Prey

Chapter 49 (Doe's POV)

I wasn't at all confident on where he stood. On whether or not my protection still mattered to him now that the jig was up.

"She was! Or at least I thought she was," He settled with.

He was still trying to play this off.

His laughter caught me by surprise, especially when it was followed by his tense stance releasing.

"Apparently she was just deeply unconscious because they brought her back to me later that night."

Right... okay he could work with that.

Regardless of how foolish I believed it was, he was my only hope right now.

My already limited breathing got stuck in my lungs as her gaze turned to me again, looking me over as if double-checking his statement.

Luckily, it didn't last long before she focused back on Xander.

"So then you just decided not to tell me?! You just kept it around!" She shouted.

"T-That's not it!" the stammer in his words gave him away. To me at least, "I figured that she wouldn't be much use to you then since she needed to recover."

Wait what?

A small part of me shattered.

No... No, he had to be lying. This was just part of his ploy.

It had to be.

After everything, the new jacket, the guitar...

He hurried to keep talking.

"My plan was actually to tell you after the ball. To return her to you as a celebration of sorts for hosting a successful one."

I shook my head, blinking hard and repeating my previous thoughts.

He had to be lying but where was he expecting to go with this?

At this point, all he was doing was covering his own ass.

Covering his lie.

"That's not the point Alex," She spoke lowly, " Why the hell would I want expired goods? I already told you this and yet you brought her back! At that point, you should've just gotten rid of it yourself!"

I felt myself take another step as I recoiled from that single word.

Except this one was to the side, closer to Xander.

He straightened at her words, repeating the very word that has been haunting me since the first time I heard it.

"Expired?" His voice was weak.

Which caused my panic to skyrocket.

She wasted no time explaining.

"Pets aren't designed to last a year, let alone two," Her slow steps matched perfectly with the ones that echoed in my last nightmare," Their blood begins to thin. They start to lose their potency. Their value."

I couldn't swallow through the lump in my throat as she looked to me again, glaring like I was the source of all her life's problems.

I could feel the sweat forming on my forehead.

I've seen this nightmare so many times.

"They start to get cocky. They start to get confident and forget their place."

The last time she fed from me...

That's why I was considered expired?!

Xanders stance just noticeable faltered as she just got closer and closer.