Halfling (Black Petals #1)

Chapter 22

"Megan, come on, it's Aiden," a rough voice pleads. "Come back now," it begs gruffly.

My vision is pure red but the redness begins to fade as I recognize the voice speaking to me. The hunger begins to not disappear, but fade into the back of my mind. Mind over matter.

"Megan?" Aiden asks for the hundredth time.

I blink and realize that Aiden is holding me against the wall, so I can't move. I realize that I'm struggling against him. I don't know why. I stop.

"What happened? What're you doing?" I beg, scared, my breathing erratic like I've just ran a marathon.

He lets go of me and sighs a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank god," he mutters exasperatedly. "You're a feisty one. Your father's that way too, so I shouldn't be surprised. In fact, it's why I locked the door to this room behind us." Aiden steps back from me, giving me space. "Are you feeling better?" I notice he's huffing and puffing, but I don't understand why.

I think about it and nod. I do feel loads better than I did, before I blacked out, yet I'm still hungry, extremely hungry. I look back at the two men who were sitting in the corner. Both of them are now in a heap on the floor.

"They're dead aren't they?" I ask Aiden slowly, tilting my head to get a better look.

"You sucked out their souls. Now they are dead, yes, unless someone turns them into demons, but we don't need to do that. If we did that to every human we took souls from, demons would have outnumbered the humans millennia ago. We have to keep the demon population in check."

I don't hear much of what he says, because I'm too taken aback by the two men I've just murdered. Only, I don't feel regret, nor do I feel sorry for them or guilty. I feel nothing. I feel empty. I'm just surprised that I did that. I'm all too used to this feeling.

"You compelled me," I state. "Don't mess with my head!" I shout angrily at Aiden, and I find myself jumping at him. I mean, I leap right onto him, catching him by surprise. He peals me off of him and pins me to the wall again.

"I didn't compel you. By nature as a demon, you cannot feel anything towards those you kill. Like I said, you'll start losing human emotions now. This is the beginning."

"Then why do you?" I demand. I've seen the look in his eyes before. Especially when he was speaking with his siblings about himself when they were locked in this very basement. "Aiden feels things towards the people he kills. I know he does."

"I don't. It's not that I feel these things. It's that I know I should. I know how I should feel after killing someone."

I suck in a breath. What do I do? What now? I don't want to be this soulless monster, but how can I bring myself to commit suicide, when I know that there's nothing for me in the afterlife? I won't ever be reincarnated without my soul. It's my ticket to anything after life. This can't be happening. I curse. Aiden lets go of me again.

I get this gut feeling full of anger, frustration, annoyance, and pain. It makes my vision begin to go red again. It makes every nerve ending in my body ignite. It makes me want nothing more than to kill Forrest and Maxwell. I will kill them. The red tinge begins creeping into my vision again and I lunge at Aiden, surprising him and actually knocking him down for the first time ever. He looks as surprised as I feel. He springs up, once he catches himself and throws me into a wall, a wicked grin on his face.

"You might be faster now, you might me stronger now, but you still have nothing on me, Megan. Nothing." He says this in a playful tone, like he found my knocking him down amusing. A wave of lust washes over me, and I push it off. It's no time for me to be jumping all over Aiden. What is going on with me? My emotion is all over the place. I focus on my breathing again.