he couldn’t feel it over the struggle that went on inside him.
“Out…” he wheezed, grunting with the effort to breathe. He didn’t need oxygen, but breathing made him more human. The thing inside his head hadn’t bothered to breathe in years- didn’t remember what it felt like to be human. It didn’t have the need to keep up the appearance of being anything other than evil death. He was able to fight it only because he’d had hundreds of years of practice. He desperately tried to latch onto something good, something pure that would keep him afloat in the sea of choking loneliness that threatened to swallow him.
A woman’s face drifted into his mind, innocence and knowledge, strength and fragility all in one. He immediately snuffed the image, not wanting to reveal it to the invader. The sight of her face had given him enough distance from the evil to pull himself back from the brink of insanity. “Get…out!”
The burning cold in his head gradually began to recede, leaving him crumpled on the floor. His silver eyes slipped closed, long silver lashes resting on cheeks that were even more devoid of color than their usual ivory perfection. He curled into the fetal position, shuddering as cold tears leaked from his closed eyes. So close. It had been so close. And he had seen her.
*****
I stayed at the library much later than usual that night, making up for lost time, and wanting to get a head start on my tasks for the next day. Peter had promised to take me on a picnic outside of town and I wanted to be able to leave early. We would be away from prying eyes, which meant he didn’t have to disguise his otherness. Last time we had a picnic he had carried me piggyback into the woods so I could go anywhere I wanted. In the open spaces, he had run with vampire speed and I had reveled in the feel of the wind in my hair.
When I locked up, my attention was only half on what I was doing, my mind spinning with possibilities. I heard a soft step behind me, but I didn’t react right away, thinking it must be Peter, come to see me home. A big hand landed on my shoulder and jerked me around, making me drop my keys. I looked up into the eyes of the brown-haired monster, Viktor. He smiled. It wasn’t a comforting sight.
“What do you want?” My voice sounded scared, even to my own ears. Peter had said they were simply pulling pranks on him, giving him a hard time because he wouldn’t conform to their ways. I thought he might be right about Cynthia and the others. But not this guy. Something about Vicktor was a little too intense. I thought he might be willing to go beyond pranks for the sake of his loyalty to Leah.
He arched an eyebrow and shook his head. “Sorry about this, peach.” He sounded genuine, though not greatly regretful. “You’ll thank me someday, if your boyfriend has the balls to make it worth your pain.” Then he pulled me out of my wheelchair. Thankfully, I wasn’t wearing my lap belt. I’m pretty sure it would have broken both my legs.
He held me up by the front of my sweatshirt. I struggled and kicked awkwardly with my clumsy legs, but it was pointless. I’d been here before, and I knew how it would end. He was stronger than any human, and I was quite a bit weaker than most.
He sank his teeth into my throat. I gasped, but didn’t scream. It all happened so fast I barely had time to register what was going on. He wasn’t gentle about it, but he didn’t let me feel too much pain. I struggled weakly, but his aura was strong and I could already feel my traitorous body relaxing, lulled by the hormones he was exuding as he killed me. My vision started to go black around the edges and he lifted his head. His mouth was red with my blood. It almost looked black in the dim streetlight. He dropped me in a heap on the sidewalk and I barely avoided hitting my head, catching myself roughly with my hands. The vampire picked up my chair with one hand. Stooping, he hauled me up by an arm and strode toward the riverside park, dragging me along.
I was sobbing by this time, cursing and screaming, but there was no one around