Four
I understand virtually nothing about my new body, but I knew enough to listen to my alpha insisting there was still something left for us at her house.
I used to come here with her and pretend I had hard edges, pretend I could fit into her world for a few hours at a time, convinced I would be whole when she scraped me off the bottom of her shoe. Now I’m here, knowing for a fact she isn’t, but there’s something even better waiting for me.
If I believed in a pre-ordained fate, I might presume that the whole reason Winslow ever caught my eye in the first place was because a smaller version of her, a less jaded one, existed.
I can’t catch her scent through the glass she’s trapped behind, the one that looks too much like a coffin for my liking, but I just know it’s something big enough to change me.
She looks too much like death sleeping like that, and maybe I startled her pounding on the glass in such a way, but my alpha is going berserk.
He’s got me feeling like I caught this creature’s last moments of belonging to this plane, and that’s simply not something I can abide by.
Winslow has this place warded to high hell.
I don’t know enough about the wards to know how to dismantle them, and that might be my undoing.
I can feel the pressure the running clock is putting on me, telling me that if I can’t get to what I instinctually know is my omega very quickly, then I’ll lose her forever and there will be no point to continue this farce of a life I’ve fallen into.
I could call my sister and have her connect me to someone in Trash Haven that might be able to help, but that would take too long.
I start scaling everything I can, attempting to open or smash every window and door, and by the end of it I’m shaking, sweating, and spewing my entire day’s food into the bushes because of the wards. Then I spin to growl when the hairs on the back of my neck tell me there’s an intruder.
I don’t know his face, but I know his scent because it was always all over her.
Winslow. The woman I could never keep up with, that thought I was such a joke that she went and died shortly after ensuring I left my human-self in my past. Such a joke that she had not only another boyfriend but a whole string of them. Something she called a pack.
I’ve learned about vampires since I’ve become one, spent hours upon hours inhaling every bit of informational literature I could find, but none of it explains the way I’m immediately on the defensive with this stranger, the one I share something toxic with.
“Woah there. Who—ah, fuck. She got you, huh? Look. I’m not here to…you’re guarding the door. Why are you guarding the door? What’s in there? Clement said— but he couldn’t have been right.”
“Can you get me in there? She’s dying. I don’t know why I know that, but she is. If she dies, so help me fucking gods, you are not going to like what happens next. Get me the fuck in there.”
“I’m Moon. What’s your name?”
“My name is get me the fuck in there so I can feed her.”
His eyes snap to the door, then he gives me sad eyes like I’m actually going to fall for his shit. “You know Winslow’s already gone, right? Did no one tell you? And why would they? She kept you from us long enough.”
“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, but I am not talking about Winslow. She can fucking rot. I’m talking about the better version of her that’s locked in this house right now, wasting away, because you assholes did something. I know you did.”
He opens his mouth to speak, then his eyes widen and I wish I got some satisfaction from teaching him something, but we’re still standing on the godsdamn porch.
“There’s…someone else in there? How do you know?”
I give up trying to reason with the ass. I don’t care if I have to throw up every single organ in my body as long as it gains me entrance.
I pound on that door, ignoring the overwhelming waves of dizziness and malaise it sends through me, pounding until I bleed, and then I pound that blood into the door, and miraculously, there’s a faint pop that grants me access.
I don’t stop to question what did it exactly, I need to find her.
I tear through the house that feels like it’s already dead, aiming for where I think she is.
I’m doing calculations in my head, trying to get myself to the correct room, but Winslow’s house is full of confusing fucking hallways and rooms that don’t make any sense, windows in strange places, and furniture that serves no purpose.
I can smell her. Decaying wisteria, rotting berries, and desperation so pungent that I fall to my knees and crawl the rest of the way, using all my new senses to get me to her.
She almost had me fooled by the table and bench, but my alpha knows better. He senses her where I fail, and I claw at that bench until I find the catch, tugging her ankles towards me as gently as possible.
I stop breathing entirely as I look upon her properly, her black hair all tangled and matted, greasy and unkempt, pallid complexion with eyes almost entirely brown when I lift her eyelids, instead of the vibrant red they should be.
Her lips seem to hold a natural shade close to her hair, and everything about her is so fucking perfect, even in the state she’s in, that I forgive everything Winslow ever did to me right then and there.
Maybe she didn’t know I’d need this creature the way I do, but she brought me here.
I can’t tell if this piece of perfection is even breathing, but I cut into my wrist with my elongated fangs, not giving a fuck about the mess it makes. Rich, life-giving blood sprays her, painting her delicate neck and chest, staining the lacy, bridal style gown she’s got on.
“Come on, omega, drink for me. Please,” I sob as I wedge my wrist between her lips, massaging her throat gently with my other hand to try and get her to swallow.
“I’m here. You’re not alone anymore. You hear me?
I don’t know how, but I’m going to take care of you.
We’re going to get you better, get you strong.
And you can teach me how to be the alpha you need.
You just have to drink and open those pretty eyes. ”
Blood starts to drip out the side of her pillowy lips, but I wipe it up and tuck it back into her mouth, continuing with my massage until her chest rises under me and her tongue darts out to lick my skin, teeth clamping down on my limb as her wild eyes flash open.
She doesn’t look startled, she simply looks up at me as if she’s been waiting for me to show up and give her nutrients, like she knew I’d make it in time.
“What. The. Fuck.”
I snarl at the asshole alpha as he interrupts us, ready to tear him to shreds for startling my omega. Already her scent was sweetening, but at the announcement of our very unwanted guest, she’s right back to being rancid.
She doesn’t like him, that much is obvious. That means he needs to go.