Red Velvet [The Boy Next Door]

Wide Awake

Disclaimer: Events in this chapter should not be recreated in real life and is not intended to influence the reader in any way.

Copyright © 2012 by Taina Regina

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Chapter 11: Wide Awake

THE SECOND HIS mouth clamped down aiming for her neck, she managed to dodge his attack, making him miss and graze her shoulder with his fangs.

He tore at her shirt, taking a little rag with him between his teeth. Her eyes widened, when he spit it out to discard it to the floor. A furious glint in his eyes told her that she'd made him angrier. She picked herself off the floor and headed toward the door, side stepping when Axel appeared in front of her. But he was there too. No matter how fast she ran, he was always faster. No matter how hard she tried to hide, he found her. Like a sick hide and seek game that became too predictable for him.

But she was a fighter, and staying alive was a promise she'd made to him. Even though he'd become the predator, and her the prey, she fought her way out of his web.

She was silently thanking her endurance, picking up speed just as he tried to grab for her. As if she'd been empowered by some kind of supernatural strength and perseverance, allowing her adrenaline to kick up a notch and dodge him. Every time he missed, he got angrier. Every time she moved, he'd growl low in his throat. But that wasn't the worse part of it all: It was seeing those hollow red eyes glare back at her, as if she were just someone at the top of the food chain.

Axel hissed in his native tongue, throwing around foreign words that somehow translated to how frustrated and hungry he was.

"Axel," she panted, kicking away a broken pew that was in her way. The cathedral had become a vampire derby, with sacred idols lying bare and broken to the ground. Glass shattered in a disarrayed manner, dust flying, making her cough and squint her way through the war path.

All she needed was to get to the door, and she'd be safe, but guiding herself there seemed to be a challenge in the making. Because no matter what, Axel made sure she didn't escape, ripping away everything, in order to block her path. She realized now that Axel was doing anything he could not to chase her, or tear her apart, by taking his hunger out on the church. Ripping pillar in half like they were paper thin pages, not made of marble stone. Her clothes were shredded from getting caught up against shards sticking out, dirtied, and bloodied by small scratches, bruised by falling, but she pushed herself forward through the maze of destruction.

Until she was exhausted, and couldn't seem to lift her feet one more pace, leaving her no choice but to fall against the farthest wall. She held herself up, willing her legs to stable her into a standing position, only this proved to be a feat. She didn't want to be totally vulnerable by lying on the floor, even if that's all she wanted to do. "Please, Axel...?" she choked, coughing on the dusty air, "I know you're in there, somewhere," she panted, trying to catch her breath. Her wishful thinking and optimism hanging on a bare thread. "Just stop, please!" she begged, fresh out of ideas and options. She'd been cornered now, with no place to run, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to even try. The door was opposite her, and she no longer stared at it as her safety. She glared at it as some kind of temptation, something unattainable at that very moment.

He was closer now; face almost inches apart, making his sweet breath mingle with hers. Squeezing her eyes shut, she found a chant, almost like a prayer in her head, something her mother used to say to her when she felt scared.

"Axel, it's me, Emmy." Ember didn't even realize what she was doing, when she reached out with her hand, and touched his face. She swallowed, mentally conjuring up invisible courage that she didn't know she even had. Her fingers gently caressing the vein at his cheek—following it down to his jaw line—and then to the corner of his lips. "I know you're in there, somewhere."