Unmasked | Book 1 in "Dark Descendants" (Editing)

Chapter 20

No, instead he was covered head to toe in blood. I scrunched up my nose in disgust as Fallon growled at him.

"Ken."

"...Ivailo?" A line formed between his brows and he stared at us, perplexed. "Is that you?"

My own shot up. He seemed lost and tons less of a danger to us. His pants were torn as if done by claws and the thin fabric of his shirt was hardly covering his pale chest. The red liquid oozed out of a laceration just above his temple and stained his white-blonde hair to a pink. I inwardly cringed, but refused to show any sympathy.

"I've always wondered how it was possible for one to forget a face he has been hunting down for nearly three centuries so easily," said Fallon. "Enlighten me how that's so, dear uncle."

Standing there next to me with his hands clenched into fists, his booted feet slightly apart and firmly on the ground, his muscles tensed as he waited patiently for Ken to make one wrong move and his icy black eyes that somehow possessed the look of danger narrowed—he looked like he could murder anyone who stood in his way. It would not be wise to argue with him right now.

Ken's dark eyes were raised from my face to his nephew's, seeming to ignore his threatening stance. "I did something. Something she didn't like. And I had to pay the price."

This peeked my interest and I straightened, asking him something before Fallon had the chance to throw another sarcastic remark.

"What did you do?"

His head slowly moved from side to side. "I don't know what came over me. I tried to convince her to stop all this but the darkness in her heart is too great. Too powerful to care for her anymore." His grip tightened on his other arm which I just noticed he had been holding. It looked broken. "I shouldn't have dared to erase it."

Fallon's eyes widened for a fraction of a second, then went back to narrowed. Realization hit him. "What?"

"I said—"

"I heard you. What do you mean?"

"She was born with darkness in her heart. From that day onwards it only grew larger. I've always had a thing for her but she never felt the same. I can't love her anymore." With his big hazel eyes starting to shine with unshed tears, he looked like a broken puppy. My neutral facade fell and I almost mirrored his expression. "I don't want to care for her anymore or wait for her to feel the same.  The Adrianna I knew disappeared a long time ago. She's gone."

While I stood there feeling his pain, Fallon's brows drew together in confusion. I watched as they then smoothed out. It was replaced with fury, pure death-causing anger. "She's. Alive?" He spat, now speaking in a low tone. If anything it was ten times scarier than his screaming.

I slowly swallowed back a lump that formed in my throat. I faintly heard Matt stepping out of the car too, so partly as an excuse to create some distance between me and the time bomb, I rushed towards him.

"Matt, no." I pushed him back onto the seat. "You're not yourself, alright?"

"Rosie, I feel fine," he insisted, still trying to get back up. "Honestly, I'm better."

I paused and stared at him, then realized something. "Why isn't Nate looking for you?"

He seemed to freeze too, a worried expression etching it's way onto his handsome face. I raised my phone from my pocket and dialed his number. I waited, and waited.

Ignoring the raised voices from behind me, possibly a tantrum, I started tapping my foot. But then something caught my eye—movement.

My head snapped to the side, flipping my hair into my face momentarily and it caused me to miss it entirely. I groaned and hung up the phone, gathering my hair away from my face.