HORNS (BoyXBoy)

Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

My night out hadn't even really begun and I already wanted it to be over.

I angrily tore into one of the six burgers I'd ordered, fighting to ignore the ache in my throat as I processed what had just happened to me.

Vampires who volunteered to take the cure weren't allowed to leave without supervision until they were deemed stable. It was against the rules of the Vampire Rehabilitation Center so how and why had he followed me?

I had half a mind to call Aerin until I remembered that my father had actually warned me about the fact that Alex kept breaking out and heading over to their place for some reason.

Rude, disrespectful, and disgustingly invasive, I seethed, fuming harder with every pulse that went through my still-healing skin. How dare he touch me? Force himself on me like that?

A mental flash of those long fangs coming right at me passed behind my eyes.

I chewed a little slower, thinking hard, before I realized something obvious and deflated. Not entirely, of course, because what had just been done to me wasn't okay, but for the most part I figured I'd have to be lenient since Alex, if that was truly his name, didn't have the ability to feel any sort of emotion whatsoever. He was a creature who had likely relied on logic to make decisions. No hesitation, no moral dilemma, if they needed something they would rely on the most logical and calculated way to get it, even if the method was destructive, sick, or dangerous.

I'd thought about it a lot over the last five years, about morality and how people developed it. In a nutshell, emotion was a necessary part of every living creature, they needed it to function. And as far as I was aware, every single animal on the planet had the ability to feel some degree of emotion, from the smallest squirrel to the largest elephant--all of them knew fear and even love.

"Pets, for example," I mumbled around my food, lost in my head. "They may seem like simple creatures and they can't talk or communicate the way humans do, but they have their own ways of expressing themselves. If creatures like animals have the ability to feel, to understand when they're in danger or feel the bond that connects them to you down in their core of existence... what must it be like to lose that? To one day wake up and just not... feel? To know laughter, or sadness, or anger...?"

I trailed off, then swallowed hard and set my burger down, frowning intensely.

If he'd introduced himself to me first and asked to bite me rather than just doing so without permission, I'd have said yes, I reminded myself with a sigh. I'll have to communicate with him like Aerin always tells me to do. I'll tell him to ask before he bites me instead of just doing it. I kinda have to be lenient on him... after all, if he really can't feel, it might mean his ability to discern what's right or wrong has been skewed over time, depending how long he's been that way.

After a second I nodded, satisfied with my conclusion, and took a hearty bite, chewing voraciously before I downed the rest of my first alcohol and started in on the second one, which I'd ordered after my unpleasant encounter.

"Horst! Why aren't you dancing?!" Erika suddenly called, and I jumped, turning to see her waving her arms over her head. She suddenly stopped, staring at the second mug. "Whoa, careful! You're already buzzed! If you drink anymore you'll get hammered!"

"I'm a fuckin' satyr, you moron," I sourly muttered into my glass. "I can drink whatever I want to when I'm stressed. Sue me."

"What?!" she called, squinting. "What did you just say? I can't hear you over the music!"