Diary of An Unnatural (BOOK #2)

On The Loose

            The cabin's floors and furniture were covered in dust. Everything was just as I'd left it. The chair pulled out from the table. A book opened to page one on the couch. Within minutes I realized there were more people than comfortable in the cabin's tiny amount of space.

            "This sounds like the beginning of a really bad joke," Angelina muttered. "Six vampires, one in transition, two humans, and a hunter trapped in a cabin until further notice. What could possibly go wrong?"

            "What are we supposed to do now?" Jane asked, hands on her hips.

            "We wait," William said. "Derek said he would come when it was time."

            I sat in one of the wooden chair at the kitchen table. I refused to breathe with the scent of human blood so close. I tried so hard to not make it noticeable. But William looked down at me, eyebrows pulled together with concern.

            "How long has it been since you've fed?" he asked me.

            I shrugged. "I don't remember."

            William turned to Angelina and Jane. "I'm going to take Ava out to hunt. We'll be back in a few minutes."

            Angelina's dark eyes were wide. "I thought we couldn't leave the cabin."

            "Well, it's either she go out and hunt or feeds on one of our human friends." His voice grew harsh. "What do you believe is the best option?"

            Angelina gazed around the room. Luke was nearly passed out on the couch--already having been fed on today--and Chris and Val were deep in conversation in the corner of the room.

            "Alright," Angelina finally said. "But don't be long. Liv is bound to wake up any time from now, and we need a many hands as possible to control her."

            William nodded before grabbing my hand to pull me from the chair and out the front door. We walked down the rickety front porch steps and into the woods that surround us. The night was young, the sun almost set.

            "Are you doing alright?" William asked me through the silence.

            I shrugged. "Besides the fact that I'm starving--no, not really. My sister lied to me about my mom not being around, but I can't really be mad at Val. She was just trying to protect me from the monster my mother really is. I..." I couldn't find words. If I could cry, if I could scream...

            But I ended up slamming my fist into the trunk of a tree. It vibrated but still stood. I crumpled to the ground rolling up in a ball on the cold dirt.

            "She wanted to fix me, William." My voice came out barely a whisper. "She hated me for being a vampire. She said I wasn't even daughter anymore. Then she injected me with something...I...I don't know what to do, what to think, what to believe anymore. My whole childhood, the image of the woman who used to tuck me in at night and tell me she loved me. She tortured me, William. My own mother."

            William sat down beside me, leaning up against the tree. "I've never told anyone about my old life. About the boy who exited before the vampire. His mother died giving birth, and his father blamed him for it. Though his father never said so, the boy could see it in the way he looked down at his son. Such hatred, such...." William sighed, digging his hands into the packed down earth. "When the boy, me--when I turned eighteen, my father finally disowned me. He sent me on my way. Most young men worked for their fathers after they finished school. Mine, however, kicked me out. Called me a disgrace. A murderer. He told me I ruined his life by being born. That I took away the only love he ever had. After all, how could he love a son who was the reason for his wife's demise?