Blood Rebel [COMPLETED]

Chapter Thirty Four - A New Alliance

Selene watched as Xander glanced back the way they had come, his eyes squinting in the darkness. And then she did something that was not part of her plan at all; she acted on an impulse, and one that she hadn't even allowed to germinate or become so much as an idea; one that threw them both into confusion.

She reached out and touched his cheek, feeling the water run from his skin over her fingers, washing them together. She leant towards him and kissed him, feeling the ache in her bruised face, feeling his wet skin and hair, his life, his energy, in her trembling hands. She stole from his lips, kissing him as though he were someone else, using him, releasing something deep within herself, something that would otherwise harden and die. She used him and she kissed him with a desperation; she kissed for a kiss that would never exist.

A sob rose up in her chest and crawled its way up to her mouth, and she pulled away from Xander in horror as the sob vomited forth, spewing from her mouth and shaking her entire body. She covered her lips with clasped hands and reeled away from him, her eyes wide and frightened. Raindrops pulled her eyelashes together in dark peaks and then tripped off the precipice to run down her cheeks like tears.

"What is it?" Xander's face contorted with concern, his voice a whisper on the wind.

Selene shook her head; she couldn't look at him.

"It's him, isn't it?"

Selene looked up, expecting to see anger simmering in his eyes, but there was none. She waited for his concern to turn to resentment, hatred, but it didn't. He turned and peered back towards the clearing, and snapped back towards her.

"Someone's coming. Run!"

He pushed at her from behind, and as she turned and ran through the dense forest her dress tweaked and caught. She tugged at it and ripped it, toppling herself into freedom again and again. Xander jumped over a log that lay in their path and moved ahead of her, grasping her hand pulling her forward.

Selene glanced over her shoulder, and could make out the dark silhouette of a man dashing through the trees. His shape flitted between blackened tree trunks, the sinister shadow of her fears, chasing them. Bafflingly, his movement was quiet; he didn't crash through the undergrowth as they did.

Selene's blood rushed in her ears like a stormy sea crashing on a beach, and each breath was a painful gasp. She knew she wouldn't be able to run for much longer; lactic acid burnt in all her muscles; tiny flames eating away at her flesh. 

"I can't. I can't run anymore. Go without me," she screamed over the noise of the rain battering the foliage above their heads, and the thunder that shook the world.

"Never," came the response, and she felt him squeeze her hand and haul it forward. But her feet did not move in time and she slipped on the river of mud that ran beneath their feet, and felt the thump as she landed in it. She raised her head and choked out the mud that had sludged inside, and felt Xander pulling at her; his ineffectual tugging stank of panic and part of her wanted to give in. To lie in the mud and drown in its filth.

"Don't move. Don't come any closer." She heard Xander's voice over her head as he spat the words out through the rain.

Xander stood in front of her, looking over her back as she lay in the mud. She pushed her feet and hands into the mud and pushed her body up and turned around. A dark figure came skulking towards them, not heeding Xander at all.

"I have a weapon. I'll shoot," said Xander, straightening his arm and pointing it. The lie was fragile, and it began to crack as soon as the words were spoken. The dark figure continued to move towards them, undeterred.