Page 18 of Bleeding Love

“What are you?” he gasped, taking a step back. “What kind of monster are you?”

I didn’t bother with a reply and lunged for him.

He screamed when I sunk my nails into his chest, digging in until my fingers were wrapped around his heart. Before he could start pleading for his life, I yanked it out. He dropped to the floor like a lifeless doll, face still twisted in terror.

I looked around in search of my father, only to notice he was no longer there. The door to the backyard stood wide open, and I could hear a pair of feet running away. Then there was a thud and grunt before something heavy fell to the ground.

I took a step toward the door, eager to finish with my revenge, when a movement caught my eye. I turned toward Carilla to find her rising from the floor while holding one of the kitchen knives in her trembling hand. For a moment, I thought that she would call me a monster too or attack me, but she did neither. Instead, I watched her drive the knife through her own heart, relief flooding her gaze as she sagged by the wall and expired.

Quiet. It was so quiet now that I could no longer hear their screams, their words, their heartbeats. Calm. Peaceful.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

My head snapped in the direction of the noise and I stared as Eela’s body twitched.

She was alive. Despite everything they did to her, her heart was still beating.

I strode to her, my eyes locked on her back. Blood kept trickling down her shredded skin, calling to that hunger inside of me that was threatening to consume my world.

“You came back,” she whispered weakly, even though she couldn’t see me. I looked at the ropes holding her up, grabbing on each and snapping them with ease. She slumped forward, and I caught her right before she hit the floor.

Her blood smelled so delicious while it slipped through my fingers.

I turned her around so I could see her face and gasped in horror when I noticed that one of her eyes was gauged out. Despite her broken body, she managed a light smile.

“She always…said…” Eela rasped, fighting to make the words out. “That you…would save…us…one day…” Her eyelids fluttered, but she forced them open, meeting my gaze. A shudder passed through her body, but I wasn’t sure if it was from pain or fear. She didn’t look away. “Are they…dead?”

“All except my father,” I whispered, watching her lift her hand as if to touch my cheek. “He won’t escape. I won’t let him.”

Tears spilled from her remaining eye. She gave me a solemn nod as her hand fell onto her chest. Her heartbeat slowed, but she was still clinging to life as if she wasn’t ready to go.

“What…are you?”

“I…” My throat bobbed as I glanced at her throat. I couldn’t stop imagining sinking my teeth into it, tasting her blood, savoring it, quenching that maddening hunger. “A monster.” I finished, closing my eyes in an attempt to remove the temptation. My hearing sharpened, and I heard my father wail outside, his voice full of rage and horror.

“Good,” Eela said in a voice so quiet, I thought I imagined it. When I looked at her again, her eyes were closed, but her lips still moved. “You need a monster to kill a monster.”

I sucked in a breath, listening to her heart beat once, twice, before it stopped. I waited and waited, but it remained quiet. Her body slumped in my grip, lifeless but still warm. I set her gently on the ground, then strode toward the back door. The smell of blood and death was too strong inside, too tempting, and I had one more kill to make.

Red mud splashed around me as I marched toward the sounds of struggle. Just at the edge of the wood where our garden ended, I saw my father kneeling. Beside him stood the strange woman who had given me my power. She held my father’s thick neck in her delicate fingers, barely straining while he fought to break free from her.

“I figured you wanted to leave him for last.” She smiled sweetly before her delicate face twisted in a feral grin. Despite the bloodthirst in her red eyes, and the dark veins now standing stark beneath her pale skin, she was breathtaking. I had no idea who she was, or what she was, but she was everything. And most of all, she had given me that which I never had.

Power. Strength. Revenge.

“What in the devil’s name are you?” my father snarled, swinging toward her. She dodged almost without a thought, her nails digging into his skin until he stopped struggling. I moved slowly, unsteadily, as I approached them.

The woman pushed my father, and he landed in the mud, scrambling to his feet. His eyes darted between me and her, rage and fear battling on his face.

“Demons!” he hissed, making a cross as if that was going to protect him.

“See, that is a common misconception.” The woman sighed with exasperation, tapping her nails against her cheek. “Vampires are not actually demons. Demons are twisted souls that chose to serve Hell. Vampires are neither dead nor alive and we serve no one but ourselves. Also, we still have our souls. They’re just…a bit darker. Not as dark as yours, I suppose. I wouldn’t bite you to save my life, human.”

I barely heard her words. I was too focused on the man who had dominated my waking life and my nightmares, destroying little by little everything that was good and bright. The man who not only abused his family but others, too. The one who killed my mother.

“Do not drink from him, amor,” the woman warned, as if knowing exactly what was going through my head. “He will not taste good. Better go inside to feed. The women should still be delicious with all that fear in their blood.”

I didn’t listen to her. The hunger had become too great and the need to kill this man, this monster, was all I could think about.

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