I'd hit her.

"No, you idiot. Thinking about my IOS lesson. I might be a descendant of a Hunter, Lori." I didn't intend to lie to her, but I couldn't tell her what I was really thinking about out in the open Centre like this where anyone could overhear.

"No shite? How'd you find this out?" Lorelai's eyes widened at this new piece of information, and she looked me up and down curiously. "You don't look like the Vampyre Huntress type."

"What are they supposed to look like?" A brow perked up at my best friend as I shoved my fist onto my hip and regarded her dubiously. Lorelai had probably never come across a Hunter in her whole life, because if she had, she'd be dead.

"Well, for one," Lorelai jerked the door of a pizza place open and the mouth-watering smell of cheese and pepperoni washed over me. "They're a lot buffer--like body builder buffer, bigger--probably like ten feet tall. Most likely have short hair, like a pixie cut--no, shaved. Wait, no, a death hawk. And crooked, yellow teeth and horribly chapped lips with a square jaw." Lorelai shuddered at the monster she'd conjured in her mind.

"Um, Lori. Hunters are human, so I'm pretty sure they'd look like normal people. Some of them may even be... dare I say it?" Lorelai's eyes were comically wide as she watched me lean in to her like I was telling her a secret. "Attractive."

"Blaspheme! You'll burn at the stake!" I rolled my eyes and playfully shoved her.

"You are so over dramatic, Lorelai." My best friend scowled at me and went to open her mouth to fire a comeback, but it was our turn to order. We ordered three large-sized pizzas and sat down at a two-person table to wait.

"Anyway, back to a subject that actually is attractive." I furrowed my brows in puzzlement as Lorelai let a slow smile curl onto her lips. "Derik Seilyar."

"Derik Seilyar is attractive?" I gave her a look that clearly said are you sure about that?

Lorelai clicked her tongue and rolled her eyes. "I'm gay, not blind, Sonny. That's beside the point anyway. How are you and Prince Charming getting on?"

"We got into our first argument." I told her honestly, huffing in annoyance as his rude words from earlier floated into my mind.

"Tea. Spill. Was it another guy? No, another girl?" Lorelai loved gossip, and since the two of us were each other's only friends, we didn't get much drama.

"No. He was ranting and raving about how weak and pathetic humans are and it really pissed me off. He even started talking about my parents and said that my dad was a coward who was just realizing how pathetic he was as a human in comparison to the Gift that is Vampyrism when Cetilayn began the Change. And then he even said that my mom was weak for not completing the Change." All the words tumbled out of my mouth in a rush and Lorelai was scowling by the end of it, her gray eyes resembling steely ice.

"That wanker. I can't believe he talked bad about your mom like that." Nodding, I cut her a look that clearly said me neither.

I mean, what cunt talks shit about the dead? Not to mention that Rene obviously had help from Darkness or something since Meredith did kill him by tearing out his heart and suddenly he was up and still kicking enough to chase us and murder my mom.

"I know. I smacked him for what he said and told him he sounded like a terrorist." Lorelai let out an excited little gasp and offered me a high five, which I definitely accepted.

"That's my girl. Serves him right. And he better apologize, or when I officially meet him I'll make him feel weak and pathetic." Lorelai's poised her hands into claws as she spoke and snorted in irritation. "But, with that being said," She started again. "You have to accept him, Sonny." We both turned our heads towards the pick-up counter as our order was called.

"Right, well. Like you said, he needs to apologize first." Lorelai scooped up our pizzas and handed one over to me.

"I don't understand how you've been able to ignore the pull for this long to be quite honest. When Mates usually find each other, all the Rituals are usually completed within a week. Is your anger holding you back?" Lorelai cast me a knowing sideways glance and I didn't see the point in lying, so I nodded.

"I just can't be that happy. I just won't allow myself until I can be at peace with what happened with my mom." We walked for a while in silence and Lorelai seemed to be thinking about something that really bothered her.

"And you won't find peace until Rene is dead." Her voice was matter-of-fact, not a hint of a question behind her words.

"Yeah," I responded anyway. "I won't find peace until I kill Rene."

"And what if you never find him? Are you going to keep Derik on the back burner for all of eternity?" My head whipped over to look at my friend since her voice had suddenly turned angry.

"Oh, trust me, Lori. I will find him. Even if I need to leave the Academy to find him, I will get my revenge. I swore that to myself years ago. And honestly, anyone who gets in my way is gonna regret it." My voice was so nonchalant, so casual.

"Okay, so what if you kill him and you're still angry? What if you still aren't at peace over Meredith?" I sighed and felt my shoulders sag from the weight of Lorelai's questions.

"Derik will help me." Lorelai seemed to be satisfied with my answer, and as the dormitory skyscraper came into view, I looked seriously over at my best friend. "What about you? If you're reunited with Trent and Ankiel, do you think you'll be able to forgive them?"

Lorelai scrunched her brows together at the question. "We're not talking about me."

"Oh, but we are now. Would you forgive them? Would you be at peace with the fact they abandoned you?" I saw Lorelai bite down on her lower lip as she stared off into the distance.

"I honestly don't know. I'd probably knock them over the head and then demand to know why they left without saying anything in the first place." Lorelai sighed, shaking her head as we ducked into the dormitories. "Why do you ask anyway? I don't really have to worry about that until I actually do see them again. I'm sure I eventually will."

"Eventually might be a lot closer than you think, Lori." Now it was Lorelai's turn to narrow her eyes at me in suspicion.

"Do you know something I don't know?" We'd finally reached my dorm and I inserted my key, but realized the door was unlocked when I went to turn it. Without warning Lorelai, I pushed the door open wide and stepped inside.

Sounds of a fighting game flooded over us and craning my head around the door frame, I could see that Ankiel and Trent were sitting in the living room on the couch, playing Tekken 7.

"They're back." I told Lorelai over my shoulder.

Lorelai graciously set the pizza down on the kitchen counter, and because of her calm demeanor, I almost thought that maybe she didn't hear what I had said. But when her eyes flashed up to meet mine, a russet-orange ring encircled the blazing dark gray irises. Lorelai was pissed, and I rushed up beside her, but she pushed passed me easily.

She entered the room like a hurricane, and with a screech of pure fury, she yanked the PS4 from the entertainment center and chucked it straight at the two boys, who stared wide-eyed and panicked at their sister.

The game console hit the wall between their heads and they both shot to their feet as the air around Lorelai shuddered under the severe tension of her anger. If I hadn't been so worried about Lorelai Shifting in my dorm, or destroying the living room in general, I actually considered laughing at the fear evident on Ankiel and Trent's faces.

I had never seen my best friend so angry, and I hurriedly moved beside her, placing my hands on her shoulders. "Lori," My voice was calming, but she seemed to look right through me.

"You get back to the Academy and your first priority is a fucking video game?"

Petrifying tremors throbbed through the air surrounding my best friend. Her breaths were coming out in heavy but quick pants, and her normally radiant gray eyes swelled with a fiery orange ring around the irises.

Her hands were clenched in fists so tightly that the sandy-brown of her skin across her knuckles were pale white. The saccharine aura of blood assaulted my senses, and I knew that Lorelai's fingernails had dug into the flesh of her palm.

"Hey, Lori." Ankiel sheepishly smiled at her, and Lorelai's eyes flashed over to him. "Long time no see." Trent cleared his throat as if to masquerade the fact that he was about to laugh at Ankiel's lame attempt to lighten the mood.

It had the opposite effect. Lorelai leaped over the coffee table separating her from her brothers and clutched Ankiel's throat as she slammed him into the adjacent wall. Ankiel's eyes widened slightly at the quickness with which Lorelai pounced on him.

"You think this is fuckin' funny, you piece of shit wanker? You abandoned me here without so much as a goodbye and in the six years since you disappeared, you haven't even tried to pick up a phone and call me! How dare you come back here and act like everything's fine.

"I worried so much about you when you were gone and instead of coming to me when you came back, your first priority is to play a fucking video game? I am your sister. I was supposed to be your sister." Lorelai's voice cracked at the end and I hadn't realized tears had brimmed in my own eyes until the hot wetness slid down my cheeks.

"Lori, listen, please. We were trying to protect you. Trent..." Ankiel's eyes snapped to Trent and his jaw clenched as understanding passed over his handsome face.

"We'll tell you everything, just... relax, hermana." I blinked as I noticed Trent had a slight Spanish accent. Lorelai squeezed her brother's neck tighter as she peered angrily into his eyes for some time before she finally wrenched away, shoving him hotly back into the wall as she did.

Ankiel wheezed and coughed a few times, causing Lorelai to scoff in disbelief. "You've become pathetically weak." She turned her back to them, but paused. "I don't need or want an explanation from either you. Just stay the fuck outta my way, mate."

I watched silently as Lorelai retired to my room, only stopping for a moment to snatch our pizzas from the counter. My eyes met Ankiel's first, and I crossed my arms as I stared at him accusingly. Ankiel narrowed his eyes at me and clenched his jaw.

"She wants an explanation." The words were spoken on a sigh as I stepped closer to the two men. "Whatever it is, whatever happened, you never should've left her without saying anything."

"What the fuck do you know about it?" Ankiel's Cockney accent was a mirror of Lorelai's, and it caused his voice to come out as a jarring and rude snarl. Trent said nothing, only stood silent and icily glared at me.

Even the coldness of his expression didn't stop the weak flittering of electricity zipping over my skin, nor did it push me to coil away from the sensation.

"I know something." I responded tightly before sucking my teeth. "I have a sister that left too; she apparently was trying to protect my mom and me, just like you. So I know exactly how she feels. She deserves an explanation."

"No shit, Sherlock." Ankiel rolled his eyes and turned away from me, and a pinprick of the ocean of rage that constantly laid dormant in my chest sparked up.

"You don't fucking turn your back on me like I don't matter. You hurt Lori. I was the one who was here with her for the past six years, who listened to her cry over you pathetic pieces of shit.

"She hasn't been home to see your parents in years because she can't bear the reminder of being without you. And I know you can feel it. You can feel that pain you caused." My jade gaze barreled through Ankiel, and a slight flicker of guilt slithered through his gray eyes—those gray eyes that were so identical to Lorelai's, and so easy to read.

"Unless you blocked it out."

"No, I always knew she was safe." He vehemently denied my implication, and I nodded my head before uncrossing my arms. "I know I made a mistake, but this is between my sister and me. Not my sister, me, and you."

"Well," I spoke on a sigh as a slow, smug grin tiptoed onto my lips. "She's my sister now." Without so much as a backwards glance, I twisted on my heel and retired to my bedroom as well.

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With a cool swiftness, my eyes turned up to the darkened sky. I breathed in the serenity that glared back at me—loud and commanding in its simplicity, dazzling.

Stars burned brilliant white against the blue-black of nighttime, a bitter decadence shifted through the life the sky seemed to breathe. Round and full, the moon poured eerie silver light over the trees' branches, admired its reflection in the crystalline river below.

Absolute and precipitous, a rapturous thrum of volts gradually slinked through every centimeter of my internal organs and zipped across my skin.

Lips dominated over mine with a feverish zeal. Everything around me melted away into nothing as heat and passion slammed violently into my body. A sweet-tasting tongue trailed lightly across my bottom lip, but I refused to open my mouth.

He crushed me against him firmer as if my refusal had made him angry and lightly fisted his hand into my hair as he nipped a little harder at my lip again.

When I sighed in shock his tongue flicked passed my lips, brushing against my own. Something vicious and animalistic gushed through my veins, seemingly setting them ablaze and all rational thought soared away.

I curled my fingers tightly into his silky hair, crushing him closer to me as I wallowed in the unbelievably saccharine honey of this boy's mouth. I'd kissed guys before, but they couldn't even begin to compare to the unearthly sweetness this kid was offering. It was unparalleled by any other savoriness I'd experienced in all my life.

He lifted me at the waist and my legs encircled him. Our lips lingered connected as he moved towards the bed and fell back into it. We rolled and my actions became fanatic, mouth inching lower down his jawline and pressing at his throat the longest.

The world around us seemed to be vibrating with passionate intensity that was almost severe. His hands roamed over the curves of my body knowingly, causing more electric and sweltering jolts to slit through the very marrow of my bones.

Desire so thick it could be tasted satiated every corner of my entirety, and then ran over until I spilled nothing but hunger.

Wave after wave and shock after shock I relented, allowing him to conquer and control every portion of me. His fingers roughly gripped at my thighs, the only notion to whisper that his constraint was faltering.

A soft moan lifted from my lips before he moved his hand back up to my hair, rushing lazily through dark waves.

"Sonya." I leant back to see him—peered directly down into a pair of soul-wrenchingly heavy and devastatingly familiar violet-amber orbs.

And then I lurched forcefully away from Trent's form. Reckless shock cascaded upon me as I took in the uncertainty and slight hurt that sailed across his perfect features. Trent pulled up quickly and reached out to touch me, but again I coiled away.

"What the... I'm with Derik. Why are you here?" Disgust blossomed in the depths of my stomach as I realized I'd betrayed my Mate.

"Derik? Who the fuck is Derik?" I stared, mouth agape, in untamed bewilderment. I couldn't tell you if it was the shock from the animalistic hunger and luring emotions I'd felt towards Trent, or just plain confusion, but I couldn't respond. The words were trapped in my throat and garbled into trillions of intelligible pieces.

"Oh, Derik." My eyes flickered in the direction of a new voice. This voice caused red slivers of anger to pulsate over my body and the confusion to be snarled away instantly. "Her little Mate, of course. Tonight she dreamt of you, but you'll do just as nicely."

Rene's looming figure materialized from the blackest shadows in the corner of my dormitory room. He was actually grinning wide, but the smile was off-putting. It seemed frozen uncomfortably in place, malice lingering and ready to rear its ugly head just beneath.

"Do nicely for what?" My words finally came, trembling and small.

"Well, I can show you better than tell you." Rene moved so quickly, I almost couldn't see him. He grasped Trent and shoved his hand deep into his torso.

The jarring shattering of bones met my ears with a grotesque cracking sound. Words dissipated and I pushed forward with relentless gracefulness.

Rene would never catch me off guard again.

My fingers encircled his wrist and twisted with reckless brutality. Another crunching sound of a breaking bone resounded through the air.

Rene growled in pain, but it was cut off by my free hand crashing into his throat as I slammed him into the wall behind him.

"You will never take another person I care about away from me." I breathed against the skin of his cheeks as I spoke, a hellish warmth smoldering behind my irises.

I submerged my hand into his chest now, the scraping of his ribs pushed a dull ache over my hand, but when I grappled onto the slick warmth of his quickly throbbing heart, the pain fell away—instantaneously forgotten.

With a sickening jerk, I rid the cavity of the organ and my eyes fell closed in satisfaction for a few moments longer than the standard blink.

When I finally opened them, there she was again. Her brown skin once again that grayish color, the same blue pajama top and dark waves of hair. Wide and glassy jade eyes identical to mine stared blankly back at me, not a glimmer of vitality to be seen.

Horror gushed over every centimeter of my skin, thick and sticky and making me feel filthy. The weight of the warm and wet heart in my hand became too much to bear and I released it. The crimson organ fell to the carpet with a soft squishing sound and rolled a few inches away from my toes as I stared at my mother's petrifyingly beautiful face.

It was twisted into a corpse-like ugliness that I only recognized from the night she was murdered. The contours of her lips and cheeks and long lashes reverberated flashes of images of her in life into the forefront of my mind.

I fell back, and her lifeless form wilted to the floor with a grating but soft thud. A sound gurgled up to the edge of my lips, and there was no chance or moment to attempt to swallow it.

A trenchant, wild scream pummeled past my lips.

☼

Screeches throbbed through the atmosphere and slithered across every inch of my world.

Desperation and panic collapsed reality and it throbbed with a viciousness that induced all that once mattered into eternal nothingness.

Only that skittering and breathing anxiety and pungent despondency was real.

"Sonya! Sonya! It's okay. Stop screaming! I'm right here." A concerned and sweet voice echoed in the deepest recesses of the blackness. But the unmovable thick darkness was too heavy to pull up from.

I was going to drown here.

Fiery wetness poured over my cheeks and burning white light seared my eyes. I think my eyes were open, but I wasn't seeing anything.

"What the fuck is wrong with her?" Another familiar voice, but the blackness ebbed further in. There was no escape.

"Sonya," With wondrous strength, I was yanked from the unyielding black waters. Violet-amber orbs delved into me and I immediately lurched forward into Trent's arms.

"Thank you. Thank you." I sobbed into his shoulder and I faintly felt Lorelai rubbing my back but the biting electric that crawled over me consoled me the most.

The confusion wafting from Ankiel and Trent was virtually tangible, but they didn't ask any questions. I was incredibly grateful for it. The last thing I felt like doing was explaining my night terrors to them, and without me having to say it, Ankiel and Trent seemed to just know.

Maybe they weren't so bad after all.

☼