Prey

Chapter 54

Doe's POV:

I dug my grip into my limp upper arm, trying to limit its movement as I staggered behind Xander to his brother's room.

With every step, this odd, unfamiliar panic settled in deeper and deeper.

It wasn't like the internalized, preparatory anxiety that I had become accustomed to.

This one was like an aftershock, blowing through everything I've been feeling prior and amplifying it.

It was deafening with the ringing in my ears mixed with the impossible quick thumping in my heart.

And suffocating to where I couldn't fill my lungs all the way if I tried.

Every breath felt forced and scraped like sandpaper against the ever-growing lump in my dry throat.

No. This was absolutely nothing like the panic I knew.

This one acted like a fuze, quickly burning its way quicker and quicker through my body, building suspense each second as to when it was going to combust.

Until I was going to break.

I could feel it creeping up on me, and could do nothing but brace for it.

All of that on top of the now angered vampire in front of me.

That shift in him that just added and added to the feelings that I didn't understand.

He pounded on the door of Nico's room the second it was within reach

The action was hard and frantic, unlike the usual pattern he liked to knock with.

The sound echoed in my ears with everything else.

I spared a look at him while he did, the tension in his jaw still mainly evident, as well as that look in his eyes.

The dark circles under them finally registered in me aswell, now that I could actually look at him.

I looked away as the guilt that had made a short appearance churned in me even harder.

He cursed under his breath at the lack of a response from the door, lifting his hand to start pounding on it again.

I barely felt myself take a pitiful step back at the sound of it.

The tone, the frustration I'd never before been able to imagine hearing with his voice.

One that I once thought would be impossible for him to produce.

The door opened soon after, and Xander didn't even wait till it was halfway open before he pushed through, leaving me scurrying behind him to catch up.

Nico didn't stop him, and barely seemed surprised by his presence, just stared blankly at him as he stormed further into the room.

He closed the door with a roll of his eyes, moving to approach us until he spotted my condition and froze.

"Oh," He spoke like the sight had caught him off guard, eyes growing wide for a moment.

"Help her," Even though the harsh tone, I could hear the plead behind it.

He cleared his throat, taking a moment to compose himself before speaking his next word as calmly as he could, "Please,"

Nico's brows drew together at the oddity of those words coming from his brother, compared to what Xander's showed him lately.

Only for a few seconds though, before his gaze returned to my piteous form.

New worried piled themselves into the storm of what I was already dealing with as he stayed silent in thought.