OffSpring | ✎

Chapter XLIII

"Kaitlyn!"

I laugh, the sound mirroring a human child's glee. Suddenly, his presence disappears, nothing but the eerie forest comforting my mind that I was alone at last, a second later a shadow zips past me my eyes focusing in front of me to see a silhouette standing in my path before I collide with the figure.

We free fall from the trees, falling you the forest floor with can thud, my teeth rattling at the impact. I'm flipped onto my back with my hands pinned down beside me before I could utter a single word, a vicious hiss slipping past my lips while staring up into blue orbs, that humor that once filled my veins vanishing.

"Let go of me!" I struggle beneath him.

"Don't tell you've forgotten about the twins," he speaks slowly, "the ones we've created."

I freeze, staring up at him, that wall in my mind cracking beyond repair, something slipping through the cracks making an escape from its containment.

"Get them out of me!!" I cry out, tears sliding down the side of my face and into my ears.

I grit my teeth, shutting my eyes for a second before opening them to glare at Delano, snapping my teeth in his face.

"What was that?! What twins?!" I ask frantic, the short image shocking me.

Delano's brows creasing in the middle, "Stop resisting!" his fangs make an appearance, one of his hands moving away while the other collects both my wrist.

He grabs my jaw, turning my head to the side, baring my neck to him. From the corner of my eye, I watch as he eyes zero in on my neck, the blue of his eyes bleeding away and slowly being replaced by red.

I don't have time to react before he strikes, his head diving down, his fangs sinking into the flesh of my neck. My scream echoes in the night causing a flock of birds in the surrounding trees to fly off, that final blow to the wall in my subconscious crumbling as a flood washes through.

A jumble of images flash through my eyes, voices, words, actions being said and made; my vision blackening to review all that I was. The creature that I am resides at the back of my mind as the human part of me is brought back, emotions overwhelming as I gasp.

"It's okay, take your time," a deep, soothing voice reaches past the veil.

I slide my gaze over to stare at the bundle in her arms, setting him beside my head, my eyes skirt across him have to analyze his sealed eyes and button nose and tiny puckered lips the begged to be pecked.

I snap back to reality with a splitting headache, staring up at the sky unmoving, watching as the stars twinkled and sparkled in the sky. I turn my attention beside me after a moment to Delano.

"Take me back. I want to see them."

•••

Delano doesn't argue with me when I spoke those words, instantly leading me back to where we began, zipping through the trees like bullets. Every turn, dip, jump, while staying hidden in the shadows I finally realized why it's never day in Buio. They were beings of the night, needing to stay with the dark, hiding their existence away from mortal eyes, though lurking where no man can see with a naked eye. And I was one of them.

We finally reach the place where we began, the trees stop at a small clearing that stretches in a small circle before it disappears into the trees once more. A few feet away Abel leans against a tree, turning when he hears us and smiling at our arrival, I finally take notice of what my human eyes couldn't before.

"Little human!" he exclaims.

I couldn't help but smile, "Should you be calling me that still?"

He shrugs, messing with his beanie while pushing off the trunk of the tree when we move closer. "It sticks. You all good now?"