70. Chapter Seventy
Chapter Seventy
Elowen Briar
Eyes Wide Open
The first thing I notice is how bad my head hurts, like someone had rocked my shit just seconds before opening my eyes.
My head pounds, and the light from the curtains are an even bigger problem.
The light pours through them without warning, too bright and too sharp.
It burns against my eyes until I squeeze them shut again.
Yet even behind my lids, the glow is still there, pressing and insistent.
When I open them once more, the room comes into focus with a clarity I have never known before. Every detail leaps at me: the lines in the wood grain of the dresser, the faint cracks near the ceiling, the shine of a button on the blanket folded at the foot of my bed.
My chest rises, but the breath that fills me doesn’t feel like it has before.
It’s too deep, too complete, as if my lungs have found a capacity they never had to possess.
I feel like I don’t need oxygen, but I could have it if I wanted it.
I turn my head slowly. The motion is effortless and smooth.
The sheets against my skin feel wrong. They whisper with every shift, each thread distinct.
I can hear the fibers stretch when I move, and the air carries a thousand scents.
Lavender clings to the pillow. I know who’s fault it is, Imani.
Her and her diffuser. The smell of coffee drifts from the kitchen, faint but undeniable.
Beneath it all lingers iron, sharp and steady, and my body tightens in response.
I blink again, stunned at the speed with which the world has rearranged itself before my eyes.
The edges are too sharp. The shadows are too defined.
I feel like I’ve stepped into a different dimension.
Am I alive? The thought slices through me.
Or am I dead and this is what it feels like to pass?
I flex my fingers. At first they don’t respond, and fear coils in my stomach.
Then, they twitch, curling slightly, stronger than I expected.
The relief is immediate and overwhelming.
My stomach aches, but it isn’t hunger as I’ve known it.
It isn’t the hollow pang of skipped meals.
It is clawing through me with strong demand.
I press my hand to my chest, but that only makes the craving worse. I’m hungry. No? I’m thirsty. No?
The words tumble in my mind, but none of them fit the ache. I can move every inch of my body again with my own will. My body is back…brand new?
Panic swells. What happens now? Am I going to kill someone?
The image comes fast and cruelly. Imani’s face. Her laughter. Her warm hands pressed against mine while I was weak. What if the next time she touches me, I lunge instead of smile?
And what about Kai too? His sarcasm, his banter, the way he sat in the corner of the room trying to act unaffected.
What if my teeth find him before my mind stops me?
I press both palms against my eyes, but the vision of them lingers.
My body feels charged, restless, as though the energy under my skin could split me apart.
Okay. Calm down. Breathe. It’s just your emotions.
They’re heightened. The room spins with every detail, every sound.
I can hear the faint drip of a faucet somewhere down the hall.
The shift of fabric as someone leans against the couch in the living room.
Even the whisper of pages turning from a book too far away to see.
The world has grown too loud, and I don’t know how to silence it.
I curl against the pillow, pressing my face into the fabric, as though hiding can dull the storm.
But nothing dulls. Nothing softens. I have crossed into something new, something strange.
And there is no turning back. I’m not sure I have the strength to face my friends, knowing that I too am a monster among them.
I’m a vampire now, whether I like it or not, but that doesn’t mean this is what I wanted my life to look like.