ALEXANDER

Alexander could no longer bear the wails that came from Andrew’s cell. He spent a week, locked up in his office, waiting for that young man to break through the descent. No matter how long he waited for Tanya to burst into his office and tell him the good news, that moment never came. He was beginning to lose hope. If Andrew could not beat the thirst a second time, he would need to be put down. And, if Alexander was forced to kill another person he liked and respected, he may as well take his own life also. What is the point of an existence where I have to be the weapon that slaughters those close to me?

His throat scratched as his thirst awakened. Once again, he had forgotten to maintain his regular feeding schedule. He could not afford to lose his mind, not when so much was at stake.

He called one of his donors to come to the warehouse as he sat back in his office chair and stared at the high ceiling. When his world slowly came undone, who was he to turn to? His sire was too busy taking care of the Russian Council, his siblings were scattered all across the globe, and he had to remain as a rock to his sole childe who was suffering in silence. It shredded his heart to know that he could do nothing, say nothing that would alleviate her or Andrew’s torment.

Is it all the bad things I’ve done in my life? The lives I took or the people whose feelings I have hurt? Perhaps this was a way for karma to catch up to him. Bound and trapped in an eternity, he would be forced to see those close to him suffer for his mistakes.

“Alexander?” Tanya’s soft voice came from the doorway.

He lifted his head, seeing her red eyes. She had been crying again. “How is he doing?”

“The same. I think the fact he has not fed in a week is starting to wear him down. At least, he stopped biting his arms and drinking his own blood.”

Alexander grimaced at the image his mind conjured because of her words. “I could not reach Lucious no matter the number of messages I’ve left the Council or on his number. The informants in London are no longer answering my calls, either. I feel that I should go there and find out what is going on, but I cannot bring myself to leave you and Andrew alone.”

“What if something happened to the Council?”

“Then someone else will claim the seats of power. The only thing that soothes my worry is the knowledge that there has been no announcement of death of the Council members. Maybe, in this silence, there is good news.”

Tanya crossed her arms. “You don’t believe a word you’ve just said.”

“I was trying to reduce your anxiety.”

She produced a bitter laugh. “I am worried about Lucious, too. The responsibility he was forced to shoulder after so much loss was immense. I just hope he is doing well.”

“We both know that is not the case,” Alexander replied. “So, tell me, why are you here? I thought you would want some time away from this place instead of coming to see me.”

“Alexander,” she began, inching closer to his desk. “I couldn’t stay downstairs anymore, so I checked the location of Abigail’s phone like you’ve asked me to do last week and…”

“And?” He leant in.

“I made sure to check this information three times, in case something was wrong with the software. It led to the same conclusion every time. Russian Roulette was the nearest place to the cell tower where her mobile phone last pinged.”

His brows drew together. “Why would she go there?”

“I don’t know. Have you gotten any calls from her?”

He groaned as his hand slapped his forehead. “My phone died, and I forgot to send her the new number. Could you get someone to forward all the messages to my new phone?”

“Will do.” She bobbed her head, taking her phone out of her pocket.

“Tanya, locate Glen Wilson as well. Find out if they’re together.”

“Yes, sire.”

Alexander got up from his seat once she hurried out of his office. He paced the length of the room. His thoughts were busy piecing the puzzle together. Could something have happened to Abigail while he was busy solving other issues? He stilled as a horrifying thought grasped at the edges of his psyche. What if the hunters found her?

“Tanya!” he shouted, storming to the door.

She burst into the room, her blue eyes honed in on him. “What is it?”

“Make it your priority to locate Abigail. I think she may be in danger.”

“What kind of danger?”

“The hunters are still after her.”

She bobbed her head. “I won’t waste another second then.”

ABIGAIL

Abigail was lightheaded after possibly the best make-out session with Glen she could ever dream of. Every part of her tingled as if she had been to heaven and back. Her limbs felt heavy and her mind sluggishly worked on producing one thought at a time.

Glen tore off the ropes restraining him and knelt in front of her.  Cupping her flushed cheeks, he whispered, “Are you okay?”

“How?”

A smile stretched his handsome features, and he began undoing her restraints. “How what?”

“How can you kiss like that? I don’t think that’s legal.”

“It is very addicting to mortals, which is why I try to avoid feeding on the same person more than once.”

Her hands got free. She started untangling from the web of ropes around her middle as he worked on freeing her legs. “I only slightly regret not saying yes to you on that day when Alexander came to our workplace.”

“Oh?” He lifted his gaze to meet hers. “But?”

“But he is still sitting in here.” She pointed to her heart. “I just can’t get rid of him. He’s like a squatter. A heart squatter!”

“I forgot to mention that the effects of my feeding on you may include intoxication,” he said, helping her stand.

She swayed on the spot, clinging to his blood-stained green jumper. Her eyes grew wider when she noticed a hole in the material right above his liver. “Did that crazy bitch do that?”

“I’m fine.” He lifted the hem of his jumper to reveal extraordinary, toned abdomen. If God was mortal, and he had abs, she could die happy rubbing her face on his washboard stomach. “Can I touch that?”

Glen took her hand. “Maybe another time.” He guided her to the wall, next to the door, and pressed her back to it. “Stay quiet no matter what you see.”

She nodded, covering her mouth with both of her hands in preparation. A faint giggle escaped her. This reminded her of a children’s game of hide and seek.

“Okay.” He spared her one last glance and banged on the door, shouting, “Let me out of here!”

After a few seconds, the lock turned and two men rushed in. Glen caught one of their weapons, pointing it downwards as a few rounds shot at the wooden flooring, almost deafening her. He punched one of the hunters in the face. She heard a crunch of cartilage and bone breaking before the man collapsed where he stood.

The second man he struggled with over the weapon. Glen, eventually, rescued it from the hunter’s grip and caught the man by the head, kissing him.

Abigail’s jaw nearly touched the creaky floor. As the man’s face shrunk and his hands turned to bone, she wasn’t sure what she found more disturbing, Glen kissing a man out of the blue or the fact that the guy was visibly turning into a prune. Not that she had anything against gay people. It was just an odd thing to do to escape.

Glen released the body of the hunter when he stopped twitching and grasped Abigail’s hand. “Let’s go. The others were probably alerted.”

“But, you just…”

He picked up a pistol, giving it to her then grabbed the second gun for himself. “We can discuss what I did later.”

Her fingers tightened on the gun. It was heavier than she imagined and felt alien in her grasp. “How do I use this?”

“The safety is off. Just aim and pull the trigger.”

They ran down a small corridor towards a dirty window. He peeked out, cursing under his breath. “I was right. There is quite a number of them.”

“How many?”

“Maybe another six or seven. Possibly more.”

Her blood fled from her extremities, making her hands turn clammy and cold. “I don’t think I can shoot someone.”

“If you want to get out of here, be prepared for anything. Most of all, be prepared to trust me with your life.”

“I trusted you so far, didn’t I?”

He shook his head and gave her hand a squeeze. “Let’s run!”

The place was like a giant maze of empty rooms and dead-ends. Every time she thought they were getting close to the exit, he would pull her back, pushing her against the brick wall of the compound. Her legs were trembling from the fear of what would happen if they got caught. What if, instead of Dublin, they were on some uninhabited island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? She should have spent more time watching survival shows where they ate bugs and wiped their bums with leaves.

“Wait here,” he whispered, bringing her back to her awful reality.

She caught his sleeve. “What? Why?”

“I can hear someone in the room up ahead. I need to take care of them before we can move forward.”

“What if someone comes?”

He patted her on the head. “Stay here and count to sixty. I will try to get back by then.”

Without delay, he left her sight, and she internally counted to sixty, seventy, one hundred and twenty. When he didn’t return after three minutes, she stuck her head around the corner. No one was coming. Clutching the gun close to her thigh, Abigail snuck into the room he said he was going to be in. Her words failed her again when she saw three mummified bodies on the ground and Glen sucking the life out of another woman. But, that wasn’t what surprised her the most. His hands had turned into black claws and the whites in his eyes became inky blackness.

“Glen?” she whispered his name, worried that if she was any louder, someone else would hear her.

He didn’t react and kept clinging to the woman that rapidly withered away in his arms.

She took a cautious step forward. Her hand nudged his shoulder, and he glanced up, at last.

“I did not want you to see me in such a state,” he said in a voice that was much deeper than earlier.

“What happened to you?”

“The more life energy we consume, the less human we appear. Our demonic side breaks through.”

She tried not to look at his eyes for long as she thought they may consume her soul if she wasn’t careful enough. “We need to get out of here. You can have a vanity check later.”

He dropped the woman’s body on the floor and took hold of Abigail’s hand. His sharp claws cut into her skin, so she jerked her bleeding hand out of his hold.

“I’m sorry, I—” he began.

“No need for apologies. Let’s go,” she muttered, wiping the blood on her jeans.

He inclined his head in agreement. When they left the room, something rolled on the ground in front of them. Gas started to rise from the small round can, and Glen wrapped his hands around her as he pushed her back to the windows.

She managed to peek over her shoulder. They were on the third floor of some abandoned business property in the middle of nowhere. He wasn’t seriously considering what she thought he was thinking.

“Please trust me,” he spoke into her ear.

“I don’t think we can survive the fall without breaking some bones, Glen.”

Black veins spread from his eyes throughout his face and down his neck. His teeth turned sharp and needle-like, and she heard his jumper tearing as a pair of black bat-like wings spread out behind him.

“You’ve got freaking wings?”

“For now, yes. I’ve overfed,” he replied and the wind gathered by his wings shattered all of the windowpanes in the room. He captured her around the waist and jumped out of the window.

Abigail screamed like a kid on a rollercoaster as he tried to find balance in the air.

Not long after they created some distance between themselves and their temporary prison, bullets from the same room followed them. Two of them wheezed by close enough that if she had her head an inch or two to the right, she would have been dead long before she could say incubus.

“Damn,” Glen grout out and nearly dropped her when his body jerked. “I got hit.”

They started to fall. She squeezed her eyes shut as the ground got closer and closer. They landed in a small wheat field with not a single tree or shrub they could use for cover from those maniacs that were most likely coming after them.

She ran her hands over her limbs, making sure all of her body parts were still there. “I’m okay. I’m intact. Glen?” Taking a look at him, she noticed that one of his wings was torn, and he had his eyes closed. “Glen! You can’t take a nap here.”

He groaned, attempting to sit up. “It’s a good thing I brought an alarm clock with me then.”

“It’s not the time for sarcasm,” she grumbled, draping his arm over her shoulders. “We have got to get out of here.”

“You would be better off leaving me.” He winced and held on to his ribs. “You will be able to get away.”

“Oh, stop being such a hero and move your arse.”

He smiled with those pointed teeth that unsettled her. “Thank you, Abigail.”

“For what?”

“For accepting my ascended form and not running away screaming.”

She rolled her eyes. “Get over yourself. The only thing that changed is the exterior, right?”

“Yes.”

They didn’t bother wasting any more energy on talking after that. Abigail’s full focus was on trying to get them to safety, wherever that was. By the time they crossed the field and were near a main road, she could hear multiple diesel cars coming their way. She couldn’t risk losing him nor did she want to be trapped in the same room with Laura. So, she did the only thing she could think of. She kissed Glen.

He pushed her away, shouting, “Abigail, what are you doing?”

“You’re healing isn’t fast enough. If you feed, it will help you.”

“It would, but it’s too dangerous for you. I’ve already fed on your life force.”

“I trust you. Take as much as you need.”

His expression turned serious. “Are you sure?”

“Go for it.”

Their lips clashed and warmth consumed her. This time, it was like a tidal wave. She slowly lost all ability to move as she felt her body burning up. The higher the fever climbed, the more she felt like she was fading into nothingness.