Taint (Formerly Claimed) Dark Midnight 1

Chapter 33

Happy Thanksgiving!  A double update spectacular!!

Enjoy and be thankful for life's many blessings!  :)  As thanks to me, please leave a comment to tell me what you think and a vote on both chappys would be very nice!

Chapter 33

__________________

  “This…t-this is insane,” Miriam stammered, tucking her fingers into her armpits for warmth. 

Eliot didn’t answer.  He just stood there, eyes cutting through the shadows like little red lasers.  The look in his eye said it all; you’re not getting off that easy.

“Get ready,” he ordered.

She tried to copy him, spreading out her stance and holding her hands open at her sides.  But when she glanced back up…

She hadn't even see him move.

One minute he was there, halfway across the distance between the road and her house.  The next instant, he was gone. 

Just like that. Her yard was empty—the trees threw shadows that flickered across the snow like a thousand rapidly moving Eliots.

He could have been anywhere.

Move, she ordered herself.  Her foot jerked out, just enough to take a quick step over the curb. 

But she wasn’t anywhere near fast enough. 

Slam!

Her feet were swept out from beneath her in a flash of ivory, and she went sprawling hard onto the icy snow.  Before she fully connected with the ground, a pale hand wrenched her wrist out of the way to keep it from breaking her fall, and probably the limb in the process.

So she just landed hard on her butt instead. 

“Ugh.” She glanced up, pushing the hair out of her eyes to stare up into a fearsome red glare that made her heart stop.

“You’re dead,” Eliot said.

His fingers were colder than the snow itself, clenched around her wrist.  Once he seemed satisfied that she wasn't seriously hurt, he let her go and stood back.

“You shouldn't have to think,” he told her.  “Don’t plan—you don’t even have time to be afraid.  Because if I truly wanted to hurt you, you’d be dead already.”

“O-okay.” Miriam crawled painfully to her feet.  Her left thigh felt sore and the wet snow was beginning to leak through the back of her jeans.  “I want to try again.”  

With a sigh, she dusted herself off and turned to face him—even though she felt a little bit like David going up against an unbeatable Goliath. 

Minus the sling shot, and the bravery, and the whole ‘human’ aspect of her Goliath. 

Still, she tried to be optimistic, as she stared down a vampire from across the length of her front yard. 

One more nasty fall and she just might injure herself enough to have an excuse to skip school tomorrow and avoid people like Carl and Sidney and her Uncle.

At least then, something good might have come out of today…

She’d barely finished thinking the thought before a flash of white caught the corner of her eye.  She blinked, and poof!

Eliot vanished. 

This time, she tried to take his advice and didn’t think.  She didn’t plan.  Her body reacted purely on instinct as she took off in the direction of her front porch.