Immortal Love Book #2. Evil

24. "Betrayal"

It was impossible to sleep after that, but I eventually did. Something had changed, Alexander and I had shared blood, and I ­—for some reason— felt guiltier by the minute. The effect of Alexander's blood wore off slowly, but even when I woke up in the morning, I still felt a little weird. I looked at my usually split ends to notice they were bright and strong, his blood had made wonders for me, physically and mentally. I didn't feel like my problems had gone away, but I felt mentally and physically stronger, and I felt ready to get out of this goddamned place.

When I woke up, Alexander was laying in his bed with his eyes on the ceiling. I took a deep breath and turned to him. He looked just like the first time I met him, only with gray clothes, and a little facial hair. His blonde hair was bright and silky, his skin looked flawless, even his body looked better. His arms looked bigger, his chest looked more inflated, and his forehead was lacking a single drop of sweat. It had been a while since I saw him like that, and I had almost forgotten how handsome he was. Suddenly, he turned to me, and I immediately turned to the ceiling. I took a deep breath.

"Good morning." his voice now sounded deep and healthy, like it did before. Lately, it had been sounded like he had a cold, but now it was back to normal.

"Morning." I said, still avoiding his eyes. I didn't want to look at him, his eyes made me feel some type of way.

"How did you sleep?" he asked. I sighed.

"Good, you?" I asked. I wondered when we had become the type of people to make small talk.

"I couldn't sleep." he said. I briefly looked at him, and then I looked back up. "Last night was fun." he said with a hint of a smile, I saw it on the corner of my eye.

"I'm glad you're better." I said. Alexander, who still had his piercing eyes on me, sighed.

"I have you to thank for that." he said in a soft tone. It was like saying thank you went against everything he stood for. I nodded, still deflecting his look.

Suddenly, out of the blue, the door opened. I sat up on the bed as fast as I could and I saw Ramona standing there, like a doll. I gasped, unwillingly, and Alexander stood up faster than my eyes could take notice of. Before I knew it, he had Ramona by the neck, and she didn't seem to be able to defend herself. I observed everything from a distance, wondering if Alexander's strength alone would allow us to get out of here. My question was answered too soon after that. Alexander suddenly let go of Ramona, and he fell to the ground. I looked at him, wondering if she had somehow killed him, only to realize that she hadn't. Ramona angrily fixed her hair.

"I see you finally fed." she said. I looked at her with hatred. She smiled. "Both of you, come with me." she said. I frowned.

Alexander couldn't exactly stand up and go, could he? Well apparently, he could. He stood up slowly and avoided my eyes in doing so. Ramona had already left the room, and she was expecting us to follow. I wondered what they had done to Alexander, he seemed better, but he knew now he couldn't just come after one of them and expect to get away with it.

We followed Ramona down the gray hall until we reached the same elevator we used the day before. I didn't want to ask Ramona where we were going, not only because she scared me, but also because I assumed we would be going to the same awful room we did before. I started feeling my hands tremble. I didn't want to go back there, I really didn't. And Alexander didn't either, of course. He looked at me briefly as the elevator went down slowly. We reached the -20th floor eventually, and I immediately started feeling sick again. I could involuntarily feel the pain everyone on the floor was feeling, and there was a lot of it. Suddenly, Alexander's hand surprised mine. He squeezed my hand as we walked behind Romina and I looked up at him, confused at his gesture. I didn't understand. Was this a sweet gesture, or was he trying to tell me something? He looked at me with sympathy, and I understood. He could see I was in pain, and he wanted to distract me from it. I gave him a half-smile, without letting go of his hand. At that moment, we only had each other.

"Okay, lovebirds. This is it." Ramona stopped once we got to the door that read Interrogation room #4, and I immediately let go of Alexander's hand. Alexander sighed, and Ramona opened the door for us.

Inside there was Dennis, unchained and free. Without a drop of blood on him, with clean hair and clothes, with his hypnotizing blue eyes and his fair skin, as hot as the main character of a romance movie. I felt my stomach take a turn and my heart start racing. I wanted to go to him so badly, I wanted to kiss him and hold him until I couldn't anymore. I wanted to feel him close to me, I wanted to go back in time to that day he left Santa Mon and force him to stay with me. I wanted so much, but I would've settled just to hug him, but I wasn't sure I could. I didn't know what would happen if I ran to him, but I was willing to risk it.

I hugged him first, and he hugged me back. Feeling his arms around me was like drinking the only glass of water in the desert. He was warm, which meant he had fed recently, and that made me glad. I pulled back for a second to look at him. He was smiling, but it was a sad smile due to the circumstances. He held my head with his hands and then planted a kiss on my forehead. Nothing mattered for a second, because I was with him again.

"That must be painful." I heard a voice say. It was Darko, with his foreign accent and scary voice. I looked around me, still holding on to Dennis, and I noticed he was talking about Alexander, who was looking at the floor. An unexpected feeling of guilt built up inside of me, and I didn't know what to attribute it to. Dennis held me closer to him. "That's enough." Darko said in a tough voice. Dennis immediately let go of me. He was scared of Darko, I could feel his fear. "Alexander, go stand next to them, will you?" he said in a demanding tone. Alexander sighed and walked over to us. We all knew it was pointless to say no to Darko.

Alexander didn't look at me once as he walked towards us. I noticed then that we were now standing in front of the mirror. I looked at myself. I, in fact, did look different. My brown hair was falling seamlessly down my shoulders, shiny and strong. My eyes were dark and small, like usual, but there had an additional glow in them. I never liked to look at myself in the mirror, so I looked away after a second. I looked too different from who I was when this started, all because of Alexander's blood.

"I'm guessing I won't have to tie you up this time, do I?" Darko asked.

"No." we all said at the same time. We would behave if it meant not getting tied up again.

"Alexander, you look better." Darko said. Alexander looked at the mirror in front of us, right at me. I sighed. Alexander didn't say anything. "I see you finally drank something." Darko said. He was trying to imply something. Dennis looked at the ground. "She tastes amazing, doesn't she?" he asked. Alexander clenched his jaw and looked down for a second. Dennis looked at him with anger. He wanted to pit them against each other.

"He had to drink something." I justified myself like I had done something wrong. Dennis looked back at the mirror. He was hurt.

"Was she the most delicious thing you have ever tasted?" he asked. The fact that Darko had drunk my blood before made Dennis's blood boil, and I could tell it had the same effect on Alexander.

"It was, actually." Alexander said, not letting Darko play with him. Dennis looked at him with rage. I hoped they didn't start fighting, I knew who would win.