Chapter Thirteen
We were standing in an alley in downtown Eden. The town was as quiet as the first night of my life, when I had wandered into its depths. I stood bouncing on my toes as Oliver and Miles teased each other. It was intriguing to watch their antics, the constant jokes and random attacks. I could imagine them living their life just constantly trying to trip each other at the most inconvenient times.
"Alright," Miles announced, looking up at the sky. I followed his gaze curiously, wondering what it was they were planning. Miles abruptly crouched down, steadying himself before suddenly leaping from the ground with enough force that it appeared as though he were flying momentarily. I gasped, watching him with concern as he rose and then fell, landing gracefully on the edge of the adjacent building.
"You ready?" Oliver asked me. I lowered my gaze to him, not understanding what he meant. I couldn't jump more than a couple inches, much less on top of a rather tall building.
"What? No..." I answered him uncertainly.
"Good," He responded wickedly, having led me into another one of his traps. I abruptly turned to run, not particularly ready to die of another heart attack. Oliver slipped his arms around my waist and then we left the ground, leaving my stomach behind with it. I screamed in surprise, the cold wind rushing around me. My hair flew wildly around me as I watched the vision of the ground traveling further away from me.
Oliver landed next to Miles, beginning to release me. I immediately stumbled, nearly slipping off the edge of the building breathlessly. Oliver quickly caught me, steadying me with a laugh.
"Are you scared now, little devil?" He asked me teasingly. I scowled at him.
"Why do you even bother asking me if I'm ready?" I grumbled, but as my eyes scanned my surroundings I found myself dumbstruck. Laid out in front of us was a stretch of building after building, their rooftops rising and falling almost artistically. The snowfall in the night had transformed it into another world entirely.
"Now we run," Oliver told me. "And jump."
I blinked at him with a frown. "You mean jump building to building? I don't know..."
"It's one of our favorite games to play with scared little..." Miles hesitated at the look Oliver threw his direction. His dark eyes targeted me and he smirked sarcastically. "...Chicken fingers."
"You mean the people you hunt," I responded sharply, turning my eyes from him to Oliver. Their intentions weren't clear to me. Was this really for fun or were they mimicking all along? Was this a hunt and was I the prey? "Are you going to hurt me?"
The question seemed to strike a certain chord within him. Oliver widened his eyes momentarily, but Miles caught my attention swiftly. He gripped my upper arms firmly, smiling slowly at me.
"Run, Katia," He growled, the threat clear convincingly in his voice. For the first time, I felt a sliver of doubt. Theo's words and Jax's warning rang in my mind. When Miles released me, I hesitated. When it came down to it, I couldn't find it in myself to fear him or to fear Oliver. But they wanted me to run and so, if only to figure out what their aim was, I would.
I took a deep breath, turned, and began to run. My feet crunched against the roof of the building under me as I targeted the adjacent one. I wasn't aware of what type of stamina I had or what athletic abilities would be available to me. But I trusted Oliver and Miles. I trusted they would keep me from harm, even if that wasn't what they wanted me to do. I cared about them, despite their nature. No amount of pushing me away would change that.
I advanced to the edge of the roof, but I didn't look down. With my heart tearing through my chest, I was suddenly weightless. I hadn't even calculated the distance nor prepared myself for any type of proper jumping techniques or landing. I had jumped and then I closed my eyes.
Just as I began to truly fall, arms wrapped around my waist, lifting me impossibly high into the air. I spread my own arms, feeling the wind rush through my hair as the world disappeared around me. I was flying and it was beautiful.
When I felt gravity begin to pull us down just as quickly, I smiled and leaned forward to wrap my arms around Oliver's neck, pressing my face against his warm flesh pleasantly. A feeling of pure joy was aching within me. I knew I was right in trusting him, despite his crazy hobbies and risky situations.
We landed swiftly on the next building and when he released me, I continued to run. Miles was jumping ahead of me, glancing back curiously as I followed his lead. It was impossible. I was no vampire and I had no speed or agility like them. My skin glowed from their touch as they caught me, helping me weave through the air. And even though the whole idea felt silly and pointless, the risk left me exhilarated. I was having fun.
Miles stopped quickly on top of one particular building, freezing completely except to lift his head over the town in the distance. Oliver stopped only feet from him, still holding me in his grip.
"I see chicken fingers," Miles stated slowly, confusing me for a moment. But then I realized he was once again referring to humans. I was panting in exhaustion, but I stepped next to him until I could see across the town as well. Just a few blocks away, a couple stood against the wall of an abandoned building, their lips locked together passionately. I took a step back, heat rising to my cheeks.
"Hmmm, I could go for some," Oliver admitted thoughtfully, quite alert himself. "But what about Katia?"
"She's fine for you, but then I'd have to find someone else to hunt with. Can't hunt alone, Seb rule number one," Miles responded slyly before glancing at me, "Unless you're offering her up for sharing."
"I meant where to leave her," Oliver snapped with irritation. The couple shifted further against the wall and both Oliver and Miles seemed to move with them. It was like hypnosis. Their sights had been set on the prey and their fate was beginning to be clearly written in front of me. For some reason, this didn't set well with me.
"Are you going to hurt them?" I asked naively, my voice rising with concern.
"Nah, just kill them a little bit, is all." Miles responded absently. His features were so suddenly changed, wrapped in animalistic intensity and hunger. I felt my breath catch in my throat, causing me to take another step back.
"You can feed from me," I suggested weakly, remembering the man on the table as the vampires had torn into him. The same horror was beginning to tremble within me, but underneath it was the same desire; the desire to be the prey.
"Stay here, Katia," Oliver ordered, his voice transformed into a dark tone void of emotion. Before I could say another word, they lunged forward in quick progress. My heart paced dangerously fast in my chest, a cold heat taking over my body in sharp waves. I wanted to cry out and warn the couple, to tell them to run, but my senses were paralyzed with dread.
I took another step back as they closed in on the couple. I could smell smoke rising in my subconscious mind, like a memory of another terrible life. Miles reached them first, ripping the man from his lover viciously before swiping at his throat with his suddenly sharp claws. I could see the shock of blood from my position.
The woman's scream was high, twisting through the air and into me so horribly. More screams began to rise in my ears, echoing and tearing around me. The smoke was almost suffocating and I struggled to breathe. As Oliver tore into the woman's flesh, I could feel my own being violated, wet with blood and sweat. I stepped back further, the world beginning to warp around me.
As I took another step back, my feet found no ground. Suddenly, I was more than weightless. I was a rock, solid and falling with purpose into the abyss. Not even a breath of surprise left me, but still a power within me shone on my skin before bursting forth like an explosion. My power clawed at the building beside me as I tumbled towards the cement alley below, tearing at its foundation and pulling it down with me. Before I could save myself, the screams and the smoke rose dominatingly and swallowed my consciousness.
I was deafened by the screams. I was choking on flames. I was weeping blood and crying for release. A chant was singing behind it all, calling me forth, and summoning me from the ashes. I was alone, having died over and over again until I was the only one left. Still, my spirits were casting around me, gathering power and desperation that would last far beyond the afterlife.
A man stood over my form and lowered himself as I bled out on the floor. The fire was already engulfing the building around us. My mouth determinedly shaped those words; the last incantation. The man watched me, pleased. He leaned forward, his face clear through the smoke.
"I'm coming for you, Phoenix," Desmond said dementedly before viciously snuffing out my last remaining life.
~...~
I awoke screaming.
The pain of torn flesh and the agonizing screams were still a distant memory within me; quiet but aching. And behind it all was the last image of Desmond hovering over me. Only while I wasn't sure it was actually me on that floor, I was certain he was addressing me.
For a moment, I couldn't even recognize the presence of others around me. I could only feel the terror as if I were locked in a nightmare and no amount of screaming would allow me to escape.
When I felt the brush of bursting warmth, my heart leaped within my chest at the familiarity. I was suddenly clinging to a body, the heat of the sun replacing my pained memories on my skin. When the body tried to shift me away, I clung tighter, moving myself so that I was wrapped against it entirely and hopefully impossible to move.
"You've traumatized her, you fucking idiots," Theo's voice snarled most furiously. "You couldn't have fed at another time?" I remembered the screams of the couple before I had the vision of screams, fire, and Desmond in my head. I tightened my grip, my breath short and feeling nothing short of agonizing horror.
"Don't kill me. Don't kill me," I whimpered, seeing him leaning towards me again and again. I knew he would, he already had, but the fear felt so fresh.
"I thought... she'd seen it before, I thought..." Oliver was stumbling over his own words somewhere nearby.
"Shouldn't we be talking about the fact that she collapsed a whole building without a word?" Miles' voice snapped with irritation from the distance.
"Daaaarling," a voice called to me, vibrating within the body I had chosen to cling so tightly to. I felt a brush of lips over the temple of my head, causing a whimper of fear to shudder through me.
"Levi, stop fucking with her," Oliver ordered with despair.
"She's mine, now. I'll do as I wish," Levi stated simply, though he only began brushing his fingers over my cheek carefully. The stroke of his fingers over my skin, bringing the warmth that accompanied the beaming words on my flesh, began to soothe me. My breathing slowly stabilized, soft and easy rather than short and ragged.
"There you are, sweet Katia," He called softly, his lips once again brushing against my face. The addicting warmth spread under his path, leading his lips over my jawline up to my ear. He nipped at my earlobe, the surprising feel of his teeth making me jump in his arms. I tensed momentarily before relaxing once again, sighing contently.
"We should call Seb," Miles suggested.
"There's no need. She'll be okay now. Won't you, darling?" Levi's warmth was so comforting that it easily battled the fear within me. I opened my eyes slowly, as if I were being born all over again. I blinked in my surroundings, my sight caught on Levi's face so close to my own. His features were soft, comforting, but with a cold calculation behind his soothing mask. I gazed at him in wonder from his sun-colored hair to his night-colored eyes, feeling mesmerized.
"I can't recall the last time a lady looked at me like that, not without being bound," Levi mused quietly, brushing his fingertip over my nose teasingly. I closed my eyes momentarily at the touch and when I opened them again he was looking away to the others. I had been taken back to Oliver's room sometime after falling from the roof of that building. Theo, Miles, and Oliver were the only ones present. Considering my screams would have brought them around, something told me Jax and Sebastian must have been out.
"Seb will want to know," Miles argued once again, "If she can silent-cast a building down, what's to say she won't do the same to ours? Or something worse?" His words were silly to me. Even if I could destroy things at will, I wouldn't want to hurt him or any of the others. But my tongue was thick in my mouth, still tied by a slowly fading fear of the vision I held just below the surface of my mind.
"Then let him know, if it's that worrisome to you. For now, she's mine," Levi claimed firmly. He looped an arm under my legs and the other continued to hold me to him almost protectively. When he lifted me from our spot on the edge of the bed, I leaned my head against his shoulder trustingly.
"Where do you think you're going?" Oliver's voice was tense with restraint. I didn't want him to fight any of the others, especially over me. Hearing him so strung sent a shudder through me, my own muscles tensing in reaction. I had only heard him this stressed once before and the man who had disturbed Oliver had been the same one whose words haunted my thoughts.
I'm coming for you, Phoenix.
"You're upsetting her," was all Levi said in response. No one objected further and so I was carried from the room, leaving me only one last glance of their frozen forms as they watched me go.
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Music: Emperor's New Clothes by Panic! At The Disco
It reminds me of my vampires in this particular story. xD
And Brendon Urie makes an awesome demon.
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