• Chapter VI: part 2


    Vincent

    I’M NOT sure why, but seeing Jeff sitting there with Kida, knowing that she’d told him everything, really pissed me off. He shouldn’t know. This wasn’t his world. He didn’t belong in it.

    End of story.
    Except it wasn’t. For whatever reason, I allowed Kida to spill her deepest secrets with that human boy. It’s not as if I look down on humans. I respect them just as much as the next vampire, but that wasn’t the problem.

    If other Other-worlders found out that he knew about us, they’d kidnap him and torture him for information about us. And he, being human, wouldn’t be able to protect himself.

    Just another liability.
    But despite all of that, I allowed her to tell him.

    I turned on the faucet and let the warm water fall into my hands before splashing it on my face. I’d called Seth last night and asked him to glamour the town. To make sure that what happened last night wouldn’t happen again. The fact that there was a rogue vampire in Pleasant hill troubled me. He shouldn’t have been able to sense me, and he shouldn’t have known about Kida. And I was positive there weren’t any other vampires around when I killed the one from a couple of nights ago.

    A barely audible rap at the door suddenly caught my attention. When I didn’t say anything, the door slowly creaked open, and I made an annoyed sound when Kida peaked her head through the crack.

    She fixed me with a severe expression before walking in and closing the door behind her. She looked awful.

    “I assume you told him everything,” I said with a mock-aloofness.
    Her lips were pressed into a pale, thin line. “Where were you all night,” she asked, her voice too uneven for comfort.

    My eyebrows creased with concern. “I was out with Seth putting glamour on the town.”
    “That took all night,” she asked without skipping a beat. I gave her a crooked look.

    “Did you sleep last night, Kida?” Since she walked in, her eyes appeared way too dark and vacant for my liking. They weren’t as animated as usual. Something was wrong.

    She pressed her lips even tighter. “It doesn’t matter.” Her voice cracked. “I don’t understand how it would take all night just to glamour a town.”

    I shook my head, still alarmed about her appearance. “Kida, glamouring an entire town takes a lot time, plus we had to—”

    I didn’t have the chance to finish because Kida’s eyes suddenly started fluttering awkwardly.

    “Kida?”
    Suddenly, her legs buckled, and she fell forward. I stepped closer as she fell limply into my grasp. “Kida?” I asked once more.

    She moaned, and I slung her up and cradled her into my arms, walking her to her room and laying her gently on the bed. Her eyes fluttered open, and she looked at me crookedly.

    “What happened,” she asked. I smiled as best I could and swiped the sweaty hair out of her eyes.

    “You passed out. Why don’t you go ahead and get some rest,” I said gently. She nodded and closed her eyes, but when I started walking away, I felt her tug on my sleeve.
    “What about training,” she asked, her voice so small it was barely audible.

    “Later,” I assured. “After you sleep for a while.” She smiled, a reluctant look on her face. I closed her door behind me and leaned wearily against it.

    Why was she so sick looking? It couldn’t have been from one day of training, and one night without sleep shouldn’t have affected her like that. She was half-vampire after all.
    Was it blood, that she needed?

    I shook my head. Her body didn’t require blood to function. It was one of my concerns before leaving her ten years ago, but Seth had informed me that it wasn’t necessary. How he knew, I wasn’t sure. However, maybe after ten years without it—

    Surely she’s just overwhelmed.
    I don’t blame her.

    ***

    Kida
    MY EYES fluttered open, and I found myself wondering where I was and what I was doing here. That is, until I realized I was on my bed—in my room.

    “How did I get here,” I asked myself. Then I remembered. “Oh, yeah.”
    Vincent brought me in here. I’d asked him where he was the entire night. The entire night I’d stayed awake, unable to sleep. My fear was that another vampire would show up to finish the job, and with Jeff staying over, I had extra motivation to keep watch.

    It must have really taken a toll on me because I remember feeling like I’d been inflicted with some sort of life-threatening illness. My body felt so heavy, and my mind was a jumble of unorganized thoughts.

    I glanced over at my alarm clock and saw that it was 1:00 in the afternoon. I’d only slept for four hours but felt fully rejuvenated nonetheless. “Must be my half-vampire blood coming out.”

    I threw my legs over the side of the bed and ran my hand through my hair, only to be completely grossed out by how rigid and greasy my hair was. And it wasn’t just my hair. My face felt pretty disgusting, too. My nose wrinkled consequently, and I decided it would be a good idea to take a shower.

    “The guys can wait for a while,” I told myself.
    Then I remembered Jeff. Was he alone with Vincent? I bit my lip at the thought. Surely Vincent would behave himself, and I didn’t want either one of them to see me like this. Then again, if my memory serves me well, they probably saw much worse.

    I made my way into the bathroom and, after sparing one appalled glance at myself in the mirror, turned on the shower faucet. I kept my hand under the water for a few minutes to regulate the temperature until it was hot enough to get in.

    The water felt amazing. No. Amazing doesn’t even cover how it felt to just let the hot water fun off my skin and through my hair. I sighed at the relief.

    My muscles no longer ached, and my head no longer throbbed, most likely just from the short nap that I had taken, but the shower provided a mental relief, an escape from the crazy world that I’d been thrown into only a few days prior.

    I closed my eyes and ran my hands through my wet hair, and when I opened my eyes, I recoiled at the sight before me.

    There was blood splattered all over the shower walls. Like something straight out of a horror movie. As my eyes lingered downward, I stared in horror at the puddle of blood that I was standing in. A shocked gasp released from my lips, and when I looked at my trembling hands, covered in blood, I screamed so loud, my throat stung.

    When I spastically took a step backward, my feet slipped out from under me, causing me to fall with a thump onto the shower floor. Blood splattered everywhere, and I shrieked again. Even louder this time.

    I slithered and skidded every which way trying to sit up, but when I looked and saw a shadow form behind the shower curtains, the image of the shadow man in my dreams flashed before my eyes and a whimper sounded from my lips.

    “No,” I cried. “Please don’t take me!” I covered my eyes with my blood-covered hands.
    “Kida,” a known voice asked.
    I looked up with terrified eyes—

    Vincent.

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