Once Bitten

𝕿𝖜𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖞 𝕾𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖓

• 𝓜𝓪𝓮 •

"That doesn't negate the fact that you're a cunt," I spat at Kite.

Our conversation wasn't going too well. He said that I was an idiot for leaving my room - of which I pointed out he said it was only dangerous at night - and I said he was simply just a piece of shit.

Kite sighed, running a hand over his face.

Luca and Noah watched on silently. Technically, they hadn't spoken anything of importance besides Kite's obvious need to be a total dick wad to anything without fangs. At least not that I heard. So maybe they didn't feel a need to put their two cents in.

I sunk back in the plush seat and crossed my arms, wishing I could kill people with my eyes. Kite? Dead. Right there in his prestigious chair. Then bam, Zero would be gone the moment I saw him next.

Kite stood and walked towards me slowly. "You need to understand the danger you're in."

"You brought me back into this shit," I yelled, shooting to my feet. I wasn't nearly as tall as him, but at least I held some sort of ground standing that I didn't have when I was seated.

He sighed. Again.

I must really grate on his nerves.

"If you only knew," he mumbled, glancing away from me.

Rage bubbled up inside of me so hot that the outsides of my vision blurred with the intensity. How could he say that when he didn't tell me anything? How was I supposed to know anything when his secrets were so airtight in that stupid brain of his?

"If I only knew," I shot back, clenching my fists. I took a step closer to him. "If I only knew what, Kite? That you're some kind of goddamn egomaniac with a fucking god complex? That you hold yourself on this high ass pedestal where you think no one can reach you?"

"Shut up," he said, eyes narrowing on me.

"No!" I threw my hands out and pushed him. "How fucking dare you?"

When I threw my hands out again, he grabbed my wrists, twisted me around so that my back was to his front, and pinned me to him. I was breathing hard, wriggling in his grasp because suddenly all I wanted to do was punch his stupid face.

"Calm down, you fucking psycho." He held me tighter against him.

I stilled when I felt his breath against my neck. His arms were wrapped securely around me, making it so that I couldn't move, even if I tried. His body was hard and warm, and I could feel every inch of my back against him.

"If you give me a few moments, I'm trying to figure out how to explain." He still didn't let me go.

When my heart rate finally slowed, his arms loosened and he stepped away from me. I turned, my eyes narrowed, waiting for this so-called explanation.

"Do you know which direction you ran in," he asked.

I blinked.

When I didn't respond, he continued, "When you escaped. Which direction?"

I remembered the monotonous female voice calling out that I was escaping through the west wing, but I'd gone different directions to try and throw whoever it was that was following me off my trail. In the end, I could have gone south for all I knew. There was no way for me to tell which direction I was going in the forest. It was all just trees and darkness.

I shook my head.

"You ran eighteen miles northwest," he said simply.

Eighteen miles? Thinking back on it, it didn't seem like that much, but then again I'd been running out of fear. I wanted to get as far away from this place as possible and I didn't want anyone to find me.

So exactly how did they find me? And why did they feel like searching that far for a measly sheep?

"Fifteen miles north of South District is Central District," he explained. "Fifteen miles east of Central District is East District, and fifteen miles north of Central District is North District. So..."

"West District," I supplied when I realized he expected me to answer.

He nodded. "All of which encompasses territory C."

I knew all this. When we were brought to South District, we were put in "schools" to learn about vampires and the other districts, along with what would be expected of us when we turned eighteen.

"Have you ever learned about West District," he asked. "Of their ruler? Of their people?"

I could only stare at him, confused. The only things we learned about were the territories. Never what went on inside the different districts. I thought they all were ran the same. There would be someone like Titus at every head, leading their little hoard of leeches around and using humans however they saw fit.

"Their ruler's name is Lucifer." His eyes narrowed. "Not his birth name, the name he gave himself when he took over as head of West District. And it's fitting. You ran right into the outskirts of their territory, set off a silent alarm, and bam...Tati somehow just so happened to cross your path."

I didn't like where the story was headed, but I knew. Somehow, even without him going into detail, I knew. Tati was a part of West District. She hadn't come out and helped me out of kindness.

"She was trying to find a way out," he said, taking a step towards me. "You were it. Lucifer runs his humans to the ground. The moment they turn eighteen, they're bred whether they want to be or not. If they don't get pregnant within a year, they are drained and put on display until the smell of their rotting corpses taint the air."

My mouth fell open slightly and a breath wooshed out of me at the idea.

"The women are bred and bred and bred until they cannot function." His voice was angry, every word spat out like it pissed him off to even think about it. "Men are overworked and underfed to a point that most of them die before they hit twenty five. There are dead people lying everywhere in West District. You think we're tyrannical?"

He was toe to toe with me, staring down into my eyes with an angry fire I'd never seen in him. It mirrored the anger I held inside almost to a tee. Within this explanation, I felt his rage and hatred.

"They called me and told me that you were there," he said. "They said if I didn't come get you within a certain amount of time, you were theirs. Tati was going to bring you back with her and you would have been strapped down onto a table and-"

"Kite," Luca cut him off.

Kite looked at Luca and Noah like he'd forgotten they were there in the room with us.

He didn't need to finish. I understood.

They originally couldn't find me. I tripped some sort of alarm, they sent Tati out to gain my trust, and then they were going to take me if Kite didn't come get me. And I would have gone with her too. The idea of a group of people living outside of the vampire districts without fear called so deeply to me. I wanted nothing more than to be free.

"Tati was using you," Kite finally said. "She would have preferred to brave the wild animals than live there. The fear she had in her eyes when I came to get you was not for you. It was for her. And then we were watched every moment, from the time I came for you to the moment we entered my bedroom."

My eyes burned with the need to cry because I thought I had been so close, but I was only close to another hell I wasn't sure I would have been able to live through.

I bowed my head, holding back whatever emotion wanted to come forward, whether that be anger or sadness or anything in between.

"I suppose you expect a thank you for saving me," I ground out.

He placed two fingers under my chin and raised my head up to make me look at him. "No, Mae. I don't want a thank you, because I know this wasn't what you wanted."

No, it wasn't. But honestly, I wasn't sure what I wanted anymore.