Crave - Teresa Mummert Page 0,16
door open. In a flash, glass rained down on me. I grasped at air were Elijah had been just seconds before as I sat up and scanned the darkness as the small shards bit into the palms of my hands but didn’t break the skin. I began to panic, gasping for breath. I could make out shadows in the corner and hear the grunts and groans of an intense struggle. I curled up into a tight ball and hugged my knees as my breaths came in rapid pants. My heart was hammering so loudly I could hear the blood whooshing in my ears, obscuring the sounds of the struggle. Suddenly, the room was silent aside the labored breaths of someone else and I had no idea who it was.
“Elijah?” I asked, searching the darkness for him, my voice cracking from the weight of the fear that sat heavily on my chest. I backed myself against my headboard and began crawling to the side of my bed. I slowly stepped off and kept my back pressed tightly against the wall as I felt for the light switch. It clicked loudly in the quiet space and light flooded the room. I covered my eyes at the sudden intrusion before blinking them open and hoping the nightmare had ended in our favor.
Elijah was hunched over someone with his back toward me, unmoving aside from the steady rising and dropping of his shoulders as he caught his breath. “Elijah?” I whispered as I stepped toward him, petrified that he may have been injured in the fight.
“Don’t,” He hissed angrily. I stopped walking, frozen by the tone of his voice. I’d never seen a hunter in action but I’ve been told they are every bit as dangerous as the bloodsuckers they hunted. They had to be.
“Who is it?” I asked, terrified to hear the answer. The body lay motionless below him and I couldn’t see his face, only his legs. After several excruciatingly long seconds, he turned slowly to face me. His hands were shaking as he held them in front of him. “Who?” I asked again.
“I don’t know. It’s just a burglar,” he finally replied. He pulled something from the guys pocket. “He has an employee ID for Pizza Place.”
“Oh my God,” I choked out and rushed toward him. He grabbed around the waist and squeezed me tightly. “Why?” I sobbed into his shoulder.
“Shhh…” he whispered, stroking my hair until I relaxed against him. I hugged him tighter trying to match his grip on me. I knew he was the strong one of the two of us, but that didn’t mean he didn’t need to be comforted.
“We have to call someone… the police,” I concluded and he nodded his head in agreement. He grabbed his clothes, pulling them on as I reached for my cell phone, fumbling to unlock it. I finally got an operator on the line and frantically tried to explain the situation. I covered my other ear as Elijah’s cell began to ring in his pocket. He mumbled something quietly and walked into the living room so I could finish explaining what had happened, even though I still wasn’t quite sure.
I hung up the phone after giving all of my information and grabbed the dresser to steady myself. I took several deep breaths and glanced to my left. The body of the intruder still lay motionless and half concealed behind my bed. I took a slow step toward him.
“Aargh,” I screamed in terror as an arm gripped me around my waist and spun me around. “Grayson!” I threw my arms around him and squeezed as if he was holding me to the Earth.
“Eva! What happened?” He brushed my hair back from my face and glanced at the body behind me. “Are you hurt?”
“I'm okay. I’m safe.”
“A burglar attacked us,” Elijah’s voice said flatly from behind us. Grayson spun around with the sudden intrusion, studying Elijah, then looking back at me for answers.
Grayson’s face was gripped in confusion as he stood silently putting all of the pieces together. The intruder was killed in my bedroom, where he had tried to attack Elijah and me. I could feel the second Grayson put all of this information together when his look turned to disgust and my heart clenched in my chest. He swallowed hard and his hands fell free from my waist.
“Grayson,” I protested. He held up his hand to motion for me to stop talking. I shot a glance at Elijah, who tilted