Truly Immortal (On Hold)

Death of a Loved One

Chapter 5- Death of a Loved One

I pulled my eye teeth from the mans throat and stood to my full height. I was intimidating the person behind me, I could smell the fear dripping out of her pores. Still, I tried to remain as calm as I possibly could but it was difficult because her blood was calling me, it was pulling me to her like a magnet pulls to metal, and she didn't even know it. She smelled so beautiful, so intoxicating, unlike anything that I would ever smell again. It was because it was her that I was trying my best to get some form of control on this, but I was failing miserably... And I hated myself for that.

I turned around and without a second thought... I lunged like a lion on a gazelle, I struck like a King Cobra — faster than the eye could see. She let out a frightful scream that was cut off by my elongated teeth as they sunk into the side of her throat. As I drank greedily, I knew her blood would be a rarity. Her essence tasted of honeysuckles and warmth, silky smooth like velvet as it brushed the most sensitive part of you, and all I could do was drink more until she spoke so softly that the human ear would not be able to hear it, effectively breaking the spell that had pulled me asunder.

"I came to see if you were alright, Caen." Annette spoke so softly it sounded like a light whisper on the wind.

I pulled away in absolute horror, "Annette? No, oh god! What have I done? I'm so sorry, Annette, please don't die!" I begged, a steady stream of warm salty tears running down my bloody cheeks.

"It's too late, Caen, but I do forgive you and never forget... I loved you first." Annette gargled out. "No. No. No. No. I won't let you die!" Please, tell me how to save her. I know there's a way, I can feel it.

"There is a way. But I do not think you will like the outcome should you choose to do it."

Tell me!!!

"When you bit her your venom flooded her system, that's step one of a changling. Step two, bite your wrist and give her your blood before her heart stops, not a second later. Do you understand that when you do this, there is no turning back? You have approximately one minute before her heart stops and there is no saving her. Choose wisely."

To save the woman that I want to marry and be with for the rest of my existence or to let her die and be without her forever... I have no idea what happens if I do as the voice instructed, but I can't just let her die. I just can't.

Blood began to trickle out of her mouth and ran down her chin and her neck. Her heart was only beating a few times a second. Thump-thump-thump, thump, thump-thump. I bit roughly into my wrist and placed it over her mouth allowing my blood to drip into the back of her throat. It was then that I noticed there was no heart beat. I took her shoulders and shook her gently, "Annette! Annette, can you hear me?!"

Her eyes closed and the breath left her body, her heart had played its final lullaby beat and I missed it. I screamed in rage, in great sorrowful wails, grief took hold of me, it took over my heart... before I knew what had happened I blacked out. Daylight came and went and night returned once again. I opened my eyes to find myself in my cot covered in blood.

Not an inch of my skin was left clean. If blood could be worn as skin then that's what I was wearing. It was caked on me and cracked and peeled with any move I made, and the more I felt it, the more I became aware at just how much blood I was covered in. My long black hair was drenched in it, I felt twenty pounds heavier just by the blood alone.

I stood up and noticed my mother and sister were not in their cots. Finding that strange, I began to make my way out of the door when all at once the events of last night came rushing back to the forefront of my mind almost knocking the breath from my lungs. Killing the man, Annette dying in my arms, me blacking out just afterwards. I rushed out to find the most horrific, bloody scene I have ever witnessed in my life. Blood splattered over the dirt and congealed in the sand, the bodies were in one heaping pile that seemed to stretch forth towards the heavens and the smell was that of fresh decaying flesh.

Who could've done such a thing? Where were my mother and sister? I had momentarily forgotten about Annette and rightfully so, it was something one would only ever have a nightmare about. Blood splatter covered the ground like grass covered the earth and the smell, the smell was trifling. I covered my nose and went in search of my family. They were not in the pile of our dead friends in the village. Tears escaped my eyes for those that were now dead and un-respectfully piled up like a heap of bones, they deserved a real burial and they would get it as soon as I found my family.

I searched high and low and still couldn't fathom the destruction and chaos that had ripped through our village. I finally caught their scent in a field, the same field Annette and I were in not long ago. I raced towards their bodies, tears were pouring out of my eyes... I knew from the look of my mothers blue ashen skin and her dead stare eyes that she was gone. I didn't need to hone in on my hearing to see that. But a faint heart beat had temporarily caught my attention. I turned toward my sixteen year old sister and immediately held her head in my hands, and began to gently rub her bloodied brown hair.

"Listen to me, Caen, and she will live." The voice whispered.

"How? I couldn't save Annette, how could I possibly save my sister!" Desperation and grief filled my words. My heart ached for everyone that I have lost, and who I would lose soon. "What do I need to do?"

"The same as you did with Annette. Bite your sister so that your venom flows through her and then give her your blood."

"No, I will not! She wouldn't want to live without our mother!" I screamed in frustration. My mind screamed at me to listen to the voice while my heart said not to listen to the voice again.

"Then she will surely die! You've already had much heartache and despair, do you really want to watch as your sister lays dying, struggling to get her last....breath?" The voice was manipulating me, playing on my emotions for my sister. But he was right, do I really want to go through more heartache?

How could I let my only family member alive die right in front of my eyes when I have the power to stop it? I felt my teeth lengthen in anticipation of the bite, I bit down on my wrist and watched as Crimson blood oozed to the surface. I had made my mind up, I'm not letting her go. I held my sisters mouth open and watched as the blood hit her tongue then her throat. Within seconds of my blood flowing into her mouth she weakly snatched at my wrist and held it to her mouth like a dog would greedily chew on a bone.

After a few minutes, the voice told me to separate her from my arm, to never let them have too much. I left her there unconscious while I took my mother and buried her properly. I did that with all the bodies of the villagers until the entire field was nothing but a gravesite for the dead. My sister and I were the only ones left alive in our village, I was a little afraid to see what had become of the other villages nearby us. It might be best to keep away from them for now.

All night I watched as my sister tossed and turned, sweating a fever of one hundred and ten degrees. Her lips were blue indicating she wasn't getting enough oxygen to her brain and when I went to give her air the voice stopped me with one reply, "It is your blood causing her symptoms. She might even see things that are not really there, but she will live. That is what you wanted, that is what you now have. Leave her be."

Blood began to pour from her eyes, nose, and mouth and shortly afterward she started to convulse rapidly. Bloodied foam spouted from her lips and her eyes opened and began to violently, rapidly shake left and right. Blackened veins formed and appeared to show from her toes all the way to her head making her look like she was possessed by an evil entity. Within minutes, her convulsing stopped as did the rapid movements of her eyes, the blackened veins began to recede back into her body diminishing completely.

She laid still until the next night around midnight, the full moon had taken its place in the darkened sky and the stars shinned brightly. When it turned exactly midnight, her eyes opened and her normally brown eyes were now obsidian, black as ink.

What in gods name have I done?

AN: What's this? Three updates in one night, I think so. I look forward to your comments, Darklings! Vote and share, guys! Xoxo The-Dark-One