Page 120 of Heathens

Click. Click. Click.

His snakeskin boots, still shiny, glisten in the light with each step he takes. I don’t think I have the courage to lift my head and meet my own grisly end, whatever form it takes.

I should have let Dominic kill me.

Begged for it.

Rene’s boot heel squeaks against the floor, and suddenly he’s crouched in front of me, his mouth bloodied and his eyes like wildfire, violent and scorching. Where I find a dangerous beauty in Dominic’s feral side, Rene is only monstrous. His elongated fangs are yellowed with age, and his tongue thick with saliva darts out like a serpent, tasting the blood in the air. He’s surely ready to feast tonight.

“Look at you, trying to be the hero,” he hums, brushing the sticky hair away from my face.

I don’t think there’s an inch of my skin that’s not covered in blood.

“You’re mine, Sofie.”

I snarl and hiss reflexively, nearly gagging on my own words.

“Go to hell.”

He grins.

“Ah, so the heroine finally speaks! Not much bite left in you, though.” He leans in closer. “That’s okay, pet, I like my toys obedient. If you stay nice and quiet, I might not have to sew your mouth shut.”

Tears roll down my face as a lifetime of torture flashes before my eyes, Rene’s weight on top of me, taking whatever he wants. I mean nothing to him, not really. He’ll use me to make his formula and keep me like a prize, locked away. I can’t do it again. I’ll die before that happens.

The only power I have left is to end this new life before it’s even started. My arm juts out for the gun, but Rene snatches it first. He must think I’m still trying to kill him, wants to show me how weak I really am. I let out a shriek ‌as he crushes the gun into my hand with his own, snapping my fingers as he forces me to press the barrel under his chin.

“Do it,” he urges. “You didn’t have the guts at the bar, and you won’t do it here. You’re a coward, just like your little boyfriend. Do you see him, Sofie? Dying on the floor? First you’re going to watch, and then you’re going to wish you were as lucky as him.”

A happy sigh escapes his lips as I struggle against his incredible strength.

“I think I’ll mount his skull in your bedroom, so that you can look at him every time I fuck you.”

Rage begins to overtake my fear, building up in my chest, hot and volcanic. I won’t end up like that, fading into nothingness as he keeps me like a toy, only taken out of my box when I’m useful.

From across the room, I see Dominic inching his way forward, dragging himself with one arm. Agony clouds his expression and veins pop out of the side of his neck as his exhausted body strains with effort. Rene glances over his shoulder and a dark chuckle ripples through the air, equally noxious and nauseating.

He turns back to me, his expression sick and twisted.

“Just look at him. It would be cute if it wasn’t so pathetic.”

I strain against his hand, trying to get any sort of real grip on the gun.

“Rene you fucking worm, I’m gonna–”

“You’re not going to do a damn thing,” he rasps, crushing the bones in my wrist beneath his grip as I let out a piercing scream. “You’re all talk, all you humans are. You don’t know what it means to have power, because you wasted every last bit of it you had. It’s why we’re here, now, just like this. All that’s left of your kind are going tobowto me.”

“I’m a fucking vampire, you pig.”

He grins, studying me with soulless eyes.

“That’s where you’re wrong, pet. You might have some of our strength in your veins, but have toearnthat title. If you can’t even bring yourself to kill me, how are you ever going to feed on another living being?“ He leans forward and spits in my face. “You’re too pathetic to save yourself, let alone anyone else. Hell, a little birdie told me you couldn’t even save yoursonwhen he needed you the most.”

Suddenly, as my rage reaches a fever-pitch. I find the strength — my new strength, Charlie’s strength — and I howl, the broken bones in my hand knitting together just enough for me to jam down on the trigger.

And in all of his arrogance, as he stares at me in his twisted, grinning, fucked up self-obsession, he doesn’t even think to move aside.

Rene’s head explodes like a water balloon hitting a wall. Blood, brains, and pieces of his skull rain down on me, smacking against the floor. His body collapses, its weight threatening to crush me, and I wriggle out from beneath him as blood drenches my clothes. It’s everywhere, down my arms, smeared on my chest and already pooling beneath me.

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