Struck (A Vampire Novel) ✔

Forty-Seven (Part One)

I'm going to do things a little differently on this chapter. Because of Christmas, I didn't have time to really get much done with this story. So once I hit my ~...~ section of the chapter, I decided to just post the two sections as part one-part two in order to keep you guys from suffering too long! This means this update is a bit shorter! Thanks for waiting patiently. ^^

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Part One

As I looked out the window of the taxi cab I was settled in, I thought about how bad things had become. I recalled Jacobi’s rage-filled demands for me to leave and closed my eyes in pain. I knew I had spoken without thinking of the consequences; allowing that cowardice to speak for me. But even before I had made it to the exit, I began to believe nothing I said would have changed things.Something told me Jacobi had planned to dump me before he had even found me in Vincent’s captivity. A random man who appeared human had been waiting at the exit with a small bag of items that Jacobi had thrown together for me to take when I left. I had stared at the character, scrutinizing his existence and trying to understand why he was there in the first place. But this only proved to upset me further and so I had snatched the bag carelessly, tears blurring my sight as I threw myself through the door, not caring about anything other than getting the Hell out of that place.

The strange human man had been left in charge of driving me to a random part of the city and dropping me off, where a taxi cab was waiting to take me to a specified location my father had demanded Jacobi bring me to. The precautions, I was sure, was to prevent my father from identifying the exact location of Jacobi’s Coterie Headquarters. I couldn’t be sure why, if Jacobi thought I was legitimately in league with my father, he would think I wouldn’t just tell him where his headquarters were. He was right, though. I wouldn’t.

As I waited for the cab to reach my destination, I mourned the loss of him and also, strangely, that of Corentine. I could still see her face, angry but able to understand through our bond why I was so motivated to take the risk of meeting a man I had never met before in order to rescue my two vampire companions. She had been waiting for me outside the Headquarters, having no doubt heard my argument with Jacobi.

“How do you even know he’ll let them go? He’s a vampire hunter, they don’t catch and release,” She had asked me in frustration, not willing to allow me to throw myself into the grasp of some unknown hunter even if he was my own father.

I sighed, leaning my head against the window. It didn’t matter. My father had killed members of Jacobi’s coterie because of me specifically. He had Aveline and Xander held hostage and demanded my safe return before he would release them. There was a chance he was lying, but if I didn’t go to him it was guaranteed that they would be killed. And even though Corentine had requested to come with me, I knew that would be a death sentence for her, so I instead ordered her to stay with Jacobi.

I was feeling sicker. The headache that had been growing due to my extracurricular activities was only becoming worse and by the time the taxi had left the city, a new pain was rising in my stomach. While the hot chocolate Darsana had left me had helped with my exhaustion and hunger, I felt like maybe I had just overworked myself and it was beginning to take its toll on me.

Besides the grief I was feeling, I felt anxious at the prospect of meeting my biological father. Before I had been abducted by vampires, the idea of meeting my father would have left me vaguely curious despite my mother’s warnings. Now, I felt nervous and wary, knowing that he wasn’t a normal man. But then again, I wasn’t normal, either.

The taxi halted once we were enveloped in a wooded area, having traveled down a lonely highway. Once the cab pulled over to the side of the road, I reached forward to give the driver the money Jacobi’s staff had trusted to me and exited the vehicle. As the cab drove off, I hesitated, looking at my surroundings in anxiety. There was an opening to the right of the highway that held a path where I supposed I was required to go despite the warning sign that stated ‘No Trespassing’. Normally I would have refused, having been too frightened to walk through some strange location alone, but something was calling to me oh so subtly in the darkness.