Prey

Chapter 29

Doe's POV:

I snickered quietly to myself, purposefully making it louder as soon as I walked into our room, Xander following close behind.

"If anything's gonna be biting, it's gonna be me," I mocked the ridiculous words Xander spoke during our breakfast in a low voice.

At first, there was some tension in the air, given that that was the first time I've seen Khloe and Nico since that little... incident, but Xander promptly took it upon himself to start spewing nonsense.

Which took the attention off of me as well as added some entertainment to my meal.

Especially because of his whole show of not caring about what tonight was.

When the reality was that he was probably the most stressed out of all of them.

"Yeah, yeah," He blew off my mockery before closing the door, "I know that was stupid,"

"Oh please," I spun on my heel to face him, "That wasn't nearly as dumb as you bringing up his last pet."

His face contorted in a short-lasting grimace as I brought it up again.

My only reasoning as to why he did that was because he was still pining for some sort of creation out of his brother.

Some sort of physical recompense for his recent actions.

Or maybe even all of the ones before.

Still, all for nothing but a slight scolding and enough glaring to last anyone a lifetime

"Yeah... That one was probably uncalled for."

'uncalled for' seemed to be his style lately.

I debated saying that out loud but decided against it quite quickly.

I didn't feel the need to add more for him to deal with today, not when I could finally see signs of his nerves already creeping up on him.

How he was already taking quick glances out the window despite it not even being ten in the morning yet.

How he managed to hide all of this at breakfast was impressive, really.

I shrugged, "At least you're aware of it."

He leaned back against the door, crossing his arms in a poor attempt to compose himself.

To an untrained eye, he might have gotten away with it, but I knew that the repetitive tapping of his first finger against his arm meant for him.

"Well, no one is surprised by the crap that comes out of my mouth, but what's going on with you?"

At first, I thought his tone was accusatory, but I quickly corrected it to be disbelief.

I blinked at him, questioning his words with a look alone.

"You don't look worried in the slightest!" his own showed as his sentence came out a little louder than he anticipated judging by the way he drew back.

"Oh, are we just repeating the conversation you just had with Nico?" I questioned flatly, finding this painfully ironic.

"We both know that I was full of shit during that entire conversation, but that's not the case with you."

That's true, but this time I just didn't feel any sort of need to worry.

This was the longest I haven't been fed from in a very long time.

I don't remember the last time my body had this much time to relax and recover.

Although it may be the end to my relaxation for a while unless Xander really meant what he said about figuring something out.

"I don't know. The fact that I'm most likely at one-hundred percent blood capacity probably has something to do with it."

"So? The bloodmoon isn't ever consistent. What if this time it hits harder and I'm not able to regain myself in time? What if I end up really hurting you." The crease in his sleeve showed how tight his grip had gotten on his bicep.

I felt my head tilt.

Is that what he's so worried about this time?

I thought it would be the same worry he had when he was younger.

Back at his castle when he was never certain when or how much of an effect the blood moon would have on him.

Where he'd worry about having to give up control of his own body, or just worry about the bloodthirsty vampires right outside his window.

But instead, the way he said it made me think that his worry was being set around me specifically.

Probably not wanting to lose me for Layla's sake, but even then it seemed like a little much.

"Even if that is the case, I can't affect that outcome myself. Why would I worry about something that I can't control?"

He looked completely dumbfounded at my response, clearly showing the difference in how he thought about things.

The reality was that I've done this seven times before, and not even once was it more terrifying or more painful than many of the experiences I've had with Layla.

There was still fear whenever it happened, but that was just part of witnessing a vampire be forcefully taken over by their most feral selves.

They become a monster different that one I knew already, of course, that would be scary.

I feared it more than anything during the first time I went through it, and less and less so with every time after.

The thought of me dying or even getting close to that because of this never showed itself as an issue, so I didn't let myself dwell on that as a possibility.

But due to Xanders complete hatred of the entire thing, he had mastered a way to get it done and over with as fast as possible, and according to him, before the full effect of the bloodlust kicked in.

I didn't get it, but it worked for him.

Why he believed that this time would be a bust was beyond me.

Then again, he's been panicking a lot more recently for a variety of reasons, so maybe this was just part of it.

"Look, Xander. We've done this enough times to where it's almost become a routine, so if anything, I'm just expecting that pattern to repeat itself. If it does, then great, we made it to eight, good for us. If it doesn't," I shrugged for some extra effect to my partial joke," then I'm pretty sure I've fulfilled my pet duty long enough, and at least Layla won't be the one to put an end to me."

It seemed like I should have put a bit more sarcasm in that sentence because the almost visceral look of shock and sadness that appeared on his face nearly gave me whiplash.

Even his claws now poked against the fabric of his shirt.

What the fuck?

I just watched in my own weird state of shock as his head turned to the side, his next words being so quiet they were almost incomprehensible.

"Don't say that."

An odd feeling twisted in my gut, causing me to take a step forward with a sigh.

I forgot how strange he's become whenever I talked about the chance of my dying.

Especially when it looked like that was the primary thought making him act like this for tonight.

So it... probably wasn't the best thing to talk about, even if I was joking.

"You'll take care of it, Xander," I reassured, "You always do no matter what's happened in the times before. With your sense of caution and my calmness with it all, this will be the simplest and quickest one yet."

"You think?" He asked, glancing up at me.

"I do. Now go take a shower. Smelling good is the least you can do for me in preparation for tonight."