Chapter One #2
Glancing at Gracie, I grab her arm and pull her to the side, whispering in her ear so he cannot hear us. “Okay I change my mind. I have a bad feeling about him. I do not know why, but I do.”
“Solene, you always have bad feelings,” she hisses. “You are overreacting, he is totally fine and totally hot. I am not about to just walk away from him. I mean have you seen the guy?”
“The guy you have known for two seconds? Yes, I can see him perfectly fine actually. Now let’s go.” I grab Gracie’s arm again and attempt to pull her away from him.
“The Uber is outside,” Tommy says, as he walks toward the exit.
Gracie slips out of my grasp and immediately starts to follow him.
“Gray, please!”
I run after her, grabbing her hand as we walk outside. My instincts are screaming at me that something is not right.
I try to pull her to a stop, but she won’t give. She is staring in front of us, her gaze unrelenting, almost like she is in a trance.
Tommy takes us on a distinct left turn into a dark alley.
“The Uber is on the next street up. Sorry, I gave him the wrong address,” he says, shrugging casually.
Rather aggressively, I grab Gracie’s arm and loop mine around it so I have a better grasp on her. Over my dead body will this bitch be going home with him.
“Gracie, look at me right now. What is going on with you? You never act like this.”
I move to turn us around and slam straight into a chest that might as well have been part of the building wall itself. Extending my neck up, I see another handsome man, grinning down at me.
This one is as pale as the moon, with brown hair falling down to his shoulders and covering his eyes. The hair on the back of my neck stands straight up as he gives me a look a predator gives its prey.
My eyes widen and I glance to the side.
There is another problem. Gracie is not on my arm anymore and I do not know when she let go.
I start backing up slowly, not wanting to turn my back to the man in front of me. “Gracie,” I shout, “I think we really need to go, like right now.”
The response I get from her is a scream.
Without thinking twice, I turn my back and run straight toward her. She is backed up against the wall with Tommy pinned in front of her. My eyes fall to him.
His mouth is on her neck, but he is not kissing her.
Gracie looks at me, her wild eyes filled with panic. “Solene, run now, please.”
My body floods with panic of my own, freezing me in place as fight or flight fails me on both ends. Before I can make a decision, rough hands grab around my arms, holding me in place against a firm chest.
Tommy looks up from Gracie’s neck and smiles at me, his canines too pointed to be natural. Blood starts to dribble down his chin, falling onto his collared shirt. I look up in horror, meeting his eyes. His irises are the same color as Gracie’s blood.
Tommy turns, placing his hands on either side of Gracie’s head.
It happens so fast, that I almost miss it. The moment he turns her head.
Turning it just enough for me to hear a crack that starts ringing endlessly inside of my own head.
My vision blurs around the edges as I watch my best friend’s lifeless body, fall to the ground. My hand comes to my chest, resting against my heart because I am sure that it is going to completely stop beating. A choked noise works its way up my throat as numbness settles throughout my body.
I do not know how long the man grasping my arms has had his own mouth on my neck. I cannot feel the pain.
I go to open my mouth to scream for help but nothing comes out. Surely someone heard the earlier screams.
Did I even scream before?
Someone will see this and they will come and help.
I look down at Gracie’s lifeless eyes staring up at the sky. I am not even sure if I want someone to help me.
I have lost everyone in my life and a world without her is a world not worth living in. So there is no fight left in me to get whatever this thing is off me.
The pressure on my neck eventually releases. Not being able to hold myself up any longer, I fall to the ground, landing on my hands and knees.
I slowly crawl toward Gracie. If I could just reach my hand a little further, I could touch my fingertips with hers. My vision starts to go in and out and I fall onto my side.
The sound of footsteps approaching and the start of muffled conversation takes over.
“I leave you two for one hour and you go about killing people. I have a no kill contract here you no good, worthless, idiots!” a man yells.
“Forgive us, sire. We have not had a fresh human source in centuries.”
“If you cannot control yourselves, then you do not need to be by my side any longer. You are putting me at risk.”
I just barely see the shadow of someone over top of me, looking down. A boot presses against my back, nudging me forward.
“This one is still alive. Turn her and take her back to the Etherealm.”
“But si—”
A choking sound cuts through the conversation.
“You do not get to question me or my intentions. You two want to make a mess, so now I will clean it up. Turn her and take her back.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Dispose of the other body and make sure no one saw this. You two are to be released from my side once we get back and I will decide then what to do with you.”
Each word jumbles in my head as the conversation dies off. I know I am dying off along with it.
I shut my eyes to welcome death with open arms.
Then, a sharp pain starts to gather in my wrist.
Red hot fire works its way up my arm and courses through every vein. It starts from the inside as it spreads. An everlasting pain so terrible, that I wish for nothing more than to be put out of my misery.
I flip over, my back starting to arch off the floor as I feel it spread to the outside of my body. I keep my eyes closed in fear that If I open them, I will see that I am covered in flames.
I start screaming. Noise finally coming out, but it does not sound like me.
Then, the world goes black.