Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
She took off, leaving us behind to follow something only she can smell.
Theo and I stand stunned at what just happened.
She fed off both of us. Something that I have never seen before.
Vampires didn’t feed off vampires. Not only did she feed off us, but she also marked us in the process.
Not that I wouldn’t want to be marked by her, I just didn’t think it would be under these circumstances.
“That’s because she isn’t just a vampire, Tobias, haven’t you noticed? There is something seriously wrong with her. Did you see her eyes, feel the darkness surrounding her?” Theo asks, wiping his neck.
“The worst part though, I think she liked it consuming her, like she was letting it,” he mumbles.
I move toward him, examining his neck that has already healed but left a black mark from where her teeth had sunk in. This is the first time I have seen markings that are tinged with darkness. Examining mine, it’s the same.
“We need to find her, come on,” I say, taking off running, shifting mid jump.
I can faintly smell her scent, Theo tears ahead of me, chasing after her.
I hate that I’m not as fast as him. But I now doubt he will be faster than her.
She is a newborn vampire on a warpath. Her senses in overdrive will fuel her like air to a fire, a raging inferno.
I just hope we can get to her before she does something reckless.
Killing Bianca won’t do anything but cause more trouble.
Our laws are not to be broken lightly. No matter the crimes, everything is meant to go before the courts first.
My father is paying for his wrongdoings now, for killing his own kind, for killing Alaric.
Imogen wouldn’t survive that torture. My father knew the consequences of doing what he did.
Imogen has no idea the torture they will put her through for killing Bianca.
I won’t let her pay that price. She has been through enough already without being subjected to such barbaric cruelty.
I’ve been running for what feels like ages when I finally hit the town.
Theo is nowhere to be seen, yet I could feel the bond pulling me toward the piers.
We’ve been here before, searching every part of this town already and are quite familiar with it.
Shifting back, I trudge through the backyard of the property I come out beside.
Praying a man lives here and not some old lady.
I need clothes or people might become curious about a random man walking around butt naked.
I cuss when I see the only thing on the clothesline appears to be women's clothes. I quickly grab the floral denim shorts off the line. They seem to look big enough and other than that there were only a few pieces of children’s clothing.
I quickly slipped them on, my balls being squished in the tight fabric.
I try to do the zip up, nearly howling when I zip the sensitive skin of my family jewels.
I don’t have time to be picky and instead readjust my large length down my leg and take off running toward the piers.
I look like a fool, but the things you do for those you love, right?
Coming to the piers, I see Imogen’s glowing figure at the end of the pier, her hands outstretched, I can feel her burning anger through the bond but also something else.
Fear. Feel Theo’s disbelief through the bond.
I run toward them, my feet creaking on the wooden pier, making Imogen and Theo turn to look back at me.
I never should have run onto that pier, my heart skipping when I see Bianca, our child in her arms. Noticing me running toward them, she uses their distraction to her advantage as she acts, hurling the blanketed bundle in the air before diving off the pier.
My voice echoing as I scream to them. Theo reacts just in time and catches our child before falling into the ocean.
I hear Imogen’s bloodcurdling scream as she looks on frantically into the black water raging below.
Bianca is long gone, as we wait for Theo to resurface.
Breathing only when we see him break through the water’s surface.
My heart is hammering in my chest so hard I think it’s going to burst. The sounds of crying are like music to my ears as Imogen collapses on the deck in relief.
Theo moves through the water swiftly before climbing the pier, the baby no longer inside the warmth of its blanket as he screams loudly.
I follow the pull which leads me to sand; I’m on a beach and I can see Bianca running with all her might before she darts onto one of the piers; she knows I’m chasing her.
I don’t know when she figured it out, but she s now running like her life depends on it and it does.
My heart stops as I see her run toward the end.
I skid to a stop as she holds her arm outstretched over the water.
My baby tucked in the confines of the blanket. I stop in my tracks.
“Give me my baby, Bianca,” I tell her. I meant to plead with her, yet my voice comes out as a growl threatening, not hiding my murderous intent.
“How the fuck are you alive?” she screams angrily.
“Bianca, you don’t want to hurt him, you don’t want to hurt your nephew,” I tell her hating even calling her any relation to my son.
She looks at him and I move closer, making her eyes dart to me as she moves closer to the edge.
Theo appears beside me, stopping when he sees what is in her hands.
I refuse to look at him, not able to take my eyes off my precious boy clutched in that vile woman’s arms.
“Perfect, he’s here,” she growls, glaring at Theo.
Theo tries to reason with her while I just want to kill the bitch, but I won’t risk endangering my son.
“Isn’t this great? Not only did you impregnate your mistress, now you’re going to help her kill me, Theo. I bet you're getting a real kick out of this, aye Immy?”
“Don’t call me that. I just want my son. You had no right to take him. He is mine,” I scream. She took a step back, her foot falling off as I get ready to jump in after her, but she steadies herself. My heart rate returns to normal when I see him still tucked in her arm.
“Now that was close,” she snickers enjoying the torture she is putting me through. I growl, taking a step forward.
“Ah ah ah. Not so close,” she says, angling him above the water again. Theo tries reasoning with her, but she won’t have it. She knows as soon as I get my son, I’m going to kill her. She isn’t stupid. The only reason she is alive right now is because she has my baby in her arms, and she knows that.
“Here comes the other one, look family reunion,” Bianca says sarcastically, making my eyes dart to what she is staring at behind us.
Tobias is running toward us before he screams, “No.” Theo’s eyes flicking to mine before both of us look at Bianca, who is gone.
Panic rushing through me when I see Theo dart forward, noticing something I don’t.
Our child in the air, heading directly into the raging water below.
His hand outstretches, gripping the cloth of the blanket he is wrapped tightly in.
I scream as I watch them both sink below the surface.
My heart feels like it’s going to stop when I hear Theo gasp and the sweet sounds of my son screaming his lungs out.
I drop to the ground, my legs giving out with my sudden relief.
He is alive and screaming. I never thought a baby cry would be the most melodious thing I’ve ever heard singing to my soul.
Theo climbs the pier, and I finally see the perfection that is my son.
Theo walks over to me, and I instantly rip off my shirt to wrap him in.
Theo places him in my arms. He is perfect and exactly what I envisioned in my dreams, dark onyx colored hair and dazzling emerald green eyes like Theo. He has my nose and lips, though.
“Hi baby,” I whisper staring down on him, tears spilling over and running down my cheeks as he continues to cry in my arms from the cold.
Peering up, Tobias and Theo are in awe gazing down at him.
Sniffing his little head, I breathe in his scent, when I jerk back, my gums tingling before protruding.
I try to shake off the feeling that is threatening to take over before standing.
I try to tell them, but Tobias holds out his arms for the baby and I’m relieved that I don’t have to explain.
Placing the baby in his arms, he instantly stops crying as Tobias’s warm skin heats him up, keeping him warm.
“We have a boy,” Tobias says, staring down on his cute little face.
“And what a boy,” Theo says. I chuckle slightly. Men always thinking the size of the package determines the man. I keep my distance, not really trusting my hunger around him right now. But he looks quite content in Tobias’s arms, gazing up at both his fathers.
Theo peers down at Tobias’s pants, making my eyes dart down, too. “What are you wearing?” he asks.
Tobias growls. I raise an eyebrow at his clothing choice.
“I don’t even want to know how you squeezed into those,” I tell him.
“Come on, we should head home,” Tobias says, staring at me. I can’t help but look out at the water, wondering where my sister went. Fear gnaws at me, wondering if she will come for him again. My anger resurfaces as I remember what she did. Theo touching my arm pulls me from my memories.
“We can deal with her later, for now let’s get home,” he says, kissing the side of my face. I reluctantly follow after them. The trip home is longer. We couldn’t run for too long with the baby or as fast.
Tobias and Theo abandoned their car not far from where I was actually living and we drive the rest of the way, well they do.
I ask Tobias to pull over halfway back as I can’t handle my son’s intoxicating scent filling the car.
This isn’t what I envisioned motherhood to be like.
I never thought my son would need protection from me.
I run thinking of everything on replay, my thoughts getting darker and darker before finding myself on the familiar porch of our home.
Walking around the back and sitting next to my mother’s roses, I wait for them to get home.
How my life has changed in a day, how I have learned many secrets I wish I never knew.
I can’t shake the feeling of the darkness.
I know with my death I had to pay the price; I’m unnatural, a witch’s hybrid, so what does that make my son?
I know as soon as I smelt him, he wasn’t just Tobias’s son but also Theo's DNA creating the perfect predator.
Will he be the same? I hope not because this darkness trying to swallow me is addictive and I don’t know how I feel about loving the sweet intoxicating slickness of it calling to me.
I don’t want this for him, don’t want this for myself.
But nothing can be done now. I am what I am.
I just hope it’s good and not evil like the shadows calling out to me.
If only my mother could see me now. What would she think of what I have become? I don’t get to ponder long before I see the headlights coming up the road and turning into the long driveway. Will they still want me when there is nothing left but darkness?