24. Hell-o-Hallucinations #2
"Aleiraah!" I shout again, hands shaking as I strain to hear a response—any sound. It’s awfully quiet all of a sudden.
I can't even scent her, my wolf senses impaired.
Undeterred, I keep running in the same direction until I find myself in a clearing within the forest. But my heart slams painfully against my ribs when I notice someone crouching several feet away.
Something wrapped in white lies before them.
In the faint moonlight, I can hardly see anything. Carefully, I draw closer to the crouched form, and that's when the scent of coppery blood hits me.
When I'm about a few feet away, I notice the spill of red hair, as the clouds suddenly part in the sky, no longer obscuring the moon.
Horror strikes me afresh as I take in the body dressed in white—her chest and throat torn open by savage claw marks. Crimson blood flows from deep gashes, pooling on the ground.
The creature crouching makes chewing noises, matted fur covering its body.
I stumble back a step, and suddenly it stills, as a twig snaps under my feet.
It slowly rises, towering over me, and I realize too late from the pointed furry ears and the build, that it's a werewolf. Possibly the one I heard howling.
The werewolf turns, claws dripping blood, and shock slams into me at the sight of familiar blue eyes, only they are milky, tainted with madness. My heart stutters.
"Belle?" I whisper, pain crippling my body.
My stomach churns as my deceased true mate takes a step toward me, her snout covered in blood and gore.
My gaze flicks to the body on the ground, as if drawn by some unseen force. The head’s tilted in my direction—likely knocked askew when the werewolf rose.
Only, I feel myself going rigid with shock as an unimaginable agony shatters me.
It's Aleiraah's lifeless eyes in death staring at me unseeingly...
"Aleiraaaaaaaah!" I sprint toward my dead mate––desperate to reach her––as the werewolf-Belle lunges at me, teeth bared.
Just before her claws can pierce my skin, everything turns black.
I jerk awake, my throat hoarse from screaming Aleiraah's name. I rake my blunt fingers on my chest, trying to dig out my own heart, the ache unbearable. I choke on nothing as loud sobs wrack my body.
Was that really Aleiraah? How did Belle turn into a werewolf? Moon goddess, please let Aleiraah be alive! Please let it be a dream!
I dig my fingers into the cool sand, shaking my head to clear the nightmare. A bright moon hangs in the sky. It's not the same crescent moon though. And palm trees surround me, not the towering red ones. I'm still in the desert.
It was a nightmare, right? It has to be. Belle is dead. I have to reach Aleiraah!
I scramble unsteadily to my feet, and the ground below starts to tremble.
Rhazien
The heavy wooden doors with the large lion's head brass knocker beckons me.
This must be a dream.
It's the place from my nightmares. I had been trapped, chained in the dungeons below this manor for ages.
I was an orphan living near the border of Mytherra, when my sire, a rabid vampire, snatched me from the streets.
He hid his rabidness well enough in vampire society. Kept me as a blood slave. At his mercy. Unclothed, fed the bare minimum.
Then one day he turned me against my will. Shoving his rancid blood down my throat when he'd almost sucked me dry. I was too weak to protest, at death's door.
When I woke up, I realized I'd become the thing I hated most. A full blooded vampire.
Back then I didn't know that my sire was a twisted one, mateless, untethered. The bloodlust had turned him into a crazed monster. It happens to some vampires who've lived too long on their own.
As expected, the torture didn't end once I had been turned. He thought he had done me a favor by bestowing the gift of eternal life.
But he didn't think so when I ripped out his throat and severed his head. Effectively killing him, while he was drunk on blood mixed with moonshine. A dangerous combination.
I lift the brass knocker, about to enter my personal hell when the door swings open automatically.
Stale air envelops me once I step inside. It's too quiet, with no one in sight. When I lived here, as a vampire on a leash, several servants cowered under my sire's wrath at any given time. Now the foyer stands empty.
I tell myself that this isn't real, but faint tremors roll over my body.
The memories of abuse from all those years ago sit like a boulder in my gut, growing with each step.
So I focus on the only thought that matters––must find Aleiraah.
I climb the marble staircase that leads to the numerous hallways in the upper wing.
The mansion is huge with several living quarters.
I stalk around the connected corridors but there's no sign of life.
But just as I'm about to return downstairs, I hear a faint noise. Something heavy tumbling to the floor and…muffled sounds. I follow the sounds that lead me to a heavy wooden door.
My palms are sweating profusely and I brace myself for whatever’s beyond it. But a choking noise from the other side spurs me into action. I don't think, just act, pushing it open.
The sight that greets me stops me cold, breath whooshing out, terror seizing my muscles.
My sire's blond head is bent over Aleiraah's throat as he drinks her blood in deep gulps. She lies pale and unmoving on his lap––eyes lifelessly staring at the ceiling.
An inhuman wail escapes me and I rush forward blinded by rage and loss. Grabbing hold of his blond hair I yank his head up. Only to stagger and fall back, shock rendering me immobile.
Staring at me is not my sire's face but my own, mouth dripping with rich crimson blood. My Aleiraah's blood. I have killed my own mate!
NO!
I'm jolted awake by something, a scream trapped within my chest. My breath saws out of my chest. Sweat runs down my face.
FUCK! What the fuck was that?
That's when the oasis around me starts quaking, as the palm trees fall apart.