Page 17 of Crimson Mourning

“Fuck. You’re pretty tough, you know that? Human healer my ass, I could use someone like you.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CASSIE

After rejecting Lawrence and his advances, I found myself at the forest line. Anything was better than staring that man in the face. How he could justify taking me and joining me to the elite in a moment of weakness was deplorable. I wanted Damon to do it not him. It should have been an intimate moment full of untamed passion, not a one-night stand. The more I twirled the thoughts around in my head, the more I realized how much was stolen from me. Lawrence was a thief.

Fuck him. If it’s the last thing I ever do, he’s going to pay for this.

I stopped in a clearing, and observed my surroundings. Becoming elite was so much more than I could imagine. Even in the dark of night, I could see better. Things were brighter than when I was human. The colors were almost iridescent compared to before. Smells were more pronounced. Sounds were more accurate and clearer. It was surreal. I even heard leaves rustling in the distance.

Wait. Don’t be a fool, Cassie.

My heart pounded in my chest as I tried to zero in on where the sound came from. For all I knew, Lawrence had come after me and was stalking my movements.

How could I have been so stupid? How could I have let this happen? I was smarter than this. I always said I would rather die than be without the man I love. Ironically, it came true. Vampirism was an uncured virus, but I was dead for all intents and purposes without the man who held my heart.

I was a mess, churning in thoughts and emotions. So much so, I’d forgotten about the leaves rustling. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the culprit. A doe had been passing through the woods, oblivious to my intrusion. I smelled her. I heard the blood rushing through its veins. I became hungry. Bloodlust was invading my body.

When I was human, I only dreamt of killing as a member of the elite. I romanticized it. Latching onto an innocent, pure, untouched person like I was, and feeling them squirm in my death grip as I sucked ever drop of flavor out of them would be incredible. But that was then. As a youngling, I was full of rage, fighting with the thoughts in my head and the need to feed. Fifty years? Being a youngling lasts for fifty years? No wonder young clan leaders aren’t allowed to vote on council affairs. From my dealings with Damon and his clan—my clan now— I knew tonight would be the most intense of nights for me and my emotions, and it would get easier to control in time, but the hunger was fierce, and the primal need to stay alive outweighed all the reasoning I had.

Is animal blood really poisonous to vampires?

Davon had ingested some under mysterious circumstances and went to his final death. Maybe he was just weak. I’m not.

“Please forgive me for what I am about to do,” I told the doe.

The doe turned and faced away from me like I wasn’t a threat. Maybe she’d faced vampires in the past, and they left heralone for fear of what animal blood would do to them. Cowards. I snuck up behind her and wrapped my arms around her neck as gently as I could to steady her. She didn’t fight, she didn’t run. I stroked her neck and body to put her at ease as tears streamed down my face. A beautiful moment would turn into debauchery.

Then the air changed. Things were different but I couldn’t place what it was. My skin began to tingle, I didn’t like it. I smacked the doe on the rump, and as it jumped away, I walked faster in the opposite direction. My nerve endings were burning with distrust.

Weaving my way through the woods, fighting with branches tangling in my hair and ripping my dress in places, and ruining a completely great pair of “fuck me” pumps, I made it to the neighborhood clearing. As a human, I always marveled at how animals were able to navigate and find their way home, no matter where they were. Now, I understood how. I began to smell the air, and found the direction of where my home was. Whereourhome was.

I walked the perimeter and followed it to my home. A bustling neighborhood, everything was quieter than normal. Vamps love the night, yet there were no signs of life. No children playing outside, no late-night barbeques being held.

No laughter.

The silence was palpable.

I made it back to my yard and noticed the grass had been flattened in patches. Damon was as powerful a vampire as there was. He had enemies. Everywhere. For him not to find me and for me to find evidence of some intrusion of some kind, was disconcerting to say the least.

I jogged the rest of the way through the back yard. I knew the back-patio doors would be locked this time of night, so I went to the front. Damon’s car—the one Lawrence snatched me from— was gone, leaving behind a sea of glass with two dead bodies floating in the middle.

“What the fuck?” I said out loud into the darkness.

I eased my way through the glass to the first dead body. Damon was unnaturally tough, and he had the ability to self-heal minor wounds at an accelerated rate compared to a human, but severe wounds required feeding. He had to feed from a live human within a few hours of taking damage. This body’s head had been smashed in. It doesn’t get more severe than this.

My stomach rolled and my chest grew heavy. If Lawrence wasn’t lying to me and was correct, then one of these bodies laid out in front of my house was my husband. I shut my eyes and drew in a large, deep breath and let it out in a long pulse. If one of these men were Damon, I would break.

My foot trembled as I stuck it out and placed it on the cold shoulder of the deadman to move him from his side to his back. I needed confirmation. My heart leapt in my chest when the half-smashed face was not one I’d woken to for the last ten years. I exhaled and gathered myself. Time to repeat the process with the remaining figure.

The head had been removed and as I passed by the decomposing torso, I searched everywhere. I bit my lip in part to keep from calling out the name of my husband, and to maintain the element of surprise in case there was others in the vicinity waiting to spring out from the shadows and do harm.

The head was nearby, and appeared to have been discarded with disdain. I circled around to see the face as it laid on its ear and exhaled again when I didn’t recognize the owner.

I knew it,I mouthed.Lawrence lied after all.

But if Damon wasn’t among these in final death, then where was he? His car was missing, even though it was clearly damaged. Had he gone out to search for me after all?

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