Prey

Chapter 40

Doe's POV:

The scene before me was pitch black nothingness.

I sat on my knees, arms locked at my sides.

My entire body was locked, I quickly learned, the only thing I could move being my eyes.

Trying to gauge all that I could with those alone, I gained nothing that I hadn't already.

But I heard something. Footsteps approaching at a slow pace.

Calm, confident, almost languid, obviously in no rush to approach what was already laid out for them and unable to move.

The skin on the back of my neck burned under the gaze I could feel, sending a shock of fear throughout my stilled body.

A feeling that was so familiar yet felt oddly foreign in this moment.

Like it had been buried deep just to be ripped right back out of the ground whenever the slightest sign of danger presented itself.

And it got yanked out fast once those steps were directly behind me, cold, slim fingers curling around my shoulders.

That touch alone send a harsh terror racking through my body and choking me to the point where I couldn't fill my lungs

Her touch.

I knew it so well. Too well, in fact.

Enough to where I had learned how to differentiate it from the others I had to come into contact with.

The chill of her skin was uncomparable, freezing my body down to the bone

She let out a satisfied, almost nostalgic sigh as she rounded her way to my front, dragging a claw up my neck and around my jaw the entire way.

My chin finally lifted as the claw pushed me to do so, meeting that golden gaze that pulled the buried fear up even harder.

"There you are," She purred, a confident, malevolent smirk residing on the face I was told I've never had to see again.

I forced a glare to show through the anxiousness biting at every nerve, keeping my eyes glued to hers as she kneeled in front of me.

The hand on my chin shifted, now squeezing the entirety of my jaw with the claws of her thumb and middle finger piercing into my cheeks.

"I've missed you, you know. The little game we play," She spoke the same way she did in order to drag Xander back, forcing my head up more and more until I was stuck looking straight up.

The crushing fact of my neck now being entirely exposed caused my exterior to crack.

I knew what was coming. These dreams had only been ending in one way lately.

But the knowledge of that didn't make the moment any less horrifying.

The helplessness this experience forced down my throat, knowing that truly, the reality wasn't that much different.

I was a human amongst vampires. A prey amongst the world's fiercest predators.

A terrified whimper fought its way through the walls I tried to put up at the feeling of a sharp claw softly dragging itself from the bottom of my chin, down my throat, and stopped at my collar bone.

She was toying with me so effortlessly.

Which caused an inkling to spark in the back of my mind, no, It was a need.