Crave - Teresa Mummert Page 0,62

side. Blood seeped from the fresh wound on the back of my head. My mouth gaped open as I struggled to find my voice.

The world began to grow dim around me as I struggled not to lose consciousness. I clawed at the floor, trying to find anything I could grip onto so I could pull myself off the cold tile. My eyes grew heavy and I no longer had the strength to fight it.

The world around me was cold, dark and uninviting. My body felt weak and oddly limp. My head thumped with the steady beat of my pulse from the wound I had received in the kitchen. I tried to focus my attention on that injury, and not my certain death that would be coming any moment now.

This is not how I pictured the end of my life. I imagined myself old and frail surrounded by my loved ones. I should be in my own bed, with my own things, not on a cold hard floor, bleeding out, alone. I thought of my father having to tell my mother that my lifeless body was found, bloody and beaten. Elijah’s panicked voice filled the background of my thoughts and I struggled to focus on him.

“Eva,” he called in the distance. My brain was coated in a hazy fog. I struggled to snake my way through the painful thoughts to him. His voice radiated regret and anger and it seeped into every pore of my being. I wanted to scream out to him, but my body refused to cooperate.

I felt my heart rate accelerate as my wounds thumped with each passing beat. For a brief moment, I could feel his hope. It was warm and peaceful, but the feeling was short-lived as Elijah’s insatiable hunger for blood overcame him. His emotions ran ramped and flooded the air around me like thick storm clouds. I struggled to steady my heart rate, but it was too late. A sharp sting to my right wrist was the last thing I would feel. I had officially given up. I let the fog take over me, enveloping my body and mind.

I searched for a happy place in my memories to hide from the end. I was back on Main Street, walking by the handsome stranger in Seven Valleys.

My heart fluttered at his smile. This was the memory I went to when I wanted to feel alive, with the very person who would kill me.

I stumbled as he caught me in his arms. Had I known where meeting him would take me, I realized I would do it all over again for that moment. It was the first time in years I had felt that life was worth living. I pictured him picking me up effortlessly and carrying me to his special spot by the creek.

I was in my perfect place with him now. The air smelled of honeysuckle and fresh cut grass. I wrapped my arms around his neck and held onto him, letting him carry me to my death.

Chapter twenty-nine

Like Rum

The aching in my body faded into the background of my death dream. I had given up entirely, but I was at peace with my decision. Elijah would be able to go back to his life the way it was before me and my family would be safe.

As I closed my eyes on our private walk, something pulled me back into reality. The fangs that had violently ripped into my wrist retracted. Thrown back into consciousness, the scent of flowers replaced with that of blood. I gasped for air and opened my eyes, squinting in the harsh light.

Bodies crashed around me as Elijah fought Olivie. Her mouth was stained with blood as she snarled and bit at him like a rabid animal.

I sat up quickly, the blood rushing to my head, causing the room to spin. I steadied myself and pushed off the ground to my feet determined to end this.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the broken branch I’d grabbed in a last ditch effort to defeat Olivie. I snatched it from the ground, the bark biting into my palm as I squeezed it tightly.

Elijah and Olivie crashed violently into one another and it sounded as if the house was being torn down with a wrecking ball.

I swallowed hard and summoned the courage to try to save Elijah like he had done for me so many times. I tiptoed around the corner and into the hallway. Anger consumed me as Elijah