Page 16 of To Kill a Vampire
President Docile’s eyes flutter open, sending a shock wave of silence through the room. Gleaming red eyes sift over us all, waiting for an accusation to be thrown her way.
The president of the mortals is a vampire.
Eight
An Abomination
Fallon
She’s beautiful. The most beautiful abomination I’ve ever seen.
Striking features captivate my attention. Full lips meet the sharp angles of her face. The appearance of soft and hard toys with her beauty.
The way my father holds her hand to his chest is more of a surprise to me. As I look at them, it takes all of my effort to swallow down the irrational resentment and pain the simple sight of them brings me.
I could feel her unnaturalness the moment she entered the room. It clouded my senses. It called out to me, and the silence in her was the final confirmation. There was no beating in her, or will to live, or excitement, or lust, or … happiness.
Somehow she must have tricked the mortals here. Captivated them. Or maybe they just trust her. How else could she gain their approval as their president?
I can’t bring myself to meet Ayden’s eyes. I won’t allow myself to see the look of disgust I know coats his features now that he sees me for what I am. Part of me wants to hide from him for just a little longer. I can’t hide forever. And I certainly won’t hide from the vampire
A sway fills my hips as I cross the room, stepping over a few crumpled chairs that lay in my path. My boots quietly echo against the tile as I make my way closer to the frail mystic lying on the ground. Her weakness seems to fuel me, sending a new found courage spiraling through my veins.
When I’m only a foot from her, I squat, my cloak falling around me like a dark puddle and touching the hem of her pretty dress. Her eyes burn into mine. My father sits obediently at her side, but I refuse to look at him.
“Why are they – why am I an abomination and you are not?”
Her lips purse before she finally speaks. “I am. We both are. But I would have gladly died knowing I was the last of my kind. Now they’ll start again; breeding unnatural offspring into our world like a virus.”
I clamp my jaw tightly closed at the description she paints of the hybrids. My glare burns into her porcelain skin, narrowing my sight on her features. She’s beautiful, and she knows she’s beautiful. Her power might rest in her image alone. Her power doesn’t work on me. I don’t envy her, or pity her, or even like her.
“Make the announcement by the end of the week. If nothing has been set into motion by that time, I will return.” I rest my elbows casually on my knees, a coldness creeping into my voice. “With friends.”
* * *
Without a word to anyone, I walk straight to my cabin, allowing the blackness to settle in around me. The door lays at an awkward angle against the frame, almost closed but not quite.
We made it back just minutes before the burning sunrise. The air grew humid, warming me intensely. Anxiety spiraled into me at the thought of the simple and consistent nature of the world. It rose right on time as it always does. Something I took for granted day in and day out now threatens my meager existence. I’m powerful, and yet I’ll never be stronger than Mother Nature.
A loud and disrupting knock rattles across the haphazardly propped up door.
For an almost-hopeful instant I wonder if it’s Asher, but the simple carelessness of the knock tells me it isn’t. The scent of the visitor is the second thing that lashes out at me.
“Fallon, can I come in?” Ayden’s hesitant but urgent voice flings through the small room.
“No.” The reply leaves my lips too quickly as I hold my breath, my nails biting into my palms as his smell lingers against my skin, begging me to come closer. I swallow hard, my eyes closing as images flash through my mind of my teeth sinking into him, his blood leaving his body to strengthen mine.
“Thank you, Ayden, but you should leave.” I back away from the dangerously small space that separates us until my legs hit the edge of the tiny bed. “Now.”
“I—I want to help you.”
“Ha!” The laughter crackles through my chest before I can stop it. “You can’t,” I say in a painful whisper, my voice teetering with emotion as the small smile slips from my lips.
He clears his throat, the sound of his boots shifting against the wooden floor is all I hear for a moment.
“Then I want to help us. I want to help the mortals. I’ll—I’ll talk further with Asher, but I wanted to tell you I can’t sit back and wait. I want to help.” A quietness seeps through the room for just a few beating seconds. “You’ll always have me, Fallon. We’ll always be friends.”
My chest aches, either from lack of air or from his words, I’m not sure. Our childhood together slashes through my mind. It feels like just yesterday, but the distance between now and then is too far. We’re too far apart now. And yet, he isn’t leaving, he’s ignoring everything he was raised to believe for me. Too bad he’s too late to save the mortal girl he remembers in his mind.
